The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo Herald Publications - El Segundo, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 105, No. 24 - June 9, 2016 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.....................14 Classifieds............................4 Community Briefs...............2 Crossword/Sudoku.............4 Film Review..........................6 Legals............................ 12,13 Pets......................................14 Police Reports.....................3 Real Estate.......... 8-11,15-16 Sports.................................5,7 Weekend Forecast Center and Richmond Street Schools Named 2016 Gold Ribbon Schools The El Segundo Unified School District is proud to announce that both of its elementary schools have been honored under the state’s Gold Ribbon Schools Awards Program. The Gold Ribbon Schools Award recognizes California schools that have made gains in implementing the academic content and performance standards adopted by the State Board of Education. Front row from Left to Right: Christine Quinn, Alisa Lister, Kristen McCann, Valerie Sandowicz; back row from Left to Right: Marisa Janicek, Bill Watkins, Jeanie Nishime, Melissa Moore, Martha Monahan, Alice Lee, Danielle Flynn, Tahnya Nodar. Photo provided by ESUSD. • City Council Gets Incomplete Update from Edison on Recent Power Outages By Brian Simon On Tuesday night, the El Segundo City Council heard from Southern California Edison You’re Traveling Where This Summer? Oh, No! By Rob McCarthy It’s looking like a bummer summer for overseas travelers because of renewed threats from terrorists, criminal gangs and a tiny flying insect in the Olympic host city of Rio de Janeiro. The mosquito-born zika virus in Brazil is scaring U.S. fans from making the 13- hour flight to the host city for the Summer Olympic Games. The world comes together every four years for the Games, however, turmoil within Brazil’s government and an outbreak of zika have created doubts that the host can complete construction of the venues in time for the competition. The opening ceremonies are scheduled for Aug. 5, with the games running through Aug. 21. The U.S. Olympic Committee said two weeks ago it’s ready for the Games to begin, while acknowledging Rio’s “unique challenges” created by a zika epidemic and political scandal. “The bottom line is that our athletes are ready to go and we are committed to supporting them 100 percent this summer,” USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun wrote last month. U.S. health officials are advising pregnant women not to visit Brazil this summer because of zika virus, which can be spread from mosquito to human, as well as from a pregnant woman to her unborn baby. There have been confirmed See Traveling, page 6 representatives Paul Hennessy and Connie Turner regarding the recent spate of power outages impacting local residents and businesses. The electric utility provided a circuit reliability report outlining the average frequency of both brief and sustained interruptions over the past few years as well as the most common causes of outages—with equipment failure the primary culprit over 42% of the time. But the Edison officials could not yet pinpoint the reasons for specific outages over the last few months since that will entail manually looking at the circuits for each city. Asked by Councilmember Carol Pirsztuk if the company has any insight on the recent increase in problems, Hennessy said no. He explained that it takes the outage team awhile to break down a specific incident and it will need to have a specific date and location in order to do so. Mayor Suzanne Fuentes added that anecdotally, residents report outages several days a week. Hennessy explained that equipment failure happens due to age and infrastructure not being replaced. He admitted that in the past, Edison only replaced equipment that broke. But the company launched a more preventative infrastructure replacement program in 2010 that is still in the catch-up process. Among the El Segundo projects is a $1.2 million fix of underground cable causing issues east of Sepulveda. Turner went on to confirm the likelihood of over a dozen rotating, planned outages this summer with predicted heatwaves the main reason as well as the closure of a major gas storage facility in Santa Clarita that will limit Edison’s use of back-up generators. The rolling outages serve to protect the grid when demand exceeds supply, Turner said. She pointed out that Edison has 88 different circuit groups in its service area, so the rotation will serve to minimize impacts on a particular city. Turner went on to give citizens a number to call (1-800-655-4555) and indicated they can opt in to receive updates via text, email or phone to stay in the loop on their particular outages. She also gave the City Clerk a form to post online that citizens can use to make claims in the event of damages from outages. Fuentes said she herself filed a $5,000 claim, but did not receive a dime. Turner responded that while there are no guarantees, everyone has the right to file a claim. Also on Tuesday, the Council (per Fuentes’ initial request) directed staff to conduct a Friday See City Council, page 12 AM Clouds/ PM Sun 73˚/60˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 72˚/60˚ Sunday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 72˚/59˚
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