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 - January 14, 2016 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................4 Classifieds............................3 Food.......................................4 Hawthorne Happenings....2 Legals................................ 6-7 Looking Up...........................7 Police Reports.....................3 Seniors..................................6 Sports....................................5 Weekend Forecast Friday Partly Cloudy 62˚/50˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 67˚/51˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 67˚/52˚ Lawndale Elementary Gets Tech Providence Health & Services is teaming with a startup called Sqord to encourage kids to get out and exercise. As children returned to three Lawndale Elementary School District campuses this week after winter break, Providence equipped some 300 fifth-graders at three campuses with Sqord’s kid-proof wrist gear that provides an activity tracker, online games and a kid-safe social media app designed to encourage kids to spend more time in active, physical play. Photo provided by Providence Health. Alex Monteiro Re-Joins City Council Vacancy Candidate List, Residents Plead For Local Hospital By Derrick Deane It has been a while since the Hawthorne City Council has had a chance to go through the various city resolutions and needs. With a potential special election to fill a vacant seat on the council still looming, the City Council put that matter aside for a week to a few local issues in an abbreviated 90 minute meeting, Tuesday. Before the council could dive into those matters, Alex Monteiro, who had withdrew himself from the pool of candidates for the seat addressed the council to say, “upon my withdraw last week, I received hundreds of phone calls and messages from Hawthorne citizens to inquire as to why I had made that decision.” “I was overwhelmed by the positive feedback and encouragement regarding the years of service I have dedicated to the Hawthorne community,” Monteiro continued. “I listened and after careful consideration have decided to ask [the City Council] to reconsider my application to fill the City Council vacancy.” Monteiro, the president of the Hawthorne School District school board admitted that he was going back on his original statement from last week, but said he did so in the best interest of the community. “I’m not a man that goes back on my word,” Monteiro continued. “I guided by my dedication to the education of the Hawthorne youth. It is at the same time that I desire for my community to continue succeed and improve that leads me to every single time there is a meeting here.” Another concern that came up during the public speaking portion of the meeting was the need for better ambulance and hospital services in the city. City Council candidate Francis Stiglich has spent the past month urging the council to bring a hospital to the city. “We’re located right near the airport. If we have an earthquake or something big, I don’t know where we would go,” the 97-year-old Stiglich said. “I don’t care about my life, I’m old enough to go any day, but I care about these kids.” Stiglich says she spent the recent football season asking parents what hospital their kids would be taken if they happened to get injured. She says that no one really knew. She said that she would campaign to bring the Mayo Clinic to the city, saying that, “I’m from a small town in Minnesota. We had problems with getting a hospital and [the Mayo Clinic] came in and they fixed it all up.” Meanwhile, resident Kaya Lorlaman spoke about two medical issues regarding ambulances in the city. First, she talked about how she had to call an ambulance for her husband during the holidays. She said that while her husband gets his care at the Veterans Affair hospital in West Los Angeles, the ambulances weren’t able to transport them there. “Unfortunately, when the paramedics arrived, they told us were not allowed to deliver any patients to the VA hospital and they have to go to the closest hospital,” Lorlaman said. “They gave us a choice between Centinela and Little Company of Mary.” Lorlaman said in that circumstance, they decided to go to Little Company of Mary. She says that given the holiday traffic, it took “considerably longer” to get there than go to the VA hospital in West L.A. “In the case of veterans who get all of their care and have all of their doctors and medical records at the VA hospital, taking them to that hospital which would be faster to get to and have all of those resources available makes more sense to me than going to a civilian hospital where they have no idea who he is or what treatment or any of the medical stuff that he needs,” Lorlaman said. Lorlaman asked the Council to find out why ambulances are not allowed to take people to the VA Hospital. Mayor Alex Vargas later asked Interim City Manager Arnie Shadbehr to look into the matter by contacting the Los Angeles Fire Department. In other city related issues, the Council approved the second payment of $170,975 or Measure R grant funds to continue the widening and traffic signal modification of three intersections – Inglewood Avenue at El Segundo Boulevard, Crenshaw Boulevard at Rocket Road, and Crenshaw Boulevard at Jack Northrop Avenue. The project will continue on throughout the first part of 2016. Vargas also requested to re-enact Chapter 17.21 of the Housing Municipal Code that focuses on the design and development of residential and commercial buildings in the city. “Basically I would like the City Manager and City Attorney to consider putting together a design review board that is made up of professionals within the city of Hawthorne for future development here within the city,” Vargas said. When asked by Councilwoman Angie Reyes English about why there was a need for this when the Planning Commission already exists, Vargas answered that, “based on some limitations in regards to state code and protocol , the Planning Commission can’t do certain things.” “This might be an alternate solution to giving ourselves some oversight,” Vargas added. There will be a public hearing regarding the matter at the next regular council meeting scheduled for January 26. A third matter regarding a moratorium on high density apartments and mixed use projects in the city was tabled since Councilman Nilo Michelin, who was set to present the discussion item was not in attendance. • Jimmy Bonilla, 11, shows off his new Sqord. Pupil enters data to program her Sqord.
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