Hawthorne Press Tribune Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - July 28, 2016 SoCalGas Announces Opening of New Natural Gas Fueling Station Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas), along with local officials, business representatives and employees marked the opening of a new public compressed natural gas (CNG) station in Los Angeles on July 13. The new CNG station extends the network of CNG stations across a key regional goods movement corridor and will provide owners and operators of natural gas-fueled trucks and other vehicles with a new, convenient place to fuel. Photo provided by SoCalGas Police Chief, City Council Discuss Options For Possible Fireworks Ban By Derrick Deane In what has become an annual post-Fourth of July tradition, the Hawthorne City Council once again took on the issue of fireworks that were set off in the city. This year mayor Alex Vargas called on Hawthorne Police Chief Robert Fager to provide some insight on the matter and also gauge how his council colleagues felt. “I will tell you that one of the dynamics that we are faced with is that at times, you can have a community who has a certain pulse that says they want or doesn’t want something,” Fager said. “For instance, some neighborhoods are apt to have block parties,” Fager continued. “In those block parties, people will congregate and besides food and liquor and everything else, one or two households might go out and buy a bunch of illegal fireworks.” Fager added that when those fireworks go up in the air and make a ruckus that annoys certain community members, “they have to remember that one block away, maybe that whole block decided it was okay.” One of the biggest and natural questions from the community has been about what action is being taken to remedy the issue. “I can only speak from the public safety end,” Fager prefaced, adding that, “with illegal fireworks, even though the term is ‘illegal,’ unless you trip certain levels of their use or possession, that’s not really a criminal enforcement area. They’re more of a civil administrative area.” There are forms of enforcement that can result in citations of individuals as there is an administrative cite component that the city possesses. The fine is currently $1,000 and according to Fager, “what ends up happening is that it can isolate the most problematic spots but it doesn’t really address the mass use, the mass impact which really what people’s general take-away is.” Fager says that citations by the police department are used rarely adding, “picture a police officer going up to someone’s driveway and giving them a ticket for $1,000. If you don’t think we’re already challenged enough in this day and age of what police get involved in and then the reverberations for it, add that layer to it.” Another issue that the police department faces is that residents who call in leave really vague descriptions of what is going on. “Quite honestly, most of the information is from residents saying, ‘There’s something loud going off nearby.’ Very rarely is it specific to a location. What we’ll do is whatever units are in the area will go by the area and try to locate and address them,” Fager said. He adds that the more information that is given by residents, the more the officers can do to address the matter. “If they identify a specific house, specific individuals, now it can be treated by similar radio calls,” Fager said. “The vast majority of them though, are not. The vast majority of them are, ‘Our neighborhood is loud.’” Vargas added that even if the city banned fireworks, the city would still need to use the same resources to enforce the ban. “If we had a complete ban on legal and illegal [fireworks] we still have to go chase them,” Vargas said. “People are asking that we ban them all, but there is still that enforcement issue that we have to contend with.” Fager added that not only would you have an enforcement issue, but there would also be an adaptation period to go through assuming that people won’t get the message or know about the ban. The last time Hawthorne asked residents to vote on a fireworks ban was ten years ago. “It was an advisory ballot asking residents if they would like to ban safe and sane fireworks and the result was no,” city attorney Russell Miyahara said, who later added that the council can decide by vote whether they want to ban fireworks and that an ballot measure would not be necessary. Vargas added that if residents want to ban fireworks in the city, then there has to be a solid campaign to propel the issue forward. “It just can’t be one or two people that come up to the podium or give me a call and start complaining. It has to be a good, strong campaign to support the ban if that’s the solution that you are looking for as residents,” Vargas said. Mayor Pro Tem Angie Reyes English, who addressed the fireworks issue last year, restated her claim that she wanted to find another way to celebrate the holiday. One of her suggestions is to collaborate with neighboring cities to fund a fireworks show. “It’s not getting any better,” English said. “I know the proposition that happened ten years ago, but a perfect example, we’ve been serving mayors for the last twenty years to two-year terms and here recently that all changed in a proposition on a ballot that now provides for the mayorship to be a four-year term.” English adds there is no easy answer to the issue stating that there are groups and organizations who, “heavily believe that they benefit from those fireworks sales and I understand and get that. However what are you doing the rest of the year, not just in July. I know that it’s one of your biggest ways of generating revenue, however on the flip side, I feel sorry for all the pet owners who have to deal with the effect the fireworks have on their pets.” Vargas closed the discussion on the matter by saying that he would not side either way on the issue. “I’m not going to say yes or no or advocate either way,” Vargas said. “It will be the residents, because guess what, a lot of people enjoy these fireworks. They like to see them. Let’s not forget that. Yes, there are people who abuse them and of course there are veterans and pets who are hearing this stuff get spooked.” • Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................4 Classifieds............................3 Film Review..........................6 Finance..................................2 Food.......................................5 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals..............................7-11 Pets......................................12 Police Reports.....................2 Sports....................................4 Weekend Forecast Friday Sunny 77˚/67˚ Saturday Sunny 76˚/66˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 76˚/66˚ The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
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