It was among the quietest Fourth of July holiday in recent memory by most accounts, but local residents are still grappling with serious problems posed by summertime overcrowding and increasing commercialization of Kellogg Park. Those matters were discussed at length by La Jolla Shores Association (LJSA), an advisory group to the city on parks and land-use issues in the coastal neighborhood stretching from UCSD campus to Torrey Pines Road. Alan Alvarez, a San Diego Police Department communications specialist, reported during the LJSA’s monthly meeting July 11 there were six felony arrests, 197 traffic citations and 57 parking citations on July 3-4 along the entire beachfront from the Ocean Beach jetty to La Jolla’s Scripps Pier. “Believe me, it was very tame, there were no major disturbances,” Alvarez said, noting he’s been around since the mid-1990s — before the alcohol ban at beaches and public parks, when law enforcement was a much tougher proposition on major holidays. There was one negative in Alvarez’s report. “There were nine citations for minors in possession of alcohol,” he said. “That’s a lot.” Addressing Shores residents’ complaints of a preponderance of ice cream trucks in the Kellogg Park parking lot and environs, Alvarez pointed out that they’re legal, with permits. “They can sell ice cream as much as they want citywide,” he said, adding “there is a city ordinance that there is a certain decibel level [music from the trucks] they have to comply with.” “They’re allowed to go in beach parking lots and everywhere else, but they may only stop if they’re flagged down,” said LJSA chairwoman Audrey Keane. Alvarez said Cindy Myer, a detective with the police department’s vice unit, is working specifically on enforcement of regulations with ice cream trucks and vendors. He said he would invite her to come to the group’s next meeting to discuss her role. A continuing dialogue on the escalating commercialization of Kellogg Park then ensued. Shores resident Charlie Williams noted that volleyball courts increasingly being set up in the park’s lawn area are “squeezing” park users on busy summer weekends. “Every volleyball court that goes in there shrinks the park,” Williams said, adding “it pushes everybody out into the perimeter, creating danger along Camino Del Oro.” Keane said law enforcement officers ought to be citing people for playing volleyball on the lawn and not on the beach where it’s allowed. That’s the problem, Williams point out. “So many people are down in the Shores right now,” he said. “There are so many rescues happening, lifeguards are saying what is happening in the park is beyond their capability to cite anybody. The reality of it is its expensive to have a police officer in the park. We need a ranger.” Daniel Woods, a Shores resident and professional outdoor adventure photographer, complained “unevenly applied” city regulations banning commercial beach photography have put him out of business. “If you have a friend or family member take you’re portrait on the beach that’s OK,” he said. “But it’s illegal to pay a photographer to take you’re portrait. There’s selective enforcement going on.” Erin Demorest, representing District 1 City Councilwoman Sherri Lightner’s office, briefed LJSA members on progress being made on the new La Jolla Shores lifeguard tower under construction, and on pump Station 27 improvements that will begin soon at Laureate Park. “The (tower) vehicle garage is done and the lower level of the tower itself is being installed,” she said, adding “the sewer pump replacement project will start July 16.” LJSA will not meet in August and the advisory group’s next meeting will be Wednesday, Sept. 8 from 7 to 9 p.m. At T-29 Scripps Institute of Oceanography.