County : Toll Road Task Force to Be Named Next Week

Former UC Riverside Chancellor Ivan Hinderaker, several public officeholders and developers are expected to be named next week to a task force that will decide which highway will become the county’s first toll road.

The 15 people proposed for task force membership were selected by the staff of the county Transportation Commission, which is expected to approve all 15 at its meeting next Thursday, said Stan Oftelie, commission executive director.

The task force will report back to the Transportation Commission on uly 27.

The county received federal authorization for the project in the federal highway appropriations bill approved recently over President Reagan’s veto.

Possible toll roads include the planned Eastern, Foothill and San Joaquin freeways in south Orange County.

In addition to Hinderaker, who is a founding member and past chairman of the California Transportation Commission and lives in Corona del Mar, the task force members would include county Supervisors Gaddi H. Vasquez and Thomas F. Riley; state Sens. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) and Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), and Assemblymen Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) and Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach).

Other members would be former Supervisor Bruce Nestande, who is a state transportation commissioner and aide to developer George Argyros; Newport Beach Mayor John Cox; Clarice A. Blamer, vice chairman of the county Transportation Commission; Building Industry Assn. Executive Director John Erskine, who is also a Huntington Beach city councilman, and developers Barry Hon of Hon Development, Tom Blum of Santa Margarita Co., Monica Florian of the Irvine Co. and James Gilleran of the Mission Viejo Co.