Angling for Solution to Pier Debate

Fish guts and flying hooks will be discussed Friday at City Hall as anglers, homeowners and city officials meet to determine how to keep the Newport Pier clean and safe.

For nearly two years, the city and people who fish from the Newport Pier have been debating how to keep the pier clear of fish entrails and flying fishing hooks.

For a year, a group of anglers, who call themselves the Volunteer Newport Pier Patrol, have been monitoring the pier and reminding people to clean up their mess after fishing.

Early last year, the council gave City Manager Kevin J. Murphy the authority to close off all or part of the pier if the fishing-related mess persisted. State law, however, prohibits banning any group from using city piers.

More than a dozen anglers countywide met last Sunday to prepare for Friday’s meeting.

“Our position is to leave things the way they are,” said Joe Imbriano, a Newport Beach resident who organized the fishing hobbyists.

The people who fish at Newport Pier regularly are not the problem, Imbriano said. “The problem is a lack of police enforcement and lack of maintenance on behalf of the city,” he said.

Murphy, who will host Friday’s meeting, will later offer a recommendation to the City Council.

“There’s clearly a problem from our perspective. Friday’s meeting will bring this issue out in the open,” Murphy said, adding that some of the angler’s written proposals concur with some of the city’s solutions to keeping the pier clean.

The meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m., City Council chambers, 3300 Newport Blvd.