Headlines for the year ahead

Here’s a preview of stories you just might read in the Daily Pilot in 2006.OCPAC buildings attract attention

It’s not often a major symphony hall opens in one of the country’s biggest media markets. Expect worldwide audiences and national attention during the opening celebration at the new Henry and Renee Segerstrom Concert Hall and Samueli Theater on Sept. 15. Music Director Carl St. Clair will be conducting a performance that features a world premiere by composer William Bolcom. Tenor Placido Domingo is among the special guests invited to perform during the opening ceremonies.

Also look for the arts center to name a full-time president to replace interim president Judith O’Dea Morr.

Orange County Fair sets new records

As Orange County continues to grow, there’s no reason to doubt the Orange County Fair won’t get bigger as well. Fair attendance in 2005 topped the million mark for the first time, reaching 1,058,192. Organizers reported a 25% increase in admission revenue, raking in $4.5 million this year, compared with $3.6 million in 2004. Expect more crowds, more exhibitors and more big musical acts in 2006.

Measure F breaks first ground

By the end of 2006, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District should initiate its first construction project under Measure F, the $282-million bond that promises to renovate and modernize all 31 campuses in the district.

District officials haven’t yet decided what the first project will be, although prime candidates include a replacement for the closed Robins Hall at Newport Harbor High School, a football stadium at Estancia High, an Olympic-sized swimming pool at Costa Mesa High and a performing arts center at Corona del Mar High. Administrators also plan to establish science classrooms and improve infrastructure at all elementary schools.

During the first months of the year, the district will establish a pair of committees to help mediate the Measure F projects. One, the Citizens’ Oversight Committee, is mandated by state law and will review the district’s handling of bond moneys. The other, the Equity Advisory Committee, will ensure that all areas of the district receive an equal amount of attention.

Wanted: one superintendent

At a school board meeting in November, Supt. Robert Barbot announced that he will retire from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District at the end of this school year. Barbot, 59, who took the reins of Newport-Mesa in 1998, has overseen two strategic plans for the district and helped to push a pair of bond measures through.

In the wake of Barbot’s announcement, the district began outlining plans to conduct a nationwide search for a new superintendent. Dick Loveall, the director of executive search services for the California School Boards Assn., is spearheading the task of filling Barbot’s post.

During the first weeks of 2006, the school board plans to appoint a Superintendent Selection Advisory Council, consisting of parents, teachers, students and other members of the community. By March, the board will select a short list of candidates to interview and expects to choose the new superintendent by May.

Newport-Mesa’s new superintendent will take office July 1, at the start of the new school year. Shortly after announcing his retirement, Barbot said that he wanted to do charity work in the future, but would first fulfill a promise to his family and take six months off work.

Courts untangle web of KOCE-TV deal

The messiest story in Newport-Mesa next year will likely be the resolution of the current battle over KOCE-TV, Orange County’s only public television station, whose fate has rattled around the courts since the Coast Community College District sold it in 2004.

To recap the facts: In 2003, faced with diminished classroom funds, the district put KOCE up for sale. The following year, it closed the sale of the station to the KOCE-TV Foundation, which had bid $8 million in cash and $24 million in credit. However, the Daystar Television Network, which operates evangelical Christian stations across America, claimed that its $25-million cash bid was wrongly slighted.

In June of this year, an appellate court in Santa Ana ruled in Daystar’s favor and ordered the district to either keep the station or resell it to the highest bidder. Afterward, the district and foundation filed motions for rehearing, and Daystar filed an additional motion, demanding that the court immediately award it ownership of KOCE.

If the appellate court rules in favor of the district, then the case will be closed for the moment. However, if the judges order a transfer of ownership to Daystar, the foundation and the district will have to deal with the fact that much of the $8-million down payment has already been spent.

Milford Dahl, the attorney representing the district and foundation, said earlier this year that it would take a “Solomon decision” to sort out the tangle. As the parties await the latest ruling, though, “Real Orange” and other popular shows will continue on KOCE -- at least until further developments.

School combines college, high school

Last year, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and Coast Community College District announced plans to establish an Early College High School in September 2006.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which supports early college high schools across America, has already contributed $400,000 over five years for the Newport-Mesa campus. The school would combine high school and college curricula and allow students to graduate in five years with a diploma and an associate in arts degree.

Mike Murphy, student services director for Newport-Mesa, and Ed Decker, general education dean for Coastline Community College, are overseeing the project. Murphy said the alternative education center in Costa Mesa, which houses Back Bay and Monte Vista High School, would likely serve as the grounds for the Early College High School as well.

Case against suspected killers continues

As late as November it was reported that it could take more than a year to begin the trial against the defendants charged with killing Tom and Jackie Hawks. Prosecutors have charged five people with two counts of murder in connection with the Hawkses’ killing. The couple have not been seen since they disappeared in November 2004.

The five defendants in the case are Skylar Deleon, 26, of Long Beach; his 24-year-old wife, Jennifer Henderson-Deleon; John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 40, of Long Beach; Alonso Machain, 22, of Pico Rivera; and Myron Gardner, 42, of Long Beach.

Reportedly, the Deleons had talked to the Hawkses about buying Well Deserved, the Hawkses’ 55-foot cabin cruiser. Machain has told police that on Nov. 15, 2004, he joined Skylar Deleon and Kennedy on the yacht and the three men attacked the Hawskes, tied them to the vessel’s anchor and threw them overboard.

The judge in the case has agreed to sever proceedings for Machain and Gardner from those of the other three defendants.

Sentencing set for sexual assault

A sentencing hearing was scheduled for Jan. 20 for Greg Haidl, Kyle Nachreiner and Keith Spann. The three young men were convicted in March of sexually assaulting a woman identified only as Jane Doe in Corona del Mar in 2002. Haidl is the son of former Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, and the three were convicted after two highly-publicized trials, the first of which ended in a hung jury. The prosecution’s case relied heavily on videotaped evidence of the crime.

Greg Haidl faces a maximum sentence of 18 years in prison. Spann could serve as much as 16 years and Nachreiner 14 years. The three have also been ordered to register as sex offenders.

Thursday, Doe filed a civil suit naming Haidl, Spann and Nachreiner as defendants. Others named in the suit include members of the Haidl family and defense attorney Joseph Cavallo.

Workers dig muck from Upper Newport Bay

Local environmentalists got their wish in 2005 when the federal government set aside $5 million to dredge the Upper Newport Bay. Dredging supporters have said the project is needed to prevent the scenic estuary from filling with silt and becoming a meadow.

Dredging work is likely to begin in February, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Greg Fuderer said in December. This month, local officials will have an eye on President George W. Bush’s federal budget proposal. The dredging project is not yet fully-funded and more federal money is needed to see the work through to completion. The dredging project is likely to be a three-year effort.

In August, Orange County supervisors approved a dredging plan that projected the cost of dredging at $39.2 million. With 2005’s appropriation, $18 million from state and federal sources has been allocated for dredging. Newport Beach City Councilman Tod Ridgeway, who has lobbied for the project, said in November that he expects additional funding will be easier to come by after the project begins.

Home prices rise more, or drop, or ...

Home values around Newport-Mesa rose in 2005, but can appreciation continue another year? On the bearish side of the debate are economists like Chapman University’s Esmael Adibi and Cal State Fullerton’s Anil Puri. In forecasts presented in autumn, both Adibi and Puri predicted Orange County home values will drop by the end of this year. The California Assn. of Realtors and UC Irvine’s G. Christopher Davis have espoused the opposite view, expecting home prices to continue their upward trend in 2006.

Only time will tell whose predictions were more accurate. Economists and real estate professionals do seem to agree that interest rates will have a significant effect on the future of the home market. Mortgage rates rose steadily through 2005, but analysts differ on whether costlier loans will force home prices to dip or simply slow the rate of appreciation.

New businesses set up shop at Triangle Square