The Signal from Santa Clarita, California • 3

Fridoy, June 1989 Newholl Signol Souqus Enterprise 3 jm- 'Tidal Wave' Joy of fceebies in fhe newsroom According to my own copyrighted book of Sharon's Laws of the World, "There is an inverse relation between ihc amount you get paid and the amount of truth you are allowed to tell." So in the interest of truth, I am going to unburden myself of one of the V- make spias We get Tree stuff. I Sharon Hormell i i fti.i.rnnrf 1 during the summer, he added. As sutnmer temperatures climb into the 90s and l(X)s, patrons at the park understandably try to beat the heat with a refreshing little spray of water. The little spray provided by Tidal Wave represents 2.5 tons of displaced water at the moment of splashdown. The ride is situated on more than three acres on the west side of the park.

The 20-passcnger boats travel through an 8(H)-foot long Hume before plummeting over the waterfall. More than 16,000 people can catch this Tidal Wave on opening day. If the ride follows in the tradition of the other thrill rides at Magic Mountain and other theme paiks, summer patrons will spend the better pari of an hour in line lor the two-minute adventure. And they will probably do it again and again. Magic Mountain is open daily from 10 a.m.

General admission is S21 and S10 for children under 48 inches in height. By CAROL CHAMBERS Signal staff writer A "Tidal Wave" will hit Santa Clarita when the newest thrill ride opens Saturday at Six Flags Magic-Mountain. Thrillseckcrs will cruise through a huge trough-like flume in free-floating boats which suddenly plunge down a 50-foot waterfall and then burst through a 20-foot high wall of white water. Whether park guests who ride Tidal Wave are looking for adventure, excitement or just the latest challenge, one thing is guaranteed they'll get wet, said Joe Schillaci, president of the theme park. Called the "wettest thrill ride adventure ever conceived," Tidal Wave puts even the spectators in je-poardy of a thorough soaking.

"Our guests tell us again and again just how much they delight in experiencing rides that get them wet," Schillaci said. The three other water rides at Magic Mountain are always among the most popular i The new "Tidal Wave" ride ar Magic Mountain forms a 20-foot high wall of water after it ends a 50-foot plunge down a waterfall. Hartl named director of regional planning Now, of course, it is my personal policy, and the policy of The Signal not to accept anything of substantial value, like a slot on the bid list of 'affordable' condos. Stuff like that we return with apologetic notes or we donate it to a worthy cause. Public relations companies that send us stuff expect us to write about their products, but we almost never do, except for Magic Mountain.

I have official inter-office dibs on the toys that the park sends us to promote its new rides. Atop my computer terminal is an inflatable airplane used to promote Magic Mountain's Z-Force ride. It's actual function is to entertain the many scout troops who tour The Signal. They think it is funny that grownups throw things at each other in the office. 1 was pleased to discover that when I peeled the Z-Forcc label from the 15-inch long red and white fuselage, the logo of the United States Air Force Thundcrbirds is revealed.

Thcmatically, the airplane matches my grime-stained coffee cup from "March Air Force Base, Home of the KC-1 35" another frccbic. Magic Mountain has sent us a bunch of rain ponchos in anticipation of the media preview this morning of the new Tidal Wave ride on which the idea is for riders and spectators to get thoroughly soaked. They also sent us little digital watches to count down the time until the tidal wave supposedly hits. Unfortunately, they sent the watches two weeks before the media preview, then moved the preview date. I don'tknow if any of the watches are still working.

Or if they arc waterproof. This is supposed to be a wet ride. The people who know Americans love Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and murder-solver J.B. Fletcher probably figured that we would eat potato chips that come in a New England package. Wc got boxes of free samples.

The Cape Cod Old-fashioned Hand-cooked Potato Chips are lacking just one element of homemade charm. Things saturated with that much grease taste better hot. Wc didn't like them, but ate them anyway. We get a lot of food. Knott's Berry Farm sent us a blob of something chewy but see through, something like a Gummi Blob.

One company sent us some really horrible Mardi Gras cakes. They each weighed about eight pounds (sent via Federal Express yet) and were covered with tooth-rotting mounds of green, orange and purple sugar crystals. Strings of plastic beads and a handful of fake coins were also enclosed. The brochure that came with each cake explained the significance of the colors, the beads and coins, and much of the lore behind Mardi Gras, but if the cake is part of the festivities, I guess I'll never make it to New Orleans. There is the small stuff, like the empty but sealed bottle of Dry Beer.

Good concept the beer company sent it to the company teetotaler. The biggest thing we ever got were the two pair of pizzas packed in dry ice and Federal Expressed from some famous pizzeria in Chicago. The gas oven at The Signal was broken that week so individual staff members had to take the pizzas home, but I got the dry ice. I put a piece of the smoking sub-zero ice in my KC-135 coffee mug and then toured the various departments demonstrating the hazards of coffee cup grime. There were reports that our former feature editor received a heavy package of condoms and took them home.

I'm apparently not the only one who never writes about the free stuff we get in the mail. he said. "I think that it will be about that." He said that his administration would be characterized by an effort to cooperate with Santa Clarita city officials and residents. "We've been working very hard witht city staff to coordinate our efforts on updating the (master) plan for that area," he said Thursday. "Whaiver happens in the unincorporated area impacts the city.

We have worked diligently over the past year to improve our cooperation so that we all know what's go The goal is to evaluate all the projects so the impacts arc mitigated." He said he visits the Santa Clarita Valley at least every month to six weeks when lie has meetings with city officials or leads the Regional Planning Commission on field tours of planning sites. He received a degree in urban planning from Cal Poly Pomona and a master's degree in pubiic administration from Cal State Long Beach. Hartl lives in La Habra Heights, and has worked for the county for 20 years. ing on. Haul's predecessor, Norman Murdoch, was often criticized for insensitivity to the complaints by SCV residents that developers, not community needs drove the county's planning efforts here.

"Development proposals in the future will be given a very critical eye," Hartl said, adding that the SCV will not get another intersection as difficult for local drivers as Bouquet Junction. "Our goal is to make sure that these types of things don't happen. By SHARON HORMELL Signal staff writer Jim Hartl, who has served for 1 1 months as acting county director of regional planning, was named Wednesday to assume the post permanently. He will oversee planning in the unincorporated areas of the Santa Clarita Valley, including an update in a master plar. for the area that sets its ultimate population at 270,000.

"I don't think we'll see a reduction in the target population figure," Davis' bill for LAFCO reform passes Senate the proposed city's financial viability. LAFCO decisions would also require more substantial documentation of a future city's cost to provide services than the single-page memorandums provided to LAFCO by various county departments when Santa Clarita was considered for cityhood. The bill, SB 1057, would allow-new cities to participate in the setting of mandated spending ceilings. LAFCO now sets such spending limits. Davis' bill must be approved by the Assembly and signed by the governor before it can become la.

the financially well-off city that was initially predicted to be insolvent by LAFCO's executive director. It would require more intensive analysis of cityhood applications by LAFCO or by some outside firm, so that projects such as Santa Clarita's auto row and expanding commercial base would be used to forecast Sen. Ed Davis' bill to reform the way the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) evaluates city incorporation applications was approved by the state Senate on a 24-10 vote. The bill would expand the now-limited ability of incorporation committees, land owners and others to challenge decisions of LAFCO in court, especially the kind of evaluations that hindered Santa Clarita, The City of Santa Clarita The Pride Committee Invite You To Take Part In The Second Annual No other clearance stacks up against a Kids Mart f) PRIDE WEEK Starts Wb? HQ jfjj GINYON COUNTRY IB TB tnamDer oi Commerce CKIMBER OF COMMERCE Community Dumpsters Available "FREE" (Please No Batteries, Tires or Liquids) Short sets, summer sss fw A i 1 1 ri i SAN MARTINEZ AT CONCOURSE VAL VERDE FIRE STATION 1113 Z6321 SAND CTN. CANTON COUNTRY MARKET STREET AT RAILROAD AVE.

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