Father deserves praise for choices The letter...

Father deserves

praise for choices

The letter about the Davis Dozen was very touching (“What Scott

did,” Sunday). As very few of us have the will to participate in such

a worthy and needed cause, Scott and his wife deserve the most

sincere appreciation from all of us. We need more people like them.

BOB ROSENAST

Newport Beach

Council decisions

need to be in open

I believe residents of Costa Mesa should know more about the Brown

Act that Councilwoman Linda Dixon claims was violated (“Dixon alleges

violation of law,” Saturday). Decisions should not be made in the

study sessions beforehand. They should be discussed in the City

Council chambers, and I think Councilman Gary Monahan is out of

place, talking about the ladies being Democrat-liberals. The council

is not political; we’re not supposed to know about parties, and I

think the three men are wrong.

ANNE SHERESHEVSKY

Costa Mesa

Tsunami alerts

were ineffective

I live on Balboa Peninsula, and I’d like to tell you that the

tsunami warnings were extremely ineffective, because I was watching

the Angels game on the television at the time. There was never

anything that came across the television screen, and I never would

have known had my neighbor not come over and knocked on my door and

asked if I was leaving.

The people next door had knocked on her door, and they were

leaving immediately. So I put on a different station, and only on a

couple of major news stations was there anything at all. So, it was

quite difficult to decide at that moment what to do. And then one of

our neighbors in the next block came running through the alley and

said he had just called the Newport Beach Police Department and they

said evacuate the peninsula immediately. Half the people were gone

already, so I feel that something should be done immediately to make

a situation in which authorities know what they’re doing. Before we

spend millions on our City Hall, I think we should spend some money

on getting a response system in place, so at the drop of a hat,

things will go into effect.

BERNA GAGNE

Balboa Peninsula

Warnings came too

slowly or not at all

We live on Lido Isle in Newport Beach. The tsunami warning scared

the daylights out of us. We had 15 people over at our house at the

time, and a husband of one of our guests called frantically to tell

us that a warning had been issued.

I called the Newport Beach Police Department to verify and was put

on hold for several minutes. A dispatcher told me that the warning

was real and asked where we lived. Upon telling him we were on Lido,

he told me, “I advise you to evacuate immediately.” That scared the

heck out of me, as I was not told how much time we had, and I assumed

the threat was imminent.

We told our guests to leave and get to higher ground. We got our

kids out of bed and left the house unlocked with all the lights on.

In the car we heard the emergency broadcast system advising low lying

areas to be cautious or evacuate. It was surreal.

The whole ordeal was very scary in light of what happened last

year in the Pacific. We thought the reports on the radio were

inconsistent as well. We saw no additional police presence, and there

seemed to be no effort to let people know about the potential danger.

If the warning was on the radio and on TV, why was there no effort

locally? What were they waiting for? To see if it hit San Francisco?

If it had and was traveling at more than 200 miles an hour toward us,

how would they warn all of us living near the beaches and evacuate us

in 1 1/2 hours? Not well handled at all.

ROBERT K. WEIGLE

Lido Isle

Sea lion problem may

need drastic solution

Walking Balboa Island most every morning with my husband, we have

witnessed loud barking from across the bay. Now we’re getting

concerned that it is coming to our side of the bay. Just within the

last week there was a very large sea lion lounging on the Opal Street

public pier and our grandchild was unable to fish because of its

presence. Their loud barking can be distinctly heard from our home,

which is three doors from the intersection of Topaz and Park avenues

on Balboa Island. We’re talking of barking we hear from across the

south bay on the peninsula side, floating down our street during

night and day. It’s inconceivable to us that these homeowners haven’t

banded together to protest before this. (They must have large

supplies of ear muffs to get through the night.)

Residents, where have you been?

Suggestions:

* Fence the entire barge so sea lions are unable to rest there.

* Relocate the barge out where the other fishing barge is located.

* Do what they used to do way back when ... shoot them.

I certainly hope sea lions in Newport Bay don’t become an issue

like the destruction they caused at Children’s Beach in La Jolla and

the area next to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. Sea lions need

life in the open ocean, not in a man-made environment.

BARBARA BAUMGARTNER

Balboa Island