BUSINESS El Matador gets new owner through...

BUSINESS

El Matador gets new owner through county-run auction

Newport Beach engineer Xavier Bengoechea won a county-managed

auction Thursday to take over El Matador, a Costa Mesa restaurant.

The 33-year-old Bengoechea is a newcomer to the restaurant

business, and he bid $535,000 -- a nest egg he had been saving for a

home -- for El Matador.

El Matador was founded in 1966 by Marcial Gallardo Sr., who died

in 2003. The restaurant was placed in the county’s hands last year

after family troubles led to the removal of the executor of the

founder’s estate. Marcial Gallardo’s sons, Marcial Gallardo Jr. and

George Gallardo, tried to keep the business in the family, but

bidding went to high.

* Real estate data released Monday showed that Orange County home

prices reached a new high in April. The median home price in the

county that month was $576,000, according DataQuick Information

Systems, a company that tracks real estate values. The company

indicated the rate of appreciation appeared to be slowing. April 2005

home prices were 10.1% higher than the same month last year,

representing the lowest year-over-year increase since 2002.

EDUCATION

Pledge drive for Costa Mesa sports venues begins

Costa Mesa United, a citizens group that is seeking to raise money

for a football stadium at Estancia High School and an Olympic-sized

swimming pool at Costa Mesa High School, started a Million Dollar

Memorial Day pledge drive on Monday. All sixth- through 12th-grade

students in Costa Mesa were asked to raise $500 for the project.

* The Newport-Mesa Unified School District sent a letter to

parents of Newport Coast Elementary School students asking for proof

that their children lived within the school’s attendance zone. The

district has considered changing the boundary lines for the school

because of overcrowding problems.

COSTA MESA

Council votes against allowing lights at Kaiser

The Costa Mesa City Council agreed with a decision by the Parks

and Recreation Commission to prohibit portable field lights at Kaiser

Elementary School.

Neighboring residents had complained that the lights were too

bright and that the field wasn’t big enough to handle all the

children involved with American Youth Soccer Organization Club 97. In

a 3-2 decision, the council agreed.

AYSO officials said that without Kaiser, the organization has no

nighttime practice fields in Costa Mesa. And they don’t expect any

other campuses will be willing to step out of the dark to help.

* The Costa Mesa City Council voted Tuesday to send a letter to

President Bush, asking him to enforce the nation’s immigration laws

strictly. Katrina Foley was the lone dissenter, arguing that the

letter was too generic. She said she’d write her own letter.

The letter says the city has experienced more than its share of

problems related to illegal immigration, which the letter said causes

a fiscal drain on the government.

ENVIRONMENT

EPA scraps plan to allow sewage-rainwater mix

On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency axed a proposal

that would have allowed sewer operators to mix rainwater with

partially treated sewage during heavy storms. The idea was intended

to safeguard treatment facilities that use a process called secondary

treatment, which employs microbes to eat solid waste in sewage.

In order to prevent heavy flows from washing away microorganisms,

the proposal would have allowed sewage operators to bypass secondary

treatment and dilute discharges with rainwater. The agency cited the

heavy public response to the proposal when it announced it had

abandoned the idea.

Local environmentalists in the Surfrider Foundation and Defend the

Bay had opposed the plan.