Diamond Bar

For the second consecutive year, the city will provide a free holiday shuttle service between residential neighborhoods and the commercial district. Beginning Monday, the bus will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with hourly stops at 37 locations, mostly along Diamond Bar Boulevard between Temple Avenue in Pomona and Cold Spring Lane. The service will continue through Dec. 31. The cost, expected to be about $25,000, will come from the city's share of Proposition A transit funds.

Community leaders in this unincorporated area have asked the state for almost $87,000 to help finance a curbside recycling program that would serve 4,000 homes in northern Diamond Bar. The bulk of the program's cost would go toward the purchase of three separate containers--to hold paper, glass and aluminum--for each of the households served by the program. Phyllis Papen, president of the Diamond Bar Improvement Assn.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum this week appointed Gary G. Miller and Lavina Rowland to fill two vacant seats on the Diamond Bar Municipal Advisory Council. Schabarum made the appointments at the request of the remaining members of the advisory council. The municipal council, which had been operating with four members since the death of Don Stokes in September, lost another member this month, when Dan Buffington announced he was moving to West Covina.

The city will use an expected $169,916 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds to pay for a future senior citizens center and to support three local service programs. The City Council voted Tuesday to give the Diamond Bar/Walnut YMCA $15,000 to continue after-school day-care programs. The Montclair YWCA will receive $4,500 to implement its teen-age girls' leadership program in Diamond Bar junior high schools.

In an attempt to unify the city through consistency, the City Council on Tuesday voted 4 to 1 to make Golden Springs Drive the only name of a road now known as Golden Springs Drive in one area and as Colima Road in another. Golden Springs Drive runs from north Diamond Bar to Brea Canyon Road and then turns into Colima Road, which continues to the city's western limit.

Not many expect much from the Diamond Bar boys' golf team today in the CIF-SCGA finals at the SCGA Golf Course in Murrieta, but then again, not many expected the Brahmas to be there in the first place. The season-ending tournament pits the top teams and individuals from the Southern, City, San Diego and Central sections.

Is Diamond Bar an almost perfect example of political cronyism? When the City Council had an opportunity to appoint a new member (the post being vacated when Paul V. Horcher was elected to the state Assembly), they decided not to approach any of the previous council candidates to offer the spot to them. When they did make the appointment (of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Donald C. Nardella in December, 1990), the procedure gave the definite impression of having been a "done deal" before it even got started.

City officials, barred by a technicality in state law from collecting $1.2 million in property taxes, have asked Assemblyman Charles Bader (R-Ontario) to sponsor a bill that would help bail out their newly incorporated city. Council members are pushing for legislation requiring county governments to provide services until new cities are legally allowed to collect property taxes.

A community building in Heritage Park will be available for local groups and individuals by July, 1993, if construction goes as scheduled. The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved plans for the $575,150 building in the southern park. The council is expected to award a contract the 3,942-square-foot structure by mid-September. The building will consist of a meeting room, classroom, kitchen, office and lobby.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the operation of a free holiday shuttle to transport shoppers to about 15 shopping sites throughout the city. Scheduled to run from Nov. 23 to Dec. 31, the 20-passenger bus will make rounds of the shopping centers daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., except on Christmas Day. The shuttle will help alleviate traffic and also increase sales tax revenue in Diamond Bar, City Manager Robert Van Nort said.