Mesa Water to host community festival to celebrate health, happiness and community

Mesa Water District, which supplies water to 110,000 residents throughout Costa Mesa and parts of Newport Beach, invites the community to a free family-friendly festival at its headquarters in Costa Mesa. The “I ♥ Mesa Water” festival, to be held on Saturday, Sept. 23 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., will celebrate health, happiness, and community.

The festival will kick off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially launch Mesa Water’s new water vending machine. After the ceremony, festival attendees will receive a reuseable water bottle (while supplies last) for a free fill-up of fresh drinking water from Mesa Water’s new water vending machine.

“With Mesa Water’s mission of satisfying our community’s water needs, we are dedicated to engaging with and serving all customers, while also contributing to our community members’ health and happiness,” said Mesa Water Board President Jim Atkinson. “Our new water vending machine is a convenient source of affordable, quality drinking water for our public to enjoy and stay hydrated.”

Alongside Mesa Water, eleven local nonprofits and community organizations will host a booth at the festival to provide activities and giveaways for attendees, while also sharing information about their resources that support health and happiness in the community. To date, participating partners include the following:

– City of Costa Mesa Parks and Community Services

– Melinda Hoag Smith Center for Healthy Living

– Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce

– MIKA Community Development Corporation

– Costa Mesa Family Resource Center

– Save Our Youth

– Share Our Selves

– Friends of the Costa Mesa Libraries

– Youth Employment Service

– Vanguard University Jesse Miranda Center for Hispanic Leadership

– Los Angeles Chargers

Taking place in the parking lot of Mesa Water’s headquarters in Costa Mesa, at 1965 Placentia Avenue, the festival will include live music by VOX DJs, healthy food, a “Chargers Quarterback Toss” for attendees to test their skills, a “Swift Kick Soccer Challenge” game, prizes, face painting, a bubble artist, caricature artist, and more!



Fire and police staff to gather at fire stations Monday to mark the 16th anniversary of Sept. 11 attacks

This Monday will mark the 16th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of approximately 3,000 people, many of them first responders.

As in years past, the Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue and the Police Departments will join together in remembrance with other fire/rescue and law enforcement agencies throughout the region (and the country) in memory of those lives who were lost on that day in history.

“Sept. 11 is an important time for all of us to come together to reflect, honor, and pay a special tribute to our brothers and sisters in the uniformed services (343 – fallen members of FDNY, 23 fallen members of NYPD, and 37 fallen members of the Port Authority Police) and all of the innocent victims (2,574) who lost their lives on 9/11,” Fire Chief Dan Stefano said. “We will always remember.”

The Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue Department and the Costa Mesa Police Department will have personnel gathering at all of the city’s six fire stations and are extending an open invitation to city residents, community members, and visitors to join us from 8:30 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. for some shared time of reflection.

The gathering areas will be in front of each fire station and similar remembrance ceremonies will be conducted concurrently with all of the Orange County Fire Service Agencies participating.



City’s new Transportation Manager takes the helm

Public Services recently announced the arrival of Jennifer Rosales as the city’s new Transportation Manager.

Rosales has over 20 years of experience in transportation engineering, transportation planning, project management, and transportation management. She most recently worked in the City of San Clemente where she managed the City’s traffic signal system, traffic calming program, transportation programs including seasonal trolley, and complex multi-modal transportation/civil engineering design and construction projects.

Rosales is recognized internationally as an industry leader in innovative street design and contextually complete streets. She is active speaking and publishing internationally with over 25 publications.

Rosales developed an award-winning, comprehensive practitioner’s guidebook called “Road Diet Handbook: Setting Trends for Livable Streets.” For her work on the Road Diet Handbook, she was named to the “2007 Trendsetters List” of Public Works magazine. Rosales received the Past Presidents’ Award for Merit in Transportation Engineering from the Institute of Transportation Engineers in 2007.

Rosales is a registered professional engineer, certified professional traffic operations engineer, and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from Oregon State University.

She is a leader in the transportation industry including Past International Director on the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Board of Direction from 2014-16, Past President of the ITE Western District, and Past Chair of ITE’s Standing Committee on Ethics Issues. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Transportation Professional Certification Board. Rosales enjoys spending time on the golf course, tennis court, the beach, bike trails and adventures with her dogs, Brooke and Velvet.



Street sweeping postponed for one week due to Labor Day holiday

Due to the observation of the Labor Day holiday on Monday Sept. 4, there will be no residential street sweeping the entire week from Sept. 5 through Sept. 8.

The reason for this is that the Costa Mesa Sanitary District also observes this holiday by pushing trash collection back one day.

This results in residential gutter lines being cluttered with trash cans making it impossible for street sweeper operators to do an efficient job.  

No citations will be written all week. Street sweeping will resume back to normal schedule starting the week of Sept. 11, 2017.

The following are a list of tasks that CleanStreet operators will be conducting next week:

 The City’s street sweeping hotline has been updated with all the information above alerting residents about next week’s sweeping schedule. Click here for more information on the city’s website.



Mesa Water District working to restore water service in several locations

Mesa Water District crews are working Wednesday Aug. 30 to repair several water main breaks that caused loss of water service in areas throughout the city.

The first main break happened on Tuesday evening at Costa Mesa Street and Orange Ave, Costa Mesa: Water service was restored by 10 p.m. and crews were still cleaning up on Wednesday.

On Mendoza Street, affected residents have been notified of a water main break and crews are working on restoring service. Mendoza is anticipated to have restored service by 3 p.m. Wednesday.

On Airport Loop reports are that water service is off for two commercial buildings. Mesa Water District staff is talking to customers there and crews are on site assessing.

Water service is on along Meyer Place but will be turned off to make repairs Wednesday. Mesa Water will notify school and residents.

For more information please visit the Mesa Water District website here.



Networking pays off for IT’s Swanson as he gets City Manager Leadership Award  

City Manager Tom Hatch presented IT Network Administrator Lloyd Swanson with this month’s City Manager Leadership Award at the Meet and Greet employee get together on Thursday Aug. 24.

“Lloyd has a critical job when it comes to supporting the technology needs of City Hall staff,” Hatch said. “I admire him for his knowledge, patience and problem-solving abilities. His commitment to doing excellent work makes him a great role model for all of us here and this is just an opportunity to thank and honor him for his dedication.”

Swanson joined the City of Costa Mesa in December of 2000 as an Information System Specialist and was assigned to the Police Department until June 30, 2003, when he moved to City Hall.

In May of 2005, his title was changed to Network Administrator.

Swanson excels in customer service and genuinely loves helping users with any problems.

At one point, Lloyd was single handedly supporting both the City and the Public safety system, which included being on call 24/7 for six months.

Prior to working in Costa Mesa, Swanson was hired by the Newport Beach Police Department in 1993 as a part-time Parking Control Officer. His IT career began later in 1997 as he started taking information technology courses at Coastline Community College.

With that technical knowledge, he was later transferred to the IT Department of the Newport Beach PD.

Swanson graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration (Urban and Regional Planning) from USC.

In addition to Swanson, Hatch honored several newly hired and promoted employees as well as one who is retiring.

In the new hire area, Hatch welcomed Eric Arellano, who is an intern in the City Manager’s Office, Parks & Community Services employees Amanda Fenner a new Recreation Leader IV,  Vanessa Orellana a Recreation Leader II and Alexander Schmitten Recreation Leader III.

From the Police Department he welcomed new Animal Control Officer Amanda Clover and new Crime Scene Specialist Robert Rueda as well as Michael Sampson a new Associate Engineer with Public Services. He also honored Parks & Community Services employee Allison Burch for her promotion to Administrative Secretary.

Finally, Hatch took a special mention to bid farewell to his outgoing Executive Administrator Kelly Shelton, who is retiring on Aug. 31.

“I love Kelly and I am going to miss her very much,” Hatch said.



Area on the Eastside scheduled for resurfacing of streets starting Thursday Aug. 24

A slurry seal resurfacing treatment that provides pavement protection from weathering will be applied in an Eastside neighborhood on Thursday Aug. 24 and Friday Aug. 25.

Access through this area will be limited during the working hours of 7 a.m. to 5  p.m.

Click here to view a map that shows the Area 25 section that will be resurfaced. The area is bordered by 22nd Street to the south, Newport Boulevard to the West, Santa Isabel Avenue to north to the eastern city limits.

“No Parking” signs have been posted in the neighborhood, indicating the dates and times in which vehicles may not park, drive, or access the streets.

Cooperation in observing all traffic control and parking restrictions will be greatly appreciated and will help in expediting the construction and yielding a better finished product.

A challenge with the slurry seal treatment is minimizing the amount of tire marks upon re-opening of the streets. Slurry seal is susceptible to deformation the first week following construction.

Therefore, the city is asking for everyone’s assistance when driving on these slurried streets, to avoid making sharp turns into and out of driveways and intersections.

Vehicle power steering puts tremendous force on the pavement with little effort from the driver. Whenever possible, and safe, please make wide, fluid turns into and out of driveways and intersections to avoid digging into the slurry.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated.



City launches new web page to help residents report aircraft noise and concerns

In response to increased concerns about noise and flight patterns of aircraft flying in and out of John Wayne and other local airports, the city has created a new page titled, Airport Noise and Concerns, that provides residents with important resources for monitoring air traffic.

By clicking on the page here , residents can call JWA directly and the page provides access numbers and websites for the Federal Aviation Administration and Long Beach Airport.

City staff continues to work with county and regional officials to stay up to date on any changes regarding air traffic and noise.

Click here for a related story on noise curfew violations at Long Beach Airport.



Edison to perform infrastructure testing on the Eastside beginning Monday Aug. 21

Southern California Edison crews will be working in certain Eastside Costa Mesa neighborhoods to make improvements to the electrical grid beginning Aug. 21 and extending through Friday Aug. 25.

The work will commence typically between the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

This maintenance work is important to ensure the power grid is supported with up to date technology and reliability for continuous improvement.

Click here to read the letter from Edison and to learn which areas are to be affected.



Vernal pools to get some protective fencing soon

Public Services, in collaboration with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, has completed bid documents for the Fairview Park Vernal Pool Fencing Project.

Per the Fairview Park Master Plan, all seven vernal pools on the west side of the park, and one on the east side, will be protected by installing cable rail fencing. Approximately 6,500 linear feet of fencing will be installed in the fall of 2017.

The Fairview Park vernal pools are home to small aquatic crustaceans, the San Diego and Riverside fairy shrimp (Branchinecta sandiegonensis and Streptocephalus woottoni), which are listed as federally endangered species.

For more information on vernal pools and other biological resources at Fairview Park, please visit the City’s website at https://www.costamesaca.gov/index.aspx?page=1576.



Caltrans to close a connector and on-ramp for paving work on Friday Aug. 11 through 4 a.m. Aug. 12

Caltrans will be closing both the Southbound SR-55 connector to the Northbound I-405 and the Bristol Street on-ramp to the Northbound I-405 this Friday evening, Aug.11 from 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. Saturday Aug. 12 for AC paving.

Caltrans appreciates the public’s patience while this work is being conducted.

Detour signs will be posted to alert motorists of the closure.

For more information, you may contact the District 12 Public Information Office at (657) 328-6000 or log on to the Caltrans website at www.dot.ca.gov/dist12.

 



Community comes out to support groundbreaking event for new library and community center

Mayor Katrina Foley, Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Genis and City Council Members Jim Righeimer and John Stephens joined city staff to and other members of the community to officially break ground on the new Lions Park Projects last Friday.

Also in attendance were state Sen. John Moorlach, Chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors Michelle Steel, Supervisor Second District, project architect Steve Johnson as well as Orange County Librarian Helen Fried.

The $36.5 million public works projects will include a new 20,000-square-foot Donald Dungan Library as well as the refurbishment of the existing library into a new Neighborhood Community Center and many park improvements.

About 150 members of the public attended the event.

To see a slideshow from Friday’s groundbreaking, click here.