HUNTINGTON BEACH : Fixing Park Holes Where Rain Got in

Softball players can get a real sinking feeling on the ball field at Edison Community Park.

A three-foot-deep hole opened in left field during the peak of the rainy season earlier this year. Other sinkholes have also developed in the area.

The holes were filled and the field was graded in June. Since then, there has not been any further sinkage, and summer adult league softball games were allowed to proceed.

However, after the City Council was warned that sinkholes may develop again in the next rainy season, it voted last week to ask consultants to prepare proposals on how they would investigate subsurface conditions and how much it would cost. Estimates range from $50,000 to $100,000.

In a report in April, Steve May, an engineer in the city’s Public Works Department, said a hazardous condition existed at the park and recommended that certain portions be closed until conditions could be remedied.

May said in a later report that he believed the field was safe “for the time being” after grading produced no new indications of sinkage.

May noted, however, that “there is a lot of surface irregularity which should be fixed to reduce the risk of leg injuries due to tripping.”

Portions of the park, near Hamilton Avenue and Magnolia Street, are built over a county landfill of former tree stumps that are decaying and causing the earth to subside, he said.