CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Commission: Event Room, Not Oasis Center, Should Honor Hart

The Newport Beach Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission meeting on Tuesday turned into a “lovefest” for civic leader Evelyn Hart — but in the end, the commissioners decided the Oasis Center that will be opened later this month should not be renamed in her honor.

“I’m in love with Evelyn Hart,” Robert Shelton, a former Newport Beach city manager, told the commissioners. “I’ve been in love with her for more than 50 years. I’m beginning to think this meeting is a lovefest…”

But in spite of the love, he said, the commissioners should honor the rules the group drafted in 2003 that would not permit the Oasis Center to be named in any one individual’s honor.

Civic activist Tim Stoaks said Hart — who was a City Council member for 16 years and was mayor twice in addition to helping fund the original and the new Oasis Center — should be honored for her body of work.

“It’s not just about the Oasis Center,” he said. He added that months ago, he asked the mayor if he would support naming the Oasis Center in Hart’s honor, and he agreed.

“He was all grins and giggles and smiles and said sure,” Stoaks told the commissioners.

In the end, several commissioners said they too loved Hart and appreciated her work and dedication to Newport Beach, but that there were too many great residents and not enough buildings to honor them all, so sticking to the 2003 rules would be best. Instead of being called the Evelyn Hart Oasis Senior Center, the new Oasis Center’s largest and most beautiful space will be the Evelyn Hart Event Center.

Hart attended the meeting, laughing and smiling at the testimony and hugging friends on both sides of the debate after the unanimous vote, and asking them, “How much do you love me?”

“It was special,” she said. “I didn’t feel anyone was against me.”

The commission’s recommendation will now go to the City Council for final approval.

The Oasis Center has been under construction for more than a year, with classes and meetings being relocated throughout the community. Staff have moved into the office space at the new facility at Marguerite and Fifth avenues, said Recreation and Senior Services Director Laura Detweiler, with a soft opening planned for the week of Sept. 20.

Read our earlier stories here and here.

The Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission will discuss rules on dogs’ hours on beaches at its October meeting.