Week in Review

EDUCATION

Three girls from local school district win scholarships

It was a golden week for Girls Inc. of Orange County, as four girls — three of them students in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District — won scholarships to help pay for college. Girls Inc., headquartered in Indiana, gave out only 26 scholarships nationwide this year.

The local winners were Arlene Catalan and Isabel Gomez of Estancia High School, Elizabeth Moreno of Orange Coast Middle College High School and Alina Meza of Beckman High School in Irvine. Arlene, 16, snared the top prize of $15,000, while the others won $2,500 each.

The fate of Rabbit Island, Orange Coast College’s British Columbian property, remains up in the air, but the school announced a full set of summer courses for the island on Tuesday.

OCC professors will lead a total of eight classes in science, geography, kayaking and photography. The school’s foundation plans to vote in May on whether to sell the island, which many have called a drain on financial resources, but the summer classes are expected to continue regardless. Enrollment for summer classes doesn’t begin until May, but even still, biology instructor Kelli Elliott said the potential sale has made more students want to visit the island.

“I have more students desperately interested than I have a place for, and I’m trying to encourage them to stay interested,” Elliott said.

ENTERTAINMENT

Laughing away to bankroll Assistance League programs

The Assistance League of Newport-Mesa brings actor and comedian Larry Miller to Newport Beach Saturday to entertain guests at the organization’s annual spring benefit.

Event organizer’s hope to share a lot of laughs, and in the process raise $100,000 to fund the nonprofit’s community programs, which include a full-service dental center and educational outreach.

The benefit begins at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Marriot Newport Beach, 900 Newport Center Drive. Tickets are $125 and available by calling (949) 645-6929.

COSTA MESA

Fire chief on medical leave announces retirement

Fire Chief Jim Ellis, who has been on medical leave for nine months, will retire Oct. 1, he announced last week. He has been with the city since 1980 and became chief in 2001.

Interim Fire Chief Steven Parker, who was hired in August to handle the department in Ellis’ absence, will stay on while the city searches for a permanent chief but will not be a candidate for the job, City Manager Allan Roeder said. Ellis, 54, will become eligible in September to collect roughly 80% of his $167,472 salary as retirement pay.

Roeder said he hopes to find a new fire chief by June.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to revamp a program that will teach teens about government, finally settling what had become a contentious issue.

The new program for next school year will include a shadowing day at City Hall, and students will be able to hear about city issues and discuss them.

Students who were supposed to participate in this year’s program were happy to see the council agree. An earlier program launched in December but a majority of the council voted in January to cancel it, saying it wasn’t created properly and they wanted more input on the curriculum.

Police on Thursday issued a report that recommends a comprehensive strategy to address the city’s gang problem.

Recommendations included hiring two more school resource officers and installing surveillance cameras in areas prone to gang crime.

A key facet of the recommendations is beefing up prevention and intervention efforts, in part through a program run by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Council members in January voted against giving the district a grant for the same program, but it’s unclear how they’ll approach the recommendations from the Police Department when they meet Tuesday.

PUBLIC SAFETY

3 from Costa Mesa charged in copper-stripping case

A group of Costa Mesa residents were allegedly found inside an abandoned business in Laguna Niguel. Police arrested the trio just after 10 a.m. Monday, finding them allegedly stripping the building of copper wiring and piping, and some aluminum framing, police said.

Jeffrey Scott Gibson, 50; Patrick Javier Nevarez, 40; and Teri Marie Hackett, 48, were arrested on suspicion of second-degree burglary, possession of stolen property, criminal conspiracy and grand theft, police said.

All three are scheduled to be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in South Harbor Justice Center in Laguna Niguel, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

WEEK OUT

NEWPORT BEACH

Golf tournament that benefits Hoag ends today

The 13th annual Toshiba Classic golf tournament, the only PGA pro tour event in Orange County, concludes today after a week of festivities.

An estimated 80,000 spectators and 80 pro golfers flocked to the Newport Beach Country Club for the occasion.

The tournament produces about $1 million a year in contributions to the Hoag Hospital Foundation, which funds Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian. Tournament organizers hope that this year will bring the total amount of money raised for the hospital to $10 million in the decade Toshiba has been a title sponsor.

It turned out to be the last year the tournament would be run by chairman Hank Adler, who announced Tuesday that he is stepping down after 13 years.

“It just seems like time,” Adler said Tuesday. “It’s not about Hank Adler. It’s about Hoag Hospital.”

Colleagues heaped praise on Adler at the event’s annual community breakfast.

“Impossible to replace him,” said Jeff Purser, the tournament’s director. He said organizers have not yet named a successor to Adler.