TORRANCE TRIBUNE December 12, 2013 Page 3 Calendar Saturday, December 14 • Free Residential Hazardous and E-Waste Roundup, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., City of Lomita, City Hall Parking Lot, 24300 Narbonne Ave. Open to all L.A. County residents. For more information call (310) 781-6900 or (888) 253-2652. • Free Tech Training For Adults. 10 a.m.- 5 p.m., at the Katy Geissert Civic Center Library. Call (310) 618-5945 to register for individual appointments on Saturdays between the hours of 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, December 15 • ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas reading, 4 p.m., Torrance Historical Society Museum, 1345 Post Avenue. For more information call the Museum at (310) 328-5392. Tuesday, December 17 • City Council Meeting, 7-10 p.m., City Hall Chambers, 3031 Torrance Blvd. • Calle Mayor Winter Concert, 7 p.m., James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Drive. For more information call (310) 781-7171. Thursday, December 19 • Winter Wonderland sponsored by the Friends of the Torrance Library, 4 p.m., Walteria Library, 3815 W. 242 St. For more information call (310) 375-8418. Ongoing • Downtown Torrance Marketplace. Every Thursday, 3-8 p.m., on El Prado Street, from Sartori to the Buffalo Fire Department. • 14-1024ps_sby-ie-14-006 ©2013 lacmta “The Torrance City Council agreed to over $900,000 in security upgrades to Zamperini Field during its Dec. 10 meeting.” Go Metro for the Holidays Discover dozens of holiday discounts around town with Metro. Whether you’re shopping, dining or enjoying a show, your TAP card can help you save! And through December 20, you can also enter the “12 Days of Metro” Instagram contest for a chance to win exclusive prizes. See the list of discounts and contest rules at metro.net/holidays. New Metro Bus Schedules December 15 Metro’s annual bus service adjustments take e=ect soon. Minor changes to improve e;ciency and e=ectiveness are coming to routes 60, 120, 167, 577 and the Metro Silver Line. Find the new timetables aboard buses in December or at metro.net. Holiday Eve Free Fares Enjoy the holidays safely, with free service on all Metro buses and trains during Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. No fare will be charged from 9pm on Tuesday, December 24, until 2am Wednesday, December 25 and from 9pm on Tuesday, December 31, until 2am on Wednesday, January 1. See routes and timetables at metro.net. “Ramp Jam” Ends for Wilshire/I-405 Interchange All ramps are now open on the I-405 as the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project nears completion. Overall, the interchange's eight improved freeway ramps add 75 percent additional capacity. For more information and construction schedules, go to metro.net/405. Get free credit for Metro ExpressLanes Help your friends and family get through tra;c faster using Metro ExpressLanes. Right now, receive $10 in toll credit for every new sign-up you refer. The lanes are toll-free for carpools, vanpools and motorcycles, and available for a toll to single drivers. All you need is a FasTrak® transponder. Open your account today at metroexpresslanes.net. metro.net @metrolosangeles facebook.com/losangelesmetro STEM from front page Standards and covered areas like fluid dynamics, computer modeling and solar energy. Borginino said he would’ve liked to have been able to take part in the lessons Torrance’s teachers are giving their student when he was their age. “Teachers are finding ways to make problem-solving fun for kids,” said Borginio. “I wish when I was a boy I could have made robots and used technology to make CO2-powered racecars.” ExxonMobil received 45 grant proposals from 35 Torrance-area teachers, of which only 30 projects were awarded grants. Ramona Chang, Director of Curriculum for TUSD, said she didn’t envy the task of deciding which projects would receive grants. “Judges, I’m so glad I’m not in that seat,” said Chang. “Every year I work though those projects--they are all incredible--and I don’t try to rank them.” The projects were evaluated by a 20-person grant selection committee made up of Torrance Refinery employees and community members who volunteered their time to select the winning proposals. Chang noted that the lessons teachers came up with should help jumpstart students’ interest in math and science. “We have some really incredible projects that have been executed this year and they’re all designed to give students an opportunity to discover what they love,” said Chang. “I’m looking forward to watching our students . . . to find out students have been able to discover their passion about what they love. I want to see their hearts, souls and minds set on fire with these beautiful projects that are out there.” Teachers have found the specialized lessons are getting their students excited about the STEM fields. In a video shown at the awards ceremony, Jodi Branley, a second grade teacher at Edison Elementary, said her students were no longer “just looking for cartoon and drawing books anymore” and were instead excited to read and share with their peers and teachers about feats of engineering. Likewise one of this year’s grant winners, Heather Rocha, has been teaching her Science Olympiad students to use computeraided design software to help create more structurally sound and better thought-out projects and then using tablets so her students will have those designs handy when it comes time to assemble their creations. “We do a lot a building and engineering projects and right now we are just sketching by hand all the different diagrams,” said Rocha. “I wanted to bring them to the future and get the technology aspect in there. I wanted them to do computer modeling and in the computer lab, we will be working with different programs to do computer modeling. When we actually build, we will have iPads in the classroom so they can use their designs when they build the project.” Rocha said her plan to incorporate computeraided design software into the Olympaid build process has gotten her students to come up with a plan on how to tackle the engineering challenges they face. She also said the added design steps have made the project more closely resemble a professional engineering scenario. “The kids just like to get the materials and build, but I want them actually print and know what they’re going to build,” said Rocha. “They’re really going through the engineering process more thoroughly.” The STEM awards aren’t the only way ExxonMobil’s Torrance operation has been a partner to the School District. They are an Adopt-a-School partner with Magruder Middle School and help send students and teachers alike on activities like the Tech Trek science, math and technology camp or the Sally Ride Science Academy. Chang took the opportunity to thank them from their involvement. “These creative teaching strategies are able to happen because of the people at ExxonMobil,” said Chang. “Thank you so much for what you do.” City Council from front page TerriAnn in Torrance Chim Chim Cher-ee! By TerriAnn Ferren It was the day after Thanksgiving, which always reminds me of taking a deep exhale, and my family and I were gathered in the living room relaxing and enjoying conversation. The fireplace was going and I was burning the large pinecones I had bought at the store and they gave off a beautiful glow and warmth from the middle of the room. It was a perfect picture. Then my daughter Michele said, “Hey, look--a spark just fell on the ground outside.” I said, “Really?” Then she told me she saw another one, and another. My eyes got bigger and I jumped up and headed out the front door to take a look and check my chimney. What I saw shocked me. There in the sky was a billowing of smoke trailing off to the east with the wind and the sparks from the top of the chimney looked like sparklers from the Fourth of July. Scared doesn’t begin to explain how I felt looking at the sparks as they leaped from the top of my chimney and floated down to the roof, the grass below, and off into the air. Immediately I headed back into the house, doused the pinecone fire I had made and ran back outside to monitor the sparks. Michele came outside with me so she could see why I was concerned. Although the sparks had calmed down significantly by the time Michele saw them, she was shocked too. Not long after that, the fire show stopped and we went back inside the house. I was more than thankful for the heavy rain the night before that had dampened the roof, the trees and the grass. The next day, after all my family had gone home, I immediately called a chimney sweep. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that the first thing I thought about was Mary Poppins. All of a sudden I couldn’t get the song Chim Chim Cher-ee out of my mind and the visual of Dick Van Dyke dancing on rooftops out of my head. The Super Sweep Chimney Service at 310-371-7198 answered my phone call right away and owner Greg Meyer said he could be at my house that very day to check out my fireplace. As it turns out, Greg told me what I had described to him was probably a fire in my chimney! Yikes! I had a feeling that is what happened, but to hear a professional explain the event sent the hairs on the back of my neck on end. Shortly after making the call for help, Greg Meyer, who lives in the South Bay and has been in the chimney sweep business for 25 years, arrived at my house along with his helper, Haydn Pratt. They brought all their equipment in a white van. As they looked over the state of my fireplace, the team moved furniture and set down drop cloths on the carpeting all around my fireplace. Greg proceeded to tell me, “If you burn a lot of wood in your fireplace, you should have your chimney cleaned yearly, and if you don’t use the fireplace often, then cleaning it every two years is sufficient.” At this point, I thought to myself I was very behind schedule because I have never had my chimney cleaned. Greg announced to me, “Never burn Christmas trees in the fireplace or pinecones. And if we have a major earthquake, you better check it the fireplace out before you burn.” No pinecones? Who knew? Haydn told me, “I am Greg’s helper. The work is interesting, I’m out in the sun and house to house in a lot of different areas. It’s nice, it’s fun.” Haydn proceeded to bring a large portable ‘vacuum-looking device into the house along with hoses and one round wire brush wand that looked like a chimney brush. It was just the sort of equipment you would imagine a chimney sweep would use. He set a bright light down inside the fireplace so he could look up the chimney and check out a few more things up See TerriAnn in Torrance, page 11 or monitoring public roadways, but instead would be passively eyeing entryways into the airport. “These are going to be at fixed locations on our City property, the airport property,” said Neu. “It is not going to be a mobile device that will intrude in the city up and down our streets. It’s fixed for a specific purpose.” Neu also reaffirmed that the primary goal of the equipment is to keep a key asset--the airport--secure and thereby keep the residents of Torrance safe from threats like terrorism. “Everything here has the primary focus of safety for the public,” said Neu. “That’s why we’re employing this technology.” Both Neu and City Clerk Sue Herbers addressed the concerns over storage of data collected by the new security equipment by saying the information would fall under the City’s Data Retention Policy, by which the data is typically held for 13 months before recycling the storage medium. These improvements are partially funded through the Urban Area Security Initiative grant awarded to the Police Department with the remainder coming from funds set aside for airport security. Lastly, the Council welcomed the holiday season by inviting the Torrance Civic Chorale to perform three numbers from the Spirit of the Season winter showcase. Members of the Chorale filled the front of the Council chambers to perform a Calypso holiday song, “Here in My House,” a tune celebrating Hanukkah and the closing number from their performance Peace, Peace. The full performances will be presented Friday, Dec. 13, and Saturday, Dec. 14 at 8 p.m. in the James R. Armstrong Theatre with tickets available at the theatre box office for $14. •
Torrance 12_12_13
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