Westminster Ca Public Facilities

People who live near Sigler Park once feared the place, with its crime, vandalism and gangs. The gang problems became so severe that in 1986, the city canceled all organized recreation activities there. Now, thanks to the efforts of the city and a group of neighbors, Sigler Park has rebounded. Police say crime is down, a once-serious graffiti problem has been nearly eradicated and the city has brought back the park's recreation program.

Installation of new playground equipment at several community parks is expected to be completed by June, according to a spokesperson for the Community Services and Recreation Department. Parks undergoing the renovation, including rubberized surfacing, are Bolsa Chica, Coronet, Gillespie, Park West, Cloverdale and Westminster.

As the city celebrated the official reopening Monday of the county fire station damaged in the Hefley Street water tank rupture, officials said a report to be released today found there was nothing that could have been done to detect or prevent the disaster. "There is no way the reservoir fault could have been found without destructing the reservoir to find out what weakened it," Mayor Frank G. Fry Jr. said.

Westminster filed an $8-million lawsuit Friday against two insurance companies that refused to pay for demolishing and replacing a water tank that ruptured last fall, injuring six people and displacing more than 30 families. The breach-of-contract suit filed in Orange County Superior Court cites Lexington Insurance Co. of Boston and Commonwealth Insurance Co. of Vancouver, B.C., for refusing to cover the city's costs.

For most children living behind the Civic Center in a neighborhood known as the 15th Street apartments, going to the park to run, play games and just be outside is a luxury they rarely get to experience. But this summer, the fun and games came to them in a white van that delivered balls, a portable basketball hoop, checkers and a "lawn" of green Astroturf three times a week to this low-income neighborhood.

David Ryan Sanders is not afraid of dragons. He is particularly fearless when confronted by Danny Sea Dragon, a 50-foot slide at the Atlantis Play Center that is shaped, not surprisingly, like a dragon. "Whenever we come here, which is often, the dragon slide is the first thing he heads for," says Mark Sanders, 39, of Garden Grove, David's father. Three-year-old David has plenty of company.

At 72, retired teacher Don Shaw hasn't gone to school in a long time. He still keeps busy teaching, though, because now the students come to him. "It feels tremendous" to work with children again, Shaw said on a recent afternoon at the Senior Center, where he was surrounded by his young charges. "It's a very warm feeling that you get."

The City Council will review architectural designs for the long-awaited Community Cultural Center at a special meeting next Monday at 6 p.m. Preliminary plans were presented to the council last May, but the projected costs, nearly $11 million, were more than city officials had budgeted. The council directed its Planning Commission to work with architects and members of the cultural arts commission to bring the cost closer to the $8 million that has been raised for the center.

Plans for the city's long-awaited community arts center took a significant step forward this week with approval of an architect, GKK Corp. of Irvine, to design the facility. City officials are proposing a 425-seat, 7,000-square-foot theater and 16,000-square-foot auditorium at 15th and Monroe streets. The center will cost about $6 million, which has been raised through federal grants, bond measures and the sale of some city-owned property.

Andrea Youngjohn, 95, says attending the Tuesday meetings of the Westminster Seniors Fun Club isn't much fun anymore. "We're packed like sardines," said Youngjohn, one of several club members who are upset that Community Services Department officials "forced them out" of a large room in the Community Services building that the club had been using for the past 15 years.

Design and construction errors caused the water-tank rupture that sent a 6-foot-high wall of water crashing into a Westminster townhouse complex and fire station Sept. 21, according to a report released Tuesday by city officials. But because the tank was built 30 years ago, the city has no legal recourse, officials said--neither the manufacturer nor the contractor is still in business, and the statute of limitations for such action has long since run out.

The City Council will review architectural designs for the long-awaited Community Cultural Center at a special meeting next Monday at 6 p.m. Preliminary plans were presented to the council last May, but the projected costs, nearly $11 million, were more than city officials had budgeted. The council directed its Planning Commission to work with architects and members of the cultural arts commission to bring the cost closer to the $8 million that has been raised for the center.