Larry Nokes, chair of the view equity committee established in January, told council members a consensus is emerging and noted that “the folks concerned with view restoration were not so far from the people who feared clear cutting,” an option he insisted was never on the table.

Because points of contention still remain, Nokes said he had begun to meet with groups separately and plans to bring them together to hash out their differences before the eight-member committee comes up with a finalized draft of the ordinance to present to the council. Three groups, including the recently formed Citizens for View Preservation and Restoration, the Beautification Council and Village Laguna have all contributed input, Nokes said.

Borrowing ideas from court-tested ordinances in Rancho Palos Verdes and Tiburon, Nokes said the committee took the premise that views are a vital resource and worked on a framework to protect them. The current draft outlines a process where the property owners faced with a view obstruction would first contact the vegetation owner to attempt an amicable resolution. Failing that, property owners would seek mediation arranged by the city. If that too failed, property owners could file a formal view restoration claim before a yet to be established committee that would assess the view blockage and make a recommendation.

The burden of cost is among the few differences that remain, said Greg Gilroy, on the steering committee of Citizens for View Preservation and Restoration. “We feel strongly that no one should pay to manage the vegetation of another home owner,” he said, countering the draft proposal’s stipulation that the view claimant cover initial costs.

The city bears some responsibility for inadequately educating the public about responsible landscaping choices, said Laguna Nursery owner Ruben Flores, pointing out an oak tree just planted by city workers in a beautification project on Broadway Street will, ironically, likely block the office view of Nokes in a few years.

Because situations will vary, resident Bob Chapman urged the inclusion of more objective criteria and conditions in the ordinance to strengthen the oversight committee’s rulings. “We need to get as far into the objective world as we can,” agreed council member Bob Whalen, who also asked staff to investigate legal costs in the event the ordinance is challenged as well as any inconsistencies with the city’s general plan.

Council member Steve Dicterow proposed that the deciding committee be composed of five members with one-year terms, with each city council member appointing one person.

While some residents have been vilified for speaking up for the trees, the door swings both ways. “I resent people that want to preserve their views being called tree haters,” lamented Lynda Wisecup. “We all love trees, and we all love views, and I think something can be done for everybody.”

“There are no tree haters here,” agreed Dave Russell, but said an ordinance is needed to help people with view obstructions.

Council member Toni Iseman balked at the ordinance’s estimated $300,000 to $400,000 annual cost, and suggested dividing the enforcement costs equally between the city, the view claimant and the vegetation owner. City Manager John Pietig said costs were based on the experience of Rancho Palos Verdes and staff still needs to determine the manpower needed and fees to offset those costs.

With the Boston marathon bombing as the backdrop, council members put aside privacy concerns and supported the installation of public video monitoring equipment, taking advantage of a higher than anticipated general fund balance announced earlier this year.

Iseman’s request to use $90,000 of the $3.2 million windfall for surveillance cameras at strategic locations was endorsed unanimously by the other council members at a meeting in February.

Following up on Tuesday, police Captain Jason Kravetz described three different options: placing cameras downtown at key locations that generate complaints and public safety calls; installing traffic cameras to identify congestion; or adding cameras at the city’s three exit points.

Staff had yet to compile cost estimates for each, waiting for direction from the council on their preference, said Kravetz, who favored adding downtown cameras. A temporary video recording device installed at the bus depot recently, including two fixed cameras and one pan-tilt-zoom camera with an internal recorder, could be monitored from officers’ iPads and cars, and had already proven useful, he said.

To address privacy concerns, Kravetz said access would be restricted to only certain staff members. And “look at Boston,” he added. “They are worth their weight in gold when you need them.”

Iseman said she, too, had heard from residents concerned with civil liberties, but agreed that the use of video cameras in identifying the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing offered a compelling counterpoint.

Before making a decision, the council asked Kravetz to investigate the costs for installing cameras downtown and at the town’s exits.

LBHS senior Jack Winter created an online magazine for a classroom assignment that surprised administrators with its sophistication.

He came up to the podium looking like a stylized beach version of the Great Gatsby.  Top-siders without socks, dark blue trouser shorts patterned with red embossed anchors, a starchy-new cream-colored sport coat with a blue- and white-checked pocket scarf, a white dress shirt with dark blue tie and stylish, neatly parted black hair.  A striking presence.

Jack Winter, a senior at Laguna Beach High School, was describing his online professional-looking magazine, produced for the first time by a student on his personal iPad, to school board members at their meeting last week. The thought occurred: this kid could easily turn out to be a New York magazine mogul.  Winter said later he was trying out the outfit to see if he liked the look enough to wear it to senior prom that weekend.

“It was a quirky outfit,” Winter effacingly admitted.  But it, and he, made a lasting impression.

Winter shared the podium with the district’s technology director, Victor Guthrie, to show board members what an iPad could produce in the right hands.  The week before, Guthrie had been excitedly called to the LBHS principal’s office to witness what Winter had done.

Joanne Culverhouse, LBHS’s principal, proudly called him “our go-to tech guy” at the meeting.  Winter’s abilities, it seems, are signaling a change in the teaching game at the high school.  His goal?  An iPad for every student.

Guthrie said students’ creativity is being “unleashed” with unlimited possibilities that computer technology and online information can provide.  “You don’t always need the teacher and learning by rote,” Guthrie conveyed to the board in his update on students’ use of technology.  “What we need to realize is that we are the facilitators for learning.  We’re no longer the ones providing all the knowledge; we facilitate that learning.” Jack Winter, he said, exemplifies that potential.

Jack’s class assignment was the same project Mark Alvarez assigns to his high school economics class every year.  The final product, a publication titled “The Laguna Beach Economist,” required students to report on the standard topics of inflation, unemployment and poverty.   But this year, Alvarez added a new twist by saying that it couldn’t be on paper, it had to be done online.

“It was neat for me to take that next step, hard for me to give up the teacher,” said Alvarez.  “You always want to have total control and just tell students exactly what you want to do and how you want to do it.  I’ve learned that by sometimes giving them more freedom and encouraging them to pursue what area they’re strong in, you get better results, and the kids have more fun doing it.”

Winter ran with the new cue, teaching himself everything about online publishing via the same application used by successful magazines such as “Popular Science Wired.” He produced a full-color, graphically appealing publication with edgy articles written by other students in his group, much more than Alvarez had in mind.  “I wanted to do something more modern relating to now instead of relating to the class,” Winter explained.  “There’s not really anyone I can learn it from so I had to go online and teach all this stuff to myself.”

Teaching it to himself made him learn more.  “You get more insight on the topic.  You know all the specifics of everything.  If you’re just listening to someone telling you about it, you might not grasp all of it,” he surmised.

Laguna, however, isn’t New York or even L.A.  Yet, Winter has carved out a self-taught niche at school, focusing not only on online magazine production but film as well. “Unfortunately, there aren’t that many kids who are into film,” Winter said.  That distinction, and other credits he’s racked up, got him accepted next year at Chapman University’s film school.

Guthrie described Jack’s online magazine as professional caliber.  “He’s going to be big,” Guthrie predicted. “I went home after the meeting and told my wife, ‘Remember this name; he’s the next Spielberg or something.’”

And that’s exactly what Winter wants.  “I want to one day become a feature film director of big Hollywood hit films.  I like the scale and what-not,” he said.  “I’m hoping that all works out and the industry is hiring.”

But Jack, like any kid, attests his mom, Kristin, has his drawbacks.  “He’s very sure of what he wants in life, which is not the easiest thing to parent all the time,” she said.  “But I also think that will take you far in life.  He’s going to make an interesting adult.” She said Jack’s eye for visual composition “was evident pretty early on.”

That penchant found its place at Thurston Middle School with multi-media teacher Andy Crisp, Jack’s mentor still today.

“With the explosion of YouTube and Vimeo,” Crisp related, “online tutorials are so easily available that kids, anybody, can teach themselves just about anything by going online.  There’s great content out there.”

Jack’s already made some tracks to get his content out there.  In 2011, he produced a film called “Don’t Blow It” that focused on plastics polluting the ocean.  It won MacGillivray-Freeman’s One World One Ocean’s annual student film contest and was shown at the Newport Beach Film Festival.

“The video he did was very creative, imaginative and comical,” recalled MacGillivray, president of MacGillivray-Freeman Films, which produces environmentally conscious IMAX movies. “It opened people’s eyes to the problem of ocean plastics.  I remember when it was run as part of our competition, everyone loved it.”

Beyond that, it takes a certain person with a proclivity for a certain skill set, said Crisp.  “What it really comes down to,” he said, “is having, I think, an eye for storytelling and the desire to self-start. That’s what Jack has.”

Photos by Edgar Obrand

Officer Darrel Short, assigned to foot patrol downtown, hears out merchant Luke Solis.

Few surprises surfaced in the public workshop held Tuesday as Laguna Beach’s city staff presented a proposed two-year budget, outlining estimated expenditures of $68.5 million for the coming fiscal year and of $67.6 million for the following year.

City Council members largely endorsed staff recommendations for use of a $1.1 million windfall in the general fund.

While City Manager John Pietig noted Laguna emerged from the recession relatively unscathed, without resorting to layoffs or furloughs, Finance Director Gavin Curran pointed out the proposed budget maintains services and assumes moderate revenue growth, but does not account for yet-to-be resolved labor negotiations with employee unions.

The city’s projected costs are rising faster than revenue, Curran said. A $907,000 balance for the fiscal year ending June 30 drops to $622,900 and $423,700 for the two subsequent years, respectively. The decline is partly attributed to increasing costs of salaries and benefits as well as capital equipment expenditures, he said.

Perhaps the largest surprise was the two-year budget itself, a first for the city, which in the past approved budgets on an annual basis. Curran dismissed fears about relying on long-term projections. Budget reviews scheduled for January and May next year give ample opportunity to make adjustments prior to adopting the 2014-15 budget next June, he said.

The workshop allows both the City Council and the public a chance to air budget concerns prior to its expected adoption on June 18.

The one-time recommendations of staff included $300,000 to $400,00 to administer an anticipated view ordinance, $400,000 towards Laguna’s share in upgrading the county’s public safety radio system, $60,000 for a grant writer, $40,000 for a police foot patrol downtown, $25,000 for downtown traffic control,  $10,000 more for sidewalk cleaning and $3,000 for a council strategic planning session.

Of the 11 residents who spoke during the hearing, three called for utility pole undergrounding and three requested funds for complete streets, a state mandate requiring roads be accessible for foot and bike traffic.

Resident Rita Conn called the undergrounding of the city’s utility poles a safety imperative due to what she described as Southern California Edison’s overloading of poles, attributed to more than one fire in the state.

In response, Council member Bob Whalen said the prohibitive $30 million cost of removing poles from Laguna Canyon Road, for instance, requires community will. “It comes down to taxes or assessments,” he said.

“I do believe if we had a strategic planning session with the community that we would get support for funding,” said Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Pearson.

Resident Chris Prelitz questioned the lack of budgeted funds to improve obstructed sidewalks such as on on Glenneyre Street, where poorly placed parking meters block the passage of strollers and wheelchairs. “Other cities are walking cities. We are not yet,” he said. Art Wahl and Tamara Hlava supported his view.

Pietig later responded that some budgeted expenditures fall under the complete streets umbrella, such as the proposed trial roundabout on Glenneyre, transit funding, installation of sharrows and bike racks, and funding for a study on improving Laguna Canyon Road mobility.

Other public suggestions included an additional swimming pool, a crosswalk on Third Street by the Susie Q Senior Center, improved transportation options for seniors, and upgrading the city treasurer to a fulltime position.

Council member Steve Dicterow favored funding the police foot patrol downtown and suggested bringing back a canine for drug busts.

Pearson said she hoped excess revenue could supplant the drain on the parking fund, the source of a $700,000 annual transfer to the general fund, but also placed a priority on funding the view enforcement effort.

Pearson and Boyd volunteered to review applications for $240,000 in community assistance funds budgeted for 2013-14. Requests for assistance from groups as diverse as Coastal Family Therapy Services to the Laguna Dance Festival amount to $485,409.

Actress Mona Golabek begins a brief run in “The Pianist” at Laguna Playhouse on May 29.

In 1938 the Nazis annexed Austria and its Jewish population found itself in immediate peril.

While countless Austrian Jews joined the 6 million murdered between 1939 and 1945, Lisa Jura, an aspiring concert pianist of 14, survived the Holocaust. Though the invasion dashed her ambition to perform at the storied Vienna Musikverein concert hall, the Kindertransport, a rescue operation that ferried Jewish children to safety in England, spared her life. Her parents were left behind.

The story of Lisa’s resilience in a British children’s hostel and beyond, an unwavering devotion to music and the kindness of others forms the core of “The Pianist of Willesden Lane,” a one-woman play opening at the Laguna Playhouse for a two-week run between May 29 and June 9.

It features Jura’s daughter, Mona Golabek, a concert pianist, actress and co-author with Lee Cohen of “The Children of Willesden Lane: Beyond the Kindertransport: A Memoir of Music, Love and Survival,” the book upon which the play is based.

She tells the story from memories her mother retold during piano lessons, set against a background of easily recognizable classical music, Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A-minor most prominent among them. “It is the music with which my mother dreamed of making her debut in Vienna,” she said.

Writing the story, Golabek was also driven by a desire to impart history and also instill a love for classical music into younger generations. To that end, she established the Hold on to Your Music Foundation (www.holdontoyourmusic.org). The book has been converted into teaching materials for more than 200,000 school children, she said.

“History is blurring and Holocaust survivors are dying. I asked myself whether their fates would become a footnote in history,” said Golabek. “My challenge was to tell a story that took place 60 years ago and to enter the hearts and souls of people through music.”

The theme of a young girl who holds on to her dream through the darkest of times is universal, she says. There’s also a love story when Lisa chose between a boy at the hostel and an intriguing Jewish French resistance fighter.

The play is based on the life of the actress’s mother, Lisa Jura.

Golabek began the book 18 years ago. Before being published, it underwent several metamorphoses, she recalled. Actor Hershey Felder, well-known for writing and performing in biographical plays about composers, adapted Golabek’s work. It was performed at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles last year and earned her a nomination as best solo performer by the Los Angeles Drama Critic Circle.

Felder will direct her at the Playhouse. “Mona tells this heart-rending and ultimately uplifting story the way no one else can. Besides being a remarkable pianist of the highest order and a wonderful storyteller, so is the result of what happens in that story: a mother choses to send her child away ultimately to freedom, giving the child the ability to survive and then prosper,” wrote Felder via e-mail.

Golabek and Felder brought “The Pianist” to the Playhouse two years ago and presented it to an audience of 50 invited guests as a work in progress, said Ann E. Wareham, the Playhouse’s artistic director. “You forget how powerful this story is but when Mona starts playing, it’s pretty breathtaking,” she said.

Though the story possesses personal resonance for her, Golabek sums up the book and play as a creative vehicle that allows her to deploy her many artistic gifts. “I am simply a conduit to what is a very inspirational story,” she said.

Laguna resident and photographer Allan Schoenherr

Allan Schoenherr, author of “A Natural History of California”, has done it again!  In an elegant, magnificently illustrated treatment of Orange County open spaces, Schoenherr has brought forward basic ecological principles, applied them to local communities and habitats, and produced a superb guide to the “natural history of open spaces of Orange County.”  This reader friendly text by a longtime Laguna Beach ecologist is a classic that is a “must” for anyone interested in the outdoors and the ecology of the region.

Intertidal Region”) completes the ecological transect by treating County sandy beach, rocky headland, and estuarine settings.   Clear illustrations show the diversity of bird beak lengths and shapes, foot design and color – greatly enhancing the reader’s ability to rapidly make bird identifications in estuarine and beach habitats.   The zonation within salt marshes and rocky shore communities is easily understood from attractive diagrams and good pictures.

The reference section includes 42 citations, forming a very good base from which to select additional readings or books relevant to county open space areas.  The four-page index and two-page list of illustrations are complete and make it easy to locate species accounts, habitats, or images of them.  Clear and well-chosen photographs are an unforgettable hallmark of this book. From a lovely picture of the UC Natural Reserve System’s San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh Reserve to facing full-page illustrations of sites with coastal sage draped on the county’s attractive foothills, the book is gem.  No one knows Orange County open spaces better than Allan Schoenherr, and he has again communicated his knowledge in a fabulous way!

I most strongly recommend this book for use by anyone interested in the county’s out-of-doors from naturalists to hikers and cyclists.  The book is very suitable for classroom use directed toward high school and college clienteles.  Although I have a copy, I’m buying several more to give to friends. “Wild and Beautiful” is a jewel, and is available at a modest price.  The non-profit publisher, Laguna Wilderness Press, describes the book as follows: “Explore the paths and trails of Southern California’s wildlife in reading Wild and Beautiful: A Natural History of the Open Spaces in Orange County, by Dr. Allan A. Schoenherr. Provided in this book is an abundance of illuminating information about what can be glimpsed from the creatures, plants, habitats, and landscapes that constitute the open spaces in Orange County. This book highlights an impressive array of information and photographs that creates a resource valuable to both the reader in the comfort of their home and the hiker ascending up the trail. You will be hard-pressed to find another book that is such a wonderful blend of incredible photography and informative material.”

Allan A. Schoenherr.  2011.  Laguna Wilderness Press.  Laguna Beach, California. $24.95

Peter A. Bowler is a senior lecturer in UC Irvine’s ecology and evolutionary biology department.

Jason Feddy, left; performing in “Shakespeare’s Fool” in 2011.

Local musician Jason Feddy began a day job this week, taking on the five-hour, midday time slot of Laguna Beach’s FM station, KX 93.5.

Feddy, a local singer-songwriter known for his regular gigs around town and his “Shakespeare in the Park” project, earlier held down one of the station’s weekly evening programs.

“Jason was the obvious choice to take over the midday role,” said the station’s Program Director Tyler Russell. “His popularity in town and his irreverent, hilarious personality on-air will make him a joy to work with, and to listen to.”

“When Tyler asked me to join the daytime team at the station, I considered it carefully for about a nanosecond,” said Feddy. “I’m honored and excited. My wife is delighted to be getting me out of the house too.”

Feddy will feature an all-requests lunch hour segment starting at noon each weekday. Reach him at 949 715-4859.

Fantasy Concert Set Broadcasted

Lagunapalooza Fantasy Concert is broadcast weekly on Saturdays from 6 to 7 p.m. on KX 93.5 FM.

This concert series is the brain-child of local resident Rebecca Apodaca (aka Bassmama Becky) and RJ Catano of A & D Music music in Lake Forest.

Music from different genres and generations are represented. Listeners are asked to submit four to six songs per artist to lagunapalooza@gmail.com The two disc jockeys will pick one winner and put together the audio tracks of the songs for the broadcast.

Counting on Kickstart Capital

KX 93.5 will attempt to launch a webseries about its story and indie music, the station announced.

The station hopes to raise $25,000 by Sunday, June 16 in a Kickstarter campaign, which requires the aspirant to raise all the cash or receive nothing.

Tyler Russell, program director and founder, envisions a music-based reality show of less than 10 minute webisodes that will showcase indie talent that isn’t widely recognized through live in-studio performances and interviews. “We want to show Laguna the way it really is through our station: creative, artistic and eccentric,” he said.

To help out, visit http://kck.st/108suW2.

Laguna Art Museum will host “Art Sleuthing Edgar Payne’s Paintings,” a free talk with art consultant and Laguna Beach resident Eric Jessen in Thursday, May 30, at 7 p.m.

Jessen, a consultant on the Payne exhibition to the Pasadena Museum of California Art, will share the detective work that went into solving the mysterious locations of Payne’s views, including those along the Laguna Beach shoreline.

Weekend Sale of Art

An example of the gallery’s stock.

Transformation at Gallery 1951 will offer treasures from Bali during a Memorial Day weekend sale Friday through Monday, with a reception and raffle Saturday, May 25, 5 to 8 p.m.

Inventory at the gallery, 1951 S. Coast Highway, includes art, masks, sculptures, paintings and furnishings. The gallery will remain open Friday and Saturday until 9 p.m. and until 6 on Sunday and Monday.

Bookmaking Secrets Revealed

LOCA hosts its Senior Art Escapes May 29 featuring Carla Meberg, who will lead workshops to learn the art of bookmaking.

Classes take place at the Susi Q Center, 380 Third St. from 1 to 4 p.m. for seniors 55 and up. Cost is $30 for both classes.

To register, call LOCA at 949-363-4700 and leave your name and number.

Local resident Mark Porterfield, right, and guests start the revelry at their table.

Laguna Art Museum’s 2013 Palette to Palate fundraiser, which took place at the museum earlier this month, raised $190,000, 25 percent more than a year ago. The museum expects to net $125,000 for its education and exhibition programs.

Now in its eighth year, Palette to Palate saw the museum transformed by the culinary talents of Chef Craig Strong of Studio at Montage Laguna Beach, pours by Copain Wines from Healdsberg and the work of 10 artists.

Participating artists were Joshua Dildine, Anthony Foo, Danny Heller, Kiel Johnson, Todd Kenyon, David Kiddie, Mary-Austin Klein, Christopher Martin, Chris Richter, and Brittany M. Ryan. Each artist joined guests for dinner at the table they created, with all of their work available for purchase.

Guests Hanna Skjonsby and Nancy Fry enjoying the museum’s galleries.

The evening featured a cocktail hour and a live auction. Museum organizers included Peter Blake, Chuck Fry, Sue Greenwood, Sheldon Harte, Robert Hayden III, Bob Hayes, Patricia Houston, Jon Madison, Elyse Caraco Miller, Laura Rohl, Jennifer Segerstrom, Marnie Wall, and Sarah Strozza.

Pacific Symphony Music Director Carl St. Clair, left, with his wife Susan, attended the symphony’s annual gala with supporters Joyce and Ron Hanson, among 325 guests. More than $1.34 million for the symphony’s artistic and education programs was raised at party led by Hope Miller, Pat Podlich and Patricia Steinmann, who transformed the St. Regis and astonishing acts in Chinese art, music and dance.

The Nov. 11, 1989 protest rally to halt development in Laguna Canyon.

Some of the principals involved in the 1990 negotiations to save Laguna Canyon will recount their efforts during the next Laguna Beach Historical Society program, Tuesday, May 28, at the Laguna Beach City Hall Council Chambers from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

The public is invited and there is no charge.

The panel will include Paul Freeman, Norm Grossman, Carol Mentor McDermott, and Mike Phillips, all who served as one of the representatives on the negotiations to purchase land in Laguna Canyon in 1990.

The panel discussion will include what set the stage for the negotiations, the management and process of the negotiations, how a settlement was finally reached, and an explanation of the successful Measure H bond campaign.

The program will be videotaped and is to be televised on the local Cox Cable channel 30.

Please see a history of the 1989 protest march by the society’s treasurer Gene Felder online in the May 24 edition at lbindy.com.

Sarah Mahoney

Sarah Mahoney is determined to walk again and the Woman’s Club of Laguna Beach wants to help her.

Last May, Mahoney, an “A” student at Saddleback College, who can play at least four different musical instruments, was accepted to UC Berkeley as a music major. But muscle weakness that she initially attributed to a cold or the flu progressed to the point that she had difficulty walking and breathing. Hospitalized, Mahoney underwent a battery of tests, the first of many that have yet to lead to a diagnosis.

“When I first met Sarah, I felt a deep desire to help her,” said Ellie Tipton Ortiz, the club’s president, who knew where to go for aid. “Many of our members offered to donate their own time, talent, and services to help Sarah.”

After a year of consulting with neurologists, movement disorder and infectious disease specialists and still unable to walk, one thing is clear. Intensive physical therapy helps Mahoney breathe and has helped her regain lost muscle mass. But coming thus far tapped out Mahoney’s insurance; her insurer will no longer cover the $300 a week physical therapy sessions at UCI Medical Center.

Not one to give up, Mahoney, who lives with her parents in Laguna Hills, launched The Walking Project, a website the 21-year-old set up from her cell phone and put on Facebook, where people can donate to her physical therapy expenses. The response was quick and global, earning enough money to cover Mahoney’s costs until her insurance begins again and more.

With the extra funds, Mahoney hopes to purchase a machine for UCI’s outpatient physical therapy department that would stabilize her – and others trying to regain their ability to walk – on a treadmill. Now two therapists simulate the $10,000 plus machine. “A lot of patients could benefit from this,” Mahoney said.

While for months Mahoney was unable to move her hands, she has now resumed practicing and playing the guitar again. “My ultimate goal is to be healthy, have the chance to go to UC Berkeley, and walk away from disease,” she said.

To help Mahoney’s quest, The Woman’s Club is holding a fundraiser on Thursday, May 30 from 3 to 4:30 p.m., 286 St. Ann’s Dr. Mahoney will be present and coffee and dessert provided by Mangi con Amore, a favorite at Laguna’s Saturday farmer market.

A donation of $15 is requested.  The event is open to the community.

Ellie Ortiz

Ellie Tipton Ortiz, current president of Laguna Beach’s Woman’s Club and a member of Soroptimist International locally, earned nomination by the Orange County Business Journal for its annual women in business award.

Ortiz is an experienced divorce mediator whose company, Laguna Beach Legal Document Service, specializes in divorce mediation, family law, child and spousal support, living trust and estate planning.

“Anyone can prepare paperwork, but to make a difference in people’s lives and guide them to work together for the sake of their children, is where I feel I am serving a higher purpose,” said Ortiz.

For further info: call 949-497-9800 or visit lagunabeachlegal.com.

Award Possible for Entrepreneur Finalist

Alan Fuerstman

Alan Fuerstman, founder and chief executive officer of Laguna’s Montage Hotels and Resorts, was among 18 finalists for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Award in Orange County.

The award program recognizes high-growth entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in innovation, financial performance, and personal commitment to one’s business.

Award winners will be announced at a gala on Thursday, June 6 at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point.

Laguna Beach supports a large number of resident bird species and one of the more distinctive species sighted is the Brandt’s cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus).  Found only in North America, Brandt’s cormorants are marine birds that are mostly permanent residents of the Pacific coast and congregate in colonies on rocky outcroppings with other species of birds.  Almost solid black and slender with a distinctive prehistoric look, the Brandt’s cormorant is a fairly large bird reaching almost 36 inches in length.  Although certain individual birds have been known to live 18 years, the average lifespan is six years. Nesting in colonies on cliffs and offshore rocks, both sexes incubate the eggs and care for the young.

In Laguna, Brandt’s cormorants can often be seen flying low over the water, singly or in groups, with their distinctive lengthy neck, head and slender hooked bill fully extended in a straight line out from the body. Their carnivorous diet consists of a variety of fish but also includes some shrimp, crab and squid. When feeding, they can dive from up to 150 feet high to catch small fish near the surface, or swim to the sea floor at a depth up to 40 feet using their webbed feet for propulsion. Having little water-proofing oil on their feathers, Brandt’s cormorants float characteristically low in the water with only their head and neck showing. After feeding, they tend to seek high perches and spread their wings, which are thought to aid digestion and dry their feathers.

Climatic events like El Niño and La Niña, pollution, commercial fishing and human disturbance at its breeding grounds are the biggest threat to the species. Brandt’s cormorants can often be viewed on Seal Rock at Crescent Bay and at Bird Rock below Heisler Park or flying near the ocean surface in their distinctive low-slung style.  But view them from a distance; climbing on Seal Rock is prohibited and the Marine Safety Department often keep people off all the rocks for safety reasons.  In addition, Laguna was designated a bird sanctuary in 1978  and harassing birds is prohibited by law.

Residents Mia Davidson and Jan Sattler are year-round ocean swimmers and board members of Laguna Ocean Foundation, advocates for preserving the marine environment.  For more info: go to www.lagunaoceanfoundation.org

Photo by Jim Collins
Robert “Wingnut” Weaver, left; with Peter Mel, winner of the invitation only Mavericks Surf Contest held in January, alongside a few of the many surf boards sold at auction.

The vintage surf auction “California Gold” went off at the OC Fair & Events Center in Costa Mesa with total sales of $680,000.

The event earlier this month was organized to raise funds for San Clemente’s  Surfing Heritage & Cultural Center, whose mission is preserving surfing’s history. Hundreds of surfers and collectors attended the event to enjoy the art, music, book signings, vintage cars and of course the silent and live auctions.

Many surf legends and industry icons made the session: Tom Curren, Peter Mel, Keith Malloy, Robert “Wingnut” Weaver, Mark Cunningham, John Van Hamersveld, Greg Noll, Larry Bertlemann, L.J. Richards, Mickey Munoz, Peter Townend, Rich Harbour, Rusty Miller, C.R. Stecyk III, Paul Naude and Fernando Aguerre.

With more than 50 surfboards from the early 1900s through today, a highlight of the auction included the Pete Peterson 1949 California Point Break Board, which sold for the highest price of $32,400. In addition, the most anticipated portion of the evening, the sale of “The Surf Riders of Hawaii” book by A.R. Gurrey, Jr. sold for $27,000.

Reef beach sandal company co-founder Fernando Aguerre walked off with the California Point Break board.

“I’m stoked that all of the surfers and collectors supported the event’s debut in California,” said Scott Bass, the auction director. “The strong demand for the rare surfboards and memorabilia was demonstrated by more than 90% of the lots selling,” said Bass, who intends to reprise the event again in two years.

Henri Hellieson had a long and happy life. He had a marvelous deep voice and was a fabulous singer. He sang at several of the church choirs, not to mention any piano bar that was available.

He was a chef for many years, including cooking for former President Richard Nixon at the Western White House in San Clemente. Hellieson came to Laguna Beach in 1958 and had many friends over the years. He and his wife Dee Dee went to his birthplace, Holland, on their honeymoon and shared many good times together.

Henri and Dee Dee had a dear family. Dee Dee’s daughter Jadee and her husband Phill and two lovely grandchildren, Jason and Sarah.

One of Hellieson’s his favorite sayings was “you can tell a Dutchman, but you can’t tell him much”.

He will be missed.