Surf City Downtown Shuttle to close for winter

Residents only have two more weekends to cruise into downtown in style and avoid the hassle of parking as the Surf City Downtown Shuttle comes to a close for the winter.

The pilot program is a free service that takes residents downtown in a “classic woody-style” vehicle during the city’s busiest days of the year. The shuttle runs all day on the weekends making a loop from City Hall to the downtown area.

The shuttle runs a continuous loop from City Hall, 2000 Main St., to the Stand on Fifth Street and to the northwest corner of Main Street and Orange Avenue. Residents can park for free at the Civic Center.

The service will continue 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and Sept. 4 to 6.

Fountain Valley adjusts street-sweeping for Labor Day

Fountain Valley will adjust its street-sweeping and trash-collection schedules by 24 hours to accommodate the three-day holiday weekend.

To accommodate Labor Day, trash collection will be pushed to the day after it is normally collected. Trash cans still need to be on the curb by 6 a.m. and put away the following day.

Street sweeping times are also being adjusted. Streets swept on Sept. 8-9 will be done the following day and areas done on Sept. 10 will be completed on Sept. 14.

For additional information, call (714) 593-4441.

—Britney Barnes

Preliminary hearing for accused H.B. cop concludes

The preliminary hearing for a former Huntington Beach police officer came to a close Thursday afternoon with the judge upholding 19 of the 20 felony charges, including rape and sodomy.

Superior Court Judge Richard J. Beacom agreed to move forward with the charges against James Roberts III, 34, after hearing testimony from Robert’s ex-wife and investigators from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and Orange County district attorney’s office during the three-day preliminary hearing at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.

A preliminary hearing is where prosecutors present evidence to a judge, who rules if the case is strong enough to go to trial.

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Huntington Beach posts city salaries online

Rodent cause of power outage

Huntington Beach residents were left in the dark Wednesday afternoon when the power went out for more than 21,000 users thanks to a rodent that got caught in electrical equipment, officials said.

Electricity went out across a portion of Huntington Beach, including City Hall, at 2:53 p.m., said Southern California Edison spokesman Paul Klein.

A rodent at an Edison substation caused a circuit breaker to fail to open and catch fire, said Jenelle Froisland, the region manager of public affairs for Edison, in an e-mail.

…Continue reading Rodent cause of power outage

City makes salary information easier to find

In an effort to further its transparency, Huntington Beach has created an easy-to-read list of top city officials’ salaries online, including benefits and two forgivable loans given to the city administrator and city manager for housing costs to move to Huntington Beach.

Huntington Beach has long posted city officials’ base salaries online, but after a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed top city officials in Bell were making exorbitant salaries, nearly $800,000 a year for the city manager, Surf City, along with others, has made the information easier to access than ever, said Laurie Payne, city spokeswoman.

This month the city posted a list of executive managements’ annual figures, including salary, any auto allowance and benefits for council members, department directors and other top officials.

…Continue reading City makes salary information easier to find

Most electricity restored in Huntington Beach [updated]

Power has been restored to most households affected by the sweeping power outage and all electricity is expected to be restored by 7 p.m. Wednesday, officials said.

The power has been restored to about 16,000 users who went off the grid at 2:53 p.m., said Southern California Edison spokesman Paul Klein.

There are still more than 4,000 users without power between Yorktown and Indianapolis avenues and Lake and Bushard streets, Klein said.

All power should be restored by 7 p.m., Klein said.

The power went out after a circuit breaker at an Edison substation failed to close and caught fire, Klein said.

More than 21,000 Huntington Beach households were originally without electricity, including City Hall, where staff are sitting in the dark without computers, officials said.

The emergency generators are providing some emergency lights but the elevators and air conditioners are down, said police Lt. Russell Reinhart.

Electricity originally went out at 2:53 p.m. from 22nd Street north to Bushard Street and Pacific Coast Highway to Garfield Avenue.

Firefighters cook up breakfast

The Huntington Beach Firefighters' Assn. is raising funds to fix up this 1923 Seagrave Metropolitan Pumper engine. (Kent Treptow | kent.tretpwo@latimes.com)

Local firefighters are trying to raise money to restore the city’s first motorized engine with pancakes in the park.

The Huntington Beach Firefighters’ Assn. is hosting a Pancake Breakfast on Aug. 28 in Lake Park for restoration of a 1923 Seagrave Metropolitan Pumper engine.

The association has been working to bring the city’s first engine back to life, but lack of funding has been holding the project back.

Some of the association members have taken it upon themselves to rebuild the fire engine on their own time, doing much of the labor themselves, but they still need to raise about $10,000.

The dark maroon Seagrave was used for about 30 years in Huntington Beach.

The association will be serving pancakes and sausages for breakfast. There will also be a bounce house, carnival games and face painting for kids.

Tickets can be bought the day of the event or by calling (714) 442-9826.

The fundraiser is from 7 a.m. to noon Aug. 28 at Lake Park at 1035 11th St.

Power out in Huntington City Hall

City officials are without electricity after the power went out in Huntington Beach City Hall about 20 minutes ago, officials said.

The emergency generations are providing some emergency lights but the elevators and air conditioners are done, said Lt. Russell Reinhart.

“I guess the bad part is the air conditioning is down,” he said.

Officials are waiting to hear from Southern California Edison when power will go back up and what the cause of the outage was.

Non-residents to be billed for emergency services

Huntington Beach’s out-of-town visitors will now have to pay for emergency services if they cause a car accident in Surf City’s boundaries.

The City Council approved an ordinance Monday night that sticks nonresidents with the bill for emergency services for car accidents, fires or extractions, which is estimated to generate $100,000 in revenue, according to the staff report.

The ordinance doesn’t apply to residents, but to the more than 16 million people who descend on Huntington Beach annually, according to the report. Residents are exempt because they pay property taxes.

…Continue reading Non-residents to be billed for emergency services