Next vote in the city: should senior center newsletter get a new name?

Earlier this year, Costa Mesa city staff hypothesized that “The Buzz on 19th Street” might be a snazzy new name for the senior center’s recently revamped newsletter, The Chronicle.

The center’s commission, however, disagreed.

So in May, the panel — after universally rejecting “The Buzz” and the bee buzzing about its logo — opted to create a contest to find a new title. The act brought the name-changing game directly to the senior population last month.

Thirty-three entries responded to the call. Nineteen of them contained new title suggestions.

The others? Well, according to a city staff report about the contest, they opted for responses like “no change needed” and “It could be confusing for seniors if changed.” Some respondents said The Chronicle is a plenty fine name, indeed “the perfect name.”

“It covers everything,” one entry said. “It is like a newspaper.”

Still another lamented: “There have been too many changes and everyone (me) is used to this. No busy bee.”

On Tuesday, the Senior Commission, which functions as an advisory body to the City Council, examined the entries while acknowledging that some folks who frequent the West 19th Street facility aren’t crazy about a new masthead for The Chronicle.

Still, each of the seven commissioners picked one of the new titles to go on a senior center ballot, which will include the option of maintaining The Chronicle as the newsletter name.

Commissioner Kirk Bauermeister, in keeping with the “will of the people” to keep the name, picked the scarcely different title “The ‘New’ Chronicle.”

Commissioner Stella Adkins chose the more verbose “The City of Costa Mesa Senior Center Chronicle.” Commissioner Ann Perry liked “Senior Living.” Commissioner Janet Lee Krochman picked “The Bulletin.”

Voting begins Aug. 3 and ends Aug. 21.

The whole ordeal was too much for one senior center member, who complained to the board: “To make a whole spiel out of sending out and putting [the ballots] in The Chronicle again, more than three quarters of these people don’t care. It is just a waste. It is a waste of time.”

Chairwoman Ernie Feeney said in response: “There are people who don’t want to be involved in finding a name, but once they have a ballot with names on it and a choice, they will vote.”

The suggested names that didn’t make the final cut included “The Eagles” — “because eagles [soar], they are the USA bird and the most elegant bird in the whole world,” the entry said.

“The Geysers Guide” was also rejected.

Another name that didn’t spark enough interest: “Giddy Up and Go.” Its creator’s reasoning: “You have to get yourself up and go and get out.”