Tuesday, October 15, 2002 Park station   "Scherer station delayed" (Page 1, Oct. 6). To quote Sir Walter Scott: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" Thanks also to Gigi Bannister (STOP) and Don May (CA Earth Corps) for bringing the lawsuit and alerting the National Park Service, which is requiring the city to complete an environmental report before construction can begin. Because the city took federal Land and Water Conservation funds to help develop Scherer Park, they must replace the lost parkland with new parkland, serving the same neighborhood and comparable in value. Even if the former dump at 55th Way could be cleaned up enough to allow youth soccer fields, this is not going to serve the same people who now use the lost land in Scherer. The proposed police station site, containing over 50 mature trees, is not suitable for soccer, but has a great hill for rolling and picnicking. Even at a two for one replacement, this degraded dumping ground cannot compensate for parkland valued at $2 million an acre. The city is so desperate for money to remediate this contaminated landfill that City Prosecutor Reeves is now attempting to raid a public trust, set up to "benefit the fish and wildlife resources of the state of California." How the city could contemplate dissolving this trust and giving the money to the Redevelopment Agency for the 55th Way site is beyond imagination. As very few of the present council members voted for this $18 million fortress and both the police chief and city manager are leaving, this would be an excellent time to give up the North Long Beach police station and create storefront stations throughout the city. Put police on patrol, by foot, bikes or cars, and park rangers in all the larger parks. And Stop Taking Our Parks! Ann Cantrell Long Beach   Naval Memorial What happened? About three years ago I saw an approved plan for the Long Beach Naval Memorial with a huge, beautiful, armillary sphere as its centerpiece. We were asked to submit photos of relatives who had worked at the base—which we did. We were asked to buy paving bricks with names on them, which we did. Now, all we see are plans to make the Belmont Pier into a veterans memorial. I know we are not the only ones who contributed to the Naval Memorial and would enjoy having a place to visit that honors our loved ones—what happened? Bonnie Tebbetts Long Beach