Huntington Beach Chamber Of Commerce

Andy Geiser, a 24-year-old triathlete and student from the University of Hawaii, will begin a bike ride across America on May 19 at William R. Mason Regional Park in Irvine. Geiser is cycling across the United States to increase the public's awareness of the problems of dyslexia and the existing possibilities available to help those with the disorder. Dyslexia causes impairment of language skills--reading, writing and spelling.

Calvin Blood, who worked for the city of Fullerton for 40 years and is credited with painting traffic lines and warnings on every street in the city "at least two or three times," will retire today. Only librarian Carolyn Johnson, who has worked in Fullerton for 44 years, has put in more time with the city. The city employs 714 full-time employees. Blood was honored by the Fullerton City Council for his service and was presented a plaque. Michael D. Martin, a 19-year Edison Co. employee and president of the Greater Westminster Chamber of Commerce, was named Citizen of the Year by the chamber.

Two organizations of real estate agents and other business leaders have launched a campaign to defeat a proposal by four school districts to charge property owners to help pay for recreational facilities at schools. In an effort resembling a full-scale political-election campaign, opponents of the plan have mailed brochures to Huntington Beach-area residents, circulated petitions, handed out flyers and posted about 450 signs throughout the region denouncing the proposal.

A former Huntington Beach City School District trustee was sentenced Monday to one year in the Orange County Jail for child molestation in a case that police say involved a seven-year pattern with a boy who was 13 when it began. Richard M. Boucher, 61, resigned from the school board in March, after charges were filed against him.

Nathan Hashbarger was not thinking about drugs or the problem of teen pregnancies when he arrived at the school district's headquarters for a meeting early Thursday morning. But Hashbarger, 13-year-old student body vice president at Isaac L. Sowers Middle School in Huntington Beach, and two dozen other middle school students were shortly to confront those issues and other difficult questions. They started by meeting Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of President John F. Kennedy.

Then-Assembly Speaker Doris Allen (R-Cypress) blasted her Republican colleagues last week with the most memorable quote of her 13-year Sacramento career: "Do I let a group of power-mongering men with short penises tell me what to do?" Noting a couple of other similarly themed comments, state GOP leaders faxed out this response: "With [Tuesday's] election of Republican Richard Ackerman to the Assembly, Republicans will have won 13 of the last 19 special elections in California.

The South Coast Literacy Council graduated new volunteer tutors from classes at the Lutheran Church of the Cross in El Toro and Villa Del Obispo in San Juan Capistrano. The students will be assigned to one of the council's 20 tutoring centers throughout south Orange County to help foreign-born adults improve their English speaking, writing and reading skills.

Crystal Apple awards recognizing individuals and groups in Orange County for their contributions toward helping people with disabilities were presented by the Anaheim-based Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled at a banquet in the Irvine Marriott Hotel. Award winners were Golden State Bassmasters of Huntington Beach; Council for Exceptional Children, Chapter 188, in Westminster; Julie Kearns of Santa Ana; Rogers Severson of Newport Beach; James Colbert of Anaheim, and R.J. Cooper of Dana Point.

The state Parks and Recreation Commission Tuesday granted the City of Huntington Beach's request to build a controversial beachfront parking garage beside the municipal pier. The commission, however, rejected the city's bid to construct a 10,000-square-foot restaurant atop the garage, a building that city planners considered "desirable" and opponents called "unnecessary."