[img]1217|exact|||no_popup[/img]
During his last campaign, Mr. Zeidman, center, was flanked on the left by Alan Corlin, fedora, and John Kuechle, on the right by Nancy Kuechle and George Laase.
As Scott Zeidman took his place along the sidelines yesterday afternoon when the renovation of the field began at Culver City High School, two words bounced across his mind:
“About” and “time.”
The former School Board member had hoped to oversee the massive upgrading during his four-year term, but it was elusive.
“It has been a long time coming, especially since it is, and has been, a necessity,” he said.
“At least we are moving in the right direction now.”
Retired Athletic Director Jerry Chabola, who is on vacation, was a persistent advocate for the upgrading now under way. That reminded Mr. Zeidman that “Jerry has been trying to get this done for years.
“But he was only a teacher.
“He was only a coach.
“He was only an athletic director.
“Therefore, he couldn’t get anything going. This costs millions of dollars and the funds had to come through the School Board.
“Jerry started working on, calling for this over a decade ago,” Mr. Zeidman said.
“For me, (the push) started virtually the day after my election, almost six years ago.”
Mr. Zeidman’s mind was silently busy as he observed the rituals of today’s elected officials knifing shovels into the turf.
“My thoughts were a combination of ‘I can’t believe it’s really happening,’ ‘they can’t stop it now,’ and ‘I wish we could have had the whole project.’
“When I was on the Board, there initially was going to be state money coming in. When the state money didn’t come, they scaled back the project to a smaller level. I would like to have seen the project spread out, but that is just a personal preference.”
Back among people he formerly worked alongside, did Mr. Zeidman feel a tugging to be back where he once had been?
“Oh, no, not at all.
“In fact, it’s funny. This must be election time (in November). I keep getting asked, ‘Are you running?’ ‘Are you running?’
“Do you want to know my honest answer?
“No, I am not going to run. Dealing with certain individuals, and I will leave it at that, has made it such a bad situation that it is not worth whatever good you can do, to deal with bad.”
