ENVIRONMENT Dredging to drag on a bit...

ENVIRONMENT

Dredging to drag

on a bit longer

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials confirmed last week the

Santa Ana River dredging project is likely to be delayed to around

November. The project was originally expected to wrap up this month.

The delay was attributed to unsafe dredging conditions caused by

the winter storms and requirements not to disturb endangered birds

during nesting season, not the two times the Eland, a boat the guided

a pipeline carrying dredged mud, has gone aground.

Officials said the delays would not cause the Corps of Engineers

to pay more than the initial contract price of $5-million, since the

contractors will be paid to dig up a set amount of sediment.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Deliberations begin

in gang-rape trial

Jurors began deliberating Thursday afternoon in the high-profile,

videotaped gang rape case of Greg Haidl, Kyle Nachreiner and Keith

Spann.

The three are accused of gang-raping an unconscious 16-year-old

girl when they were 17 and sexually assaulting her with various

objects in the Corona del Mar home of Haidl’s father, a former

sheriff’s official. A jury last year ended in a deadlock after 20

hours of deliberations.

* Attorneys for both sides rested their cases in the child

molestation trial of a Corona del Mar woman.

Victoria Hawlish, 41, is charged with five counts of performing

lewd acts upon a child, a 15-year-old girl who was living with her at

the time. Closing arguments are scheduled to start Monday.

POLITICS

Better find another

place to find a job

The Costa Mesa City Council voted on Tuesday to close down the

city’s Job Center, which has operated since 1988 as a place where

employers can pick up workers, generally for short-term construction

jobs. The center was opened in response to complaints about day

laborers loitering in Lions Park and other areas of the city,

sometimes approaching passing cars in hope of finding a job.

Councilman Gary Monahan, who proposed closing the center, said the

Job Center will no longer fit in with the Westside, which is the

subject of a major revitalization effort that will add residences.

Other council members and residents questioned the logic of closing

the center when no definite plan is in place to send job seekers

somewhere else, and Costa Mesa Police Chief John Hensley said his

department will have to take officers away from other duties to

address any complaints about loitering workers.

* The Costa Mesa council also approved some long-awaited

initiatives to revitalize the Westside, which officials hope to

change from an industrial district to a bustling residential and

commercial area. New residential zoning, screening for trash bins and

pedestrian improvements were among the recommendations from a

committee made up of Westside business owners and residents.

But some thought approval of a modified plan by Councilman Eric

Bever, rather than what the committee had proposed, was rammed

through without enough time for consideration or public comment. The

council will discuss Westside issues in more detail as the plan’s

specific recommendations are brought forward.

NEWPORT BEACH

A sandy spot to

call their own

If you aren’t a resident of the city, you aren’t about to be a

junior lifeguard.

For the first time, all 1,200 slots in the city’s much-praised

beach- and water-safety program have been filled by the children of

city residents, who get first dibs on the slots. Typically, Costa

Mesa residents were able to sign up their kids and then drop them off

during the summer.

Officials suspect that parts of town annexed in the past few years

are the reason: more kids are coming from Newport Coast and Santa Ana

Heights.

The summer seminar teaches participants ages 9 to 15 about

ocean-safety practices, including first aid and a range of rescue

techniques. From June 27 to Aug. 16, the Junior Lifeguards will take

up an entire city block near the Balboa Pier during morning and

afternoon sessions, each comprising 600 participants and 35 staff

members.