On Friday night, Aug. 5, the Chiefs of both the Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue and Costa Mesa Police Departments participated, with other firefighters and police officers throughout the region in the OC Fair & Event Center's Orange Crush Week of Destructions, all benefitting charities.

Click here for a slideshow from the night.

Click here for a video.

The Orange Crush Week of Destructions culminated on Friday night, with a PD/FD figure 8 race, followed immediately thereafter and highlighted by the Motorhome Madness RV Demo Derby, now in its 20th year. The event featured Police Chiefs vs. Fire Chiefs and included CMFR’s very own Fire Chief Dan Stefano (aka Ricky Bobby) and CMPD’s Chief Ron Lawrence.

While neither of the chiefs took the top spot this year, it was an impressive introductory appearance for Chief Lawrence and also included Chief Stefano firing up the stadium and walking away with the crowd’s choice trophy for “Best of Show.” Chief Stefano and Chief Lawrence, also known as “Shake & Bake,” plan on coming back strong next year and have said that 2023 will be all Costa Mesa!  

The other events included Orange Crush Demolition Derby that featured Police vs. Fire throughout the first week of August, which was highlighted by Fire Captain Joe Noceti participating twice during the week including a strong performance in the car demolition derby and an electrifying third place finish in the Figure 8 Demolition Derby! Great job Captain Noceti!

Costa Mesa Police Officers Gaunt, Gomez, and Garcia competed in the derby, and also in the Figure-8 race, and won!

“Special shout out to our Costa Mesa Police Department ‘RV Madness’ demolition derby crew and the ‘figure-8’ racers, which Costa Mesa won Friday night! It was a great night and a great fundraiser,” Chief Lawrence said.

CMFR and CMPD want to acknowledge the great efforts, partnership and support of all who participated in this week-long event, as well as all of our amazing community partners who played key roles with the same effort to raise funds for these charities. 

"The fun and chaos was an outstanding community event to bring people together and ultimately benefit a few different charities this year that are near and dear to the fire families and police teams," said Chief Stefano.

Those charities include The PADRE Foundation, Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) Foundation, California Fire Foundation, Peace Officers Project 999 Foundation and the Susan G. Komen Foundation among a few others, that raised a total of $43,000. 

Mayor John Stephens was on hand on Saturday, Aug. 6, as 23 beagles that had been released from a breeding facility in Virginia arrived at Priceless Pets Rescue in Costa Mesa and were subsequently adopted by local residents.

The beagles, were part of 4,000 dogs freed from the breeding facility after it was sued by the Department of Justice. The Humane Society is assisting with the placement of the beagles to nonprofits throughout the United States.

“We are very happy that we were able to place 23 of the 4,000 beagles who were mistreated in Virginia,” Mayor Stephens said. “We are very grateful to Priceless Pets, our no-kill shelter, for their help, and thank you to everyone who adopted these beagles.”

Acting City Manager and Fire Chief Dan Stefano presented Senior Center Recreation Coordinator Enyelber Franco with the City Manager Leadership Award for the month of July.

“Enyelber is an excellent leader and goes above and beyond for his team,” Stefano said as he announced his award at the monthly Meet and Greet. “He is thoughtful and has contributed to the Costa Mesa Senior Center culture of working hard to serve the community and also making it a point to celebrate his colleagues’ milestones, birthdays, and successes.”

Franco, who has an associate’s degree from Santa Ana College, began his journey with the City of Costa Mesa, Parks & Community Services Department in 2014 as a Park Ambassador before being promoted as a Recreation Specialist at the Costa Mesa Senior Center in 2016. He became a full-time Recreation Coordinator in 2019, where he oversees day-to-day operations at the Senior Center.

Click here to read more.

Are you looking to make a difference in your home town?

The City Council is seeking interested residents to apply for either the newly formed Arts Commission, the Animal Services Committee, the Active Transportation Committee, the Fairview Park Steering Committee, the Historical Preservation Committee or the Mobile Home Park Advisory Committee.

Click here to learn more.

Residents who are interested in getting involved in local government are encouraged to complete a Commission/Committee Application Form from the City Clerk’s Office or from the City’s website (www.costamesaca.gov/apply).

The completed application may be submitted online; mailed to Costa Mesa City Clerk at Post Office Box 1200, Costa Mesa, California, 92628-1200; emailed to cityclerk@costamesaca.gov; or hand-delivered to the City Clerk’s Office at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa.

“Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others."

Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue Chief Dan Stefano and Costa Mesa Police Chief Ron Lawrence helped raise funds for local charities last weekend as they battled head to head in the “Motorhome Madness” Demolition Derby at the OC Fair. 

A total of six Police and Fire Chiefs from local agencies participated in this year's “Chief’s Challenge” spectacle, which is a friendly but competitive event that challenges drivers to inflict as much damage as possible upon their opponent’s motorhome while striving to have the last vehicle “standing” at the end of the derby, all in the name of a good cause. 

Click here to check out the exciting video highlights from this year’s main event produced by Costa Mesa Television: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x82TeMWpkKM.

The City’s Network for Homeless Solutions is a comprehensive system of care aimed at providing a complete continuum of programs and services for residents experiencing homelessness and those at-risk of homelessness.

Click here to read our most recent report.

The City of Costa Mesa is currently seeking candidates to apply for the position of Assistant Fire Marshal.

Under the direction of the Fire Chief and Fire Marshal, this position is responsible for the day-to-day professional and technical non-sworn responsibilities related to the analysis and enforcement of municipal codes and state codes in fire and life safety, within various structures and installations.

This incumbent will also assist in the oversight of the community risk reduction related activities.

For more information on joining our #CostaMazing team please visit: https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/costamesa?page=1.

Thank you to those who attended the first Listening Tour event at Vanguard. We made notes regarding your community concerns and addressed them with our CMPD team.

The second Listening Tour event will be held on Wednesday, Aug.17, at 6 p.m. at the Mesa Verde United Methodist Church, 1701 Baker Street.

We invite you to take this opportunity to meet Chief Ron Lawrence. Residents will be able to personally meet Chief Lawrence and discuss community concerns in their area with the Chief and Mayor John Stephens, along with any City Council member in attendance.

Spread the word and we hope to see you there!

Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue's (CMFR) CalOES Type 3 (wild land) Fire Engine and crew assigned has demobilized and returned home safely, after a two-week deployment.

Their respective assignments was a combination of the Oak Fire in Mariposa County, and then the McKinney Fire in the Klamath National Forest/Siskiyou County, near the Oregon border.

In addition to CMFR, the collective MetroNet Cities/CalOES Strike Team included agencies from Anaheim, Fullerton, Laguna Beach and Orange City. We thank all crews that were on these assignments for their strong work throughout their deployment.

We are proud of the entire team and welcome home CMFR's Captain John Heunemann, Engineer Phil Storey, and Firefighters Brandon Raissdana and Blake Cole.

During this deployment, there was strong and outstanding work accomplished by our team and a strong representation of the City of Costa Mesa, the Costa Mesa Fire Family and our Orange County Fire Service Family.

We thank our community and everyone for their show of support and well wishes throughout our deployment.

Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue (CMFR) is in the process of gearing up for its newest recruit academy.

There is a lot of preparation that goes into this process. One of the many items to secure in place is the personal protective equipment and safety clothing that the new recruits need for their training. CMFR crews recently prepared the newest recruits helmets.

Each recruit will received two helmets; one “traditional” helmet, which the recruits will wear for structural firefighting and responding to traffic accidents and rescues. The other helmet is a lightweight helmet (with a wide brim) for wild land firefighting.

Each helmet requires assembly, identification decals and the recruit’s name. The assembly of each helmet takes about an hour.

On Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022, Engineer Anthony Vitello led the charge, and the crew had a helmet assembly party at the fire station.

Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue crews have been participating this week in Live Fire Training, in preparation for the department’s upcoming recruit academy.

Crews trained and performed “test burns” while creating a rigorous game plan as they prepare for the upcoming academy.

The ability to perform these trainings is only because of the achievement of the Fire Control 3 – Fixed Facility Certification through the State Fire Marshal’s office, which was earned by Battalion Chief Chris Coates and Captains Mark Geiger and Kevin Reddy.

This rigorous and comprehensive process can take upwards of two years to satisfy the requirements.

The department is excited about the training that will be offered to our upcoming probationary firefighters.

Jennifer Rosales, Costa Mesa's Transportation Services Manager, gave a presentation titled, “Reflecting Community Input in the Transformation of Merrimac Way into a Complete Street” in a live and virtual Complete Streets session at the Institute of Engineer’s (ITE) International Conference on Aug. 1.  

Rosales's presentation sparked a lively discussion around active transportation improvements and community engagement.

Over 1,100 transportation professionals in planning, engineering, and safety participated in the conference. 

The conference included technical training sessions, a vendor exhibition hall displaying the latest traffic technologies and equipment and professional networking opportunities.

The Public Works Department is seeking the public’s feedback regarding the proposed upgrades to the TeWinkle Lakes.

The plan identified various opportunities for improvement, which included a replacement of the lake liner, redesign of the lake edges to improve water circulation, expansion of soil areas for existing trees to develop, upgrades to the lake system to improve water clarity and appearance, and addition of more landscaped areas and other natural features.

Click here to read the report presented to the Parks, Arts and Community Services Commission at its July 28 meeting.

The public is encouraged to email their comments and feedback to TeWinkleLakesProject@costamesaca.gov.

The new traffic signal at the intersection of Baker Street and Randolph Avenue has been completely installed and is now operational. 

The construction work consisted of installing all equipment to ensure a full working traffic signal system that is connected to the City’s Traffic Management Center (TMC).

The construction also included the installation of new curb ramps and adjoining sidewalks, along with new continental crosswalk markings at each leg of the intersection.

The operating traffic signal will improve overall traffic flow, safely control conflicting movements, and potentially reduce accidents, such as left-turn and right-turn movements.

This new traffic signal will complement the recently finished parking and pedestrian improvements along Randolph Avenue and St. Clair Street.

The Public Works Department strives to improve and enhance the City’s infrastructure and to serve its residents and businesses. The City sincerely appreciates the cooperation of all the community stakeholders in making this project successful.

Bring your lawn chairs, blankets, snacks to Lions Park (570 W. 18th St.) on Saturday, Aug. 20 and join us for a free showing of Encanto at our last Movie in the Park event for the summer.

Enjoy pre-movie activities starting at 7 p.m. and don't forget to grab dinner from the on-site food truck, Loading Fresh & Foodilicious!

Movie begins at dusk (approximately 8:15 p.m.).

Save room in your mailbox because the new and improved Fall 2022 Recreation Guide is coming soon to your mailbox!

 

For more information, visit costamesaca.gov and remember to register at cmclassesonline.com.

Pumpkins, pie, and peace? Follow us as it is almost fall.

Grab your coats and make your way into our fabulous, fun-filled fall classes. Classes for all ages are available so check back soon.

 

Resident registration: Aug. 22

Non-resident registration: Aug. 29

 

For more information, visit costamesaca.gov and remember to register online at cmclassesonline.com.