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 12, 2016 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................5 Classifieds............................3 Food.......................................5 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals............................2, 6-7 Looking Up...........................4 Pets........................................8 Police Reports.....................7 Seniors..................................3 Sports....................................4 Weekend Forecast Friday Sunny 70˚/57˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 70˚/61˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 70˚/61˚ Job Seekers Attend Annual Job Fair More than 750 job hopefuls attended the 16th Annual Blueprint for Workplace Success Youth and Young Adult Job Fair at Rogers Park in Inglewood on May 4. The South Bay Workforce Investment Board (SBWIB) hosted the event. Students from 18 schools throughout the South Bay area, including Hawthorne, Carson, Torrance and Redondo Beach, were selected by their school’s career counselors so they could meet face-to-face with potential employers. Photo by Juan Flores. Council Hears L.A. Metro Expansion Plans Including Sales Tax Increase By Derrick Deane years in local return money. Hawthorne will be seeing mass transit If the ballot were to not pass or if the extensions and improvements in the near future Metro board decides not to pursue the ballot according to an ambitious expansion plan that measure, the city would still be getting about was released by Los Angeles Metro in March. $321 million in local return dollars. At this past Tuesday’s City Council meeting “I think that local return dollar piece is representative Danielle Valentino spoke to the something that cities really gravitate toward, council about deadlines, some of the plans wanting to know about,” Valentino said. that will affect the city, and what kind of income Hawthorne might see from upcoming Metro plans. One of the projects that would be funded is what is being known as the Airport Connecter Project. The plan would call to build a transit station at 96th Street that would connect to the end of the Green Line and Crenshaw/ LAX trains. That transit station would serve Valentino added that the city has already seen as a transition point to the Los Angeles World the benefits of Measure R money. Hawthorne Airports people mover shuttle to get people has reportedly already expended $17.27 from the station to the airport. million between 2010 to 2015 for projects “It would basically be the first ever linkage like transit operations, street repair, helping to the airport via that automated people mover,” to fund active transportation and also helping Valentino said. “That’s all mentioned in the to plan local engineering and transportation draft expenditure plan that obviously cuts projects in the city. through Hawthorne and is actually one of “That’s significant and that’s just under the top priorities listed in the draft expansion Measure R,” Valentino said. “That’s an example plan for the city.” of how local sales tax help fund what you do.” Hawthorne would also benefit from local Valentino also pointed to the Rosecrans return dollars. Ave. Widening Project, which costs about “What you do get through these tax measures $2.1 million, is also being funded through is some substantial local return dollars that would Measure R. fund infrastructure and road improvements,” “That’s another example where Measure R Valentino said. “All of that money does come helped and the sales tax helped the city get through Metro and much of that, if you apply that work done,” Valentino said, also pointing for it, you can earn for your local city.” out the Hawthorne Boulevard improvement Valentino says that earlier in the day, L.A. plan that stretched from El Segundo Blvd. to Metro was crunching the numbers and came Rosecrans Ave. That project cost about $7.5 up with some estimated totals in return dollars million of Measure R money. for Hawthorne. If the ballot measure was Another part of the draft expansion plan is approved, the city of Hawthorne would be to extend the Green Line into Torrance, but getting $486.5 million over the course of 40 that part of the plan would not take place until the “second 15 years,” or beginning in 2033. “There has been a very active effort underway since March to release that plan for public review and for all of our stakeholders to be reading that plan, reviewing it, and weighing in,” Valentino said. Valentino says that the South Bay city governments have been very active in reviewing the plan and communicating with Metro what they appreciate in the plan and what they hope would be changed and revised. “At the same time we are asking all of our cities as individual jurisdictions to equally weigh in on the plan and work with their council of governments and staff to make sure that that plan reflects exactly what that city would like to see,” Valentino said. May 20 is the deadline Valentino is asking all cities and staff to provide written feedback on the plan so that when the June Board meeting occurs, Metro has had ample time to review the comments from the cities their plan will affect. The meeting would ultimately decide if the Board will place a ballot measure in November 2016 that would include a half-cent sales tax increase in addition to the extending the existing Measure R tax. Measure R was a half-cent sales tax on all taxable sales made in Los Angeles County for thirty years in order to pay for transportation projects and improvements that was approved by voters during the 2008 elections. “It’s essentially an extension and augmenting of the existing sales tax that we might potentially be asking the voters to weigh in on in November,” Valentino said. For those interested in checking out Metro’s Expansion Plans, you may go to theplan.metro. net to see what changes are being planned, see when and where public meetings are being held, and voice your opinions on Metro’s plans. • “What you do get through these tax measures is some substantial local return dollars that would fund infrastructure and road improvements.”
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