INSIDE CITY HALL Here are some decisions...

INSIDE CITY HALL

Here are some decisions coming out of Tuesday’s City Council

meeting.

TASTE OF NEWPORT GRANTS

Once again, this year’s annual Taste of Newport Festival was a

success and, once again, festival organizers are passing on their

good fortune. Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce President Richard

Luehrs handed out Taste of Newport Grant checks totaling $28,000 to

local charities. Recipients were: Balboa Performing Theater

Foundation; city of Newport Beach July 4th Fireworks; Girl Scout

Council of Orange County; Human Options Inc.; Leadership Tomorrow;

Los Angeles Times in Education; Newport Beach Film Festival;

Newport-Mesa Schools Foundation; and Share Our Selves.

BACK BAY SCIENCE CENTER

City Council members on Tuesday agreed to enter into an agreement

with the California Department of Fish and Game and the county of

Orange to operate the Back Bay Science Center at Shellmaker Island.

Plans call for a multipurpose facility centered around water quality

and located near the Newport Dunes. The center will include a

water-quality laboratory; facilities for workers for the Department

of Fish and Game to help manage the Upper Newport Bay Ecological

Reserve; and space and exhibits for water-quality education and

research and a wetland restoration area.

WHAT IT MEANS

Though the contract is just one of many steps required to see the

project through to completion, it’s an important one. The whole idea

of the center is to serve multiple agencies that share the goal of

improving and preserving local water quality.

WATER QUALITY COMMITTEE

The Back Bay Science Center wasn’t the only water-quality-related

item before council members on Tuesday. In what they hope will

further boost local water quality, council members agreed to add a

third appointee from the council to the city’s Coastal/Bay Water

Quality Citizens Advisory Committee.

WHAT IT MEANS

Council members supported Mayor Steve Bromberg’s nomination of

Councilman Steve Rosansky to the committee. He will join Tod Ridgeway

and Don Webb; Webb recently took Bromberg’s seat on the committee,

which governs and guides water policy.

WHAT THEY SAID

“I think every council member should serve on that committee,”

Bromberg said.

-- Compiled by June Casagrande