BUSINESS El Matador gets new owner through...
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BUSINESS
El Matador gets new owner through county-run auction
Newport Beach engineer Xavier Bengoechea won a county-managed
auction Thursday to take over El Matador, a Costa Mesa restaurant.
The 33-year-old Bengoechea is a newcomer to the restaurant
business, and he bid $535,000 -- a nest egg he had been saving for a
home -- for El Matador.
El Matador was founded in 1966 by Marcial Gallardo Sr., who died
in 2003. The restaurant was placed in the county’s hands last year
after family troubles led to the removal of the executor of the
founder’s estate. Marcial Gallardo’s sons, Marcial Gallardo Jr. and
George Gallardo, tried to keep the business in the family, but
bidding went to high.
* Real estate data released Monday showed that Orange County home
prices reached a new high in April. The median home price in the
county that month was $576,000, according DataQuick Information
Systems, a company that tracks real estate values. The company
indicated the rate of appreciation appeared to be slowing. April 2005
home prices were 10.1% higher than the same month last year,
representing the lowest year-over-year increase since 2002.
EDUCATION
Pledge drive for Costa Mesa sports venues begins
Costa Mesa United, a citizens group that is seeking to raise money
for a football stadium at Estancia High School and an Olympic-sized
swimming pool at Costa Mesa High School, started a Million Dollar
Memorial Day pledge drive on Monday. All sixth- through 12th-grade
students in Costa Mesa were asked to raise $500 for the project.
* The Newport-Mesa Unified School District sent a letter to
parents of Newport Coast Elementary School students asking for proof
that their children lived within the school’s attendance zone. The
district has considered changing the boundary lines for the school
because of overcrowding problems.
COSTA MESA
Council votes against allowing lights at Kaiser
The Costa Mesa City Council agreed with a decision by the Parks
and Recreation Commission to prohibit portable field lights at Kaiser
Elementary School.
Neighboring residents had complained that the lights were too
bright and that the field wasn’t big enough to handle all the
children involved with American Youth Soccer Organization Club 97. In
a 3-2 decision, the council agreed.
AYSO officials said that without Kaiser, the organization has no
nighttime practice fields in Costa Mesa. And they don’t expect any
other campuses will be willing to step out of the dark to help.
* The Costa Mesa City Council voted Tuesday to send a letter to
President Bush, asking him to enforce the nation’s immigration laws
strictly. Katrina Foley was the lone dissenter, arguing that the
letter was too generic. She said she’d write her own letter.
The letter says the city has experienced more than its share of
problems related to illegal immigration, which the letter said causes
a fiscal drain on the government.
ENVIRONMENT
EPA scraps plan to allow sewage-rainwater mix
On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency axed a proposal
that would have allowed sewer operators to mix rainwater with
partially treated sewage during heavy storms. The idea was intended
to safeguard treatment facilities that use a process called secondary
treatment, which employs microbes to eat solid waste in sewage.
In order to prevent heavy flows from washing away microorganisms,
the proposal would have allowed sewage operators to bypass secondary
treatment and dilute discharges with rainwater. The agency cited the
heavy public response to the proposal when it announced it had
abandoned the idea.
Local environmentalists in the Surfrider Foundation and Defend the
Bay had opposed the plan.
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