SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : City Taps Into Pool of Seniors

Two young children were playing by themselves in a nearly empty park. A battered pickup with two rough-looking men inside was parked nearby.

Pedaling through the park on a recent afternoon, Jim Easley, 72, and John Fena, 65, had no proof that the youngsters were in danger. But they scooped them up anyway and sent them home because “we’d just rather be safe about it,” Easley said.

A little healthy paranoia is just part of the territory for the two men, who patrol the bike paths and parks of San Juan Capistrano as part of the city’s senior volunteer program.

The men are part of the Associated Seniors Action Program, a year-old effort to tap into the city’s pool of senior citizen volunteers. So far, San Juan Capistrano has saved more than $100,000 in labor costs.

Under the program, retired citizens have stepped into the shoes of city workers to perform a number of time-consuming tasks, ranging from doing a survey of San Juan Capistrano’s sewer system to helping control traffic at special events.

Like a growing number of cities, San Juan Capistrano’s senior volunteers are helping the police in many ways, including patrolling the streets looking for problems that can be corrected by the regular police.

Easley and Fena patrol the great outdoors twice a week, covering more than 1,000 miles in the past year. Their bikes can get into secluded park areas that patrol cars can’t easily reach.

“We don’t do anything dangerous,” Easley said. “The only weapon I pack is a flashlight.”

If a park bench is badly damaged, posing a possible safety hazard, the duo will let city workers know about it. If somebody is drinking alcohol in a public park, they will politely be asked to drink elsewhere.

A retired computer engineer, Easley said people respond well to the uniformed presence of him and his partner.

“So far, the response has been real good,” he said. “Like the other day, two ladies just came up to us on the street and told us that they are real glad to have us around. We hear that all the time, and it’s kind of nice.

“We’re just there to be seen. We’re the eyes and ears of the police.”

Like all 25 senior citizens in the program, the bike patrollers are appreciated by Yomar Cleary, who runs public safety services for San Juan Capistrano and Dana Point.

“They’re so enthusiastic about volunteering,” she said. “They’re often here 45 minutes early for their shift. We need them, because there’s always something happening in San Juan and their help is invaluable.”

One of the partners’ favorite parts of the job is dealing with children. Both carry sports cards and police badge stickers with them on patrol.

“We paste the badge on the little ones and tell them they’re sheriff for a day,” Easley said. “They get a real kick out of it.”

Both men get a lot of enjoyment out of volunteering for bike patrol duty, which Easley says beats doing something unproductive.

“It’s better to be out there doing something for somebody else than warming a stool at the Swallows” Inn, a popular local bar, Easley said.