Community groups get grants

Community groups were awarded more than $229,300 in community assistance funds Tuesday by the Laguna Beach City Council.

Applications for grants were reviewed by Mayor Kelly Boyd and Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Pearson, who recommended allocations that were approved with only minor tweaking. Health organizations took precedence this year.

The council bumped up the Community Clinic grant from the recommended $15,000 to $18,500 and the Coastal Family Therapy Services, which operates out of the Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach.

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center was the only applicant to have its request fully funded. It asked for and received $10,000.

Other organizations came close. Friends of the Library was granted $14,500, just $500 shy of its request.

The Laguna Beach Community Band got $6,000 of its $7,000 request.

Some were granted nothing, including the Laguna Playhouse, which gets a substantial amount every year from the Business Improvement District, which funds art-related activities and groups that bring tourists to town.

A request by Gallimaufry founder Steve Josephson and parents of children in the program to increase the $4,000 allocation was denied, based on the grant to the group from the BID.

“” Barbara Diamond