Glenn Frank writes, "I was riding the Aliso Creek Bike Trail today and passed the historical marker sign for the Juan Avila Adobe which is along the trail at the top of the hill just south of the 5 freeway. I thought that someone in the city should be made aware of the horrible condition this sign marker is in... plexiglass marker cover is nearly impossible to see through, it is shattered and broken and has words scratched into it... and someone of course had marked up the photo of Juan Avila on the sign... It would be fitting if the city or the city's historical society or both spent some time and money to fix it up again.".
These days, historical markers seems to be constantly vandalized and stolen. The County Historical Commission went to great lengths to select the most vandalism-proof materials possible for a recent interpretive panel at Wieder Regional Park -- and even that was damaged within a year.
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Sadly, law enforcement still seems unwilling to shoot vandals on sight. So I guess we're left with the (much less satisfying) option of replacing and repairing these things regularly.
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As for the city's historical society, I don't know that Laguna Hills actually has such a group yet. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
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Tonight, the Santa Ana City Council was scheduled to discuss ways to cut or restructure the City's Historic Resources Commission. Perhaps someone out there can post a comment and let us know what happened. Santa Ana's historic preservation movement has really picked steam in recent years and greatly improved numerous neighborhoods. If the city can make their involvement more efficient, that's great. But care should be taken not to ruin a good thing.
