By:JOSEPH KELLARD and KEITH GRANT
West Enders have organized to push the much-hoped for, and currently delayed, repavement of Ocean View ahead as quickly as possible. After initially saying a repaving project could take place in the fall, city officials now estimate it will begin reconstructing the road next spring.
Though city leaders said the delay was rooted in an expansion of the project, such as the widening of the 4,000-foot roadway, the delay was not treated as good news by West Enders who have now formed a committee to follow the project.
Neighborhood leaders who celebrated the repaving news just a few months ago are now saying the city is not working fast enough to bring this project to fruition before next summer. Officials have estimated the work will take about four months, once begun.
We want a survey, a plan and a time schedule at least before the election in November,said John White, a past president of the West End Neighbors Association. Apparently, right now, the City doesn't have anything, and we don't want this project to drag into next summer.
White said the Ocean View committee was scheduled to meet with Eaton again on Monday, August 13.
Among other concerns the committee plans to raise during its meeting with Eaton is to assure that the $575,000 that has already been secured for the project by Assemblymen Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) are specifically for Ocean View.
I don't think it specifically says in the state budget that that money is for Ocean View, White said. Upon securing the funds in March, Weisenberg assured West End residents that the money was for Ocean View, alone.
The recent meeting comes in the wake of a July 18 meeting between West Enders, Eaton, Weisenberg and others to discuss the expansion of the project, which will include widening the street and installing gutters.
At that meeting, Robert Rabb, commissioner of public works, offered a rough timeline for the Ocean View project, saying his office would first have to schedule surveys of the area and draw up architectural designs, which could take two to three months. Rabb said the city would like to proceed with the construction in March and estimated it would take four months to complete.
In related news, White said the committee intends to call for a playground to be built in a presently-empty lot on Arizona Avenue and Ocean View instead of two single-family homes and approximately six to ten parking spaces that developer Abraham Shokian proposes to build and lease.
