Senior Center revamping newsletter name

Costa Mesa seniors used to wonder if their newsletter, The Chronicle, was going to come out on time.

Often, it didn’t. The publication was infamous for reaching mailboxes late enough that events it previewed had already happened.

However, last year’s City Hall takeover of the Costa Mesa Senior Center that had been run by a separate nonprofit means on-time delivery each month of The Chronicle is no longer a problem.

Now concerns have shifted to the newsletter’s name. Some say it needs an update too.

On Tuesday, the Senior Commission, which oversees the center, heard a staff proposal to rename The Chronicle to “The Buzz on 19th Street,” which referenced the center’s address, 695 W. 19th St. The logo featured a bee.

It was universally rejected.

“It was such a drastic change from what we already have,” said commission Chairwoman Ernie Feeney after the meeting.

Commissioners and center members thought The Buzz on 19th Street sounded too much like a bar — or something. It just didn’t fit.

Then Kathleen Eric, who served on the previous senior center board before City Hall’s takeover, suggested organizing a contest to find a new name.

The commissioners liked the idea and approved staff to go about organizing it.

The contest, Feeney said, “will bring the seniors together.” It could start as soon as July and get publicized in The Chronicle’s issue that month, she added.

Feeney noted that the name Costa Mesa — Spanish for “coastal tableland” — came from a contest. In 1920, Alice Plumer, a former schoolteacher, suggested the winning name. She got $25 for it.