WEEK IN REVIEW

A roundup of the week’s events in Newport-Mesa.

Paradise lost?

Time is running out for those living in the cottages at Crystal Cove

State Park Beach.

The state parks department dealt residents there some harsh news

Wednesday, when a spokesman confirmed the agency would mail out eviction

notices Feb. 15.

The state -- facing a two-year deadline imposed by the Santa Ana

Regional Water Control Board -- wants to replace the septic tanks

underneath the 46 cottages. The tanks, which are probably leaking into

the cove, would be replaced by a sewer system.

As the residents brace for the notices, the state parks department has

started to reassess its endorsement of a San Francisco developer’s plan

to build a $35-million resort on the state land.

On Thursday, that developer, Michael Freed, said he would push ahead

with the resort, even after being screamed at by many of the hundreds of

locals who showed up at a Jan. 18 state informational meeting.

Fire prevention

In Newport Beach, City Council members might have dressed casually for

their retreat Jan. 27, but by discussing topics ranging from annexation

to the city’s financial status, elected officials laid the ground work

for more detailed discussions in weeks to come.

One immediate result of the daylong event was City Manager Homer

Bludau’s decision to put up a few firemen at the Radisson hotel. After a

county fire station near John Wayne Airport caught fire in December,

emergency response times dropped below standard. Bludau felt the

makeshift fire station would alleviate the problem for the time being.

Since Monday, the city’s fire fighters have been busy responding to

calls in the airport area and Santa Ana Heights. They’ve also been taking

their engine on “familiarization tours” around the heights, an

unincorporated neighborhood readying itself to be annexed by Newport

Beach next year.

In other news, financial campaign statements finally revealed Thursday

that last November’s Greenlight election battle will be remembered as the

most expensive in the city’s history. Opponents of the victorious

slow-growth initiative spent more than $720,000 to defeat the measure. By

comparison, Greenlight supporters put about around $97,000 to lead their

mission to success.

Lights out

It might have seemed natural to blame the state’s power crisis for the

short, dark day at TeWinkle Middle School in Costa Mesa, but it was an

old culprit -- a blown transformer -- that had the lights out Thursday.

After trying some creative teaching techniques, school officials gave in

and called it a day around 10:45 a.m. when it became clear the lights

weren’t about to come back on.

TeWinkle’s mini-crisis wasn’t the only one at Newport-Mesa schools. An

alarm clock inside a Newport Harbor High locker alarmed enough people to

call in the Orange County Sheriff’s bomb squad, just in case.

Unlike at TeWinkle, however, the Newport Harbor excitement happened at

the end of the day -- so not much class time was missed.

And in a rain of riches, it turns out that 19 Newport-Mesa schools

will be getting a little extra dough for doing well on state tests. The

money, ranging from about $23,000 at Sonora Elementary to a staggering

$105,000 at Corona del Mar High, will pay for campus improvements.

Guilty as charged

A shocking verdict and a lot of guns sum up crime and court action in

the community this week.

Eric Bechler, the handsome volleyball player from Newport Heights, was

found guilty of first-degree murder Thursday for killing his 38-year-old

wife, Pegye, during an anniversary boating excursion three years ago. Her

body is still missing.

The six week, high-profile trial saw the unfurling of a grisly murder

story spiced with sex, greed, lust and betrayal.

The sensational trial, which even featured Bechler testifying in his

defense, was followed closely by members of the media as well as eager

court watchers from Newport Beach. Family members of Eric and Pegye

Bechler and the media lined the corridors of the Superior Court in Santa

Ana as they waited seven days for the jurors’ verdict.

In Costa Mesa, Newport Beach police detectives confiscated 20 guns, 11

of them assault rifles, and five pounds of marijuana from a home on

Crestmont Place. Most of the weapons didn’t have required licenses or

registration, officials said.

A cold send-off

The week began in Costa Mesa with the end of the Ice Chalet era.

The ice skating rink, which for nearly 30 years was a training ground

for Olympic ice skaters, closed its doors Sunday to the sound of dozens

of crying community members.

Parents are trying to find a way to open a new rink at the same Harbor

Boulevard location.

Also on Harbor Boulevard, the Orange Coast car dealership announced it

purchased the Chrysler-Plymouth line from another Harbor Boulevard

business -- the Atlas dealership.

The new names to look for are Orange Coast Jeep Chrysler-Plymouth

Isuzu and Atlas Dodge.

Orange Coast also announced that a new president, Jon Gray, has taken

over the business from his father, Gary Gray.

In other parts of the city, homeowners associations decided to present

a united front to oppose C.J. Segerstrom & Sons’ revised Home Ranch

proposal.

The associations -- Mesa North Community Assn., Halecrest/Hall of Fame

Homeowners Assn., Mesa Del Mar Homeowners Assn. and Mesa Verde Community

Inc. -- want the city to restrict the project to basic city limits.

The Home Ranch proposal would contain a 17-acre Ikea furniture store,

950,000 square feet of office space and 464 homes.

Residents will get a chance to sound off on the issue Feb. 12, when

the Planning Commission holds a public hearing.