LAKE FOREST : Recreation Program Expansion Proposed

A vastly expanded recreation program was unveiled by the city Human Services Department at a budget workshop this week.

How much of the ambitious lineup will survive won’t be known until the City Council votes on the 1995-96 budget next month.

But council members voiced no objections to the proposed programs on Tuesday, which include a Halloween carnival, Fourth of July celebration and several activities for youths and seniors.

The programs would cost $172,000, a huge jump over the $39,000 budgeted for new recreation activities last year.

Many of the proposals focused on Lake Forest youth, including an expansion of After School Playground Club recreation sites from two schools to seven. Other youth-oriented programs would involve the creation of after-school intramurals sports, as well as Halloween and Easter events.

“There’s a trend here,” Councilwoman Ann Van Haun said. “What we’re looking at is not only to have sheriff’s deputies working with gangs and drug problems, but to get young people occupied and into other things.

“As long as the interest is there, we should spend a little money on them.”

Also proposed are programs for seniors and therapeutic activities for disabled people, which Van Haun said are badly overdue.

“We don’t have anything for seniors in our city,” she said. “They have to go to [senior centers] in Mission Viejo and Laguna Hills.”