OUR LAGUNA:Real cash from realty board bash

FOR THE RECORD:

Barbara Diamond’s “Our Laguna” column in the July 21 issue of the Coastline Pilot misstated where a Board of Realtors event was held. It was at Lu Martin’s Gallery.

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The Laguna Board of Realtors and Affiliates handed out checks on Tuesday totaling $43,000 to community nonprofit organizations.

Proceeds from the board’s most successful Taste for Charity fund-raiser ever were distributed to Martha Lydick, president of the Friends of the Laguna Beach Library; Tonja Bewar, CSP Youth Shelter volunteer coordinator; David Peck, who heads up the Cross Cultural Council, Sally Rapuano, for Sally’s Fund; gallery owner Marion Meyer on behalf of Laguna Outreach for Community Arts; Shelter board president Joe Ziomek, development director Jennifer Miller, and new executive director Carol Rhoads, whose appointment was announced just that day; and Joyce Swaving for AIDS CareTeams in our Neighborhoods (ACTION). Greta Bingham accepted the check for the Laguna Beach High School Band Uniform fund. Checks were also cut for two $500 Laguna Beach High School Scholarships and bus service for the First Thursday Art Walk.

“We will use part of the $10,000 to buy books for the library, but I would also like to add some of this money to the $1,200 from the city to continue to microfilm old newspapers in our Local History Room collection,” Lydick said.

The 2006 Taste fund-raiser was the swan song for longtime Laguna Beach realtor and resident Dave Schaar, who chaired the 2006 Taste fund-raiser. Schaar has retired and will move to Pasadena. He is leaving on a high note.

“For the first time ever, tickets were sold out on the day of the event,” Schaar said. “Mozambique went back to the restaurant three times for more food. So did Cedar Creek.”

The Surf & Sand, which was supposed to bring food for 300, brought enough for 700.

“Thank God they did,” Schaar said.

The realtors provided the wine, and Schaar contributed the food for the check presentation party, held at Lu Water’s Gallery on Gallery Row in North Laguna.

Bob Hartman, who co-chaired the Taste art auction with Colleen Watkins, said Waters canvassed the north end of town for art donations and came up with 37 pieces. John Tabacek, who is with Mandarin Fine Art, brought in 15 art donations from the south end of town.

“The art auction is a major part of the fund-raiser,” said Realtor Gayle Waite, publicist for the event.

At the check-passing party: 2006 Realtors board President Michael Gosselin; realtors Rick Gold and Rick McIntire; 2006 Affiliate Chair Caroline Haines; board staff member Stephanie Lennon; Executive Vice President Jane Dempsey, who coordinated the contributing restaurants in the fund-raiser, and City Councilwoman Toni Iseman, who stopped by in-between representing the city at South Orange County Water Agency meeting and a City Council meeting.

OLD HOME WEEK

It was like coming home for Becky Brown when she rented a bedroom in one of the restored cottages at Crystal Cove.

Although the cove is near El Morro ? where her family, which includes Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman, had owned a trailer for more than 50 years ? the location wasn’t the only thing that brought back memories for Brown.

Imagine her surprise when she happened to peek into a vacant room in the cottage where she was staying and recognized a piece of furniture. It was a chest of drawers painted turquoise ? “My mother painted everything turquoise,” Kinsman said ? that the family had left behind when it reluctantly vacated the El Morro trailer on March 31, 2005, complying with the state mandate.

“I said, it couldn’t be; it couldn’t be,” Brown said.

Apparently, it could.

“I had taken pictures of all the furniture we left, including empty drawers to show that we had cleaned everything up,” Brown said.

The pictures were stored in her computer, which she had with her. A quick check showed a stain in the bottom drawer of the chest.

Sure enough, the chest in the cottage had a stain in the bottom drawer.

“A cove employee told me that all the furniture in the restored cottages were donated or from restorations,” Brown said. “I asked if there was any possibility that furniture came from El Morro, and he told me, no, they were private residences.”

However, Rich Rozzelle, Orange County District Supervisor of California State Parks said some of the furniture for the cottages was recycled from trailer park cast-offs.

“Our historian approved all the furniture for the cottages as appropriate to the ‘40s and ‘50s we are interpreting,” Rozzelle said.

During Brown’s stay at the cove from July 1-8, she also spotted four stools that had been left in the trailer.

WANTED: ARTIST

Councilwoman Toni Iseman is trying to track down 1984 Holiday Palette Contest winner Michael Joseph. His palette is on the short list for her greeting card project.

Even before she was elected to the council, Iseman had suggested using the palettes for cards that could be sold as fund-raisers. When she retired from academia, she had the time for the project, and the council gave it their blessings.

A selection committee, which includes Jeanette Heartwood, Greg O’Laughlin, Ron Geisman and Iseman, has chosen palettes by 12 artists to be reproduced as cards.

Anyone who has information about Joseph is urged to contact Iseman ? she’s in the telephone directory.

SPEAKING OF ART

The City Council has approved the installation of a stainless steel and glass mosaic sculpture by Dan Skaggs at 1833 South Coast Highway on the corner of Pearl Street.

A vertical ribbon of polished stainless steel, featuring a school of fish, will be surrounded with a foam, concrete-clad, glass-tile mosaic in aqua colors. Materials were chosen for their durability in an ocean-front environment.

The sculpture will measure 5 feet, 6 inches tall and 4 feet wide, and will be visible from the public right of way.

The estimated cost of the installation is $17,000.

The sculpture satisfies the Arts in Public Places requirement for a project and was recommended for council approval by the Arts Commission.

It is the commission’s job to advise the council on all art-related matters, including the choice of city-funded art, such as the new sculpture by Fire Station One and art in public places.