Corona del Mar Today: ‘Dolphin Lady’ to retire, gardens to take over
For five years, Deb Pirdy has been decorating dolphins in the middle of Corona del Mar, adding butterflies and eggs, Halloween masks and flags, to celebrate the seasons.
This summer, she announced she’s retiring from dolphin duty.
Sherman Library & Gardens staff will take over the job, said Linda Leonhard, president of the Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce.
“My husband and I have been wanting to start traveling,” Pirdy said. “I thought this would be best. They had time to get someone in place and ready before the holidays.”
Pirdy took over as “Dolphin Lady” early in 2005, replacing Angela Cortright, owner of Spa Gregories, who gave up dolphin duties when she opened a new spa branch.
The job, Pirdy said, was rewarding.
“I got so much great feedback from everyone,” she said. “We’d always get people honking at us and saying thank you.”
During her tenure, she said, she even solved a dolphin mystery. Each year around St. Patrick’s Day, the dolphins would be decorated with beads and green hats — but St. Patrick’s Day was not one of the official holidays, Pirdy said.
One morning, she said, she saw a couple, and possibly their adult son, out early, adding the beads and hats to the dolphins in the Marguerite and East Coast Highway intersection.
“They would never come back and take them down,” she said. “So I’d go clean up.”
The existing dolphins were installed in 1993 and are scheduled to be replaced next spring.
Leonhard said she plans to organize the bins with seasonal decorations and deliver them to Sherman Library & Gardens so they can take over decorating in time for fall and Halloween.
*
42nd home tour is this month
Tickets are now available for the CdM Home Tour, Corona del Mar High School PTA’s only fundraising event, which will take place Oct. 13.
Tickets cost $80, and include breakfast, lunch, an afternoon reception and a tour of six homes, including homes in Shore Cliffs, Cameo Highlands, the Flower Streets, Irvine Terrace and Harbor View Hills South, said co-chair Michele Caston.
Tickets can be purchased in the middle school and high school offices, at Roger’s Gardens, Sherman Library & Gardens, Fashion Island, Bliss Home & Design, as well as online.
The event begins at 10 a.m. with a breakfast reception at Le Pain Quotidien in Fashion Island. Participants then may take self-guided tours of the featured homes and have lunch at Cafe Jardin in Sherman Gardens, where there will be a boutique with gifts and other items for sale. The event concludes with the after party at Bliss Home & Design in Corona del Mar.
The CdM Home Tour is celebrating its 42nd anniversary.
*
A Fine Affair space undergoes improvements
A Fine Affair closed its doors in July, and improvements are currently underway at the space at 2919 E. Coast Highway.
“We have record of building permits issued on Aug. 4, 2015 for tenant improvements ... for ‘Delbrenna,’” said Newport Beach Zoning Administrator Brenda Wisneski.
Details about the business were not immediately available. An online search of city business license records did not show a license issued to the address or a business by that name.
A Fine Affair had been in business for 22 years and moved to Corona del Mar in 2009.
Corona del Mar Today appears Sundays in the Daily Pilot. Read daily updates at coronadelmartoday.com.