German Social Club Meets, Not for Usual Banter but to Declare War on New Jail Site

On any other day, the warm sunshine would have created a sense of gemutlichkeit among members of the Phoenix Club, who traditionally gather in their Anaheim clubhouse for German beer festivals, dancing and song. But on Sunday, the good times had given way to angst .

Last week, the Orange County Board of Supervisors designated a 7.6-acre site across the street from the clubhouse to be the new county jail. The decision riled club members, who declared war on the project Sunday with cheering slogans and angry speeches.

“We will not be pushed around, we have many friends and we will stop this jail,” said Hans Klein, an Orange resident who co-founded the 15,000-member club for German-speaking citizens 25 years ago.

Klein, stressing that the furor will not die, added: “We are unified, we are strong, we will win.”

He pointed proudly to about 250 club members who had shown up punctually at noon to march up and down the sidewalk with brightly painted signs. Some of the women, flanked by their husbands, were dressed in polka dresses and paraded with children wearing lederhosen.

As they marched back and forth, many of the pickets joked about a painted sign that had mysteriously appeared atop a fence surrounding the proposed jail site.

“Coming Soon--Prison Estates,” the sign read. “A private guard-gated community. Meals, utilities. Long or short terms. For accommodations, contact Orange County Board of Supervisors.”

Asked who was responsible for the sign, club members smiled and shrugged their shoulders.

“A big mystery . . . who knows?” one demonstrator said. “I think Roger Stanton put it up,” joked another, referring to the vote by Supervisor Stanton and three colleagues to select the Anaheim site.

Most of the marchers, however, complained that the proposed jail for 1,500 inmates at the corner of Katella Avenue and Douglass Road was no laughing matter.

Lisa Sarabyn said the Phoenix Club, believed to be the largest organization of German-speaking citizens in Southern California, is a family-oriented group that could not possibly coexist with a jail across the street.

The club’s activities--which include rifle teams, glider groups, soccer tournaments, German classes, folk dancing and children’s workshops--”would be jeopardized . . . we would have to move” if the new jail is built, she added.

“When we started this club, we wanted to be away from everything,” Sarabyn said, pointing to the clubhouse and gardens spread over eight acres. “We were the first ones on this street, and now they want to dump the jail on us.

“This is our home. At night we make noise, in the garden, with the Oktoberfest, with the dancing, with the bands. We want to be left alone. Why is that so bad?”

Others said the prison would bring undesirable elements into the neighborhood, particularly jail visitors who might imperil club members and their automobiles.

“With these kind of people coming around, we may have to take greater security measures,” said Manfred Walter, a 16-year club veteran. “Here we have our cars parked, and everything is nice and peaceful. Now we may need more security.”

Few of the marchers disputed the need for an additional jail, and most seemed familiar with court-ordered deadlines for reducing overcrowding at the main jail in Santa Ana.

Yet all said the new jail should be constructed somewhere else--in the Civic Center next to the current jail, in another city, in the canyons, in the mountains, anywhere but across the street from their clubhouse.

“Nobody here says the county doesn’t need a new jail,” one member said. “But why should such a decision ruin a perfectly good area? Why did they have to pick on us?”

Klein said the Phoenix Club plans to take legal action against the project and will cooperate with the city of Anaheim, the California Angels, the Los Angeles Rams and other groups who have also threatened to fight the new jail with lawsuits.

After all, club members are battling “to defend our way of life,” he said, adding:

“They should take this jail and bury it in the deepest, darkest canyon they can find. Away from us, far away, where we cannot see it.”