GETTING A FIX ON IT: Keeping up...

GETTING A FIX ON IT: Keeping up with building code changes can be confusing for local residents seeking permits to make home improvements. (N1) Frustrating, too, is how much the permits cost. Fees range from $50 up to the thousands. . . . Says permit supervisor Mary Beth Ormsby in Huntington Beach, which issued more than 9,000 permits last year: “There’s just no quick, magical formula available for homeowners to gauge what a building permit will cost.”

COME ON BACK: Cal State Fullerton is getting into the Mardi Gras spirit. Its first “Mardi Gras Madness” outdoor food and music festival for the community begins at noon today and runs up to the Titans’ basketball game against San Jose State at 7:35 p.m. Included: human bowling balls, karaoke singing. . . . Spokeswoman Patricia Boggs explains: “We hope it becomes an annual event. The Student Alumni Assn. felt that, with this being a commuter school, we needed something to boost spirit for our alumni.”

OPEN FOR BUSINESS: With tollway grading at full blast in Laguna Canyon, Laguna Coast Wilderness Park manager Elisabeth Brown hopes there’s a way for the bulldozers and nature lovers to coexist for now. . . . She’s urging hikers who enjoy the Jim Dilley Preserve just off Laguna Canyon Road--today is the one day a month it’s open--to not let the heavy equipment intimidate them. Says Brown: “There will be bulldozers around, but the hiking trails remain untouched.”

WHITNEY II? How good are the college entertainment acts performing tonight at the Anaheim Hilton Hotel? Says Erin Davy, spokeswoman for the corporate sponsor of the national college talent contest: “We could see the next Whitney Houston. I guarantee that one of these students will springboard from this program into show business.” Ten acts, gleaned from national campus contests, have made the finals. Top prize is a $15,000 scholarship and a meeting with a talent agent.

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Permission Granted

The county’s second- and third-largest cities were busiest last year in issuing building permits:

Anaheim (2): 11,840

Huntington Beach (3): 9,226

Fullerton (5): 5,084

Santa Ana (1): 3,123

Garden Grove (4): 2,294

Sources: Individual cities