GETTING SPLASHED: When your county faces financial...

GETTING SPLASHED: When your county faces financial disaster, just how warm do you need to keep your swimming pool? The Newport-Mesa Unified School District has decided to cut $53,000 in pool expenses--a drop in the water compared to $9 million in projected cuts needed for the next fiscal year. But how to do it? One suggestion: Reduce the temperature of its four high school pools from 81 degrees to 72 degrees part of the year. Says district finance expert Carolyn Stocker: “Heat is very expensive.” OUTSIDE CIRCUS: Only “obstructed view” seats are left at the highly popular Cirque du Soleil’s “Alegria,” which closes March 12 at South Coast Plaza. But you can get a taste of the French Canadian troupe’s show in a couple of other places in Costa Mesa.... Today at noon some of the costumed performers will be at Rizzoli Bookstore at South Coast Plaza, touting a book on the circus’s history. Saturday at 11 a.m., an “Alegria” group will give a two-hour free concert outdoors at Triangle Square. JOGGING THE MEMORY: It’s a different world for joggers than when Edwin Ramsey of Corona del Mar started. Ramsey, 81, says that when he lived in Beverly Hills in 1946, he was stopped by police while jogging, which was an unknown pastime then. He said he was escorted home so his wife could verify he “was running for pleasure, not from a crime.” ... Ramsey will be among the throng of thousands running in Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon. TONIGHT: The Robert Lucas Band plays blues at 7:30, Hyatt Regency, 17900 Jamboree Road, Irvine. (714) 975-1234. WEATHER: Cloudy with showers or coastal drizzle. Highs in the low 60s and lows in the mid-50s. B8