Top 10 stories of the year

At the end of every year, when we take a step back and reflect on the

time that has passed, what sticks out is a dichotomy. The anguish and the

joy. The gloom and bloom. The heartbreak and the heroism.

1999 is no exception.

There were the standard hard news stories -- ones that have spanned the

last decade or more -- such as the fight over an airport at El Toro, the

dilemma of how to pay for Newport-Mesa’s crumbling schools and efforts to

revitalize Costa Mesa’s West Side. And there were the standard good news

stories, such as CIF championships won by Back Bay rivals Newport Harbor

and Corona del Mar high schools.

But the year was also marked by the unexpected. A film festival seemingly

growing and thriving goes bankrupt. Two toddlers, innocently playing in a

preschool sandbox in a quiet residential neighborhood, are run down by a

madman allegedly intent on hurting them. Eric Bechler, who stood crying

on the beach for the loss of his wife more than two years ago, ends up in

jail accused of her murder.

Weighing the highs and the lows, the moments of triumph and of tragedy,

here is the Daily Pilot’s selection of the events in 1999 that helped define our lives in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

1. TRAGEDY ON THE PLAYGROUND

In a year marked by calamities across the nation, Costa Mesa was no

exception.

When a 39-year-old Santa Ana man decided to plow through a day-care

center playground because he reportedly wanted to “kill innocent

children,” no one understood why. No one understands today.

Two children were killed. Another five, including a teacher’s aide, were

injured. No one knew how the school staff and the community would

respond.

In the days following the tragedy, the community rallied around its

fallen and heartbroken families. Flowers, toys and cards rested at the

site where the children were killed. The funerals of 4-year-old Sierra

Soto and 3-year-old Brandon Wiener were painful reminders that at any

time, random violence could strike. No one knew when the grieving would

stop.

The school reopened and the children began to ask questions. They were

kept off the playground for a couple of months as the center’s owners

decided whether to erect a concrete wall.

The wall was built from donated materials but a controversy arose. A

deep-seated resentment that had been brewing for years between neighbors

and the school emerged. Neighbors didn’t want the wall constructed. They

lost their fight. The city granted the school its permits and the wall

protects the grounds.

With all of the pain the children’s families and teachers endured, there

was good that came out of the tragedy. Both of the mothers whose children

died focused their attention to the public arena, trying to enact change.

They want to ensure other children aren’t harmed.

The coming year will bring a new wave of emotions. A plaque will be

dedicated in honor of Sierra and Brandon. The criminal trial of the

driver will begin. In both cases, the victims’ families, teachers, and

children will unwillingly be cast in the spotlight again.

No one knows how they will react.

2. EL TORO

At the start of 1999, the city of Newport Beach -- once on the front

lines of the El Toro airport debate -- was having somewhat of an identity

crisis.

Tom Edwards, the former mayor who helped write the 1985 John Wayne

Airport settlement agreement and was an expert on the issue, had left the

council. The contract was up for the high-paid consulting team the city

had hired the year before. Tensions were high between the city’s

then-airport czar, Peggy Ducey, and a few members of the council -- more

leftovers from the bitter departure of former City Manager Kevin Murphy.

There was a sense that the city could not continue on the path it had

been and be successful in the El Toro fight. All their efforts,

beneficial as they may have been, were being discounted because of the

perceived bias they have being under the flight path of John Wayne.

So they took a new approach. The council disbanded its consulting team,

helped form a new Orange County Airport Alliance with other North County

cities as well as business and labor interests, and began pouring money

into other El Toro advocacy groups such as Citizens for Jobs and the

Economy and the Airport Working Group. The move was not without

criticism, even from recognized airport guru Clarence Turner. But the

council stuck to its guns and Mayor Dennis O’Neil continually defended

the new strategy.

The year has been turbulent, to say the least. South County airport foes

got their measure, the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative, on the

ballot. People on both sides debated the results of flight demonstrations

that took place at El Toro in June. On July 2, the Marine base was closed

-- many hoped for the last time as an airport.

Later that month, Rep. Chris Cox (R-Newport Beach) stirred up some

controversy when he signed the antiairport measure. Things got even more

complicated in September, when yet another El Toro plan emerged as a

possibility. Supervisor Cynthia Coad suggested the airport have the same

nighttime and noise restrictions as John Wayne and that it be limited to

18 million annual passengers until a future board decides otherwise.

Just recently, airport boosters got quite a scare when they were almost

denied the right to put a counter-argument on the ballot for the Safe and

Healthy Communities Initiative.

1999 was supposed to be the year of El Toro. While that may be true, it’s

clear that the story hasn’t ended yet.

3. CRUMBLING SCHOOLS

It is a struggle that has consumed the time of many in the Newport-Mesa

Unified School District during the past year. How much will it cost to

repair the district’s classrooms and facilities?

When district officials began looking at the deteriorating schools, the

number on the tip of everyone’s tongue was $15 million. School board

member Dana Black shocked the community when she predicted it would be

closer to $100 million.

Then in February, architect Fred Good validated her theory when he

announced the initial estimate of the schools’ infrastructural repairs

would be between $75 and $112 million.

Good found that 1.8 million square feet of the district’s buildings were

in need of repair.

Over the next several months, the consultant and district officials

scrutinized the schools, walking each campus and checking every nook and

cranny in an effort to determine what needed to be done.

In June, the long-awaited Facilities Master Plan was presented. The total

cost to repair and modernize the crumbling schools would cost about $127

million -- a number that elicited yet another collective gasp from the

community.

But reports had come back of rotting ceilings, leaky roofs, tangled and

aging wiring and classrooms that were in every imaginable state of

disrepair.

Things were so bad at some schools, namely Ensign Intermediate, that

district officials predicted it might be cheaper to simply tear the

building down and start from scratch.

Determined to present an impeccable plan as a means of garnering

community support, the district then assembled a facilities committee

made up of local business and community leaders.

The committee was charged with reviewing and revising the plan. Based on

the changes made by the committee, Good presented the most recent

estimate in November. The number now on the table is $163 million.

As the year comes to a close, committee members have held once again what

they believe to be their final meeting. They will present the board with

their recommendations at the first meeting of the new year.

4. TRIANGLE SQUARE

One year ago, the Triangle Square shopping center was in danger of

becoming a black hole.

“A year ago, with all the vacancies, Triangle Square was becoming a dead

zone in the downtown area,” said Ed Fawcett, president of the Costa Mesa

Chamber of Commerce. “Instead, it should be a key point drawing people

downtown. I think it’s heading in that direction. It’s bringing a new

vibrancy.”

Several major tenants who felt the previous owner was slow to make

repairs and improvements moved out in 1997.

But in 1998, CGM bought the shopping/entertainment center and began to

turn it around. Triangle Square general manager Tom Estes said his

company spent more than $150,000 on new seating and canopies at the food

court. Local musicians now perform there almost daily.

In 1999, gourmet market Whole Foods moved into the center immediately

after Ralph’s supermarket left, satisfying the Newport-Mesa need for

organic produce and vitamins.

The Yard House, a brew pub with 180 beers on tap and an eclectic food

menu, settled into the center’s top level. That’s Aroma, a quieter

Italian restaurant, also joined the party in August.

“They’re all doing really well and seem to be what the market wanted,”

Estes said.

Fawcett said the new additions, along with Orange County’s only Niketown

athletic clothing superstore, have made the center a destination for

shoppers from all over the area. The Edwards Cinemas, food court and

other stores have attracted good business from local residents, he added.

5. ERIC BECHLER

A young, seemingly happy couple go on a boating trip to celebrate their

wedding anniversary. Only one of them comes back with the boat. The other

has mysteriously vanished.

More than two years after Eric and Pegye Bechler took that fateful trip

off the Newport Beach coast, authorities pressed murder charges against

Bechler, the father of three children. They suspect he hit his wife on

the head with a dumbbell and then dumped the weighted body overboard.

Eric Bechler maintains he was thrown underwater by a big wave while

bodyboarding behind the boat. He told authorities his wife may have hit

her head on the side of the vessel and drowned, even though she was an

accomplished triathlete.

Pegye’s body was never found.

Authorities said the motive was financial gain. A life insurance policy

worth $2.5 million was taken out in his wife’s name, although Bechler

would never receive the death certificate required for him to collect on

it. However, the couple had mutual policies for reportedly the same

amount.

What led to the arrest was the cooperation of Bechler’s girlfriend, who

moved in with him several months after his wife’s disappearance. The

girlfriend wore a recording device that reportedly has Eric Bechler

making incriminating statements in connection with his wife’s death.

Whether Eric Bechler is guilty remains to be seen.

His trial is scheduled for February.

6. RITALIN ABUSE

It was a reality that no parents wanted to believe could be true.

First came the news that the girls from Corona del Mar High School had

been stopped at the Tijuana border crossing, trying to bring in boxes and

boxes of contraband Ritalin. The girls crushed and snorted the

amphetamine-like substance as a way to kill their appetites and boost

their metabolism.

Then came one student’s informal survey, which revealed up to half the

girls in the class of 1999 had tried the drug.

The Daily Pilot asked around, and a story of a dangerous obsession

emerged. Many, many girls in one of America’s richest communities were

deliberately starving themselves in a quest to be thin.

Students weighed in with their own harrowing tales of worrying as their

friends refused to eat.

Other girls came forward with their own stories of meals skipped,

calories counted, and miles and miles of pavement pounded by skeletal

legs in an effort to lose weight.

It became clear that Corona del Mar High School had a huge problem with

eating disorders -- one that many at the school seemed reluctant to

publicly confront.

School officials originally dismissed it as one affecting only a few

girls, but later pledged to do everything in their power to confront the

problem.

In the last four months, the school community has started programs that

take a serious look at what high school students are dealing with and has

tried to involve parents in those programs.

The Corona del Mar PTA has formed a school culture committee to address

the issues that are part of high school life. They started parent

grade-level coffees where school counselors and psychologists speak to

them about the problems facing their children. School officials hope by

involving parents, the problems will never reach the levels seen this

year at Corona del Mar High School.

7. THE WEST SIDE

This was the year the city learned it couldn’t plan to improve a

community without first asking its residents for input.

In 1998, the city hired consultants to develop a plan to help the

neighborhood -- which is characterized by an odd patchwork of industry,

homes and commercial zones -- improve its deteriorating streets, sewers

and traffic problems.

But once planners started scribbling, several leaders of local community

groups said the city hadn’t asked for feedback from the neighborhood’s

largely Latino population.

City planners distributed 500 fliers, printed in English and Spanish,

inviting residents to participate in workshops to help devise a more

inclusive plan.

But Latino community members were not quick to speak up.

Only 35 residents came to two open discussions in February. Organizers

canceled one meeting, which was to be held in Spanish, because of poor

attendance. And only a handful of Latino residents came to the city’s

first Planning Fair that same month.

Many of those who came said it wasn’t easy for part of the population,

which felt it was ignored by the city for so long, to finally speak their

minds.

“We are a shy community,” said Leticia Hermann, who attended the February

meetings.

In September, the city formed the Latino Community Advisors, which

comprises residents, business owners and activists, to study the

community’s needs and pass them on to the City Council.

The coalition is scheduled to present its report and proposal to the

council on Jan. 3.

8. NEWPORT BEACH FILM FESTIVAL

It came as a surprise to the very people who kept it afloat. The Newport

Beach International Film Festival, just coming into its own as a premier

cultural event in Newport Beach, ended abruptly in a Santa Ana courtroom

as the leader of the 4-year-old festival filed for bankruptcy.

It was Sept. 1 when Jeffrey S. Conner, a former real estate developer,

quietly filed Chapter 7 in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court, listing a broken-down

Porsche and household items as his only assets. A list of creditors

looking for $200,000 in back payments claimed that Conner had mismanaged

the festival.

The news sent shock waves through the army of volunteers responsible for

launching the festival, including its spokesman, Todd Quatararo, who

learned of the festival’s demise from the Daily Pilot. Then, just as

quietly, Conner slipped out of sight.

The film festival’s budget had been raised mainly from corporate

sponsorship. And with a lack of community support, the festival was

almost doomed to fail.

Then in mid-October, a group of local business owners and educators

formed to take over the fallen fest, streamlining it to eight days with a

$100,000 budget. Led by Gregg Schwenk, the nine-member group also

includes a member of the Newport Beach Conference and Visitors bureau and

a film professor from Chapman University.

On Dec. 13, festival volunteers received even better news. The Newport

Beach City Council voted to help the newly revived festival, kicking in

$7,000 to help with start-up costs.

The new event will include international features, shorts, documentaries

and animations. New to the festival will be seminars with noted actors

and directors and sessions with filmmakers. With any luck, it may even

have an office with a phone.

This time around, with local support, the Newport Beach International

Film Festival should put the city back on the map as a place to view

fresh, independent films in the backdrop of the bay.

The festival is scheduled to start March 30.

9. PERFORMING ARTS CENTER EXPANSION

The Orange County Performing Arts Center announced at the beginning of

the year that it was going to expand exponentially.

The growth plan includes a smaller music hall, a new visual arts center,

an expansion of South Coast Repertory and a central plaza.

The first step is building the hall that will seat 1,800 when completed.

It will be designed by Plaza Tower architect Cesar Pelli and acoustics

expert Russell Johnson, and will be built on six acres of land donated by

the Segerstrom family.

While the hall’s cost was initially estimated at $100 million, that

figure ballooned to $200 million by summer. Outgoing board chairman Mark

Chapin Johnson assured the center’s members that the figure was

“rational” and “well thought out.” Johnson is serving as the volunteer

leader of the Capital Fund Campaign for the Expansion.

The center operates with no government support and boasts a $20-million

endowment fund. A significant amount of effort is going into increasing

this in order to fund the expansion. Earlier this year, the center ended

the financial year in the black, but increased its endowment by $1

million.

Total cash contributions in the last five years have totaled $34.3

million, of which $8.4 million was donated by board members alone.

10. CIF CHAMPIONSHIPS

Athletic competition between Back Bay rival high schools Corona del Mar

and Newport Harbor isn’t restricted to the playing field.

In this ongoing cross-town clash -- one of Orange County’s best prep

rivalries -- bragging rights can be claimed by measure of comparison.

When it comes to CIF Southern Section and CIF State championships in

1999, however, neither school gets the edge.

Newport Harbor and CdM evenly split the 10 CIF titles won by Newport-Mesa

schools during the year.

More than half of the haul occurred recently, as Newport Harbor girls

volleyball, CdM girls cross country, Newport Harbor football and CdM boys

water polo combined to collect six championships.

Newport girls volleyball was a double winner, earning both the section

Division I-AA and the state Division I titles.

CdM girls cross country also pulled off the section and state double in

Division IV.

CdM baseball won the section Division IV crown in dramatic fashion June 5

at Edison Field, while Harbor boys volleyball claimed the section

Division I title by defeating CdM in the title match at Cypress College

last spring.

CdM boys tennis won the section Division I title last spring, while

Newport girls water polo earned the section Division I crown to represent

the winter sports.