Newport awaits $1.7-million state grant for trash-collecting water wheel

Newport Beach is looking forward to nearly $1.7 million in state grant money it needs to fund a water-wheel trash-collecting vessel at Upper Newport Bay.

The council voted 5-0 on Tuesday, with Mayor Marshall “Duffy” Duffield and Councilman Brad Avery absent, to budget $1.68 million that the California Ocean Protection Council has tentatively approved for Newport’s water-wheel project and to accept a study that says the trash collector wouldn’t have significant, if any, negative effects on the environment.

The Ocean Protection Council is expected to adopt the grant award at its Oct. 25 board meeting.

The water wheel is to be placed at the top of Upper Newport Bay by the Jamboree Road bridge. It is intended to capture garbage flowing down San Diego Creek from inland Orange County before it can hit Newport Harbor and the Pacific Ocean.

From its stationary position, the wheel would funnel debris into an onboard holding bin that would be emptied periodically.

The vessel would look like a snail with a paddlewheel, or a conch shell crossed with a steamboat. It could be powered by a mix of solar and hydraulic energy.

Councilman Scott Peotter said the device is an innovative way to pull floating rubbish out of the water.

“It’s not going to be a solution for everything, but it’s going to prevent a lot of this loose trash, especially in the low flows, from getting into the sensitive environmental areas,” he said. “It’s really kind of fun technology. It’s driven by the water and photovoltaic and basically we just go out there and change the dumpsters out when they get full.”

New crossing guards

The council voted 5-0 to fund three new school crossing guards in the Newport Heights neighborhood.

Two of the guards, which started on the first day of school this month, are near Newport Heights Elementary at 15th Street and Santa Ana Avenue. Another guard is at Coral Place and Irvine Avenue near Ensign Intermediate School.

The new guards will add about $30,000 a year to the city’s multi-year contract with its crossing guard provider, Santa Fe Springs-based All-City Management Services, bringing the tab to about $200,000 this year and about $216,000 next year.

The added guards were one outcome of a city traffic study that looked at children’s safety in the neighborhood’s congested areas around Newport Heights Elementary, Ensign and Newport Harbor High School, all of which are within a 1-mile radius and have about 4,300 students among them.

Review of house tabled

The council put off reviewing Planning Commission approval of a new home in Corona del Mar.

The council was set to look at the commission’s approval of variances for setback requirements and floor-area maximums for a planned house at 3200 Ocean Blvd.

The home would be 5,216 square feet, excluding the 2,748-square-foot basement. Zoning code says the maximum floor area for the 5,445-square-foot lot would be 4,234 square feet without a variance.

The California Coastal Commission will be reviewing the city’s request to include its variance procedures in the city’s Local Coastal Plan, which guides development closest to shore. City staff expects the item to go before the commission in December.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD