Glenneyre repairs should take three weeks...

Glenneyre repairs should take three weeks

Although the Glenneyre Street rehabilitation project will cause

noise, traffic delays and dust, residents and businesses will end up

with a brand new street.

The City Council has contracted with Excel Paving Company to

retrofit curb ramps so that they are compliant with current disabled

access regulations, and to grind up and repave the street with

rubberized asphalt. The company will receive $410,000 for the job.

The project, which began on Nov. 4, will take about 25 days to

complete, said Derek Wieske, assistant city engineer. It will affect

Glenneyre Street from Forest Avenue to Bluebird Canyon Drive and

Bluebird Canyon from Glenneyre to South Coast Highway.

“It’s quite a process,” Wieske said. “But they’ll have a

new-looking street free of pot holes, with a smoother ride, and more

aesthetically pleasing.”

Although the rain delayed the project by one day, Wieske expects

that it will be completed on-time.

The project is funded in part through state gas tax revenues.

-- Mary A. Castillo

Iseman remains top vote-getter

Mayor Pro Tem Toni Iseman was still the top vote-getter in the

Nov. 5 City Council race after a partial number of outstanding

absentee ballots were added to the count. Her total was 5,083 as of 4

p.m. Tuesday -- or 25.8% of the votes.

Only 1.8% of votes separated Iseman from fourth-place finisher

Melissa O’Neal in one of, if not the closest council race on record

in Laguna.

The results of the remaining ballots are scheduled to be announced

this coming Tuesday.

Iseman picked up 76 votes in the latest count of absentee ballots,

increasing her narrow margin of victory to 405 votes.

Steven Dicterow overtook Elizabeth Pearson by one vote. Dicterow

added 413 votes to his total and Pearson added 382 votes, which would

seem to bolster the claim that more conservative voters tend to use

absentee ballots.

Iseman is the only Democrat on the new council. The others are

registered Republicans.

O’Neal picked up the most votes from the absentee ballot, 622,

giving her a total of 4,727,or 24% of the votes.

Dicterow and Pearson were each credited with 25.1%.

Laguna Beach has 16,536 registered voters, about 2,000 of them are

absentee ballot voters.

The reelected Steven Dicterow will miss the Dec. 3 meeting, when

the new council is to be installed. He will be in Spain on business.

City Clerk Verna Rollinger will swear in all the other council

members at the meeting.

“Elected city officials are required to take the oath of office,”

Rollinger said. “Arrangements will have to made for Steve.”

Dicterow will be returning to the city late on Dec. 4. Rollinger

said she would install him sometime before Dec. 17, the first meeting

that he will attend as a member of the new council.

The council votes for its new mayor after council installation.

The gavel traditionally passes to the mayor pro tem -- Councilwoman

Toni Iseman this year.

In Dicterow’s absence, a 2-2 split would be a no vote, and the

election would have to be delayed until a full council was in

session.

Financial statements covering the 2002 election year will be due

Jan. 30 in the city clerk’s office.

Candidates, independent expenditure committees, political action

committees and any other groups or individuals that raised and spent

money in the municipal election must file. Homeowners who host

fund-raisers are generally exempt from filing.

For more information, call 497-0705.

-- Barbara Diamond

Spill closes portion of Victoria Beach

The Orange County Environmental Health Division closed a 200-foot

portion of Victoria Beach to swimmers and surfers this week because

of a sewage spill.

The beach was closed at 1:15 p.m. Monday, said Monica Mazur,

senior environment specialist of the Orange County Environmental

Health Division. The spill was reported when residents noticed water

running down their driveway.

Twenty to 50 gallons of sewage material entered the surf because

of a blocked lateral line from a private residence, Mazur confirmed.

A lateral line sends sewage material from a home to the city sewer

line. The city was not responsible for the spill, she said.

“It wasn’t a really big spill, but it was right there,” Mazur

said.

“We call the combined effects of first flush and sewage a ‘double

whammy,’” said Roger von Butow of Clean Water Now! “Victoria could

remain posted longer than the usual 72 hours minimum due to these

toxic cocktail sampling results.”

Mazur confirmed that the beach was still closed as of Wednesday.

New president named to pageant board

Bruce Rasner was elected board president of the Festival of

Arts/Pageant of the Masters, now in its 70th year, and John Campbell

was named vice-president at the board’s annual meeting Wednesday.

Also reelected for three-year tenures were Bob Dietrich, Kathleen

Blackburn and Dianne Reardon.

The board introduced the 2003 theme, “Seasons.”

“Seasons” will celebrate a collection of time periods from the

10th through 20th centuries through artists such as John Falter,

Norman Rockwell and Thomas R. Gould.

Diane Challis Davy will be returning for her eighth year as

director. She has been a part of the pageant’s production department

for 23 years. Tickets go on sale to the general public Dec. 1, prices

range from $18 to $80.

For ticket information, call 494-1145 or (800) 487-3378.