Park honors standout City Manager

Aunique honor was bestowed on a former Westminster City Manager at the July 14 re-naming ceremony of Westminster Center Park to McFall Park. It was like “old home week” when we gathered to honor and celebrate with Brent McFall.

Cross Currents

Fittingly enough, current City Manager Mark Freitag served as master of ceremonies and provided a succinct explanation of the Council-Manager form of local government.

Current Mayor Nancy McNally, who was mayor for a portion of McFall’s 14 years as city manager, spoke to Brent’s accomplishments and the establishment of an annual strategic plan process which is still being used today. But the main speaker of course was Brent himself who recapped his tenure in Westminster and gave full credit for achievements to city council, sta and the citizenry. By “old home week”, I mean it brought former Mayor Ed Moss, some former council people and several sta who worked with Brent to the unveiling.

During his Westminster tenure, the city was faced with a severe drought in 2002, the Great Recession starting in 2008-2009, the nal demise of the Westminster Mall and more. He led the e orts on water conservation, handled signi cant budget cuts and sta ng reductions and pursued a new development plan on the Westminster Mall site seeking a master developer. e Shops at Walnut Creek, the multi- land use at e Orchard and the third Walmart center all occurred under his leadership.

For those of you who might not have known, the park in question had the dubious nickname of “Poop Park.” is was a re ection on the dog owners in the area who would take their dogs to the undeveloped site to “poop.” Former Council member Chris Dittman was given credit for putting this name on the park site. However, I have also heard that Bernice Aspinwall, a long-time resident east of the park had dubbed the area “Poop Park” as well. Congrats Brent on the park being named in your honor.

Mark your calendars for the Trump trial on classified documents

Well, the judge’s gavel has come down on a trial date pertaining to the alleged mishandling of classi ed federal government documents by former President Donald Trump. Mark your calendar for May 20, 2024 when the trial is supposed to start (but don’t hold your breath).

Trump’s lawyers had been pushing to have the trial date be AFTER the presidential election of Nov. 2024. Federal prosecutors had been seeking a Dec. 2023 date.

U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon had seemed skeptical about both parties’ requests at the hearing. She ended up “splitting the baby” probably more to the chagrin of the Trump camp than the DOJ special prosecutor’s group. At least now, there is a speci c date to work toward while

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