Week in review

COSTA MESA

City will buy closed day school to use as parkThe City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to purchase a closed private school on the Eastside for $3.5 million and convert it into a park.

After a short discussion, the members opted to borrow money from the general fund to buy the grounds of Park Private Day School, which closed in June after 42 years. The 1.19-acre property borders Brentwood Park, a small parcel on Monte Vista Avenue. The school buildings on the site, which have fallen into disrepair, will likely be demolished. A number of residents at the council meeting expressed support for expanding the park area.

PUBLIC SAFETY

18-year-old held in attempt to smother manAn 18-year-old former Newport Harbor High School student was arrested Feb. 18 after allegedly attempting to smother a 91-year-old man in his bed at a local convalescent hospital near his residence, police said.

Joshua Matthew Drougas of Costa Mesa was charged Wednesday with attempted murder with premeditation and deliberation, elder abuse, and residential burglary. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison. He did not enter a plea.

Late Feb. 18, Drougas walked into Mesa Verde Convalescent Hospital and went past a nurse’s station into the room of sleeping 91-year-old Ted Mastos of Newport Beach, according to Costa Mesa police and the district attorney’s office. Police said Drougas attempted to smother Mastos with a pillow, but the man woke up and called for help.

Mastos was unharmed, police said.

Results from a blood test on Drougas for drugs and alcohol will come out this week, Costa Mesa Det. Sgt. Bob Phillips said on Wednesday.

EDUCATION

Report: Rabbit Island is too expensive for OCCA team of field experts who visited Orange Coast College last week urged the school to sell Rabbit Island, a British Columbian property where OCC runs courses during the summer. The school’s foundation has entertained selling the island, calling it a drain on annual resources, but a group of professors invited the team to campus for an outside opinion.

The experts, led by Colorado-based consultant Susan Allen Lohr, arrived on Wednesday and set to work interviewing different groups on campus. On Friday, the group presented its report in the Student Center Lounge. Lohr told the two dozen students, professors and administrators present that the island, which would cost $150,000 a year if fully staffed, was too expensive to maintain.

“It’s really very difficult to see a realistic plan for keeping Rabbit Island as a resource for the college,” said Lohr, the former director of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado. “The costs are very, very great.”

The OCC Foundation expects to vote on selling the island this spring.

UC Irvine kicked off its 34th annual National Engineers Week on Tuesday, with the Engineering Student Council organizing a series of events for students to show off their mechanical savvy. The first event was the Delicious Dash, in which participants made cars out of graham crackers, peanut butter and other food — with toothpicks serving as axels.

The $25 top prize went to Timothy George.

UC Irvine Extension’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute recently announced a new series of courses designed specifically for the baby boomer generation.

The program includes both entertaining and informative classes to meet the distinctive needs of the boomer population as they near and reach retirement.

Enrollment for the spring semester is still open to interested participants. Membership to the institute is $70 per semester or $130 for the year. More information and membership applications are available online at www.extension.uci.edu/olli or by calling (949) 451-1403.

BUSINESS

Business-networking expo draws 400 to FairmontDespite a few raindrops trying to dampen the party, Thursday’s Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Business at the Beach Expo at the Fairmont Hotel was attended by more than 400 people.

People grazed on hors d’ oeuvres and dessert while networking with 39 local businesses displaying their goods and services.

The most enthusiastic booth award went to the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, and the best decorated booth award went to ADT.

The chamber’s overall best booth award was given to the Fairmont Newport Beach.

The event served as a way for the public and local businesses to come together, network and learn more about each other. The expo is the chamber’s largest networking event.

WEEK OUT

NEWPORT BEACH

Screening of John Wayne films planned for AprilNewport Beach announced last week its approaching plans to celebrate John Wayne’s 100th birthday in conjunction with the Newport Beach Film Festival, April 21 through 28.

The weeklong event will feature a symposium about Wayne’s films and the genre he helped catapult into American pop culture, as well as screenings of nine of his films. Some of his costars, as well as family members, will help introduce the films, with rare footage shown before and after the movies.

Mayor Steve Rosansky used a speech at Tuesday’s mayor’s dinner to plug his proposal to build a city hall on a site long slated for a park. It’s an idea the council has twice rejected, but as other possible city hall sites have failed to pan out some have said the 12-acre park plot deserves a third look.

The council will vote Tuesday on whether to move ahead with park plans or postpone them until a city hall site is chosen.