SAN DIEGO: Downtown San Diego will get its iconic pedestrian bridge over Harbor Drive, after the City Council approved the $26.8 million price tag yesterday.
The bridge will extend from Petco Park to the Port of San Diego's recently built public parking garage. The budget has grown since the original estimate of $12.8 million in 2005.
The funding was approved by the council, although Councilwoman Donna Frye said, “It's kind of a tough call to authorize that kind of money for a bridge, quite frankly.”
Councilman Jim Madaffer suggested that, in the future, the downtown redevelopment agency should leave bridge building to the city's engineering department or the California Department of Transportation.
The cost will be offset by federal and state grants and a contribution from Padres owner John Moores' real estate company. Downtown agency officials said they are trying for another government grant of $8.4 million. –J.S.
County OKs plan to help
more poor, uninsured
County supervisors approved a proposal yesterday that will cover medical bills for some uninsured, legal U.S. residents with serious illnesses who make up to $2,979 a month.
The vote was taken in response to a Superior Court ruling in March ordering the county to revise its County Medical Services program to help more poor patients, as state law requires. It will expand the program as of July 1.
“This is an unfunded state mandate, and the cost to the county right now is $69 million a year,” plus $4 million more for every additional 1,000 patients, said Supervisor Dianne Jacob.
County officials said they don't know how many more people will sign up for the program. Applicants cannot have more than $2,000 in liquid assets.
Since early 2005, lawyers representing several low-income patients have sued the county over County Medical Services. They said the program wrongfully excludes many applicants.
Yesterday's proposal, the latest of numerous revisions to the program, will be reviewed by Superior Court Judge Ronald Styn at a hearing June 6. –C.C.
KUSI reporter Luck
put on leave after arrest
SAN DIEGO: KUSI News has put reporter Rodney “Rod” Luck on an extended leave of absence after his arrest Friday on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence/battery in the Bay Area.
News anchorwoman Sandra Maas said yesterday that the station put Luck on leave “considering the circumstances surrounding that incident and the incident itself,” pending the outcome of the case.
Police in San Francisco said Luck, 58, punched a 42-year-old woman in the mouth while the couple were in their room in a hotel near the San Francisco International Airport shortly before 8 p.m. Friday.
Police said the woman had a visible injury but was not hospitalized. Police said Luck and the woman provided separate La Jolla addresses and said they have a dating relationship. –K.K.
Proposed power plant
faces council opposition
CARLSBAD: The City Council took a stand last night opposing a proposed power plant west of Interstate 5, saying it would like the utility moved farther inland in the city.
“It's a 50-year-vision question,” Councilman Mark Packard said.
“It is no longer in the best interest of the city of Carlsbad to occupy prime coastal area with a utility, industrial use, like is there now,” he said before a unanimous vote.
NRG Energy, which operates the Encina Power Station at Cannon Road and Carlsbad Boulevard, has applied to the California Energy Commission to build a new plant on the south shore of Agua Hedionda Lagoon, next to the freeway.
The commission, not the city, has the final say on whether the plant is built.
NRG proposes a natural-gas-fueled plant that would generate 540 megawatts of power when the region needs electricity, or about 40 percent of the time.
The new air-cooled plant would eventually replace the ocean-water-cooled station and its 400-foot smokestack.
NRG hopes to begin operating a new plant by 2010 or 2011. –M.B.
Staff writers Jeanette Steele, Cheryl Clark, Karen Kucher and Michael Burge contributed to this report.
