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 - July 16, 2015 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................7 Classifieds............................3 Community Briefs...............2 Finance..................................4 Food.......................................8 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals............................... 4, 6 Looking Up...........................7 Police Reports.....................3 Sports....................................5 Weekend Forecast Friday Partly Cloudy 73˚/63˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 79˚/70˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 82˚/70˚ ECS Green Ambassadors Conduct Business Audit Environmental Charter Schools’s “Green Ambassadors” – students with an interest in environmental education – visited the offices of Dogeared, a jewelry company, to audit Dogeared on it sustainability practices related to energy use, waste, water use, and community culture. Tenth grader Vanesa Iñiguez gave sound advice as a junior consultant, “Start small, so you can see changes right away, while the bigger changes are being implemented.” Photo courtesy of Environmental Charter Schools. Residents Fired Up About Illegal Fireworks By Derrick Deane Residents of Hawthorne came to the first City Council meeting of July fired up to address illegal fireworks that were set off in the city leading up to the Fourth of July weekend. The complaints were highlighted by an impassioned speech by Hawthorne resident Kaya Lorlaman who spoke about combat veterans and the website militarywithptsd.org. “This is an organization that works with military of all generations who are dealing with PTSD issues. An individual veteran did something that hadn’t been done before,” Lorlaman said. “He was so frustrated with the fireworks situation in his community that he had a sign made up that said, ‘Combat Veteran Lives Here. Please Be Courteous With Fireworks,’ and the military members with PTSD saw that sign and it went viral on the internet.” She continued, “This year, they devoted a lot of their funds to having those signs made up for any veteran that requested them free of charge.” Lorlaman and her husband, a disabled veteran, were fortunate to get one of the signs and spent the holiday at home as they were concerned about past events that might paint them as a target by drunk neighbors. “Two years ago we had neighbors right down the street who we normally get along with really well set off illegal fireworks under our car which led said neighbors to physically assault and batter my disabled veteran husband,” she said. “We thought to stay at home this year in case anyone decided to put a target on our address. We were fortunate that the neighbors at the end of the block were respectful and several of the neighbors that are usually problems did not do illegal fireworks. Other neighbors, unfortunately, did.” Other residents also expressed their frustrations with the illegal fireworks that went off weeks before the holiday. “If it happens on the Fourth of July or New Years, I’m expecting that. I can leave town, I can go someplace and put my dogs in a kennel that is nowhere near a place that has fireworks. But I can’t do that for two weeks leading up to each events,” Hawthorne resident Hans Phifer said. One resident called for the council to ban fireworks in the city by the end of the year. “Leave the fireworks to the professionals,” Alan Richards, a Ramona Track resident said. “Our veterans are trying to recover from serving in war zones and our pets are cowering for someplace to hide and are running off because they cannot handle the explosions.” Holly Park resident Darlene Love worked in a fireworks stand leading up to the holiday and said that she was asked numerous times by customers where they could find illegal fireworks. She joked that she started directing people to the Hawthorne Police Department saying, “they have plenty in storage.” She says that one woman had an aunt that went down to Mexico and came back to fill up her garage to sell illegal fireworks for the Fourth of July weekend. “It’s a shame that it is happening, but I don’t know how you’re going to be able to control it because these people get it long before the holiday,” Love said. “Even if you stop those illegal stands, it looks as though it’s going to go on.” The fine for setting off illegal fireworks in Hawthorne is $1,000 and Phifer says that, “I would guarantee you that 50 or 60 people on my block alone shot off illegal fireworks. Not one of them got a fine.” He continued, “That’s $50,000 that the city did not collect through fines. That’s just my block and I represent a very small block. I do not want to endure another Fourth of July or New Years Eve of something that has been illegal for a very long time and that is not being enforced enough to make it stop.” Lorlaman ended her statement to the council with the story about two brothers, one a veteran suffering from PTSD, who had a tragic holiday. “A lot of people have the attitude that veterans should just suck it up for that day,” Lorlaman said. “There were two brothers who spent the holiday playing pool. The fireworks started and the veteran brother got triggered. The non-veteran brother went to start playing some music to distract his veteran brother from the PTSD problem. As he was starting up the music to play, the veteran brother walked in and said to his brother, ‘I love you,’ and then blew his head off.” Councilmember Alex Vargas did not have any comment on the fireworks issue, but rather proceeded to move on to discuss at length a matter of removing a three-hour parking restriction on Hawthorne Boulevard. Toward the end of the meeting, Councilmember Angie Reyes English briefly addressed the matter calling for a study to look at call-ins to the police department and to see what changes can be made to better enforce the laws. “We need to look at and quantify the complaints from the constituents,” English said in what amounted to a passing acknowledgement to the matter. Mayor Pro Tem Olivia Valentine also addressed the issue saying that the council and the city manager should coordinate with the police commissioner to assess the matter. “I think there have been enough complaints that we should have a serious discussion about it,” Valentine said, stating that there have been many complaints from citizens. “There were fewer fireworks set off on July Fourth than the two weeks leading up to it,” Valentine said. Mayor Chris Brown and Councilmember Nilo Michelin were absent from the meeting. •
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