The Estancia High School's girls basketball team was saved from the
possibility of a lost season when Mobil Oil Co. agreed to donate $4,000
to compensate the team for its potential fund-raising losses.
The team lost its biggest fund-raiser of the year when the company
denied permission for it to have its annual fireworks stand behind a
Mobil gas station at Harbor Boulevard and Baker Street.
The property had previously been owned by C.J. Segerstrom & Sons.
Mobil, which bought it within the last year, cited safety reasons for not
allowing the fireworks.
The girls protested in front of the station Monday morning, but had
their protest cut short Tuesday, when the school's principal met with
Mobil representatives to discuss the situation.
The donation was then worked out and the girls will do gardening work
around the school in return for it. They're going to tend a rose garden.
In other news, Hillgren Square owner Peter Desforges announced that
construction at the square is part of a $2-million make-over.
The East 17th Street square, which includes Mi Casa Mexican
restaurant, Garduno's Express Cuisine and Celestino's quality meats, will
be remodeled with gabled slate roofs, pitched copper-clad steeples,
repaved and re-striped parking areas, a promenade set off by concrete and
stacked stone columns, colorful awnings and landscaping.
-- Jennifer Kho covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)
574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 jennifer.kho@latimes.comf7 .
Steel still facing felony charges
Costa Mesa Councilman Chris Steel will continue to face felony charges
for allegedly signing nomination papers for a legally blind woman in 1998
and allowing another resident to sign for his wife in 2000.
The Orange County district attorney has charged Steel with two felony
counts of perjury relating to those incidents. Steel's attorney made a
plea Friday to reduce the charges to misdemeanors, arguing that Steel's
alleged actions do not warrant the felony charges. But Judge Edward Laird
denied the motion. Steel is expected to be arraigned on the charges July
10.
Also, West Newport residents met with Newport Beach Police officers
Wednesday night for a public forum on Fourth of July arrangements on
Balboa Island. Officers said there are several changes in patrolling and
enforcement strategies this year, based on suggestions from residents and
their own review of previous years' plans.
More police officers will be assigned to foot patrol this year.
