Council to tackle improvement plans

San Diego Union Tribune – San Diego,CA,USA
ENCINITAS: The Arts Alive Banner program will auction more than 80
hand-painted banners in the courtyard of Cardiff Towne Center at 2 pm
Sunday. …

CARLSBAD: The City Council will discuss the future of Alga Norte Park and Aquatic Center on Tuesday when it takes up the $31 million capital improvements budget for fiscal 2007-08.

The 30-acre park at Poinsettia Lane and Alicante Road will include sports fields, picnic areas, tot lots, a skate park, dog park and aquatic center.

The park will cost an estimated $22 million, and the aquatic center will cost $28 million. Construction is expected to start in the winter and take two years.

The staff report for Tuesday’s meeting notes that escalations in estimated construction costs have added $6.4 million to the cost of Alga Norte Park, possibly jeopardizing other projects.

Items listed in the capital budget include expansion of the event area at Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park, estimated at $267,000, and $1.2 million to prevent corrosion of metal water pipes.

The budget also includes widening El Camino Real between Tamarack Avenue and Chestnut Street at a cost of $3.3 million.

The city estimates that all 115 projects will cost $404.8 million.

The council will meet at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 1200 Carlsbad Village Drive.

Artists’ banners to be auctioned

ENCINITAS: The Arts Alive Banner program will auction more than 80 hand-painted banners in the courtyard of Cardiff Towne Center at 2 p.m. Sunday.

The annual arts program is sponsored by the 101 Artists Colony, the Cardiff-by-the-Sea Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Encinitas MainStreet Association.

Local artists were invited to participate, and their banners have hung on light posts in downtown Encinitas and Cardiff since February. Proceeds of the auction will be evenly split between the artists and the 101 Artists Colony or the Cardiff chamber. The Cardiff Town Centre is on San Elijo Avenue at Birmingham Drive.

The minimum bid for a banner is $150. To view the banners, go to www.encinitas101.com.

Foundations plan Lagoon Day in July

CARLSBAD: The foundations that support Carlsbad’s three lagoons are proposing a “lagoon day” to attract attention to the inlets.

Eric Munoz, president of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation, told the Carlsbad City Council on Tuesday that the three foundations have organized to increase awareness of the Agua Hedionda, Buena Vista and Batiquitos lagoons.

Munoz said the groups plan to hold Lagoon Day on July 12, the one-year anniversary of the eradication of Caulerpa taxifolia, an invasive weed that infested Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

He said the foundations plan to make it an annual event.

Regg Antle, president of the Buena Vista Lagoon Foundation, praised the city for its quick action to minimize damage from last month’s 7 million gallon sewage spill, which occurred when a pipe broke at the lagoon’s eastern edge.

Transit district settles over Sprinter

NORTH COUNTY: The transit district will pay the general contractor for the Sprinter passenger rail project as much as $15 million to settle any claims the builder may make against the district, and to assure that the project is completed on time.

The $449 million rail line between Oceanside and Escondido is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Under the settlement, the North County Transit District will pay contractor West Coast Rail Constructors no more than $12.2 million for claims the contractor may make to recoup costs incurred from design changes or other issues caused by the transit district. The district also will pay $3.3 million to assure that the project is finished in time.

The settlement was finalized Thursday, said C. Michael Cowett, the district’s general counsel.

Tom Lichterman, the district’s director of rail services, said the contractor may have filed claims related to design and schedule changes, and the agreement settles them.