The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 106, No. 41 - October 12, 2017
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................16
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................6
Legals............................ 14,15
Letters...................................2
Pets......................................17
Police Reports...................15
Real Estate.........10-13,18,19
Sports.................................5,8
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Partly
Cloudy
73˚/58˚
Saturday
Sunny
77˚/60˚
Sunday
Sunny
86˚/60˚
El Segundo High School Lights
Up With Fireworks Spectacular
Saturday, October 7 continued El Segundo’s Centennial festivities with a 15-minute fireworks extravaganza that told the story of 100 years of the city’s history. The show, which featured an original score and
narration, included pyrotechnics, colorful lighting, special effects and animations projected onto the El Segundo High School bell tower. See inside this week’s edition for more highlights! Photo by Marcy Dugan.
Park Vista Looks Into the Future
as Long-Term Deficits Loom
By Brian Simon
Though expecting to be in reasonably good
financial shape over the next five years, the
longer-term future of El Segundo’s Park Vista
Senior Apartmen ts is a bit cloudier. According
to Senior Citizen Housing Board Corporation
President Jim Latta, current reserves sit at about
$1.6 million and prospects look good through
2022 to cover maintenance costs for that period.
But then projections start to go south, with a
deficit of $2.5 million anticipated by 2027.
A recent reserve study concluded that Park
Vista lacks sufficient funding to repair normal
facility wear and tear over the long haul—and
requires about $27,000 a month in income to
rebuild an adequate reserve.
The situation could have been worse. The
El Segundo City Council in July allocated
$882,544 from the general fund reserves to
Park Vista and also forgave a prior $13,000
monthly loan amount. The moves, though
helpful, still leave Park Vista $12,000 short
of the magic $27,000 number.
With that in mind, Latta and company
thought it wise to be proactive and recently
came up with a few “out-of-the-box” ideas to
nip the financial concerns in the bud before
the situation becomes dire later. “We’re
gonna lose it unless we do something now,”
Latta said of taking action to shore up
Park Vista’s coffers in order to maintain the
affordable housing complex that he described
as “unique” and “unheard of” elsewhere in the
ES School Board Meets with City
Council About Aquatics Joint Use
By Duane Plank
It was double duty for the hard-working
members of the El Segundo School
Board Tuesday evening when they held
a doubleheader meeting first discussing
a possible joint venture regarding local
aquatics with the assembled members of
the El Segundo City Council and City
Manager Greg Carpenter.
The only agenda item discussed during
the well-attended initial 90-minute meeting,
which kicked off at 6 p.m. and was
facilitated by Karen Orlansky of Management
Partners, was the possible partnership
between the City of El Segundo, Wiseburn
Unified School District, El Segundo Unified
School District (ESUSD) and the
under-construction El Segundo Aquatics
Center (ESAC) being built on land on
Douglas Street that will also house the
new Wiseburn High School.
ESUSD Superintendent Melissa Moore
said that the “purpose of this meeting was
to document the thought processes” of
the two elective bodies--the City Council
and the School Board members and “to
look out where there is common ground.”
Moore posited that, in her belief, there
are “more similarities than differences.”
Orlansky delineated the basic ground
rules for the meeting, noting the difference
between attendees “interests,” versus
“positions,” and then the assembled
region. As is the case when looking at how to
improve any bottom line, the Senior Housing
Board considered potential ways to add income
and reduce expenses. Three options came before
the Council last week for discussion.
The first thought was a rent increase for
new tenants. The City requires that Park Vista
units price out at a maximum 50 percent of
market rent. As such, they run $637 a month
for studios and $895 for one bedrooms. Current
tenants only pay on average 36-38 percent
($500 and $630) of market. However, increasing
their monthly rent, Latta admitted, “is not the
right thing to do.”
Instead the suggestion was to convert 32
existing studio units (which are larger at 419
square feet than the normal 300-350) to one
See Park Vista, page 4
See School Board, page 16