Imagine this: you come home from a day's work, settle down to watch TV and start to relax. Then, all of a sudden and out of nowhere, the image on your TV is completely obscured by a strong blinking light. After a few moments, the light goes off, so you start to relax again and return to your show. Just as the show is getting interesting, it happens again. This time, you give up on the TV and decide to go to bed. As you slip into bed and start to dose off, the blinking light, now even stronger, forces its way into your bedroom. You forget about trying to get to sleep--for 8 months.
This is what happened to Lola Fama, who lives in College Park East, on Ironwood, which has the unfortunate distinction of backing up to Lampson Ave. Lampson, as most College Park East residents well know, is notorious for speeding. To this end, someone in Seal Beach City government decided to install a speed monitoring sign. This sign is only activated when a car approaches. Then, it blinks the vehicle's speed until it passes. This is probably a good thing for road safety, but not good for the peaceful enjoyment of your home if the light is only a few feet from your bedroom sliding glass door.
One day last fall, Lola came home to find two workers installing the sign. They told her it was only temporary. After some time had passed and the blinking sign was still there, her City Councilman, Gary Miller got involved. Unlike neighboring Los Alamitos, where the City Council members are elected at large, or Rossmoor, where there are no City Council members, in Seal Beach, the City council members are elected by district. This means that Lola actually had somebody at City Hall she could go to for help.
Miller contacted City staff last October and requested that the sign be moved, lowered, or turned off. City staff responded that a dimmer had been installed, but for Lola, there was no noticeable improvement. After months of sleep deprivation and increased migraines, Miller brought the issue into public view at the Council meeting on April 27,2009. At this meeting, he again requested that the issue be resolved. Since the item was not on the agenda, no further action could be taken at that time.
At the City Council meeting this week, Lola came forward during the public comment period and told her story and again asked that something be done. In response to questions from the council, City Manager, David Carmany, indicated he planned to put the item on the agenda for the next meeting, which would be June 8. Mayor Gordon Shanks responded by indicating that would be too long for Lola to wait and directed Carmany to resolve the situation quickly.
That discussion was on Monday, May, 11. On Tuesday, May 12, much to the relief of Lola, the sign was turned off. The sign has not been removed, and that is pending a decision sometime in the future. Your Editors contacted the City Manager's office to get a reaction to this situation and specifically to explain why the resident had to suffer for so many months to get the sign turned off. Although Jill in the City Manager's office responded, she was not able to explain why it took so long to turn the offending sign off. Congratulations to City Council Member Miller and Mayor Shanks for finally resolving the situation and thus, improving the life of one of our residents.
