Week in Review

NEWPORT BEACH

Seven-month search for jungle cat ends happilyAfter spending seven months on the loose, Mikette Von Issenberg’s African jungle cat, Kimba, returned home on the morning of Jan. 6 in the arms of his elated owner.

Kimba escaped from his Corona del Mar home in June, when his owner was undergoing treatment at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

She was relieved to get a call at 6 a.m. on Jan. 6 from Jerry and Carole Anne Ruoff, who trapped Kimba after several attempts. They had recognized him as missing from a newspaper advertisement.

NEWS

John Crean, philanthropist and entrepreneur, dies at 81John Crean, a longtime Newport Beach resident and generous philanthropist, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 81.

Crean made a fortune with Fleetwood Enterprises, a motor home and manufactured housing company he founded in 1950, he was one of the Orange County GOP’s biggest contributors, and he hosted more than 200 episodes of a popular cable TV cooking show even though he wasn’t exactly a whiz in the kitchen.

Friends remembered Crean as a decisive man with an irreverent sense of humor who never became uppity about his success and gave generously to causes he believed in. Crean made some of his many charitable gifts to the Mariner’s branch library and Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, and a variety of children’s charities.

BUSINESS

Restaurants gear up for promotional weekThe Newport Beach Restaurant Assn. kicked off its upcoming Newport Beach Restaurant Week last week, with a party benefiting the city’s adopted Marine battalion, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines.

Restaurant Week is the first of its kind in the city and is modeled after similar events in other cities. From Jan. 21 through 25, about 70 restaurants will offer a three-course fixed menu for lunch and dinner, costing $12.95 for lunch and $26.95 for dinner — a bargain considering some of the event’s participants, which include the Ritz, the Arches and Bayside Restaurant.

The association is also launching an online reservation system, which has about 35 participants so far. For more information, go to www.newportbeachdining.com.

COSTA MESA

City begins sending impounded animals to IrvineCity officials announced they began taking impounded animals last weekend to the Irvine Animal Care Center instead of the Orange County Human Society’s Huntington Beach facility, after a city contract with the humane society shelter expired.

City Manager Allan Roeder said the city will request proposals for a new contract, and the Huntington Beach shelter would be eligible to apply, but in the short term he wasn’t sure it could handle Costa Mesa’s animals.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Sailor returns home after being stranded at seaKen Barnes Jr., whose boat was crippled by a 25-foot wave off the coast of Chile the week before last, got off a plane at John Wayne Airport on Tuesday morning and reunited with his family and girlfriend, Cathy Chambers. Talking to reporters, the Newport Beach resident walked them through his three-day ordeal in a sailboat that had lost both masts and all steering, had broken hatches letting in water, and with most of its electronics shorted out.

Barnes, who sold his business and his home to make the voyage, said he was unsure of his next steps. his life before making new plans. He had mixed feelings; he was glad to be alive and see his family, but he wished he could have completed his planned nonstop voyage around the world.

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

“It’s unheard of for a cat to survive out there. He didn’t act like a prey animal, but stood his ground and acted like, ‘Hey, I belong here — back off.’ “— Mark Klemperer, breeder and the owner of Wildcat Canyon Ranch, on the return of an African jungle cat hybrid named Kimba that strayed from its owner’s Corona del Mar home in June and was returned Jan. 6

“We felt that most people will say it’s a good idea. It’s not like it’s going to be gestapo, telling people they have to water a certain way.”

— Bob Stein, an engineer in the Newport Beach public works department, on a possible new rule that would give code enforcement officers the authority to cite homeowners for creating too much runoff from their sprinkler systems

“We all have dreams. You’ve got to live life. You’ve got to do what you need to do…. Now I’d like to get back to my family.”

— Ken Barnes Jr., a Newport Beach sailor who was adrift in his crippled sailboat for several days off the coast of Chile, on the scuttled around-the-world trip he put 12 years and all his financial resources into making

“The majority of the owners led us to believe that that property was for sale. We acted under that assumption. We never said we were going to take that property by eminent domain.”

— Steve Rosansky, mayor of Newport Beach, on the City Council’s decision to stop pursuing a property for a new city hall that is home to the Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club

“I never met a more down-to-earth, likable person. You never looked at John Crean and looked at money, you looked at John Crean and saw a powerful human soul.”

— Michael Nason, spokesman for Crystal Cathedral Pastor Robert H. Schuller, on Newport Beach philanthropist John Crean, who died Thursday

“We knew that they were going to be downsized. We were concerned about their ability to maintain their contract with us.”

— Allan Roeder, Costa Mesa city manager, on the decision to take impounded animals to the Irvine Animal Care Center rather than the Orange County Humane Society in Huntington Beach, which recently began renovations but remained open; Costa Mesa’s contract with the Huntington shelter for animal control services expired Dec. 30.