Week in Review

PUBLIC SAFETY

Fire at Balboa Bay Club displaces three residents

A two-alarm fire in an apartment at the Balboa Bay Club was under investigation Friday after it caused $250,000 in damage and displaced three residents on Wednesday, Newport Beach Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Schulz said.

The apartment belonged to George Lysak, the resort’s executive of sales and marketing, who walked into his apartment just before 5 p.m. Wednesday to find it engulfed in smoke and flames, he said.

Lysak and two other residents temporarily moved into the resort’s hotel portion because of the damage.

He was picked up by the fishing trawler Polar Pescado 1 early Friday morning, and is expected to return to Southern California on Tuesday or Wednesday.

City officials called Shawkey an extremely dedicated man who was a good fit for Costa Mesa.

Shawkey replaces interim chief Steve Staveley, a retired former chief of La Habra police who stepped in when Costa Mesa Chief John Hensley retired in June.

COSTA MESA

Six people deported after screening at city jail

Federal immigration officials have deported six people, taken 20 more in custody, and 20 others could face immigration charges as a result of immigration screenings in the Costa Mesa city jail, officials said. A federal agent was placed in the jail in December to check the immigration status of people booked there.

Between Dec. 4 and 31, among roughly 450 people booked at the jail, immigration agents interviewed 138 people and placed detainers on 46 of those. Most of the initial arrests were for misdemeanors, burglaries and drug possession, according to federal officials.

Mayor Allan Mansoor said the numbers show the program is working, but representatives of the city’s Latino community expressed concerns about being arrested and subject to immigration checks for minor infractions.

Council members voted not to give a $65,000 grant to the Newport-Mesa school district, which submitted the best of two proposals for prevention services. Instead, Councilwoman Wendy Leece asked for information on gang injunctions, which bar known gang members from associating with each other and other gang-related activities. The Orange County district attorney’s office said an injunction has helped decrease crime in part of Santa Ana.

EDUCATION

Schools look forward to vocational funding from state

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District, which has moved in recent years to redesign its high schools and form smaller learning communities, may get a boost in the near future. On Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he planned to allot $52 million in his 2007-08 budget for career education programs.

Under the governor’s proposal, schools and community colleges could apply for matching funds from the state to help train students for engineering and other technical careers. Schwarzenegger also encouraged schools to form partnerships with local businesses to give students professional training.

Even though the budget is a ways from being approved, Newport-Mesa officials said they would welcome a state hand in preparing students for careers.

NEWPORT BEACH

Hoag doctors discuss future of hospital’s pediatric unit

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian medical staff and administrators acknowledged they’ve been in discussions regarding the future of the hospital’s eight-bed licensed pediatric unit.

The unit is used only 50% of the time, hospital president Dr. Richard Afable said Thursday. Along with pediatric department chair Dr. Andrew Blumberg, Afable has been in talks with the Children’s Hospital of Orange County about the possibility of pediatric specialists from the hospital joining doctors at Hoag for the future care of children in the coastal communities.

Some local pediatricians are afraid the hospital’s emergence as an advanced specialty center will further diminish the use of the hospital’s eight-bed pediatric unit for inpatient services and may end the unit’s license. But both Blumberg and Afable see bringing a pediatric specialist on board as a win-win for both hospitals and the community.

Work is taking place weekdays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. with some Saturday construction expected. At times, Irvine Avenue will be reduced to one lane northbound, and Dover Drive northbound will be closed for several weeks.

The old course required closing Jamboree Road, a major concern for the city. This year’s event will use a new route along Back Bay and Eastbluff drives and a running course from the Newport Dunes through Back Bay View Park. The swim will remain at the dunes.

Registration for the triathlon is now open, and the race is scheduled for April 22.

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

“To me, what he did was a horrible risk. I said, ‘Son, you’re going to do something that no one else in the world has ever done. There has to be a reason they haven’t done it.’ ”

— Ken Barnes Sr., on the attempt by his 47-year-old son to sail around the world alone going eastward; adrift for three days after his 44-foot ketch Privateer became disabled off the southern coast of Chile, Ken Barnes Jr. of Newport Beach was rescued early Friday.

“I can honestly say the triathlon community in Orange County came out of the woodwork saying, ‘We’d like to see this come back,’ and that was really the motivation for pursuing it.”

— Jack Caress, president of Pacific Sports LLC, which organizes the Newport Beach Triathlon, on the return of the race this spring; the annual event was canceled last year due to problems with city officials.

“We’re going to focus on gangs, drugs and repeat offenders. I intend to keep our success going.”

— Chris Shawkey, Costa Mesa’s new chief of police who was sworn in Tuesday, on his plans for leading the department

“My dad is Timothy, and my husband is Timothy, so he’s also Timothy, but he’ll go by Dane.”

— Ami Marie Morris, of Costa Mesa, who’s son Timothy Dane Morris was the first baby born in 2007 at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian; weighing 8 pounds, 12 ounces, and 21 inches long, Dane was born at 7:55 a.m.

“The professor wouldn’t let me take it early, so I had President Ford and Henry Kissinger and some of the Secret Service agents help me type my term paper. I got an A.”

— Melanie Fitch, of Newport Beach, remembering President Gerald Ford; Fitch, whose father Paul Salata counted Ford among his friends for decades, dated Ford’s son Steven while a student at USC.

“Seven-one-four is so ingrained in Orange County as an area code, it’s just like New York is to 212…. It really should be a viable option to use that overlay as a solution versus chopping up the 714.”

— Tom Smalley, Costa Mesa Conference and Visitors Bureau president and general manager of Costa Mesa’s Wyndham hotel, on the possible addition of a new area code due to an anticipated shortage of 714 numbers