COSTA MESA : Inquisitive Resident to Get Answers

When Patty Baugh looks around her neighborhood, all kinds of questions pop up.

What is going to happen to the dilapidated park on 23rd Street? Can the neighbors hold an unlimited number of garage sales? Who keeps picking through her trash? Is there a gang problem around here?

Baugh, who lives on Albert Place on the east side of Costa Mesa, recently began seeking answers from city officials. And in doing so, she discovered that a lot of people share her concerns.

So she decided to call a community meeting.

“I was worried about things I saw happening near my house and I felt I had to do something,” said Baugh, the mother of three young children, who is proving that you don’t have to be the mayor to hold a meeting with community leaders.

Already the Police Department, the superintendent of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, Mesa Consolidated Water District officials and a local gang counselor have agreed to speak at the meeting. Also, local businesses have donated everything from doughnuts and chairs to juice containers.

On the evening of June 15, Baugh will get her questions answered, and with any luck, so will the rest of her neighborhood.

Local water district spokeswoman Mary Urashima said that her office gets invited to community meetings all the time by organized groups but rarely from a resident who has taken the organizational task upon themselves.

The water district is in the midst of building an 18-million-gallon reservoir near Baugh’s house.

Newport-Mesa Supt. Mac Bernd also was enthusiastic about speaking at Baugh’s meeting.

“I am interested in the same issues that Patty is interested in,” Bernd said.

Baugh acknowledges that lining up four influential community residents to speak is the easy part. The tough part is getting her neighbors to show up.

“I hope people come,” she said. “But if they don’t, the five of us will have plenty of doughnuts to eat, and I’ll get my questions answered.”

The neighborhood meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on June 15 at Kaiser Elementary School, 2130 Santa Ana Ave.

For more information, call (714) 754-5320.