Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 3, No. 34 - August 26, 2021
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................11
Classifieds............................2
Entertainment......................2
Hawthorne............................3
Huber’s Hiccups..................3
Lawndale..............................4
Inglewood.............................5
Legals..............................8-10
Pets......................................12
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Sunny
78˚/65˚
Saturday
Partly
Cloudy
77˚/64˚
Sunday
Sunny
77˚/65˚
Lawndale Tribune
AND lAwNDAle News
Hawthorne Press Tribune
Featuring the Weekly Newspapers of Hawthorne, Inglewood and Lawndale
South Bay Seniors Awarded
Scholarships for Their Excellence
Mayor James T. Butts helped present scholarships to high school seniors provided by OFAkids.org (One For All) and sponsors Don Lee Farms, Robert Brkich Construction Company, and Jimmy Kimmel LA
Bowl. Scholarships ranged from $500-$1000 each. Such a fantastic event and special thanks to OFA Founder Mari Morales for her continued support of our young people. Photo courtesy City of Inglewood.
Scott Houston Helps Keep the Water
Flowing to South Bay Residents
By Duane Plank
So, if you are like most people, you do
not spend too much, if any of your daily
time, thinking about water. The colorless
liquid that emerges when you turn the handle
on your kitchen faucet, or start your daily
shower, or drenches your lawn when the
sprinklers are working. Maybe it fills your
backyard pool if you are lucky enough to
have a backyard pool.
We take it for granted that the water faucets
will continue to flow and that the liquid
will always be there, at our beck-and-call.
And even though California is again in a
drought, and wildfires again ravage Northern
California, most of us do not give flowing
water much thought.
Not so with El Segundo resident Scott
Houston, who serves the community, and
surrounding areas, as the Director of the West
Basin Municipal Water District (WBMWD),
a post to which he was elected in November
of 2014 and re-elected in 2018.
Water has been at the top of the El Segundo
news for the past six weeks or so after the
local Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant was
forced to dump seventeen million gallons of
raw sewage into the ocean because of debris
clogging the plant’s screens that are designed
to filter waste. If you happen to live west of
PCH, you have experienced, daily, what the
odious results were. And in a less obvious
and odious story, the general manager at
Houston’s own West Basin Municipal Water
District was canned by the Board of Directors
in early August.
So, Houston, who graduated from the
Michigan Technological University with
a degree in Business Administration, and
studied broadcast journalism at UCLA, has a
personal stake in what those in the scientific
field refer to as H20.
The WBMWD is a wholesale water
agency that serves around one million
people in seventeen cities and several unincorporated
areas of Los Angeles County.
The District provides imported drinking
water, recycled water, and conservation
and recycling programs to residents in its
service area.
In prior El Segundo service activities,
Houston had served a four-year stint on the
cities Public Works Committee, as well as
hosting and reporting on local events for El
Segundo TV. He has also penned published
articles about the historic drought conditions
that plague our state and has hop-scotched
around not only the United States, but the
world, speaking about the ramifications of
diminishing global water supplies and water
security during climate change. His luggage
bag tags have included water-related forays
for symposiums and the like in Stockholm,
Jerusalem, Austin, Texas, and Washington,
D.C.
Suzanne Fuentes, who served for years on
the El Segundo City Council and, at one point,
being the mayor, is considered by Houston
to be a friend. She shared her thoughts about
Houston. “Scott and I did not always see
eye to eye politically but working together
for our community, we developed a mutual
respect for one another,” she emailed.
“I met Scott in 2010 when we both ran for
El Segundo City Council,” Fuentes continued.
“Our first conversation was when I called
him because another candidate approached
me and requested I join him to ask Scott to
drop out so there would not be an election.
I immediately called Scott, introduced myself,
told him about the request, (and) said I
believed elections are important and did not
want anything to do with pressuring him not
to run for council.
“Local campaigns can be brutal,” Fuentes
said. “Scott received strong opposition while
campaigning. He persevered, prevailed, and
continues to grow in his role.
“Scott is committed to our community, putting
residents’ interests first, watching water
district finances to keep water rates affordable,
and give our city and commercial facilities
assured access to recycled water, so we do
not squander our precious potable water.
“When I was mayor, Scott arranged for the
City Manager and interested council members
to take an informative and interesting tour of
the Carlsbad desalination plant to experience
the processing sights, sounds, smells, and
end-product of a coastal desal plant.
‘On a more personal level, when I voiced
concern about the amount/expense of bottled
water the city used, Scott found funding to
install a reusable water bottle filling station
in city hall.”
One of Houston’s past co-workers is Gary
Cobb. Houston and Cobb worked together at
the Vision Envelope and Printing company,
located in Los Angeles, where Houston initially
toiled in the customer service division,
ascending to customer service manager.
Cobb said that Houston “did a fabulous job…
he is very smart and applies logic to everything
he does. (He is) meticulous, organized, a good
problem solver.” Concluded Cobb: “We knew
he would go on to much better things. We
haven’t seen the last of him,” noting that Cobb
expected Houston to “go further” in fulfilling
his civic service aspirations.
Houston was raised in Scottsdale, Arizona.
His father was in the construction trade, so
the family bounced around during Houston’s
early years, with stops in North Carolina,
Michigan, and Texas, among other locales,
finally settling in the South Bay in 1993.
See Scott Houston, page 6