The Costa Mesa Police Department has concluded that a proposal by the Orange County Needle Exchange Program (OCNEP) to distribute syringes in the Westside of Costa Mesa has the potential to increase discarded needles in the city and present a safety risk to residents and others.

According to the Department of Public Health website, the Orange County Needle Exchange Program has submitted an application to operate its needle exchange program daily in Costa Mesa from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in an area bounded by (N) West 18th Street, (E) Monrovia Avenue, (S) West 16th Street, (W) the outer border of Armstrong Petroleum.

The Costa Mesa Police Department submitted a response to the California Department of Public Health opposing the program.

Click here to read the response.

Members of the public who are interested in more information or commenting on this program can visit the California Department of Public Health’s application page here.

Responses can be sent to this email address SEPApplication@cdph.ca.gov.

Click here to read the full application by the Orange County Needle Exchange Program. 

Audi Fletcher Jones has opened a new auto dealership at the former Autoplex site located at 375 Bristol Street in Costa Mesa.

“We welcome Audi Fletcher Jones to our community and are delighted to have them join the many successful auto dealerships who call Costa Mesa home,” Mayor Sandy Genis said.

Audi Fletcher Jones revamped the existing building with a variety of improvements.

The dealership occupies a majority of the site, retaining a few of the existing tenants such as Sandwich World.

Public Services Maintenance staff recently completed upgrades to the lighting at Ketchum Libolt Park.

The existing high pressure sodium lights were inefficient and did not provide a sufficient amount of light.

Rear portions of the park are lit dimly at night. Staff replaced the inefficient lights with high efficiency, brighter LED lights. The rear of the park now has a quad multi-directional light mount, which can illuminate several areas of the park simultaneously. Staff also painted the light posts for an overall aesthetic improvement to the park.

Drill Exploration will occur intermittently throughout the I-405 Improvement Project area from April 23 to April 27.

Drill Exploration is performed to obtain information on the soil and rock around a site in order to design structures. Crews will be on the northbound (NB) and southbound (SB) lanes of the I-405 freeway.

Click here for a map of construction locations and times.

Students from The Architectural Technology program at Orange Coast College volunteered at Snoopy house this past weekend and provided some much-need assistance with some of the more complex moving pieces associated with Snoopy and the Gang.

The Architectural program offers courses in design, building materials, construction documents, design graphics, and computer-assisted design and drafting and provides students with the discipline and critical thinking skills.

As part of the I-405 Improvement Project, OCTA announced that beginning Monday Oct. 9, construction work will take place from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. at the following locations:

• NB I-405 HOV inside lane from MacArthur Boulevard to SR-73
• NB I-405 merge lane from Bristol Street to South Coast Drive
• SB I-405 / SR-73 connector to Bear Street
• SB I-405 near Harbor Boulevard to Fairview Road
• Fairview Road bridge
• Harbor Boulevard bridge

OCTA in cooperation with The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is widening the San Diego Freeway (I-405) between State Route 73 (SR-73) and Interstate 605 (I-605). The project will improve 16 miles of I-405 between the SR-73 freeway in Costa Mesa and I-605 near the L.A. County line.

The Costa Mesa Police Department collaborated with the Orange County Probation Department last week to conduct compliance checks on offenders subject to Post-Release Community Supervision (PRCS), per the State Prison Realignment Assembly Bill 109.

These checks were designed to locate and audit the activity of local criminal offenders residing within the City of Costa Mesa who are under the supervision of OC Probation.

Officers completed 27 residential home checks of offenders and contacted 43 individuals, 23 of which were and classified as PRCS/Probation offenders and five of which were on formal probation with gang terms.

The compliance checks resulted in eight offenders being arrested for violations of the conditions of their probation and/or new criminal law violations, and two other individuals being cited for having an open container in public.

The fields that the Los Angeles Chargers football team will use for Summer 2017 Training Camp are undergoing final preparation before lush sod can be laid at the site.

Phase I construction included extensive grounds preparation as a means to support the highest quality sports turf available.  The Chargers will be releasing an official Summer Training Camp schedule soon.

The camp, which will be free and open to the public for viewing is scheduled to begin in late July.

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson recently announced that 275 middle schools and high schools are being honored under the Gold Ribbon Schools Awards Program.

Schools applied for the award based on a model program or practice their school has adopted that includes standards-based activities, projects, strategies, and practices that can be replicated by other local educational agencies. The award acknowledged elementary schools last year.

“These terrific schools are leading the way in embracing our new rigorous academic standards and showing others how to help students succeed on their way to 21st century careers and college,” Torlakson said. “I look forward to traveling the state to honor these schools and to help share the programs, methods, and techniques that are working.”

The Gold Ribbon Awards recognize California schools that have made gains in implementing the academic content and performance standards adopted by the State Board of Education. These include the California Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics, California English Language Development Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards.

The 2017 Gold Ribbon Schools as well as the 2017 Exemplary Program recipients, Title I Academic Achieving Award Schools, 2017 Green Ribbon Schools, 2017 Civic Learning Award Schools, and the National Blue Ribbon Schools from 2016, will be honored in May during regional ceremonies held in Costa Mesa, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Visalia, and Sacramento.

Click here to read the California Department of Education full News Release.

Costa Mesa Fire and Rescue recruits continue to progress in their academy training.  Recently, the academy cadre was led by Captain Joe Noceti and the recruits trained with live fire. Recruits learned about fire behavior, fire attack principles and the dangers of attacking a fire.

Some of the recruits had eyes as wide as saucers as this was their first time attacking a fire in a controlled environment.

Maintenance Division staff, in coordination with CleanStreets, recently performed pressure washing on 19th Street to clean up areas that were becoming increasingly dirty and unhealthful. And in recent weeks, the city has also worked Clear Channel to clean up some of the bus benches and shelters throughout the city, which had also become health hazards.

For the early morning pressure washing, City workers picked up all the debris left from the homeless prior to washing. Also, using two graffiti trucks, CleanStreets accomplished quite a bit in two hours prior to the start of rush hour.

They pressure washed the soup kitchen area, which was extremely filthy and covered in gum, and then pressure washed the entire length of west bound 19th from Meyer to Pomona, which included The Tower.

They then pressure washed the east bound sidewalk from the Senior Center all the way to McDonald’s. Most of the wash water was directed into the adjacent City shrub planters, with the sweeper picking up any water that went into the street in the areas without landscape. While the city did its best with the steam cleaner, it was only able to remove small amounts of the gum that had accumulated.

Everything was completed in two hours. Residents with street sweeping requests are encouraged to call 714-327-7471 or the Street Sweeping Hotline (Parking Enforcement): 714-754-5290.

The Costa Mesa Conference and Visitor Bureau announced this week that it has officially changed its name to Travel Costa Mesa, and the organization relocated to a new and updated office across the street from South Coast Plaza.

“We felt it was time to make our name more impactful and recognizable,” said Paulette Lombardi- Fries, President of Travel Costa Mesa. “We wanted to ensure that website visitors and readers who saw our name knew exactly what our purpose was, to inform about and encourage travel to the city of Costa Mesa.”

The official name now matches the website address, www.travelcostamesa.com.

“We’ve also added ‘California’ to our updated logo, to let prospective visitors seeing our marketing programs know we are the official City of the Arts, in the amazing state of California,” said Lombardi-Fries.

Travel Costa Mesa’s new and updated address is 940 South Coast Drive, Suite #265, Costa Mesa, California, 92626. The phone number remains unchanged – 888.588.9417.

Visitors to the city are welcome to visit the new office for additional information about attractions and activities in the city of Costa Mesa.