NEWS
April 16, 2014
An apparently intoxicated Costa Mesa resident drove her car into a Newport Beach nature preserve and then crashed into a marshy area of Upper Newport Bay early Wednesday, police said. About half an hour after midnight Tuesday, the woman drove down a trail and broke through a barrier on the side of a bridge, dropping into the shallow water below, according to Newport Beach police and a report from KTLA-5. The driver, Amy Melissa Gibson, 29, of Costa Mesa, was the only person in the vehicle, Newport Beach police spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella said.
NEWS
By Emily Foxhall | March 25, 2014
Two residents have sued Newport Beach in hopes of blocking a residential, commercial and marine development proposed for a section of the Upper Newport Bay. Bert Ohlig and Susan Skinner, who make up the Stop the Dunes Hotel group, sued the city, council members and others March 14 in Orange County Superior Court, alleging that the parties did not provide adequate review of the project's potential environmental impacts. The city and a potential operator of the proposed Back Bay Landing project have called the lawsuit meritless.
NEWS
March 13, 2014
Firefighters battled a blaze in the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve on Thursday morning that burned just under an acre, officials said. It occurred around 6 a.m. near Irvine Avenue and Santiago Drive, not far from where another vegetation fire burned about 1.5 acres last week . Investigators from Newport Beach Fire Department and the Orange County Fire Authority will be looking for any people or series of circumstances connecting the...
NEWS
By Emily Foxhall | September 18, 2013
A memorial service will be held this weekend for a former Newport Beach city councilman. Ray Williams, an early advocate of the Upper Newport Bay ecological preserve, died of natural causes at his home in Lake Arrowhead Aug. 15. He was 79. Williams "stood in the front lines" with others during the efforts in the 1970s to protect the bay area from development, according to his wife, Tatyana "Mary" Melnikoff. The nature-enthusiast lived in Newport Beach for 12 years, beginning in 1969, she said.
NEWS
July 8, 2013
Newport Beach firefighters and officials from the Orange County Sheriff's Department cleaned up about 200 gallons of diesel fuel that leaked into Newport Bay between Adams and Cypress streets, officials said Monday. About 1:50 p.m. Friday, the Newport Beach Fire Department responded to a fuel leak in the bay at the Petrosea fuel dock, 503 E. Edgewater Ave., according to the Fire Department. Authorities found that a supply line leading to the dock was leaking, and it was immediately shut off, according to the Fire Department.
NEWS
June 28, 2013
A stretch of Newport Bay that had been closed to swimmers and divers because of a sewage spill reopened Friday, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency, which monitors water quality. The ocean was closed earlier this week along a half-mile stretch of beach, from Bayside Drive Beach to Carnation Cove, after about 500 gallons of sewage spilled into the water, according to the agency. In order for it to reopen, water had to have acceptably low bacterial levels for two consecutive days.
NEWS
June 27, 2013
About a half mile of beach along Newport Bay, from Bayside Drive Beach to Carnation Cove, is closed to swimmers after a sewage spill, an Orange County Health Care Agency notice said Wednesday. About 500 gallons of sewage overflowed from a blocked city of Newport Beach line, according to an OCHCA news release. Officials will continue to monitor water quality, and the affected areas will reopen once bacterial levels meet acceptable standards, it said. Agency spokesman Larry Honeybourne said Thursday that the earliest the affected areas could reopen would be Friday afternoon.
NEWS
By Jill Cowan | June 25, 2013
The Federal Aviation Administration could revisit Newport Beach's request that the agency consider developing an advanced departure procedure from John Wayne Airport that would dampen the roar of jet engines over homes neighboring the Upper Newport Bay, according to a letter the FAA sent the city. But first, FAA officials said, the world's busiest airport is in line for a test version of the upgrade. Starting this fall, Delta Air Lines pilots taking off from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will have the option of flying a Requiered Navigation Performance departure procedure, which would "take aircraft on a curving path over a golf course" west of the airport, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor wrote in an email.
NEWS
May 23, 2013
A dredging company reimbursed the city of Newport Beach for $25,000 in damages made to a sewer main, according to city documents. Newport Beach invoiced R.E. Staite Engineering Inc. for damages made Aug. 15 to the main during dredging around the Balboa Yacht Club, 1801 Bayside Drive, according to a city memo. The city received full payment May 17, according to Mary Locey, a city spokeswoman. That payment will cover the repair costs, but does not apply to any future fines that could be imposed by a regulatory agency, according to the city memo.
NEWS
By Annie Kim | April 19, 2013
Newport Beach residents Doug and Alice Brownell stood on the docks admiring a 39-foot catamaran exhibited Friday at the Newport Boat Show. The couple has attended the boat show, now celebrating its 40th anniversary, nearly every year since the 1970s. "We have our little Duffy, but it's fun to dream," Doug said, as Alice took photos of the catamaran. The reason the event has grown so big is its location - Newport harbor rather than a convention center floor - greatly enhances the feel and experience of the show by putting boats in their "natural environment," according to founder and producer Duncan McIntosh Jr. "This is the biggest water boat show on the West Coast," he said.