YORBA LINDA : New Fiesta Days Parade Route OKd

City Council members voted last week to change the route of the city’s annual Fiesta Days Parade and Street Faire, removing the event from Main Street and placing it on a stretch of Yorba Linda Boulevard running past the Nixon Library and Birthplace.

The decision was made in response to a request by the Yorba Linda Service League, a volunteer group that has organized the parade for 22 years. Some city residents and representatives of the Main Street Merchants’ Assn. protested the proposal, but the council backed it unanimously.

Representatives of the merchants’ association said they failed to come to a compromise with members of the league that would allow the parade to remain in the old town area of Main Street while still running past the library.

“We never thought the parade should be just on Main Street,” association member Leo Riley said. “But the Main Streets of America are disappearing. This is another nail in the coffin.”

Council member Henry W. Wedaa was sympathetic. “Personally, I think Main Street is the place for it to be,” he said.

“But we owe a debt to (the Yorba Linda Service League) for putting on this parade for some years,” he added, noting that the league has faced problems holding the parade on Main Streeta and arguing that its request for relocating the event should be honored.

Suzanne Miller, a representative of the service league, said her group requested the change because the old route requires closing Imperial Highway and does not pass by the library.

The council agreed to shift the parade route for this year to Yorba Linda Boulevard, where it will run between Casa Loma Avenue and Park Place.