Korean Festival sponsors plan for G. Grove Park in October

The return of the Korean Festival to Garden Grove tops the agenda of the city council on Tuesday night.

The Korean Festival Committee of Orange County is requesting permission to host the Arirang Festival at Garden Grove Park on Oct. 12-15 of this year.

Originally, the festival was held in the Kore- atown area along Garden Grove Boulevard between Brookhurst and Magnolia Street. It was once held in the nearby Brookhurst Triangle area and in most years featured a parade. Since then the event moved to Buena Park where there is a growing

OC corona stats in decline

The latest figures on coronavirus in Orange County show a downward trend both in confirmed new cases and deaths.

According to the county health care agency, new cases this week – through June 7 – are at 419. That’s down from 437 the week before.

New deaths for the week are reported as eight, down from 11 in the previous week.

Total cases in Orange County to date are at 722,502 and deaths at 8,914, a revision from a previous tally.

Korean-American population. It first returned in 2022.

If approved, the festival hours would be 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily and attendance is estimated at 2,000 people per hour on average. One hundred vendors with 150 tents are anticipated.

All costs – including security – will be borne by the association.

Also on the agenda for Tuesday night is a request from the Honoring Our Fallen organization for street closures in West Garden Grove for an Independence Day parade of an estimated 150 golf carts at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 1. Direct costs to the city would be reimbursed by the organization.

Should Westminster raise its sales tax by another half-cent?

At Wednesday’s meeting of the city council, one agenda item calls for consideration of placing a measure on the ballot asking voters to increase the tax by a half-cent to 9.25 from its current 8.75 percent.

Voters in November 2022 approved the one cent increase and collections started on April 1, 2023. That tax hike “brought in $16 million in revenue, but was never enough to fund increased service levels or even continue

Keeping the rate as it is would mean the city would have to dip into reserves for the proposed 2023-2024 budget and be completely out of reserves by fiscal year 2027-28, the report notes. After that deep cuts in city services would be on the horizon. If approved by voters, the increase would bring in an estimated $8 million annually to city coffers. The costs associated with placing a measure on the ballot – if consolidated with a general election –would be in the range of $134,000 to $260,000 or $578,000 to $695,000 in a stand-alone election.

n STANTON CITY COUNCIL

Money matters are very much on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of the Stanton City Council.

The council will consider adoption of the city’s budget for 2023-24, which includes employee benefits and salary rates for all employees.

Also, the council will consider the shifting of money among accounts.

The city’s American Rescue Plan fund balance is $6,479,454. The