The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo Herald Publications - El Segundo, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 104, No. 14 - April 2, 2015 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.....................14 Classifieds............................4 Crossword/Sudoku.............4 Film Review..........................3 Legals............................ 12,13 Obituaries.............................2 Politically Speaking............5 Real Estate.....................9-11 Sports.................................6,8 School Spotlight..................3 Weekend Forecast School District Honors Classified Employees of the Year More than 75 nominations were submitted for the Classified Employee of the Year awards, from employees who wished to honor and recognize their colleagues. The awardees were greeted with flowers and a certificate from ESUSD Superintendent Dr. Melissa Moore. All awardees have also been nominated at the county for consideration for the Los Angeles County Classified Employee of the Year. Pictured: Kris Sturgeon, aide at Center Street School, who was awarded Paraeducator of the Year, with Dr. Melissa Moore, ESUSD Superintendent (left), Ramona Millar, Learning Center Coordinator (back), and CSS principal Martha Monahan (right). For more photos, see page 3. Photo provided by ESUSD. Mayor Focuses on Big Ideas in State of the City Address By Brian Simon Photos by Marcy Dugan Before a sold-out crowd of business and community leaders at the Dockweiler Youth Center last Wednesday, El Segundo Mayor Suzanne Fuentes delivered her first State of the City address and focused on both the past year’s accomplishments as well as prospects for the future. Though the City experienced fiscal challenges, Fuentes was pleased to report that “through discipline and teamwork, our overall experience is a net positive.” Using El Segundo’s new branding campaign, “The City Where Big Ideas Take Off!” as the thematic thread, the Mayor elaborated on five particular big ideas. The first, that El Segundo is a community of partners, highlighted the involvement of the residential and business communities as well as the achievements of the two school districts and contributions of City departments and employees. Fuentes lauded residents for making El Segundo a “great place to live” by volunteering their time on boards, committees and commissions; raising kids “who are our future;” participating in sports, arts and philanthropy; and collaborating to reduce crime through the “See Something-Say Something’ campaign. El Segundo Unified past year achievements included the hire of new Superintendent Dr. Melissa Moore, the Middle School’s commendation as an International Baccalaureate program, league championships in several sports, and a finals appearance for the Eagles ZeroRobotics team in a major International Space Station/MIT competition. Wiseburn Superintendent Dr. Tom Johnstone received 2015 Superintendent of the Year honors from his industry peers and saw his district officially unify last July after a 13-year effort. Da Vinci Schools also received a $52.7 million state facilities grant to complete the new Wiseburn High School by 2017. Fuentes also singled out the collaboration between Wiseburn, the City, aquatics stakeholders and businesses to build a new Olympic-quality aquatics facility at the future high school site. In what she termed “one of the greatest examples of partnership in our city’s history,” Wiseburn has committed the land and more than half the construction costs for the aquatics center. Continental Development Corporation President Richard Lundquist also committed $1 million towards the construction effort and is leading the fundraising campaign to collect the balance. The Los Angeles Lakers were the first to jump on board with a $250,000 pledge. “We are looking for additional partners to donate $2 million to complete this premier facility and several million dollars to renovate the Urho Saari Swim Stadium—yes, we love and intend to restore and improve our Plunge,” Fuentes said. Other community partnership highlights mentioned include El Segundo’s upcoming roles in hosting 100 athletes from the Bahamas, See State of the City, page 2 Friday Mostly Sunny 79˚/58˚ Saturday Sunny 75˚/55˚ Sunday Sunny/ Wind 66˚/52˚ Local Homeowners Losing Residential Sound Insulation By Brian Simon Local homeowners who recently learned they would not receive previously promised residential sound insulation (RSI) work filled the City Council chambers during a special meeting on Tuesday night to voice their displeasure about the predicament. Thanks to inexplicably high construction bids, the originally planned work will not proceed at 191 homes in groups 62, 66, 69, 70, 71, 72 and 73. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) denied the City’s subsequent request to award contracts to the lowest bidder on each project because the timeline would exceed a stringent September 30, 2015 funding deadline. But even a potential extension to December 31 apparently won’t make a difference. After September 30, the FAA will require advance acoustical testing at all homes regardless of location before allocating any RSI monies. However, the City has yet to receive a protocol for such testing from Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), creating a catch-22 scenario. RSI Program Manager James O’Neill admitted that the City was “blindsided” by the news, noting that construction bids for all other groups came in within the permitted 10 percent of engineering estimates—yet for the seven groups in question, the bids ran anywhere from 37 percent to 105 percent higher. A review of the City engineering numbers confirmed those estimates were in line, prompting O’Neill to conclude that the contractor prices were just “unreasonably high.” One explanation offered was that market conditions (driven by the strict deadlines and an See City Council, page 15
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