Laguna Canyon

Tom Billings Enough is enough. Developers and our Newport Beach city officials continue to push for projects to lay more concrete and commercial development on our city's last bastion of open space and parklands. I am speaking of the wonderful open space in Banning Ranch along the Santa River and the designated parkland known as Marinapark on the Balboa Peninsula. As a longtime resident of Newport Beach, I can attest to the overbuilding that has taken place over the past three decades.

Laguna Beach Marine Mammal Center gets grant Pacific Marine Mammal Center, 20612 Laguna Canyon Road, will receive a $20,000 grant from Southern California Edison that will allow the center to purchase a high-tech, 18-camera surveillance system for its animal care operations. The system will allow for a camera to be positioned in each pen, including cameras for critical care units, and also two underwater cameras in outdoor pens. This will allow the center to monitor animals via the Internet.

All directions from the Daily Pilot office at 330 W. Bay St. in Costa Mesa. 1 To Newport Harbor High: 600 Irvine Ave., Newport Beach -- South on Newport Boulevard; left on 17th Street; right on Irvine Avenue; stadium on left. 2 To Orange Coast College: 2701 S. Fairview Road, Costa Mesa -- North on Newport Boulevard; left on Fairview Road; campus on left. 3 To Sage Hill School: 20402 Newport Coast Drive, Newport Coast -- Costa Mesa Freeway (55)

It's hard to believe that summer is winding down and fall is just around the corner. In Laguna Beach, that means not just the start of the school year, but the end of the festival season and the flocks of art-and-beach-loving tourists and day visitors who fill the streets and sidewalks and make the trip up or down Laguna Canyon Road a long and winding one. Of course, Laguna loves its status as an arts mecca and tourist...

Send DATEBOOK items to the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, CA 92652; fax to 494-8979; call 494-4321 or e-mail o7coastlinepilotlatimes.comf7o7. f7Submissions must be received two weeks before publication. TODAY PIANO MUSIC Austin Ray plays on the grand piano in the lounge inside the Hotel Laguna from 8 p.m. to midnight and from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Saturdays, at 425 S. Coast Highway. Information: (949) 494-1151.

Final weekend for art festivals The Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters closed yesterday while the Sawdust Art Festival and Art-a-Fair will run through Sunday. Sawdust entertainment highlights: today, Santa Claus will visit the Sawdust from 10 a.m. to noon. Lisa Haley and the Zydekatz will perform Cajun and zydeco from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday the "Art on Stage" game show will be from 4 to 5:30 and World Anthem will perform reggae from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday local favorite Missiles of October will perform rock and roll from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. The Sawdust Art Festival's winter art show "Winter Fantasy" will be on Nov. 10, 19, 25, 26, 27 and Dec. 3, 4, 10 and 11. The Sawdust is at 935 Laguna Canyon Road.

TUESDAY Brooks Street: A man told police that someone charged $3,000 to his credit card at 3:21 p.m. in the 31200 block. Pacific Avenue: Someone reportedly charged $1,691 to someone else's credit card at 11:49 a.m. in the 1200 block. MONDAY Skyline Drive: Tools were reportedly stolen from a job site at 10:01 a.m. in the 1500 block. Tree Top Lane: Someone reportedly pushed a golf cart over a hill at 9:31 a.m. in the 21600 block. SUNDAY Cozumel: A woman told police her car had been tampered with and she was receiving harassing phone calls at 5:27 p.m. in the 300 block.

Five named National Merit Scholars Approximately 16,000 semifinalists were named in the 51st annual National Merit Scholarship Program, including Laguna Beach High School students Jamie Hancock, Rachael Marcus, Coleman Moore, Piper Mount and Kevin Tran. Marine Mammal Kid's Club starts Pacific Marine Mammal Center will launch its annual after-school Kid's Club program starting today from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. The club meets one Friday a month at the marine mammal facility, 20612 Laguna Canyon Road.

A decision on what people see when they enter Laguna Beach from Laguna Canyon Road has plagued city officials for at least three decades and still remains unresolved. The Planning Commission is winding down its review of a revised environmental impact report, or EIR, for the Village Entrance, the strip of land from City Hall to the Art-a-Fair grounds. "It is important for the public to delve into this and decide what you would like to see on the site," Councilwoman Verna Rollinger said at a public forum Saturday.