McFadden parking meters to accept dollar coins

Hoping that the new U.S. dollar coins will catch on, the city of

Newport Beach is converting its parking meters to accept them. Parking

meters in the lots at McFadden Square will be converted to accept dollar

coins and one of the two bill-changing machines will be changed over to

give out the coins in return for bills.

City staff has not announced the date that the change will be in

effect, but hope to make the change soon. Because the coins are in larger

denominations than the quarters, dimes and nickels now accepted at the

meters, city workers won’t have to collect them as often. The dollar

coins will also reduce the volume of coins that have to be transported

and counted.

The U.S. dollar coins, authorized by President Clinton in 1997, went

into circulation on Jan. 28, 2000. Sixteen U.S. cities have already

converted their municipal parking meters to accept the new dollar coins.

They are: New York; Dallas; Cincinnati; Albany, NY; Chicago; Fort Worth,

Texas; Portland, Ore.; Wilmington, Del.; Philadelphia; Minneapolis;

Pittsburgh; Toledo, Ohio; San Francisco; St. Paul, Minn.; New Orleans;

and Baltimore, Md.

Jones Cup set for July 26 at Big Canyon

Spectators are invited to enjoy the show as four of the county’s top

amateur golfers vie for the Jones Cup on July 26. The Jones Cup,

sponsored in part by Fletcher Jones Motorcars, will be held at the Big

Canyon Country Club, 1 Big Canyon Drive, Newport Beach. The event begins

at 1 p.m.

The Jones Cup is a competition between four two-man teams from private

country clubs in Orange County. In addition to the 18-hole championship

round of golf, there will also be a hole-in-one competition that will

offer the competitors a chance to win a 2003 Mercedes Benz C230.

Information: (949) 718-3000 or fjmercedes.com.

Newport eye doctor has winning paper

Newport Beach ophthalmologist and refractive surgeon Richard A. Weiss

won “Best Paper of Session” at a June 4 symposium for his paper on

refractive surgery. The paper, titled “Weiss Vertexometer to Measure

Vertex Distance at the Phoropter Before Refractive Surgery” won the honor

at the national meeting of the American Society of Cataract and

Refractive Surgery in Philadelphia last month.

Weiss, along with co-inventor Bo Clawson also of Newport Beach,

invented the Weiss Vertexometer to help make LASIK eye surgery and other

procedures more accurate.