city council district 6 v corona del mar & newport coast
Nancy Gardner
council member v newport beach, california
newsletter: november 2010
TALK ABOUT THE BOY SCOUTS
Be prepared. That’s the purpose of biannual Emergency
Operation Center drills which train staff to handle a disaster situation. I
observed part of this year’s drill which took place at the current EOC at
police headquarters. The simulated disaster was a 7.1 earthquake, and as the
day went on, numerous incidents were reported and dealt with: fires,
collapsed buildings, road slides, an interview with Anderson Cooper (if he
can visit New Orleans he can come here). I got there at the beginning, and
everything was ready to go, but it was pointed out that in a real situation,
it would take about two hours to make this EOC functional. That will be
another benefit of the new civic center. It will have a dedicated EOC which
can be up and running within minutes.
DREDGING
We had a meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) to
meet Colonel Toy, the new commander for our area, who seemed quite aware of
the city’s issues. Everything depends on funding, but at this point there’s
money in the federal budget to make a start on the lower bay dredging during
the next fiscal year. Let’s hope the money stays in the budget. The other
good news was that ACE wants to do a cleanup of the salt water marsh at this
end of the Santa Ana River, and it will be an opportunity for the city to
coordinate and get the Newport slough area dredged as well. The city made it
clear to ACE that we have funding for our share of the project.
YES, BUT CAN WE HANDLE THE QUEEN MARY?
Before the end of the year, we’ll have a study session on
boat size and overhang in the harbor. Right now a boat can overhang the pier
or slip by the width of its beam. As boats get bigger, the overhang has
become greater, and now there is a proposal to bring a new charter boat into
the harbor, the biggest yet, so it seems like a good time to review the
policy to be sure that it is keeping pace with the times.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Newport Beach Historical Society has rather lapsed in the last few years,
but there’s an effort to revitalize it, launched with a Bawdy Balboa evening
celebrating my father. They had almost one hundred people at the Pavilion, with
old friends relating anecdotes and reading from Bawdy Balboa and his old Daily
Pilot columns. They also had copies of Bawdy Balboa available, to my surprise
since I didn’t know there were any left. The evening was taped and can be seen
on Timeless Treasures on NBTV. For more information on the society, go to
www.NewportBeachHistorical.com.
GLAD THAT’S OVER
Everything I read and hear says that despite everyone’s stated dislike of them,
negative campaigns work. At the local level, one mailer suggested we’re a vote
away from being the City of Bell. I don’t know whether it’s because we’re an
informed and educated community or people just liked the other candidate, but in
this case, the negative campaign didn’t work. As for robocalls, I don’t buy
anything over the phone whether it’s carpet cleaning or candidates so I spent a
great deal of time the past month hanging up. If I were more disciplined, I
wouldn’t answer in the first place.
FUTURE TOPIC SUGGESTIONS
This is a two-way process, so please don’t hesitate to contact me with your ideas and opinions.
Council Member Nancy Gardner
QUALITY OF LIFE Advocate FOR NEWPORT BEACH
City of Newport Beach | 3300 Newport Blvd | Newport Beach, CA 92663
Phone: 949.644.3004 | EMAIL: gardnerncy@aol.com
Copyright 2010 v Nancy Gardner v All Rights Reserved