Balboa Peninsula

A passenger on a 28-foot sailboat escaped unscathed after the boat beached in shallow water and sank off Balboa Peninsula, authorities said Thursday. The boat was discovered rocking in the surfline off F Street about 7:50 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Newport Beach Fire Department. The sailboat's skipper was on shore at the time, according to the Fire Department. Orange County Sheriff's Department Harbor Patrol deputies and Newport Beach lifeguards tried to pull the boat out of the inshore trench where it was stuck, fire authorities said.

Firefighters are working on putting out a Friday afternoon house fire on the Balboa Peninsula, a Newport Beach Fire Department official said. The fire broke out on the roof of a house on J Street sometime after 4:30 p.m., said NBFD Spokeswoman Jennifer Schulz. It was not yet clear if anyone had been injured in the blaze and how much had been damaged. —Lauren Williams

A pile of debris caused a house fire Monday in Newport Beach that stopped traffic and caused $20,000 worth in damages, authorities said. Firefighters responded to a call from a neighbor reporting a fire in the 200 block of East Balboa Boulevard about 2:26 p.m., the Newport Beach Fire Department said in a news release. When firefighters arrived they discovered the blaze extended from the patio of the Balboa Peninsula home to the attic. Two traffic lanes on East Balboa Boulevard were rerouted for about 30 minutes while firefighters extinguished the fire.

NEWPORT BEACH — A certified farmers market is coming to Lido Marina Village on Sunday. The hope is that the market, located in the shopping center on the northern end of the Peninsula, will pump more life into the promenade, a rustic-looking, cobble-stoned, open-air quarter dotted with shops and businesses. The market will feature a dozen farmers selling fruits and vegetables and is scheduled to open at 9 a.m. and close at 1 p.m. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. City and Chamber of Commerce officials are expected to be on hand for the big day. Posters around town have been promoting the event for several weeks, displaying a fat red tomato.

Young Chang BALBOA PENINSULA -- Donald Wayne Moses had his wife post signs on the door to their barbershop in recent weeks that read, "I'm coming back." He was worried about customers he had served for 43 years, customers who had relied on him to cut their hair and to be a friend as the tresses were trimmed. While at Hoag Hospital for pancreatic cancer treatment this month, he asked wife Linda to find a new barber to take care of his "friends," just in case.

June Casagrande BALBOA VILLAGE -- Some say they've made a huge difference, others say they've made no difference at all. To ease the burden on Balboa Peninsula merchants while roadwork is underway, the city has made free many metered parking spots, put up banners announcing businesses are open and made a few other changes. "Nothing is going to help down here until the work's over," said Maggie Allison, co-owner of Balboa Market, who said she has seen about a 40% decline in business since roadwork began in November.

Newport Beach police will conduct a driving under the influence checkpoint Friday night on Newport Boulevard. From 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. police will be stationed on northbound Newport Boulevard at Finley Avenue screening drivers for various vehicle code violations and to see who’s driving under the influence. The checkpoint was located for its proximity to bars and restaurants on the Balboa Peninsula, among other reasons, police said. Checkpoints don’t necessarily equal more arrests for DUI, but do tend to reduce the number of people who choose to drink and drive, officials said.

Over 100 Artists from Southern California Plein Air Painters Association Participated (Newport Beach, CA) - The popular plein air competition at the Balboa Peninsula included a week long Paint Out from September 7 to September 11, 2008 around the Balboa Peninsula, a two-hour Quick Draw on September 12 at the historic Balboa Fun Zone, and a weekend Fine Art Show and Sale in front of the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum.  Two local well-known artists juried the shows for the week-long Paint Out and Quick Draw competion:  Cynthia Britain juried the Paint Out, and Michael Obermeyer juried the Quick Draw.

Police have been unable to stop nearly 40 residential burglaries on the Balboa Peninsula since the first of the year, and residents with unlocked doors and windows continue to be the victims. In the latest “Crime Alert” distributed by the Newport Beach Police Department, authorities said since June they have seen 17 more burglaries on the peninsula where laptops or other expensive items were stolen. More than a dozen laptops were stolen from June 6 to Aug. 28 in homes on the peninsula; most of the time the burglar got in through unlocked doors, sliding glass doors or open windows.

A Newport Beach lifeguard swam through 6-foot waves and fought against 16-knot winds to cut two anchor lines that were keeping a 24-foot Bayliner in dangerous waters, rescue workers said Monday. About 2:41 p.m. Sunday Newport Beach Fire Department Lifeguard Capt. Arn Van Dyke responded to a report of a boat dragging anchor about 20 feet off shore at L Street near the Balboa Peninsula, officials with the Newport Beach Fire Department said. The four or five passengers aboard appeared not to notice the surf had increased or that the boat slipped anchor in the high winds, authorities said.

The Newport Beach Bayside Adventure comes to Balboa Peninsula and Island on Saturday. This event is the newest installment of CityRace Urban Adventure Hunts, presented by Los Angeles' Race/LA since 2007 at various Southern California locations. Teams of two to four members spend three hours solving puzzles, cracking codes and unearthing facts. Traversing through diverse localities, they compete to be the first to provide the most correct answers. After "Laguna Beach Art Adventure" was introduced to Orange County in early 2012, the next site was selected in response to popular demand, Race/LA founder John Hennessy wrote in an email.

DONALD E. ELDER, FORMER NEWPORT BEACH VICE-MAYOR, DIES Donald Eugene Elder, 86, passed away on January 27, 2013 at his home in Balboa.  Don was born May 27, 1926 in Los Angeles to Eugene 'Gene' and Helen (Morse) Elder. Don was a lifelong resident of Newport Beach, living on Balboa Island, in Corona del Mar, where he met his wife of 58 years, Diane (Wakefield) when he bought the home next to her family, and for more than 50 years on the Balboa Peninsula oceanfront. He graduated from Newport Harbor High School in 1943, and received his degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 1950.

Newport Beach city workers kept busy Thursday morning, pumping out stormwater that had accumulated on the Balboa Peninsula. Along Newport Boulevard between 21st and 26th streets, one lane was closed down for about an hour as crews diverted the water from the street into the harbor, but not before a group of neighbors dropped by to try their hand at skimboarding the nearly 1-foot-deep puddles. No property damage was reported on the peninsula or on Balboa Island, said Mike Pisani, Newport's deputy municipal operations director.

Police evacuated Newport Beach City Hall on Monday after an employee reported finding an unattended backpack in a breezeway between the council chambers and an administration building. About 10 Balboa Peninsula businesses on 32nd Street between Newport Boulevard and Villa Way also participated in their own voluntary evacuation, said Newport Beach Police Department spokeswoman Kathy Lowe. The camouflage backpack contained "miscellaneous personal items," she said. The initial call to police came about 10 a.m., Lowe said "The [Newport Beach police]

Despite cries from equestrians and their supporters, the Newport Beach City Council voted this week to delay building a planned multiuse trail in Santa Ana Heights. Some homeowners on Mesa Drive on Tuesday protested the proposed trail, claiming it would devalue their property and that riders have enough trails already. The conflict stretches back years and stems from when the city annexed the area, inheriting a trail plan from the county. The trail's public right of way today is filled with landscaping and other encroachments from private estates overlooking Upper Newport Bay, which rides contend is unfair.

In Memory of Phyllis Ruffcorn Larzelere Phyllis Ruffcorn Larzelere passed onto her eternal life five years ago on September 14, 2007, at the age of 83, after a happy, active and spiritual life.  Phyllis was born on July 3, 1924 in eastern Montana to a teacher and a wheat farmer.  She was the middle child with an older brother and a younger sister who suffered from Polio.  Phyllis took on many of the household duties to help her mother who...

It may still be another year before city officials can begin construction on Marina Park, the planned Balboa Peninsula community center. Although the California Coastal Commission approved the plans in June, the city of Newport Beach still has to obtain a coastal development permit, settle issues relating to a faux lighthouse, and budget for the $20-million project, said Public Works Director Steve Badum. Badum and Senior Civil Engineer Iris Lee presented the latest Marina Park plans Wednesday during a Speak Up Newport meeting.

Newport Beach's oldest yacht club is planning to replace its 1919 clubhouse with a larger, modernized building. The Newport Harbor Yacht Club applied for city permits last month that would allow it to exceed the bayfront height limitation and construct a new building with a second-story ballroom. The current clubhouse at 720 West Bay Ave. often floods when storms and high tides inundate the Balboa Peninsula, and the old wooden structure is more vulnerable to earthquakes and fires than its proposed replacement.

The Newport Beach City Council voted Tuesday to allocate an additional $3.9 million to dredging the harbor's shallowest spots, bringing the total project to $10.4 million, including federal funds. Some of the remaining sediment is contaminated with chemicals that cannot be sunk in the open ocean. The city has been dumping some similar material at the Port of Long Beach, which is using the dirt for a construction project. But the port recently told the city that it is full at the moment.