Lawndale Tribune AND lAwNDAle News The Weekly Newspaper of Lawndale Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - June 12, 2014 Inside This Issue Business Briefs...................3 Calendar...............................2 Classifieds............................3 Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................4 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Finance..................................4 Food.......................................8 Legals.............................2,6-7 Looking Up...........................6 Politically Speaking............5 Seniors..................................2 Sports....................................5 Weekend Forecast Friday Partly Cloudy 69˚/59˚ Saturday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 71˚/61˚ Sunday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 70˚/60˚ Tri Park Orioles Advance to Championship Second Round Chris Lopez of the Tri Park Orioles slides to second base as second baseman Celso Castro of the Lennox Diablos attempts to tag him out in last Saturday's Carl Magee, Jr. Memorial District 37 Tournament of Champions Junior Baseball action. The Orioles topped the Diablos 6-2. See story on page 5. Photo by Joe Snyder. Mayor Calls Special City Council Meeting to Revisit Defeated Topics By Nancy Peters At the previous City Council meeting on May 27th, two items were defeated by votes of the four present Council members. Dissatisfied with the handling of those two items, Mayor Chris Brown called a Special Meeting held just six days later with only those two items for consideration. On Monday, June 2nd, the City Council approved a motion made by Mayor Brown and seconded by Council member Angie Reyes-English to purchase iPads for Council members. The vote of 3-2 included dissenting votes by Council members Alex Vargas and Nilo Michelin. Vargas expressed that he saw no true forecasted savings by less paper involved in copying agenda and supporting documents for five members of the Council and stated that the iPads would be used as personal “toys” by his fellow elected officials. The resolution includes a clause that says there is to be no personal use of the iPads that will be purchased, especially during Council meetings. Brown and Reyes-English believe there will be cost savings and more efficiency without paper distribution. Hard copies of all agenda and supporting documents will be kept by the City Attorney’s office. The other defeated topic from May 27th involved consultants’ expenditures to design a park which would be built in conjunction with the Hawthorne Boulevard Improvement Project, near a property owned and operated by Hawthorne School District. Rocket Plaza Park at 129th Street has not been presented to the school district as part of the plans for the boulevard project and the Public Works Director did state at the meeting on May 27th that building the park before, after, or during the street project was not a factor for either project. Mayor Brown stated on June 2nd that he had spoken to the Public Works Director, who agreed that building the park now was more efficient. Vargas challenged that without the director present to corroborate the mayor’s statement there was no way to know the conversation took place. The motion was passed by a vote of 3-2, with Vargas and Michelin casting the dissenting votes. Vargas asked that all discussion be recorded verbatim in the minutes and passed on to the Hawthorne School District. Michelin was concerned that the design consultants were connected in some way to a former city employee and also stated that he did not want to see funds from reserves pay for this work. The regular City Council meeting on June 10th included a presentation by the Human Resources Department which is now processing United States Passports in City Hall for a processing fee of $25 in addition to the Passport Office fee, cost of which is dependent on other factors but averages $110 for 10 years. The Department of State announced on their website that Hawthorne City Hall is a new processing location and 80 requests were received the first day. This new revenue generating project could bring up to $100,000 to the city’s General Fund each year. Amendments to the Municipal Code included an ordinance that will allow for two high density residential parcels to become zoned for Mixed Use General Commercial zones and for seven other parcels to be zoned for General Commercial zoning. In addition, an ordinance now will require standards for commercial developments to comply with a security plan to be approved by the Hawthorne Police Department that will require safety plans in all commercial parking lots attached to commercial developments. The next meeting of the Hawthorne City Council will be on Tuesday, June 24th at 6 p.m. when the first draft of the budgets for fiscal years 2014-15 and 2015-16 will be presented, postponed from the meeting on June 10 and not even part of that agenda. • Hawthorne Boulevard Improvement Project Update Public Works Director Arnie Shadbehr reports that the Hawthorne Boulevard Improvement Project, begun in May and scheduled through February 2015 will affect traffic at various intervals. During June, the southbound lanes of Hawthorne Boulevard between 129th and 132nd Streets will be restricted to one lane during normal business hours, between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Two lanes will remain open in each direction and access to all businesses will be maintained. All construction zones will have specific posted lane designations and construction zone speed limits must be observed. Parts of the project involve new storm drain pipes and sewer line replacements; lane restructuring; underground conduits for new traffic signals and a widening at Rosecrans Avenue and El Segundo Boulevard at the Hawthorne Boulevard intersections.
Lawndale 06_12_14
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