Getting the new place in order

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- City officials want to be sure they don’t inherit any

problems left by the county -- such as debris-filled storm-drain catch

basins -- when the city annexes Newport Coast on Tuesday.

A preliminary survey of the maintenance needs of Newport Coast shows

that many of the area’s 333 catch basins are filled with debris and in

need of immediate attention. Dave Niederhaus, the city’s general services

director, said he’s optimistic the county will cooperate, ultimately

bequeathing clean catch basins to the city.

“We’ve been doing initial inspections of these types of things for the

last three months,” Niederhaus said. “We’ve conveyed the discrepancies to

the county, and we have every reason to believe they’ll do what needs to

be done.”

High levels of construction activity in the up-and-coming area are

responsible for most of the debris, he said, noting that lumber and other

building materials have accumulated in the basins. The good news is they

were caught before they got to the ocean. The bad news is the rainy

season is coming. Unless the storm basins are cleaned by late January,

they could end up polluting the ocean or flooding the neighborhoods.

And storm drains represent just a small portion of the work Newport

Beach staff must do to get the area ready for city services at the start

of the year. As a result, Niederhaussaid, residents are going to see a

lot of changes.

Signs will soon go up telling area residents that their streets, which

had been swept once a month, will now be swept once a week, probably

Thursdays or Fridays. City tree-trimming crews will be on site, along

with workers repairing sidewalks and street potholes.

“We want to convey to the residents that they’re going to be getting

very good service from the city, probably the best service they’ve seen,”

said Niederhaus, whose department will be handling almost all new

services to the area except public safety provided by the fire and police

departments. A welcome letter from the city to the community’s residents

should arrive in time to announce the change.

But this will be just the beginning of the city’s newly expanded

family. Council members will probably vote on Jan. 8 to create a Newport

Coast Advisory Committee to help navigate some of the murkier issues,

such as whether to build a community center, issues about parks and

differences of opinion on airport expansion.

“I think the real test is going to be: Who will the city appoint to

that committee?” said Phillip Greer, a resident in the now-unincorporated

community who’s lobbying to see himself or another member of his Simple

Vote group get appointed. His group opposes many of the positions of the

Committee of 2000, which has represented Newport Coast to the city so

far.

“They need to consider a diversity of opinions,” Greer said. “We need

representative input from the community.”

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .