Waste

COSTA MESA — If your dog is not fixed, get ready to pay $80 to license it — quadruple the amount the city used to charge. The fee was one of several that were increased Tuesday by the City Council as part of a plan to shore up funds and address the budget deficit. Included in the $80 is $5 to finance the doggy waste bags program, which was slashed last year as part of budget cuts. The licensing fee for altered dogs was also increased from $10 to $25 and officials established a new fee for seniors, $10. Late fees will be an additional 50%. The last time Costa Mesa increased its dog license fee was about 20 years ago. The new fees are on par with the county average, according to a city staff report.

Romantic comedies seem to be Hollywood’s primary repository for mindless mush. “The Bounty Hunter” is the latest manifestation of this theory. Director Andy Tenant follows up his vapid effort in “Fool’s Gold” with this tedious and lackluster production. It wastes the talents everyone involved. Lovely Jennifer Aniston parades her perky self across the screen to collect another nice paycheck without any real acting required. She’s a TV news reporter on the trail of big story.

Costa Mesa and the Costa Mesa Community Foundation have launched a program for the public to help offset the city’s costs of providing materials to pick up dog waste at local parks. The K-9 Cleanup Sponsorship and Donation Program offers the public a tax-deductible way to donate money to the city that will go toward dog waste bags and dispensers at local parks. People can donate money or dog bags to the program. The city has had to remove all dog waste bags and their dispensers from city parks because of maintenance concerns and budget cuts.

A new study from a national environmental organization has found higher levels of bacteria in Newport Harbor and Upper Newport Bay than in the city’s surrounding coastal waters, but city and county officials say the water in the bay isn’t likely to make swimmers sick. The report from the Natural Resources Defense Council analyzed water quality results from beaches around the country. While the report found bacteria was a problem in some spots on Newport Bay, it probably isn’t from human waste, which could make a person ill, said Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff.

People often ask me how I can accomplish so much in the same time that everyone has. When I was serving as an LDS Bishop of Santa Ana in the 1970s, we had a unique congregation and taught Sunday school in seven languages! It was an extremely busy time, with the building of a new financial services organization in Newport Beach and helping to raise a large family. Speaking assignments took me all over the world, and there were major demands of several civic responsibilities. I knew that I had the ability to use my time very efficiently.

It’s understandable that a proposed ban on smoking in public places in Newport Beach might prompt some to think, “Don’t we have more pressing issues to consider?” Yes, we have a global economic meltdown that has touched virtually all of us and will likely continue to do so for years. But, sorry, Mayor Ed Selich, it’s not a “waste of time.” The serious health implications of smoking should always command our attention. Many experts have concluded nicotine is the most addictive drug.

Newport Beach will draft an ordinance that would outlaw smoking in some public places in the city, although two members of the City Council voiced opposition to such a ban Tuesday. “I have my own personal non-smoking ordinance,” Mayor Ed Selich said Tuesday at a City Council study session. “When it’s bothering me, I get up and get out of the way.” Selich opposed plans to move ahead with a no-smoking ordinance, which he called “a waste of time.

Every Friday, Harbor View Elementary School students have more to look forward to than just the weekend. They work together to create a greener, cleaner school. Half an hour before the students have their lunch break, rotating groups go around emptying recycling bins that have been set up all over the school. This weekly activity started in Harbor View last year as a part of the ?Green Up Our Schools? program. Other schools in the Newport-Mesa school district including Eastbluff Elementary and California Elementary have also adopted the program and have become ?

Got an old computer monitor or empty toner cartridges lying around the house? Bring them to the Newport Beach Country Club this weekend and receive two complimentary passes to watch some of golf’s past greats compete in the Toshiba Classic. The second annual Toshiba Swing for the Green recycling event provides the community a free and easy way to dispose of electronic waste. Such items include old laptops, camcorders, fax machines, VCRs ore cellular phones. For a full list of acceptable items, visit www.toshibaclassic.

On Nov. 12, 2004, Jackie Hawks barbecued with her friends and family aboard her and her husband’s boat, Well Deserved, for the last time. The Newport Beach retirees were selling it after two years of a life at sea, looking forward to spending time with their new grandchild in Arizona. Jackie spoke with a sadness of leaving the life behind, saying she’d miss it, but also with an air of excitement that a new chapter in their life was set to begin. That life was cut tragically short three days later when John F. Kennedy, Skylar Deleon — and accused-accomplice Alonso Machain, authorities believe — overpowered the Hawkses on their boat, tied them to an anchor alive, and threw them overboard, never to be seen again.