Police: Get out at sunset

Police showed up, sprinklers came on, and more than 100 people who came with their families and friends to watch fireworks at Vista Park in Costa Mesa were forced to retreat last Fourth of July, wet and angry.

After the unfortunate incident, residents were up in arms. They didn’t understand why the city, which had never before aggressively enforced a Costa Mesa law forbidding residents from using public parks after sunset, came out and shooed them away.

“Every year we would walk across the street, up the hill and watch the fireworks,” recalled neighborhood resident Edward Britt. “Last year there was significant enforcement by the Costa Mesa Police Department, driving through the park at 8:45 p.m. chasing everyone away.”

The same will happen this year if people gather there, city officials said. And to avoid any ambiguity the city will post big signs at the park entrances telling them exactly what time they must go home, to the minute. A call was even made to the Navy to find out the official time of sunset: 8:34 p.m.

“The fact of it is that for the last couple years the city has been stepping up enforcement in all parks around town because we’ve had problems with people setting off fireworks and drinking in the park after dark,” City Manager Allan Roeder said.

Some residents wonder why the city can’t just relax its ordinance for one day out of the year.

“The park is not a party scene. Everyone is mostly there to light fireworks,” said Heather Balich, who lives in an apartment near the park.

But if city officials allowed people in one park after dark, they would have to allow them in all of the parks, and that would involve making provisions for safety precautions like lighting and police enforcement, according to Roeder. That costs money and requires extra staffing.

“Part of the challenge is to come up with even more manpower than we already have on the Fourth to patrol every park in the city,” Roeder said.

He said making special provisions for Costa Mesa parks would probably be popular among residents, but it would have to come at the expense of other things.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].