2 longtime Newport Beach staffers retire...

2 longtime Newport Beach staffers retire

Two longtime staffers of Newport Beach’s Harbor Resources

Department have announced they will retire.

Tony Melum, director of the department and a city staff member for

25 years, and Wes Armand, harbor inspector with the city for 18

years, have announced separately that they will retire.

Melum may continue to work with the city as a consultant,

Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said.

As head of the department, Melum’s has overseen the city’s most

valuable resource: Newport Harbor. Like Melum, Armand’s work as

inspector required him to be out on the harbor most of the time.

“Tony and Wes are institutions around Newport Beach,” said Kiff,

who was supervisor to Melum and Armand. “They’ll join a growing

alumni team of past city workers who stay involved and stay

interested in this city for as long as good health allows them to do

so, so just because they leave our employment doesn’t mean we lose

their knowledge, talents and commitment to the Harbor. I wish them

the best and will miss them.”

Melum and Armand declined to be interviewed.

-- June Casagrande

Clean air program earns award

ZEV*NET, a shared-use car program at UC Irvine has won a Blue Sky

Merit Award, marking the second time this year that the program has

been lauded for its efforts to address two major challenges facing

Southern California: traffic congestion and air quality.

ZEV*NET was one of four organizations chosen this year for the

award, which recognizes outstanding marketplace contributions to

advanced, sustainable transportation. The award was presented Nov. 7

at the Skirball Cultural Center in West Los Angeles by

WestStart-CALSTART, an advanced transportation technologies

consortium based in Pasadena.

The program combines rail and zero- and low-emission vehicles in a

far-reaching initiative led by UCI’s National Fuel Cell Research

Center and Institute of Transportation Studies, both affiliated with

the Henry Samueli School of Engineering.

The goal of the pilot program is to use today’s emerging

technologies -- zero- and low-emission vehicles, stationary fuel

cells, advanced communication and global positioning technologies and

the Internet -- to solve complex problems such as traffic congestion,

air pollution and oil dependency.

In September, ZEV*NET won the 2002 Transportation Excellence Award

from the Orange County Transportation Authority. For more information

about ZEV*NET, visit www.zevnet.org.