Edinger Avenue

Caltrans officials announced several road closures that will affect the Costa Mesa and Santa Ana freeways beginning today: The McFadden Avenue overcrossing of the Costa Mesa Freeway will be closed in both directions from 10 p.m. today to 6 a.m. Saturday for bridge work related to the widening of the freeway. (Officials said they expect the McFadden off-ramp from the northbound Costa Mesa Freeway and the Edinger Avenue on-ramp to the northbound freeway to reopen to traffic at 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Police are investigating a brief pursuit in Santa Ana on Wednesday that ended with two children being injured in a car crash. The incident began when a man and woman were stopped by police on Cedar Street near Edinger Avenue. "The officer was doing some type of investigation of the man and wife, and for some reason, the suspect takes off," Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna told The Times. The suspects' vehicle then slammed into a van carrying four family members, including two young boys, authorities said.

Police said Monday they do not know why a gunman on a bicycle opened fire on several girls, killing one of them. Carmen Melendez, 17, was among a group of girls in a fight near Edinger Avenue and Kilson Drive on Sunday evening when 22-year-old Ricardo Guillen Lopez rode up and started shooting, police said. Lopez was arrested moments later, but police did not find the gun, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Baltazar De La Riva said.

Police said Monday they do not know why a gunman on a bicycle opened fire on several girls, killing one of them. Carmen Melendez, 17, was among a group of girls in a fight near Edinger Avenue and Kilson Drive on Sunday evening when 22-year-old Ricardo Guillen Lopez rode up and started shooting, police said. Lopez was arrested moments later, but police did not find the gun, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Baltazar De La Riva said.

The County of Orange has plans to develop Sunset Aquatic Park, an existing county regional park adjacent to Huntington Beach at the end of Edinger Avenue. This property is valued at upward of $1 million an acre. Because of the very loud voices of local homeowners who consider RVers transients, the Huntington Beach City Council voted a proposal to recommend to the County Board of Supervisors that the property be used for dry boat storage. Can anyone imagine using that expensive beach property for storage?

The Alternative Repertory Theatre in Santa Ana has canceled Thursday and Sunday performances of its current offering, "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground" by William Hanley, but has extended its run on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through June 17. The show had been scheduled to close June 3. The shift is designed to help raise the $7,000 that ART has said it needs by mid-June to survive. "We hope this will capitalize on the nights we have larger audiences," artistic director Patricia Terry said Monday.

The Koll Co., a large Newport Beach developer, said Monday that it has bought the 10-building Orangewood Business Center in Santa Ana from Woodview Properties Ltd. for $13 million. Koll's partner in buying the 11-acre business center is USF&G Realty of Baltimore. The single-story buildings, erected 9 years ago, contain offices, warehouses and light industry. There is 185,000 square feet of space, of which 90% is leased to 40 tenants. The center is on Edinger Avenue in southeast Santa Ana near the intersection of the Santa Ana and Costa Mesa freeways.

A tractor-trailer loaded with sheets of dry wall jackknifed and overturned on the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway in Santa Ana Wednesday, forcing morning rush-hour traffic to a creep for four hours, the California Highway Patrol reported. No one was injured in the 7:35 a.m. mishap near Edinger Avenue, CHP Officer Corky Elliott said. The accident occurred when truck driver Anthony Silva, 38, of Loomis clipped a car beside his truck as he moved from the middle lane into the right lane.

Two teen-agers were wounded Saturday in an early-morning drive-by shooting at a popular fast-food restaurant in Santa Ana, police said. Sgt. Bob Clark said that at 12:45 a.m., shots were fired from a car cruising the parking lot of the Jack-in-the-Box restaurant at 1500 South Bristol Street, near Edinger Avenue. A young woman, whose name was not released because she is a juvenile, was shot in the right knee. Her friend, 18-year-old Eduardo Javier Mojarro of Paramount, suffered a bullet wound to his left foot.

Police are investigating a brief pursuit in Santa Ana on Wednesday that ended with two children being injured in a car crash. The incident began when a man and woman were stopped by police on Cedar Street near Edinger Avenue. "The officer was doing some type of investigation of the man and wife, and for some reason, the suspect takes off," Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna told The Times. The suspects' vehicle then slammed into a van carrying four family members, including two young boys, authorities said.

Dear Street Smart: We want to alert you and your readers to a hazardous traffic light situation we've noticed in Santa Ana. At Edinger Avenue, there are two sets of signals with left-turn arrows that control traffic turning onto Ritchey Street. Left-turn lights control traffic onto both north and southbound Ritchey. One set of left-turn lights for westbound Edinger to southbound Ritchey is suspended by a pole hanging across Edinger.

Various thoughts, observations and shamelessly stolen ideas that should take you no longer to read than the time it takes to finish your morning cereal: * I hate anointings for public office, such as outgoing Supervisor Thomas F. Riley's of heir-apparent Marian Bergeson. The county's business is ever more complicated and too much in need of innovative approaches to let anyone have a cakewalk into office. Campaigns spark debate and, occasionally, ideas.

Two teen-agers were wounded Saturday in an early-morning drive-by shooting at a popular fast-food restaurant in Santa Ana, police said. Sgt. Bob Clark said that at 12:45 a.m., shots were fired from a car cruising the parking lot of the Jack-in-the-Box restaurant at 1500 South Bristol Street, near Edinger Avenue. A young woman, whose name was not released because she is a juvenile, was shot in the right knee. Her friend, 18-year-old Eduardo Javier Mojarro of Paramount, suffered a bullet wound to his left foot.

The Alternative Repertory Theatre in Santa Ana has canceled Thursday and Sunday performances of its current offering, "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground" by William Hanley, but has extended its run on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through June 17. The show had been scheduled to close June 3. The shift is designed to help raise the $7,000 that ART has said it needs by mid-June to survive. "We hope this will capitalize on the nights we have larger audiences," artistic director Patricia Terry said Monday.

The Koll Co., a large Newport Beach developer, said Monday that it has bought the 10-building Orangewood Business Center in Santa Ana from Woodview Properties Ltd. for $13 million. Koll's partner in buying the 11-acre business center is USF&G Realty of Baltimore. The single-story buildings, erected 9 years ago, contain offices, warehouses and light industry. There is 185,000 square feet of space, of which 90% is leased to 40 tenants. The center is on Edinger Avenue in southeast Santa Ana near the intersection of the Santa Ana and Costa Mesa freeways.

Caltrans officials announced several road closures that will affect the Costa Mesa and Santa Ana freeways beginning today: The McFadden Avenue overcrossing of the Costa Mesa Freeway will be closed in both directions from 10 p.m. today to 6 a.m. Saturday for bridge work related to the widening of the freeway. (Officials said they expect the McFadden off-ramp from the northbound Costa Mesa Freeway and the Edinger Avenue on-ramp to the northbound freeway to reopen to traffic at 5 a.m. Tuesday.

McDonnell Douglas Corp. is negotiating with the City of Santa Ana over acquisition of a 67-acre site for consolidating some of its existing Orange County operations, officials said Tuesday. The site in Santa Ana near the 55 Freeway is the firm's first choice, said Gary Liebl, president and chief executive officer of McDonnell Douglas Computer Systems Co., a subsidiary of the aerospace giant. "We've come quite some distance in the negotiations and are optimistic about the outcome," Liebl said.

The County of Orange has plans to develop Sunset Aquatic Park, an existing county regional park adjacent to Huntington Beach at the end of Edinger Avenue. This property is valued at upward of $1 million an acre. Because of the very loud voices of local homeowners who consider RVers transients, the Huntington Beach City Council voted a proposal to recommend to the County Board of Supervisors that the property be used for dry boat storage. Can anyone imagine using that expensive beach property for storage?