The Weekly Newspaper of Torrance Herald Publications - Torrance, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 5, No. 51 - December 17, 2015 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.....................10 Classifieds............................4 Crossword/Sudoku.............4 Film Review..........................4 Legals....................................9 Police Reports.....................3 Real Estate.........................12 Sports....................................5 TerriAnn in Torrance..........6 Weekend Forecast Fire Chief Honored with Seat on Torrance Rose Parade Float Chief Honored: (pictured left to right) Torrance Rose Float Association President-Elect Beverly Findley, Current TRFA President Georgean Griswald, Torrance Fire Chief William Racowschi, Torrance Residents Craig and Laurie Kovar, and Deputy Fire Chief Dave Dumais. Each year the Torrance Rose Float Association holds a drawing for a chance for one seat to ride on the Torrance Rose Float in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1st, each chance ticket is $10. This year’s winners of the drawing was Craig and Laurie Kovar, but neither could attend, so the TRFA President Georgean Griswald, and TRFA President-Elect Beverly Findley and the Kovars decided to ask the Fire Chief, who is retiring at the end of the year after 35 years of service. The Chief humbly accepted and the ticket was handed to the Chief at Fire Station 1 by Craig Kovar. • School Board Approves New Courses For Torrance Adult School Curriculum By Cristian Vasquez The Torrance School Board unanimously approved two new courses to be offered at the Torrance Adult School during its winter and spring Term 2016. Introduced to the board during the Dec. 7 meeting, the approved courses include Payroll Development and Caregiver See School Board, page 8 Training. The caregiving-course falls into the older adult program offered by TAS and is a lecture series that focuses on the ability to care for a family member, or client, that is afflicted with memory impairment or dementia. The course will teach students about the various illnesses and causes of dementia, as well as being lectured on the variety of treatment plans available to treat and handle the illness. “Community resources and strategies for home care will be explored. Students will be informed about programs and facilities designed for caring for someone with memory impairment,” states the board agenda presented at the meeting. “The latest research and care techniques in providing the best care will be examined. Speakers with expertise from the community will be included in some presentations. A certificate of completion will be awarded.” The Payroll Development course, described as part of the career and technical education curriculum, will help students learn how to manage payroll procedures in a manual environment. “[The] Course will introduce taxing entities, and reporting requirements of local, Friday Sunny 69˚/50˚ Saturday Sunny 64˚/48˚ Sunday Sunny 62˚/49˚ Parking Enforcement for Street Sweeping Put On Hold During Holiday Season By Cristian Vasquez In a 6-1 vote, the Torrance Mayor and City Council, approved the suspension of parking enforcement for street-sweeping violations during the upcoming holiday season. The suspension of enforcement will be valid from Dec. 20-Jan. 3, 2016 and will only apply to street sweeping violations: parking enforcement personnel will continue to issue citations for all other parking violations during the two weeks leading into the new year. Furthermore, weekly street-sweeping operations will carry on with their regular schedule. “Based on the holidays, during this twoweek period, there will only be six days of enforcement impacted as opposed to eight days in a normal two-week period,” Torrance Police Department Traffic Division Commander Lt. Mark Underwood said. “Staff has identified that during this holiday season over the last three years, parking enforcement officers have issued fewer street-sweeping citations as compared to any other two-week periods throughout the year, likely due to the holidays.” Staff research shows that during the past three years parking enforcement has issued an average of 148 parking citations during the end-of-the-year period that covers the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. “The Torrance Police Department Parking Enforcement Officers are primarily responsible for the enforcement of the parking laws within the City of Torrance,” states the staff report. “Parking Enforcement Officers ensures compliance with the ‘No Parking’ ordinance on city streets during street sweeping street sweeping schedules. The goal of this project is to gain compliance from the community in order to keep City streets clean on a weekly basis.” Since May 2014 the city has implemented a new citywide alternate-day street-sweeping program that was designed to improve streetsweeping efforts. The program, which also allows the city to comply with storm water regulations, implements a system of where city streets are swept once a week [Monday through Thursday] from the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. From 2013 to 2015 the city has installed signs throughout Torrance indicating streetsweeping days and to date has completed 50 percent of city streets. As a result, the city has seen an increase in tonnage collected through street sweeping that now totals 17 tons in the past 21 months. “What that breaks down to on a daily basis, and there are a lot of variables such as if it rains and the type of debris we collect, but it breaks down to about 1,800 pounds per day, or 10,800 in a period of six days,” Deputy See City Council, page 8
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