Week in review

COSTA MESA

Police plan to fight gangs receives positive receptionCity Council members sounded pleased with a new comprehensive proposal to address the city’s gang problem when the plan got its first public airing Tuesday. Created by the Police Department, the gang initiative includes hiring two new school resource officers, installing crime surveillance cameras and working with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District on gang prevention and intervention.

Although three of five council members in January rejected the school’s prevention program, they said last week they might now support the approach, provided they get data to show results. The council will later vote on a truancy ordinance and funding for several components of the gang plan, and the school district has agreed to help pay for shared resources.

South Coast Repertory marked the production of its 100th world premiere with the opening of Julia Cho’s “The Piano Teacher” Friday, demonstrating their commitment to presenting original and entertaining theater to the community.

The show spotlights an aging Mrs. K as she reflects on her past, contacting former students to find out how her career as a piano teacher came to an end. Laguna Beach local Linda Gehringer stars in the lead role.

Tickets for the show, which runs Tuesday through Sunday until April 1, are available at the theater’s box office and online at www.scr.org.

NEWPORT BEACH

City Council seeks to slow spending growthFaced with a budget that has swelled about 8.4% a year for the last four years, City Council members said last week they’d like to slow spending. When the 2007-08 budget comes out in the next few months, city officials will shoot for a 4% increase over the previous year’s spending.

But they’re not bound to do so. The council stopped short of voting on a budget restriction after seeing the requests for the new budget already are about 3% over the current year. The scrutiny was motivated by members of the council’s finance committee, who were alarmed to see that spending had largely kept pace with the city’s healthy revenue growth of 9% a year.

The courtyard at Newport Elementary School is a little greener after the Rotary Club of Newport Balboa presented the third-grade class with a young flowering pear tree and numerous Japanese yew seedlings Monday as part of a 39-year Arbor Day tradition.

Newport-Mesa Unified School District board members, Mayor Steve Rosansky and Councilman Don Webb came to celebrate the holiday, reminding students of the numerous benefits trees provide for the community.

“The more trees, the better,” Rosansky said. “Trees give us oxygen and they provide shade on a hot day.”

Over the years, the local organization has distributed more than 90,000 seedlings to generations of students.

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian held a meeting with its neighbors at the Villa Balboa Condominiums Wednesday to address residents’ concerns about the redevelopment of the hospital.

Their concerns center mainly around noise, traffic and their views, which Hoag assured would be unobstructed as was agreed upon in the hospital’s 1992 agreement with the city of Newport Beach that assigned specific height requirements.

Hoag representatives assured residents they were making every effort to not diminish residents’ quality of life, and most who attended the meeting were pleased with the presentation.

But there are still issues Hoag needs to work out with the residents and the subcommittee appointed by the condos’ homeowners association board.

BUSINESS

Eco-friendly real estate firm grows and turns a profitWorking to be a full service real estate firm, Surterre Properties has already grown out of its 13,500-square-foot, eco-friendly office after only about four months of being there.

Despite widespread reports that the real estate market in California is a bubble about to burst, founders Paula Wilhelm and Gary Legrand dove into their project head first.

The pair wanted to create a team environment in a profession that is often individualistic, as well as promote a “green” office environment using recycled and reclaimed materials.

Legrand and Wilhelm initially did not expect to be profitable till they were well into their first year of business, but now say they will be out of the red at the end of this month.

The real estate boutique specializes in the luxury market, with listings around Southern California and a slew of properties they market in other states.

What began in Newport Beach as 16 merchants starting a booster club is now 1,000 members strong — and on Monday the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce celebrated its 100th year.

Through the years, the chamber has continuously stayed involved in not only business issues, but political and city issues as well. In its early days, the group was instrumental in helping Newport Harbor open. To celebrate these times, and many others, the chamber will host an event at 5:30 p.m. May 10 at the Island Hotel in Newport Beach.

WEEK OUT

EDUCATION

Harbor Day School student recites 801 digits of piHarbor Day School student Jamie Searles gave the most memorable speech of the week on Wednesday — and it consisted of 801 numbers.

The sixth-grader became Harbor Day’s Pi Queen for the second straight year when she recited the first 801 digits of the presumably infinite number from memory. In the school’s conference room on Wednesday, Jamie and other students sparred to see who could go the furthest into pi without forgetting a digit.

Jamie, who covered 531 digits last year, topped her own record. She had been studying pi since the second grade, she said, and parts of it were so entrenched in her mind that she barely had to think about them.

“For the first 100 [digits], I don’t even know what I’m saying,” said Jamie, 12. “It’s like the ABCs. It just comes out.”

Orange Coast College students and faculty have one more summer to enjoy Rabbit Island, as the school’s foundation voted Thursday evening to sell the British Columbian property.

The members voted, 15-1, with one abstention to put the island on the market, citing the high costs of maintaining it. Over the last four months, some students and professors had lobbied the school to hold onto Rabbit Island, and the student government even offered to underwrite its costs for the next year.

Ultimately, though, the foundation ruled that OCC couldn’t sustain its island for much longer.

The debate over grade-level configurations in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District reached an end — or, at least, an impasse — on Tuesday, as the school board voted to give Costa Mesa parents an option for where to send their fourth-graders this fall.

For the last year, some parents in Costa Mesa had petitioned the district to change the grade levels at several of the neighborhood’s schools. Sonora, College Park and Paularino elementary schools currently end at the third grade, with Davis Elementary School serving the fourth through sixth grades.