Construction begins on Santa Ana’s Diamond Park water improvements

Assemblyman Solorio (center) joins (from left) Diamond Park Mutual Water Company President Jose Espinoza, Interim City Manager and Police Chief Paul Walters, Mayor Miguel Pulido, Public Works Director Raul Godinez and Santa Ana City Councilmember David Benavides at a groundbreaking ceremony in Diamond Park celebrating infrastructure improvements to bring clean drinking water to the neighborhood.

For Immediate Release: December 21, 2011
For More Information Contact: Carol Chamberlain – office: (916) 319-2069, mobile: (916) 804-5355

Construction to Improve Water Quality for Santa Ana’s Diamond Park Neighborhood Begins
Community leaders gather to launch long-awaited water pipeline improvements to Santa Ana’s Diamond Park neighborhood

SANTA ANA – State Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-69) joined Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, Councilman David Benavides, Interim City Manager and Police Chief Paul Walters, Director of Public Works Raul Godinez, and Diamond Park Mutual Water Company President Jose Espinoza to kick-off construction that will connect the small community of the Diamond Park neighborhood to the City of Santa Ana’s water system.

Assemblyman Solorio (center) joins (from left) Diamond Park Mutual Water Company President Jose Espinoza, Interim City Manager and Police Chief Paul Walters, Mayor Miguel Pulido, Public Works Director Raul Godinez and Santa Ana City Councilmember David Benavides at a groundbreaking ceremony in Diamond Park celebrating infrastructure improvements to bring clean drinking water to the neighborhood.

Residents gathered near the area of Diamond and Center Streets to witness the groundbreaking and to hear from their elected and city officials. “I was shocked that we had this issue in our own community,” Solorio said addressing the crowd. “With all the cuts happening at the local, county, and state level, we were fortunate enough to find the one million dollars needed to bring clean drinking water to this neighborhood.”

Jose Espinoza, Diamond Park Mutual Water Company President, expressed his thanks to Assemblyman Solorio and the City of Santa Ana and stressed how important the start of construction was for the children in the community. He told the residents in attendance that he was very relieved knowing that the young children in the neighborhood will soon have access to clean water.

For several years, the residents of Diamond Park were receiving water from an on-site well which was unsafe for infants and pregnant women to drink because the water tested high in nitrates. When the problem reached Assemblyman Solorio, he quickly met with community leaders and city officials to remedy the problem to bring fresh drinking water to the residents.

Assemblyman Solorio worked with Speaker John Perez to insert language into the budget to bring much needed funding to assist the neighborhood. In turn, Diamond Park homeowners needed to dissolve the private water company and allow the connection of their homes to city lines. The City of Santa Ana was willing and able to do whatever they could to provide the community with access to fresh, clean, safe drinking water.

State Assemblyman Jose Solorio is the Chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee and also serves on the Assembly Appropriations and Transportation committees. He represents the Sixty-Ninth Assembly District, which includes the cities of Anaheim, Garden Grove, and Santa Ana. For more information about Assemblyman Solorio, visit www.assembly.ca.gov/solorio.

Art Pedroza Editor

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

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