Hawthorne Press Tribune
The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - May 10, 2018
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................5
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals................................ 4-7
Pets........................................8
Wiseburn School................7
Weekend
Forecast
Apartment Fire on Broadway
An apartment fire at 4020 Broadway on May 3 prompted a large police and fire department response for evacuations (including pets) and fire suppression. Thankfully, there were no reported injuries.
Due extensive damage to one side of the building, LA County FD “red tagged” the building pending structural inspection. American Red Cross responded to assist residents. The apartment owner secured
the building and provided short-term housing for all residents. As of press time, the cause of the fire was unknown. Photo: Hawthorne PD.
Friday
Partly
Cloudy
65˚/58˚
Saturday
AM Clouds/
PM Sun
64˚/57˚
Sunday
Partly
Cloudy
64˚/56˚
Vargas, English Tout Clean Power
Alliance and Apprenticeships
By Derrick Deane
In a meeting that lasted just under an hour,
the Hawthorne City Council blitzed through
a number of resolutions while Mayor Alex
Vargas and Councilmember Angie Reyes
English provided updates to out-of-state
conferences they attended last week. Among
the resolutions the Council unanimously
approved were a three-way stop sign at the
intersection of Isis and Wiseburn Avenue, the
establishment of an on-street parking space
at 4181 Broadway Ave. for exclusive use of
physically handicapped persons, and official
support of California Bill AB2758.
Councilmember Olivia Valentine took a moment
to state how AB2758 would particularly
help encourage minority-owned small business
growth in the city. The bill offers income tax
credits to qualified small businesses.
A Hamilton Project report cited that the
average loan amount for minority-owned
businesses was $9,300 compared to $20,500
for non-minority owned businesses. California
receives just over 50 percent of all U.S. venture
capital. Only 1 percent of those funds go to
African-American and Hispanic-owned businesses.
AB 2758 aims to fix the inequity in
financing by prioritizing investments directed
toward minority-owned businesses.
Vargas and English also spoke at length
about encouraging people to join and begin
apprenticeships. “There a lot of different apprentice
programs that are available,” English
said of the conference she attended in New
York. “I’m working with Los Angeles World
Airports [LAWA] with regards to an apprentice
program that they have for those that
are interested in the construction jobs that
are coming to LAX with the people mover
and all the synergy that is happening there
building out LAX.”
English added that it was important for the
City of Hawthorne to work hand-in-hand with
El Camino College in helping students find
a skill that can ultimately lead to a career.
“We’re falling short with a lot of skills that
folks need such as nurses, doctors, social
workers, apprentice construction work,” she
said. “We need to just be sure that Hawthorne
is providing this information for its residents.”
Information for career development and apprenticeship
programs will be going up on the
City of Hawthorne website soon.
English also spoke about the Clean Power Alliance
(CPA), of which she is the representative
for the City. “Clean Power Alliance is who we
are now in the City of Hawthorne and we’re
going to be forming a community advisory
committee for those that are interested,” she
said. “It’s an opportunity for constituents in our
city to participate.” Those interested in being
a part of the community advisory committee
can apply at the City Clerk’s office.
Clean Power Alliance is a non-profit organization
that Hawthorne joined back in December
2017. “Our city is working hand-in-hand with
the Clean Power Alliance to [ensure] that we
are procuring energy at a lower cost,” English
explained. “There is going to be a roll-out
of invoices that are going to be going out to
the community here in Hawthorne sometime
in July that speaks to who Clean Power Alliance
is and what we’re ultimately doing with
renewable energy.”
Vargas also commented on the CPA, saying
that “this is a decision that we made to be able
to save the community money. There’s a big
effort that took place to get here and pretty
soon it is going to be marketed and everyone is
going to understand what is going to happen.”
English added that the estimated population
for Hawthorne for 2017-2018 saw a growth of
1 percent. According to the website Suburban
Stats, Hawthorne is now home to 84,293 people
at last count. Of that total, 52 percent of the
population or 44,572 residents are Hispanic.
Vargas attended the National Association
of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) Work
Force Development Institute in New York with
English. “One of the big topics that occurred at
this meeting was basically saying that people
who go to college sometimes have a hard time
getting jobs,” Vargas said. “The alternate form
of employment is the trades with labor jobs and
such. Those are more rewarding except that
the labor unions membership is going down.”
Vargas used the hotels that are being built
across the street from City Hall as an example.
“I had a discussion with one of the foreman
and we have our union workers, but it was hard
to get people to work on this project because
we don’t have a lot of rosters to go and pick
from because there’s not a lot of people,” he
said. “We want to hire union people for different
things here in government, but there’s
not enough people -- so we need to encourage
that and let people know that college doesn’t
always necessarily have to be the main goal.
There are trade union jobs out there that pay
even more than a college degree.”
With Mother’s Day coming up, the Council
also sent out greetings -- including Vargas,
who spoke about the holiday. “I want to
congratulate all the wonderful mothers for
all the work that they do for their wonderful
families and all the sacrifices that they give
for us,” he said. “It’s kind of towards our
latter years that we as adults can appreciate
what our mothers did for us. Thank you to
all the mothers…” •