Page 4 October 30, 2014 South Bay Cities Council of Governments: Providing Programs, Saving Money Looking Up An artist’s conception of NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft, seen here as the spacecraft passes above Mars’ south pole. The spacecraft has been orbiting Mars since October 24, 2001. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Image credit: NASA/JPL Winter Wonderland of Toys El Segundo Holiday Tent Opens Saturday, November 1st 70% Off Save up to select items all season long 1955 E. Grand Ave. * El Segundo, CA 90245 * 310-252-3355 * Mon. - Sat. 10am to 6pm Closed Sundays * www.matteltoystore.com ©2014 Mattel, Inc. All Rights Reserved. By Brian Simon While there are many benefits to autonomy, collaboration with one’s neighbors can pay also major dividends. Such is the case when it comes to the South Bay Cities Council of Governments (SBCCOG)—a 19-year-old joint powers authority comprised of 16 municipalities (plus Los Angeles County) that work together to advocate for regional projects and programs they would be hard-pressed to implement through individual efforts alone. As just a few recent examples of its ongoing mission to protect overall South Bay interests, the SBCCOG negotiated with utility partners to assure policies and actions are fair to cities, advanced city sustainability programs, lobbied the Public Utilities Commission to put the spotlight on South Bay infrastructure reliability programs, and prevented the South Bay Highway Program (SBHP) from paying for a $100 million Crenshaw Rail Project overrun. The SBCCOG also provides cost-effective programs that save cities money now and in the future—with energy efficiency and transportation two of the major focus areas outlined in the agency’s 2014/15 work program. On the energy side, cities working with the SBCCOG have realized significant general fund savings over the last five years through various utility incentives that also improve the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Just looking at the Herald Publications group of cities (El Segundo, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale and Torrance), those municipalities reported combined annual savings of nearly $500,000.and reduced emissions by over 2,100 tons collectively as a result of SBCCOG collaboration. Other regional offerings include energy audits and advice, training, energy action plans, energy leader programs, holiday light exchanges, municipal direct installs, and quarterly reports so each city can monitor energy efficiency. Municipal direct install—a program for government and non-profit facilities that can cut energy costs by up to 30 percent through on-site energy audits and installation of energy-saving equipment—has already provided well over $200,000 in combined upfront cost and annual savings for Hawthorne, Lawndale and Torrance. El Segundo and Inglewood also recently joined this program and expect to shave some of their yearly expenditures as a result. Water conservation programs include Cash for Kitchens, California-friendly landscape training workshops, high-efficiency toilet exchanges, water reliability educational presentations, and water leak detection (El Segundo and Inglewood were two of four cities receiving grants totaling $408,000 to address this issue). The SBCCOG also collaborates on climate action plans for the individual cities. On the transportation side, the SBCCOG fosters the application and funding processes for $906 million in Measure R (the countywide half-cent sales tax passed by voters) monies earmarked for the SBHP. This led to over $5 million in Measure R monies allocated for completed transportation projects in El Segundo (Maple Avenue to Parkview Avenue improvements), Hawthorne (Rosecrans arterial improvements) and Torrance (Maple at Sepulveda intersection improvements) over the last couple of years. In 2014/15, Measure R will subsidize $25 million for 11 highway projects in Torrance alone, with another $4 million-plus to cover nine total projects in El Segundo, Hawthorne and Lawndale. Blending transportation and energy efficiency, the SBCCOG has put an emphasis on promoting the electric vehicle movement, with current programs in place for battery (BEV) and plug-in (PEV) cars and efforts to secure additional funding for PEV readiness as well as for an NEV (neighborhood electric vehicle) large-scale project and non-profit demonstration. The SBCCOG also orchestrated the Car2Go vehicle-sharing program now operating in El Segundo and Torrance. “The COG’s interest in EVs and non-traditional transportation such as car sharing and NEVs comes from research showing that in the South Bay most trips--other than the commute trip to work--are less than three miles,” said SBCCOG Executive Director Jacki Bacharach. “This makes them too long to walk and too short for transit. Also, while biking is encouraged, not everyone can bike… so other alternatives are of interest.” Bacharach, who oversees the SBCCOG’s dayto day operations and a staff of 13 employees plus several consultants, added that much of the organization’s funding comes from grant dollars. “Another key area of success noted in our work program is that we leverage our dues with outside funding, raising 10 times the amount of funds from dues,” she said. SBCCOG also provides training and networking opportunities for city staff members, during which department heads meet to discuss issues of mutual interest and learn from one another. As examples, the new Social Media Working Group and the Senior Services Working Group recently launched. “Discussions at these meetings focus on what cities need to know and how they can do better for their constituents from working together,” said Bacharach, who added that the SBCCOG’s main networking event is its Annual General Assembly that is next scheduled for February 15 of next year. It is a full-day program with speakers and discussion periods. This year’s theme is “A View From the Front Porch: Neighborhoods in the South Bay.” Individual Council members from each participating city serve as delegates (with alternates also appointed) who attend SBCCOG meetings. The list includes El Segundo Mayor Suzanne Fuentes, Hawthorne Mayor Pro Tem Olivia Valentine, Inglewood Councilmember Ralph Franklin, Lawndale Mayor Pro Tem James Osborne, and Torrance Councilmember Kurt Weiderman. SBCCOG board meetings take place the fourth Thursday of each month (dark during February and November) at the South Bay Environmental Services Center at 20285 Western Avenue in Torrance and are open to the public. • Mars Orbiter Sees Comet Flyby Based on press releases from NASA and ESO, presented by Bob Eklund The longest-lived robot ever sent to Mars came through its latest challenge in good health, reporting home on schedule after sheltering behind Mars from possible comet dust. NASA’s Mars Odyssey was out of communications with Earth, as planned, while conducting observations of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring on Sunday, Oct. 19, as the comet flew near Mars. The comet sped within about 88,000 miles of Mars, equivalent to about one-third of the distance between Earth and Earth’s moon. Odyssey had performed a maneuver on August 5 to adjust the timing of its orbit so that it would be shielded by Mars itself during the comet’s passing, when computer modeling projected a slight risk from high-velocity dust particles in the comet’s tail. “The telemetry received from Odyssey confirms not only that the spacecraft is in fine health but also that it conducted the planned observations of comet Siding Spring within hours of the comet’s closest approach to Mars,” said Odyssey Mission Manager Chris Potts of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., speaking from mission operations center at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. Three NASA Mars orbiters, two Mars rovers and other assets on Earth and in space are studying comet Siding Spring. This comet is making its first visit this close to the Sun from the outer solar system’s Oort Cloud, so the concerted campaign of observations may yield fresh clues to our solar system’s earliest days more than 4 billion years ago. Comets Found Around Nearby Star A French team of astronomers at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile has studied nearly 500 individual comets orbiting the star Beta Pictoris and has discovered that they belong to two distinct families of exocomets: old exocomets that have made multiple passages near the star, and younger exocomets that probably came from the recent breakup of one or more larger objects. Beta Pictoris is a young star located 63 light-years from the Sun. It is only about 20 million years old and is surrounded by a huge disc of material—a very active young planetary system where gas and dust are produced by the evaporation of comets and the collisions of asteroids. For almost 30 years astronomers have seen subtle changes in the light from Beta Pictoris that were thought to be caused by the passage of comets in front of the star itself. Comets are small bodies of a few kilometers in size, but they are rich in ices, which evaporate when they approach their star, producing gigantic tails of gas and dust that can absorb some of the light passing through them. The dim light from the exocomets is swamped by the light of the brilliant star, so they cannot be imaged directly from Earth. To study the Beta Pictoris exocomets, the team analyzed more than 1,000 observations obtained between 2003 and 2011 The researchers selected a sample of 493 different exocomets. Some exocomets were observed several times and for a few hours. Careful analysis provided measurements of the speed and the size of the gas clouds. Some of the orbital properties of each comet, such as the shape and the orientation of the orbit and the distance to the star, could also be deduced. • “Be obscure clearly.” - e. b. white
Hawthorne_103014_FNL_lorez
To see the actual publication please follow the link above