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 - August 30, 2018
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................7
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Food.......................................5
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals............................. 4,6,7
Pets........................................8
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Partly
Cloudy
79˚/68˚
Saturday
Mostly
Sunny
81˚/69˚
Sunday
Partly
Cloudy
79˚/68˚
Teachers Off and Running as
the New School Year Kicks Off
What happened to summer? Just like that, school is in session once again. The photo above shows the fine teachers at Hawthorne’s Saint Joseph’s School preparing and raring to go for another year.
Photo: St. Joseph’s School.
Council Hears from Union Pacific;
Gets Election Day Propositions
By Derrick Deane
At its Tuesday night meeting, the Hawthorne
City Council heard presentations from Union
Pacific Railroad as well as some upcoming
propositions that will be on Election Day
ballots in November.
Union Pacific Railroad Senior Director of
Public Affairs Lupe Valdez spoke about noise
and train schedule issues that had recently
been voiced at the City Council meetings.
One of the questions that has risen over the
past few months is the use of the train’s horn.
Valdez said that it is required by state and federal
law for any engineer to sound their horn.
“It could be an Amtrak engineer, it could be
Union Pacific or BSNF engineer, a Metrolink
engineer…they have to sound their horn
before they enter a crossing,” Valdez said.
Valdez joked that when she worked at
Metrolink, she would have people call her
and say that they thought the engineer is
upset because they were awake early and
they wanted to wake everyone else up. “That
is not the case,” Valdez said. “He can get a
very heavy fine by the Federal Railroad Administration
if he does not sound the horn.”
In 2015, the federal government passed a
law that allowed local jurisdictions to pass
so-called Quiet Zones. A Quiet Zone is a
cooperation between a local jurisdiction and
the railroad company and the California Public
Utilities Commission. “We can’t do anything
with a [railroad] crossing without approval
from the California Public Utilities Commission,”
Valdez said. “They have jurisdiction
and a special arm on the railroad side.”
A Quiet Zone also needs to be approved
by the Federal Railroad Association and has
specific safety rules that are pursued and
promoted. Valdez said that the only other
way for the horn not to sound is if a particular
railroad crossing is closed to traffic
or pedestrians. “The trains don’t run on a
schedule – they’re pretty regular, but they’re
based on the customer demands,” Valdez said.
“After 9/11, the only people we share that
information with are your first responders.”
Valdez said that even if the City of Hawthorne
is able to create a Quiet Zone, “that
doesn’t mean the horn will go away 100
percent.” She explained that the horn would
go away between 85 and 90 percent because
the engineer is still required to sound it if a
person or car is present near or on the tracks.
“The horn is the only device the engineer has
to stop a tragedy from happening,” Valdez
said, adding that a train – even a slow-moving
one -- cannot stop immediately like a car.
“When people either go around the gate
arm or decide to [walk on the tracks], that
creates a problem for the engineer and he
will sound the horn.”
Valdez added that the only time an engineer
will sound the horn is if there is either
someone on the tracks, the train is nearing
a crossing, or there is construction or maintenance
adjacent to the track. “Right now in
L.A. County, we’re having a lot of issues
with homelessness and that has created a
lot more horn sounding than I have ever
had because we’ve just had an explosion of
homeless people on the tracks,” she said.
Homelessness is one of the issues that
will be addressed in the list of propositions
on November’s ballot. League of California
Cities Communication Director Jeff Kiernan
spoke about four particular propositions at
the meeting.
Proposition 1 is a $4 billion bond called
the Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond
Act of 2018 which, if approved, would allow
the issuance of bonds to fix existing housing
programs as well as establish new programs
for affordable housing.
The purchase of homes and mobile homes
for veterans would take up $1 billion of that
bond, while the rest would go to fund grants
around the state to be applied for by cities.
Proposition 2 is called the No Place Like
Home Homeless Housing Ratification, which
is a $2 billion bond measure that would allow
for $140 million to be transferred annually
from the Prop. 63 Mental Health Services
Act that passed in 2004 to provide housing
for mentally ill homeless people.
Prop. 63 taxed Californians with incomes
over $1 million an additional 1 percent and
dedicated that funding to mental health
services. “Unfortunately, years later, much
of this funding is unspent,” Kiernan said.
“There simply aren’t enough avenues with
which to spend that money because we have
drawn down so many of the mental health
services in the state.”
In 2016, the State Legislature passed the
original No Place Like Home Act intended to
shift $2 billion to build housing for mentally
ill persons. However, it has been tied up in the
court system since then. As such, the State
Legislature and Governor Jerry Brown have decided
to put the issue on a ballot and hope to get
voters to ratify the shift of some of the money.
Proposition 3 is the Supply and Water Quality
Bond Act of 2018, which authorizes $8.8
billion in state general obligation funds for
water-related infrastructure projects. Of that,
$3.3 billion is set aside to for safe drinking
water and water quality projects. Nearly $1
billion is earmarked for habitat protection,
among other items that have been planned
of the use of the bond.
Kiernan said the League of California Cities
is supporting all three propositions and
all three are unopposed. The one initiative
opposed by the League is Proposition 6.
Proposition 6 would eliminate the recently
enacted road and transportation repair funding
by repealing $5 billion in annual revenues
dedicated for transportation projects. The
proposition also requires any measure that
would enact vehicle fuel taxes and vehicle
fees be approved by the public by a twothirds
margin. “If approved, funding would be
eliminated for 650 road and bridge projects
currently underway all over the state,” Kiernan
said, including 143 bridges that have been
deemed unsafe in L.A. County.
Election Day is November 6. •