Mailbag - Feb. 22, 2000

Resident applauds Dunes project

As a professional event planner in Orange County and an Eastbluff

resident, I applaud the Newport Dunes plan to build a landmark hotel on

property that is already a recreational center for Newport Beach and the

surrounding community. It will be a splendid facility for charitable

events, weddings, anniversaries, luncheons and gatherings of all kinds

for everyone in Newport and beyond, and will support jobs and businesses

throughout the area year-round.

There is a real need for the planned 50,000 square feet of conference and

meeting space for major events in Newport. This facility will serve

events that originate locally, like the Speak Up Newport Mayor’s dinner

and Hoag Hospital fund-raisers, and will bring to Newport significant

county and statewide events that can now be accommodated only in the

larger hotels in Anaheim or Los Angeles.

I have worked with the Dunes on a recent major charitable fund-raising

event, and was impressed by the concern of Tim Quinn and all the Dunes

staff for making it a success, including their generous financial

support. I am convinced of the Dunes’ commitment to maintain the highest

quality of life in Newport Beach by addressing specific traffic and

environmental issues related to the hotel project and taking appropriate

action to mitigate any adverse impacts.

The Dunes has been a good neighbor for many years, and I am confident it

is the intent of the Evans family to continue doing so.

SHARON A. ESTERLEY

Newport Beach

Taxpayers should not pay for school repairs

The current Newport-Mesa school board is obviously either listening to

your paper’s published letters to the editor or following the reins of a

hired consultant.

Case in point: Personally, we have campaigned and attacked the current

zero-tolerance school district policy.

Term limits: we bring the issue to light and all of a sudden we see that

our current school district leaders, not necessarily board members, are

not considering limits for board members. But only if we can tax and bond

our community for $150-plus million in repairs to local schools.

It would seem a nice bait tactic for taxpayers to consider. Hardly a

reason for our community to endure this school district managing millions

of dollars in bond money when the track record and no proof of a better

record merits such consideration.

Currently, a group called For Our Students United, is forming to oppose

this bond proposal. The vast majority of citizens in the Newport-Mesa

community do not deserve taxes as a result of this district’s miscues.

The solution is management technique.

Each school and needed repairs must be made public to the private sector.

Free enterprise zones and sponsorship zones for the needed repairs need

to be established.

Term limits are fine. But, as a final challenge to the Daily Pilot, in

the last 20 years, we ask your paper to document City Council elections

and school district elections in both Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

We ask for you, on a percentage basis, to let the public know how many

times your publication has endorsed an incumbent for an elected office.

Then, we ask that you provide, in dollars and cents, the value of that

endorsement based upon going advertising rates for the space that you

give for that endorsement. In summary, the entrenched remain entrenched

because challengers are not on equal footing because of campaign elements

they cannot control. BRIAN K. THERIOT

Costa Mesa

* Editor’s note: Theriot ran unsuccessfully for the school board in 1996.

Parent worries about sending children to Newport Coast school

The recent articles and commentaries concerning the new school concern me

on a number of levels.

First, and foremost, I am a parent of second- and fourth-graders who are

scheduled to attend the new school.

Second, I drive on Newport Coast Drive every school day at about the time

school would start.

Third, I am a taxpayer who lives in Newport Coast.Fourth, I am a business

litigation attorney who has both defended and prosecuted actions

involving personal injury victims.

The above combination leads me to believe that opening the new school

without making appropriate plans to protect the safety of the children

attending the school would be the equivalent of playing Russian roulette

with six people. The question is not if, but when, the first student gets

struck by a car.

I do not need a fancy traffic study to tell me that cars speed up and

down Newport Coast Drive in excess of 60 miles per hour.

I do not need a traffic consultant to tell me that school zone signs,

crossing guards, reduced speed limits and flashing lights will not slow

down every car enough to avert the pending tragedy.

I do not need a medical degree to tell me that the parents of the injured

or dead student will suffer an irreplaceable loss.

I do not need my law degree to tell me that there will be an expensive

lawsuit against the school district, the city, the county, the Irvine Co.

and others, which will lead to the payment of millions of dollars from

those entities, which knew about this design defect and failed to comply

with their duty to protect the children of Newport Coast from a know

danger.

I do not need a construction background to determine how much the two

footbridges over Newport Coast Drive and San Joaquin Hills road would

cost. It will cost less than the life of one child.

I do not need a political science degree to figure out the community

feelings about this issue and the backlash, which will happen after the

first injury.

I, and other concerned parents, will explore each and every avenue

possible to protect our children, including not sending them to the new

school, unless and until corrective measures are taken to eliminate the

risk to our precious kids.

STEVEN A. FINK

Newport Coast

Smith gets support for his airport views

I am writing in support of Steve Smith’s last two columns in which he

eloquently states the conflict we all should be experiencing regarding

the idea of a large international, 24-hour-a-day airport in our community

we call Orange County. I firmly believe that we will cause a death spiral

for the Orange County quality of life if we place this airport at El Toro

or expand the John Wayne Airport. (John Wayne Airport is already handling

planes it was never intended to support. The runway is too short and

physical plant is exceedingly limited.)

We, Orange County residents, must decide to accept the inconvenience of

an airport outside our county, like Ontario, if we are to keep our

community healthy and attractive.

If Silicon Valley can remain prosperous with the limited airport at San

Jose, so can Orange County.

BILL JORTH

Costa Mesa