Tony Dodero -- From the Newsroom

It’s all eerily familiar.

West Newport residents gearing up for this Wednesday’s annual Fourth

of July beer and bikini fest, in which thousands upon thousands of young

Independence Day celebrators will converge upon the beaches and Seashore

Drive looking for some summer fun.

Somehow, I’ve heard this all before.

Of course so have the people who call this place home 365 days a year

and don’t see any fun in public urination, drunken teens fighting and

cursing and armies of skateboarders and bikers advancing like Roman

warriors.

So when the call came out for community meetings and discussions with

the police, it felt like, as Yogi Berra would say, deja vu all over

again.

Back in 1992, West Newport had a pretty big problem. The Seashore

Drive craziness had reached a crescendo and three people were shot, one

stabbed and several arrested in a Fourth of July melee at the beach.

And suddenly, the people who live with the noise and trash and rowdies

had the rapt attention of the City Council -- and more importantly, the

attention of former Councilwoman and Mayor Jan Debay, herself a longtime

West Newport resident.

I caught up with the former mayor this week to talk about those days.

West Newport does have an allure that sometimes makes people forget

that it is indeed a community smack dab on the beach. And Debay was no

exception to that when she moved to that side of town with her family.

“We came from a typical neighborhood and I really had no idea what it

was like,” she said of the beachfront community that is now home to king

partyer Dennis Rodman.

After the 1992 mess, Debay, former Councilman John Hedges and former

Deputy City Manager Ken Delino got busy on a West Newport July 4

committee and came up with strong sanctions for the revelers.

For the 1993 Fourth of July plans, the idea of erecting chain-link

fence barricades on Seashore was born, along with tough new noise

ordinances, a caller complaint hotline, better trash pickup and tough

punishments for renters who get out of hand.

Real estate agents started writing provisions within their leases to

weekly renters that if there was a complaint about the tenants, they

would have to leave immediately.

And once the property management people notify the tenants, the police

have carte blanche to enforce that rule and kick the rowdies out.

Debay said most rental agencies abide by these rules and only one or

two holdouts refuse to monitor their tenants.

In recent years, property owners have painted yellow lines to indicate

no parking zones and that has improved that situation immensely, Debay

said.

And despite last year’s minor flare-up, it seems most of the hard work

has paid off.

“I think it’s better,” Debay said of the area that was once derisively

called, “the war zone,” although she wants part of the credit for the

improvements.

The key, of course, have been the barricades, which basically put a

chokehold on the main lifeline for the partyers, skaters and bikers who

clog up Seashore Drive and created havoc.

“When the barricades went up, they couldn’t parade up and down

Seashore anymore,” Debay said. “Even though it’s not fun to have

chain-link fences up, it served a purpose.”

But Debay said everyone wasn’t convinced that first year that the

barricades would work.

“The cops were worried,” she said. “They thought people would be

tearing down fences.”

Of course that didn’t happen.

Don’t be fooled, though. There will always be a few who get out of

control, and there will always be crowds on the Fourth of July. Big

crowds. But for now, West Newport has tackled many of its problems and

the residents there owe a debt of gratitude to Debay and other city

leaders who made things better.

Take it from Debay, who moved away from her West Newport home but now

yearns for those days.

“I miss the ocean, I really do,” she said. “Our kids grew up and left

and we went to a condo and I’ve been sorry ever since. I’d be back there

in a minute if I could.”

* TONY DODERO is the editor. His column appears on Mondays. If you

have story ideas or concerns about news coverage please send messages

either via e-mail to [email protected] or by phone at 949-574-4258.