A proposed homeless shelter and infrastructure needs were heavily discussed at Mayor Bruce Whitaker's first Talks Around Town, held Jan. 22.
The first talk was held at the Fullerton Community Center with 50 people in attendance, including Chief Dan Hughes and Joe Felz, the city manager, who both gave updates during the talk.
The audience immediately wanted to know about the proposed homeless shelter voted on by the Orange County Supervisors at their Jan. 15 meeting. The Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 at that meeting to enter into a purchase agreement to buy property to eventually become a year-round homeless shelter. The property is located at 301 S. State College Blvd.
Whitaker told the audience that he addressed the supervisors at the meeting to ask for a brief delay so that council could discuss the matter. His request was denied, which Whitaker now says forces the council to "play catch up" with this issue. He said that he has received many calls from residents on this issue, which was made public a few days before the Board of Supervisors meeting.
"Do you get to tell [the Board of Supervisors] the city of Fullerton residents are not happy with this?" Fullerton resident Conrad DeWitte asked during the discussion.
Infrastructure needs were also addressed during the meeting, which includes fixing roads. Whitaker said he would like to focus on road repairs and budget them in since the new 2-year budget is currently being set.
"We've inherited a backlog of shortchanging our necessary infrastructure," he added and asked residents interested in road repair to attend the council's budget study session workshops if interested.
Talks Around Town will take place each month at a different location around Fullerton. Topics of each talk will pertain to items of interest at those locations.
Comments