Some time ago, around the time the Catholics were losing their foothold in North Tustin, I got an email from some folks in that area who wanted to make sure I had all the information. That led to me being put on their mailing list and newsletter. I recently received their latest news letter and thought I would share a bit with you.

The Foothills Community Association recently held a Fire Safety Vendor Fair on June 16th. They have not updated their website to say how successful it was. However, the information is always good to have in their area. They promised to have folks there to discuss vegetation and hardening of homes against fire. Recently, I know the Fire Authority attempted to implement fire maps that would have been detrimental to these folks. As usual, government thinks they know best and should badger citizens with their “expertise” until they succumb to the pressure. FCA doesn’t seem to have that problem as they take a pro-active approach to protecting their own.

You might have also seen them at the Chili Cookoff where they made their presence known.

There is also a planned community picnic for September 23, 2012. Their first picnic was a huge success with a lot of activities including clowns, games and magic acts. Local restaurants will have a chance to showcase their goodies. The picnic will be held in Irvine Park, same as last year. I hope I get an invite. More importantly, I hope they break even (although FCA didn’t appear to unhappy about it).

You may remember that FCA fought diligently against the building of Spring at Bethsaida, a planned senior community, on Newport Avenue. The Orange County Superior Court ruled against the Diocese of Orange and the OC Board of Supervisors, led by Bill Campbell (who just happens to be Catholic), saying the Board illegally spotzoned the location to allow the Diocese to build what they wanted instead of the  original church. If there are appeals in the works, we haven’t heard anything and I seriously doubt an appeal would be successful. Unfortunately, it would be expensive, something the FCA could ill afford. Now, if someone would just call Bishop Tod Brown and ask him to remove the sign.

From the Foothill Sentry Newspaper, we have this:

Tustin shares the bounty
The Harvest Club in Tustin provides fresh, healthy food to the hungry in Orange County by harvesting excess backyard produce and donating it to local food pantries, churches and soup kitchens.
The  club  is  seeking  harvest captains  to  lead  harvests  either on  weekdays  or  weekends  and volunteers to pick backyard fruit in the greater Tustin area. If you are a gardener with an overabundance of fruit, you can register your  trees  at  theharvestclub.org and someone will be in touch with you to coordinate the picking. For more information on how to  help,  visit  theharvestclub.org or  email  info@theharvestclub.

Admittedly, the Foothills Sentry is geared more toward Orange than Tustin but, there are some interesting articles. I can’t tell you exactly how to navigate to the newspaper as it is a print page that is posted to a website. Here is the latest if you find yourself bored with Tustin news.

I hope our friends in North Tustin find themselves well and with few fires this year. They are our kind of people, they just know better than to join the city. You can check out their excellent and informative website here.