The week in review

It’s been postponed again and again. Last September, Michele Roberge,

the executive director of the Balboa Performing Arts Theater Foundation,

had hoped to break ground on the theater’s renovation project within a

few weeks. But getting everything figured out with the city pushed the

starting date further into the future.

Now, the big event is finally scheduled for May 22, and Roberge and

Dayna Pettit, the foundation’s president, said they’ll give Newport Beach

residents a ceremony unlike any they’ve seen before.

The two women are still secretive about what’s going to happen, but

said last week that the event will include a bulldozer ballet.

So far, $2.5 million has been collected for the 350-seat theater, but

another $4 million is needed to finish renovations and pay for the

theater’s first year of operations.

The folks down on the peninsula are more than glad to accept

donations. Information: (949) 673-0895.

Not quite closed yet

The sale of the Pacific Federal Savings Plaza was postponed last week,

while the City Council on Monday gave final approvals to parts of the

Town Center project that were in the works for months.

Pasadena-based Hudson Properties LLC planned to close the deal on the

Spanish-style building, which has been empty for almost a decade,

Wednesday.

The escrow is now scheduled to close on or by March 30.

The mostly-approved Town Center project will transform South Coast

Metro into a pedestrian-oriented cultural arts district. The council will

consider the final part of the project March 19.

On another side of town, the East 17th Street Ad Hoc Committee on

Tuesday recommended the city adopt a four-lane plan for the street, with

bus turnouts, left and right turn lanes and a new traffic signal.

The committee, which had been meeting every month for more than a year

to study ways to improve the street, chose a plan that would make it more

difficult to convert the street to six lanes.

The committee is in disagreement with city staff, however, which is

recommending a similar plan -- but one that would make it easier to

convert the street to six lanes.

A statment of principles

Environmentalists scored a major victory last week at Crystal Cove

when the Irvine Co. agreed to a plan that would more effectively dispose

of runoff from a 635-home development.

While that deal was announced Thursday, Crystal Cove was in the news

earlier in the week when those very same environmentalists articulated

their vision for development Crystal Cove State Park in a “statement of

principles” Monday.

The groups have asked the state parks department to speed up the

buyout of an unpopular resort developer, begin public workshops for a new

project and install only piecemeal improvements to the aging septic tanks

under the 46 cottages.

Reactions quiet to Santee shooting

It was a rather somber week in Newport-Mesa schools following the high

school shooting in Santee, Calif., on Monday.

School district officials hastily attempted to assure parents and the

community that, while it is possible for these tragedies to strike

anywhere, they were doing all they could to prevent it from happening

here.

It also spawned classroom discussions not on the districts “emergency

plan” but on what students need that they are not getting.

A Newport Harbor High School teacher commented to one of his classes

last week that the most striking thing was that the school community in

Santee was not much different from that of Newport-Mesa. And Santana High

School, at least outwardly, was not too different from Newport Harbor.

The brutal slaying of two students and wounding of more than a dozen

more had everyone on edge and more determined than ever to stick with the

new idea of zero-tolerance for bullying and intimidation.

Accidents leave officers busy

Despite the rain stopping for the most part last week, Tuesday and

Wednesday were full of accidents, including one fatality.

Tuesday night, Newport Beach resident Christina Rodriguez, 45, was

thrown from the sport-utility vehicle after she lost control of it in

Irvine.

That was just the worst of a handful of accidents, including one in

which a Newport Beach man crashed his blue Chevy Blazer into the Pine

Knot Hotel on West Coast Highway.

-- Deepa Bharath covers cops and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at [email protected].