CRUISING BY: Rusty Spokes bike shop owner has patents on his invention to give beach cruisers a smoother ride. 24
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Hi: 2:56 p.m. Low: 7:45 a.m. 7:37 p.m.
Surf: 3–5 ft.
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7825 Fay Ave. La Jolla, CA 92037
Thursday, June 11, 2009
www.beachandbaypress.com
City Council to replace MB Park Committee with experts
Going out in style Motorcycle hearse gives the dead a final ride
ment and recreation management. According to the ordinance, City Council voted on June 9 to term out the current Mission the mayor will appoint three members nominated by District Bay Park Committee by July 1 2 City Councilmember Kevin and replace the board with members that have expertise in Faulconer and three members city finance and management. nominated by District 6 City It is unclear who the new mem- Councilmember Donna Frye, whose districts cover Mission bers will be – and if any of the Bay. Three “at-large” members, current board members will one hotel lessee representative return to their seats. and one lessee not related to The mayor’s office sent an hotels will round out the board ordinance to City Council to overturn the 15-member board of mayoral appointments. and replace it with an 11-mem- Committee members will still ber board with qualifications in volunteer their time and have two-year, staggered terms. city finance, planning, auditIn previous years, the mayor ing, resource management and protection, wildlife protection, construction manageBY SEBASTIAN RUIZ | BEACH &BAY PRESS
RONAN GRAY | BEACH & BAY PRESS
Douglas Trobaugh drives the only Final Ride motorcycle hearse in Southern California. BY RONAN GRAY | BEACH &BAY PRESS
Beach-area dwellers tend to exhibit a distinctly jaded attitude toward the odd, the strange and the weird. Fire-breathing jugglers perform weekly on the beach; armor-plated, tornado-chasing vehicles park in the neighborhood; and kite-propelled surfers hurl themselves 30 feet skyward above the surf. And yet The Final Ride – a Victorian-style black hearse pulled by a chrome-detailed Harley-Davidson parked outside the Pacific Beach Chapel recently – managed to stop passersby in their tracks on the corner of Cass and Diamond streets. “I can tell you anything you want to know about it except the price,” quipped funeral director Douglas Trobaugh, driver of Pacif-
ic Beach Chapel’s most unusual hearse. “I will tell you this, though: I could have bought a couple of nice Cadillacs instead.” The hearse is more a cross between a Victorian-style coach – with gilded carriage lamps, crushed velvet interior and sixspoke, chrome wheels – and Cinderella’s glass-walled carriage. The hearse and the threewheeled motorcycle were built by Tombstone Hearses in Bedford, Pa., where owner Jack Feather says he is working on the 27th one at a cost of roughly $80,000. While most of the 26 previous motorcycle-pulled hearses were built for funeral homes within the U.S., Tombstone has sent two to England, one to the Caribbean and one to Australia. With an estimated 10 million bikers in the U.S. (1.3 million in California), the demand for
the unique hearse is steady, especially in the Midwest, according to Feather. “This one is the only one [of the Final Ride hearses] in Southern California,” said Trobaugh, who has been riding bikes since his father bought him his first one – a Harley Davidson dirt bike – when he was 9 years old. Trobaugh’s father, John, is still riding a Harley at age 75. Demand for the Final Ride has been steady, with about 30 services performed since the funeral home purchased it two years ago. In midApril the funeral procession of a Vietnam vet created a spectacle when more than 200 bikers followed the distinctive hearse from the La Mesa Chapel out to Jamul and back for the deceased man’s SEE HEARSE, Page 3
SEE MISSION BAY, Page 3
Pool shop spruces up corner BY ADRIANE TILLMAN | BEACH &BAY PRESS
adise of palm trees, hibiscus plants and ocean hues. Ann Holt Brian Costelloe has splashed also painted the outside façade for color onto the tiny cottage that the French Gourmet on houses Pacific Paradise Pools & Turquoise Street. Spa on the corner of Cass and The garden showcases the serWilbur streets, and transformed a vices and products for sale: pavers dirt lot into a decorative garden to lead past a sturdy thatched bammarket his pool, spa and landboo palapa, alongside a bench scaping products. Costelloe carved into a pony, past foxgloves bought the retail store – formerly and a bird bath to a 4-foot-deep known as La Jolla Pools for 40 pond. Secret Gardens Landscape years – this past October. Muralist volunteered its services to build Virginia Ann Holt, who met the garden – a tradeoff for finding Costelloe at a home show, has vol- a place to showcase its work. unteered her time to paint the stucco walls into a tropical parSEE POOL, Page 5
Police watch over Belmont Park from above BY SEBASTIAN RUIZ | BEACH &BAY PRESS
Surveillance cameras watching over the parking lot at Belmont Park have been up and running for two years now and have already helped police nab at least one vehicle prowler that plagued the area for several weeks in 2008. Police used footage to connect the alleged prowler, identified by police as 48-year-old Pacific Beach resident Jonathon Clark, to 14 alleged vehicle prowling incidents. When police pulled him over in October of 2008, he reportedly
had with him stolen items, said Northern Division Capt. Shelley Zimmerman. One of Clark’s tactics included following local surfers and stealing keys that they buried in the sand to hide. He allegedly unlocked the vehicles and took property and then reburied or replaced the keys, giving him time to escape before the owner noticed. “[The arrest] was a direct result of the cameras,” Zimmerman said. “[Cameras] are a force multiplier…it gives us more eyes.”
With cameras in five spots around Belmont Park and parts of Mission Beach, police have eyes in the sky. Police and government officials unveiled the system about two years ago as a security measure to deter beach area assaults and other crime. Signs posted near the monitored areas let potential rulebreakers know that someone may be watching. As a result, Zimmerman said, calls for service have SEE CAMERAS, Page 5
ADRIANE TILLMAN | BEACH & BAY PRESS Virginia Ann Holt paints Pacific Beach Pools & Spa into a tropical paradise.