Week in review

What’s in a name?

A lot, if you ask a local group that announced it will lobby the Costa

Mesa City Council to formally change the city’s name to Costa

Mesa-by-the-sea.

Janice Davidson, chairwoman of the Citizens for the Improvement of

Costa Mesa, said the city needs to regain its coastal identify by adding

the suffix. The addition will let people know the city is in essence a

beach town, although it has no oceanfront property, she said.

Mayor Linda Dixon said the city has a fine name and does not expect

support for the change.

Bargain hunters will lose a day of shopping because Costa Mesa

officials discovered the Orange Coast College swap meet has been

violating its agreement with the city.

In May, the weekend campus swap meet will scale back to Sundays only

with about 275 vendors, as agreed upon when initially approved in 1984.

Councilwoman Libby Cowan asked the city to study the swap meet in

November after she noticed an increase in traffic on Fairview Road. The

study found the swap meet to be operating at twice its allowed size.

* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .

High school teacher arrested

A popular math teacher and soccer coach at Corona del Mar High School

was arrested Thursday night for having an alleged sexual relationship

with a student.

John Ronald Evans, 32, of Huntington Beach was charged with having a

sexual encounter with a person under 18 years of age. He posted $50,000

bail and is on paid administrative leave.

Principal Sharon Fry notified the staff on Friday and will have

counselors and pscyhologists available for students when they return from

Spring Break on April 8.

School nurses had their hands full last week as a nasty flu bug has

ravaged some schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, such as

TeWinkle Middle School in Costa Mesa, where a lot of students have been

affected.

The Orange County assessor has decided to wait to see if a property

tax lawsuit becomes a class-action lawsuit before asking a higher court

to review the case. The case is expected to cost the county $285 million

in property tax payments and the school district $11.5 million the first

year, according to a county auditor report. A judge could rule on

class-action status as early as April 25.

* Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .

A bad Back Bay incident

A 54-year-old Newport Beach man remained in critical condition

throughout last week after he was ambushed by a barrage of paint-ball

pellets while in-line skating on Back Bay Drive on March 23.

Gary Holdren fell backward on the street from the impact of the

paint-ball pellets and cracked his head, suffering serious head injury.

Police are still looking for the three young men or teenagers who

witnesses say were firing paint-ball guns from the bluffs.

Friends said Holdren underwent surgery twice and is in a medically

induced coma. Holdren’s girlfriend, colleagues and friends gathered for a

vigil on Back Bay Drive.

Newport Beach fire officials, who treated Holdren on the scene, said

he showed all signs of having suffered severe trauma and brain injury.

Holdren is in critical condition at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo.

* Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .

No more from El Morro

Environmentalists fighting a local assemblyman’s funding bill for the

cottages at Crystal Cove got good news last week.

That assemblyman, Newport Beach representative John Campbell,

announced Wednesday he was dropping the bill.

Assembly Bill 2190 would have raised about $10 million in revenue from

the renters in the trailer park at El Morro Beach to pay for the

restoration of the cottages.

Environmentalists and California State Parks officials opposed the

bill because it would have given the residents a five-year extension of

their leases, in effect keeping private parties on public land.

Campbell said he dropped the bill because the money to fund the

cottages could be raised from Proposition 40, the March 5 bond measure.

* Paul Clinton covers the environment, John Wayne Airport and

politics. He may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

[email protected] .

America’s loss felt at the Bay Club

Locals mourned the loss of two performers who had a special connection

to the city. Both Milton Berle and Dudley Moore had been members of the

Balboa Bay Club in the 1990s, leaving fond memories of fun times.

City Manager Homer Bludau got a $25,000-a-year raise last week. The

council voted unanimously to bring his base salary up from $145,000 to

$170,000.

Friends in Service to Humanity was one of a half-dozen social service

agencies to learn that they will likely get a cut of the city’s community

development block grant funds. Though they won’t get the full $50,000

they asked for, the $38,500 they’re recommended to receive will go a long

way toward feeding the homebound and providing a safety net for those in

danger of homelessness.

No-skateboarding signs in some city parks have prompted Councilman

John Heffernan to ask for a clarification on the city’s new skateboarding

ordinance. The rules prohibit skateboarding in sloping areas in public

parks, but leave unclear whether the sport is allowed in other areas of a

park.

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

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