Hermosa Beach News

Web sites keep residents in the loop

By Chris Yang

In addition to a wide assortment of grass-roots activists and civic organizations, Hermosa Beach also maintains a strong presence in cyberspace. The following Web sites provide residents with a unique blend of information about current events and the news of the day.

www.HBArtWalk.com/

The official site of the Hermosa Beach Art Walk, hbartwalk.com provides updates and information about the city's annual fine arts festival.

The site's founder, Ken Klade, also owns and operates a local business known as the Klade Gallery.

www.Hbneighborhood.org/

The Neighborhood Association's Web site focuses primarily on news of the day and local crime.

The site was started by former City Council candidate Al Benson and provides visitors with a plethora of information about local government meetings, current events and police statistics.

The site also includes a forum for people to post comments about anything at all, which leads to a variety of interesting and informative discussions.

www.SaferHermosaBeach.com/

This site is the home of the Hermosa Beach Neighborhood Watch. Though it has a similar name to that of the Neighborhood Association, the Neighborhood Watch is another civic organization that focuses primarily on crime prevention.

Its founders are Kelly Kovac-Reedy, Tracy Hopkins and Nancy Amato, who were originally involved with Hermosa MOMS. It was formed partly in response to the perceived lack of government response following Hurricane Katrina. Residents interested in emergency preparedness and public safety will find relevant information at this site.

www.KilltheGoose.com/

Run by local resident Jim Lissner, the site is a blend of interesting facts and tidbits that primarily focuses on issues of local government. Lissner, a regular at various council and commission meetings, has been critical of the overwhelming use of city resources to police the pier plaza.

Lissner's site is a play on the ancient fable involving the goose that laid the golden egg. The implication is that local officials have looked to short-term gains in the city's business community instead of benefiting the community as a whole.

www.WifiHermosaBeach.com/

This site was set up to chronicle the emergence of the city's experiment with free wireless Internet service. It provides instructions for those nontech-savvy residents who may have trouble connecting to the city's wireless network, including a support forum complete with a message board to exchange messages with fellow residents.

www.TheAesthetic.com/  

TheAesthetic.com describes itself as “sort of a running dialogue” on news and events in the area. Created by Hermosa Beach native Garrison Frost, the site includes a unique perspective on current events not only within the confines of Hermosa Beach, but across the entire South Bay.

Frost, who at one time served as the editor of this publication, now lives in Lomita.

www.HermosaBeachHistoricalSociety.org/

Anyone interested in information about Hermosa Beach's history should look no further than the Historical Society's Web site, which includes pictures and stories about the past. Information is also available at the site regarding the current renovation of the city's museum, which is expected to reach completion prior to the Centennial Celebration early next year.

www.Hermosa100.com/

In conjunction with the city's Centennial Celebration, the city of Hermosa Beach created Hermosa100.com, a site to provide residents with the latest news and information about the historical event.

www.Tbrnews.com/

The online home of The Beach Reporter provides weekly content found in the newspaper edition plus an archive of content from past issues.

www.HermosaWave.net/

This site serves as a portal for residents of Hermosa Beach to find general information and as a good starting point for new residents of the area.

Live shots from the local webcams are visible in the upper left corner of the site, as are links to many of the most popular sites about Hermosa Beach.

www.WatchtheWater.org/

The County of Los Angeles Lifeguard Division's online offering can be found at watchthewater.org.

The site provides real-time information from the county's many beaches, as well as pictures from webcams found across the South Bay. A Flash animation about the opening of the lifeguard facility is also available for visitors, who can watch up close the work behind the new facility located next to the Hermosa Beach Pier.

Other information is also available like surf conditions, water temperature and wind conditions.

Hermosa Beach News

HB City Council wrap

By Chris Yang

Hermosa Pavilion

A car wash, restaurant and wine-tasting area located in the multiuse facility at 1601 Pacific Coast Highway were all approved by the City Council Tuesday night.

The council's decision was the culmination of months of navigating through the city's planning bureaucracy by Pavilion owner Gene Shook, who stated that he was “pleased” with the outcome following Tuesday night's meeting.

Clark Building

The council awarded a contract worth approximately $17,056 to Everlast Painting Company to refurbish the Clark Building. According to a city staff report, the contract will include painting the interior of the auditorium, refinishing the wood floor and minor repairs to the wood floor.

The contract was awarded following an amendment by Councilman Pete Tucker to include refurbishing the building's doors so that they may provide better protection from the weather and not jeopardize any future work done on the wood floors.

More slurry seals

The council approved a staff recommendation to include Hermosa and Monterey avenues in a contract to perform slurry seal work within Hermosa Beach. The contractor, Cypress-based Pavement Coatings Company, was initially awarded a contract on Nov. 14 to perform slurry sealing along Aviation Boulevard and Prospect Avenue. That contract was worth $148,287. Tuesday's decision will cost an extra $233,625 and will see the city use unspent funds received under Prop. 42.

A staff report indicated that the primary reason for performing the work was due to the competitive nature of securing funds under Prop. 1A, which was recently approved by the voters of California.

“I can see that this is kind of a last-minute thing, this project, evidently is to make sure that we qualify for some other money,” said local resident Jim Lissner. “It doesn't seem like the streets that are targeted for the slurry sealing are in bad shape at all compared to some of the other streets in town, and it's a big hunk of money.”

City Manager Steve Burrell responded to Lissner's concerns and explained why the city was moving so quickly to spend such a sizable amount of money.

“As you know with the passage of the propositions in November there's going to be some extra money available,” said City Manager Steve Burrell. “A couple of the programs are actually competitive, but what they want to do is see how you've committed your Prop. 42 funds and you're actually spending money on things like this.”

Consent items

The council approved an agreement with the county of Los Angeles to maintain 34 “trash excluders” that are to be installed at catch basin openings along Hermosa Avenue. Under the agreement, county officials will purchase and install the devices, after which the city will maintain them.

The council also approved the purchase of approximately $8,699 worth of ammunition for the Police Department. The city received only one bid from a company in Anaheim following the issuance of a request for proposals.

Hermosa Beach News

Police, fire chiefs go 1-on-1 with community

By Chris Yang

Local residents got a chance to meet the heads of both of the city's public safety agencies earlier this week at an event titled “Meet the Chiefs.” The forum was sponsored by the Hermosa Beach Neighborhood Watch, a civic organization dedicated to raising awareness within the community about crime prevention.

The event, which was held twice on Monday to allow the greatest number of residents to attend the meeting, saw both Police Chief Greg Savelli and Fire Chief Russell Tingley speak about public safety over the holiday season. The event was the first of its kind since Savelli took the reins of the department in July and gave the community an opportunity to speak with the Marin County native in an informal setting.

Given the time of day and the number of residents still at work, Neighborhood Watch co-founder Tracy Hopkins was happy to see several residents attend the noon forum.  “I find that you can get good conversation with both intimate smaller groups and larger groups so I was happy with today's noon meeting and the interaction that occurred,” said Hopkins.

After opening remarks from Neighborhood Watch co-founder Kelly Kovac-Reedy, Savelli and Tingley gave brief introductions to the audience and provided tips on holiday safety. Tingley read a one-page printout from the National Fire Protection Association's Web site, www.nfpa.org/  that dealt primarily with avoiding accidents associated with Christmas trees and unattended candles.

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 Friday Letters to the Editor

HB won't reap much from restaurant

Recently, Hermosa Beach began hearing a request from the developer of the Hermosa Pavilion on Pacific Coast Highway. He desires to increase his restaurant there to 8,000 square feet, an area larger than three 25-foot-by-100-foot home sites, and to have on-sale liquor, too. Eighteen residents spoke against his plan.

Speaking in favor, though, was the salaried spokesperson of the Hermosa Chamber of Commerce business lobby, of which the developer is also a director.

The chamber's spokesperson ludicrously stated that sales and property tax from the Pavilion and similar restaurant/bar businesses is a major revenue contributor to Hermosa's general fund. In fact, the city is receiving little more than some underpriced annual business license fees, tax on utilities and no sales tax of consequence from the few businesses in the Pavilion.

Also, the assessor's Web site indicates that including all of the supplemental assessments for remodeling done to date, the city is now receiving a mere $39 per day from its 21 percent share of the Pavilion's annual property taxes.

Interesting to note is that 10 townhomes, assessed at $900,000 each, bring the city treasure more total annual revenue than can be expected from the entire Pavilion, even if the City Council forever gifts the developer full on-sale liquor and his proposed mammoth restaurant/bar. Additionally, the city's finance director confirmed that total sales tax revenue to the city from all the restaurant/bars citywide which have on-sale liquor is just $780 per day. That's less than 2 percent of the $43,000 per day Hermosa Beach spends on police and public safety. And all know where much of that expensive necessity has to be focused.

-- HOWARD LONGACRE

Hermosa Beach

We Get Letters

Other issues

The article “Planning Commission deadlocks on alcohol permit” July 20 was not as thorough as it should have been. Among the many issues presented by residents to the Planning Commission were: Parking and traffic problems that currently exist in the neighborhood surrounding the Hermosa Pavilion will be considerably exacerbated by an 8,000-square- foot, 135-table restaurant.

The proposed upscale restaurant is enormous. Restaurants are risky and once a liquor license is granted, if the business fails, the liquor license stays with the building. In such a large space, will a dance club follow? Remember, Club Saffire was once Marie Callender's. Do we want the problems of lower Pier Avenue to migrate up to Pacific Coast Highway? Club Saffire has already had numerous police visits.

Can our overextended police cover another bar and not our homes? What is the real cost tradeoff for a successful restaurant/bar? The Chamber of Commerce claims such a business brings tax revenue. But a presentation stated we surpass tax income considerably by having to provide additional policing. Hermosa far exceeds the Alcohol Beverage Control-suggested percentage limit for population and more bars bring more crime.

These issues and more were presented at the commission meeting and merit thorough investigative coverage. Ignoring these issues and reporting a quip which admittedly I made at the end of my presentation does a disservice to readers and undermines the integrity of the paper.

Lee H. Grant, Hermosa Beach

Hermosa Beach News

Locals moms create Watch (3/9)

By Whitney Youngs

In the hopes of better preparing Hermosa Beach residents in the event of a disaster, emergency or major crime, three local mothers have organized a Neighborhood Watch effort that they hope will involve the entire city.

Kelly Kovac-Reedy, Nancy Amato and Tracy Hopkins, with the assistance of the Hermosa Beach Police Department and City Manager Steve Burrell, have established the program and hope to recruit 100 street block captains in time for the start of the city's centennial celebration in January 2007.

“It all started with a couple of moms talking about Hurricane Katrina and we wondered what do we have available for our city,” said Hopkins. “We started looking around and realized we don't have a community-based program that would allow all the residents to work together.”

The trio, called Hermosa Beach MOMS, began their emergency preparedness effort by selling disaster kits to locals to raise money for the PTO. They then discovered that Hermosa Beach was without an official Neighborhood Watch program and agreed to establish one.

“We know that in Hermosa Beach, we have very limited resources in the number of Fire and Police Department personnel,” added Hopkins. “All of the surrounding cities have a Neighborhood Watch, and so we thought it was a good idea and we should have that.”

The Hermosa Beach MOMS are hoping that residents will become block captains, which requires a resident to gather and update contact information such as e-mail addresses and phone numbers of those living in the immediate area. The block captain on occasion would also host a meeting at their home and invite their neighbors where a police officer might speak on certain crime-related issues. The effort already boasts about 15 captains.

“About once a week we send out an informational item via the Internet, maybe an article in the newspaper or an upcoming class on survival training or something relevant to either crime prevention or disaster preparedness,” said Hopkins on the responsibility of a block captain. “If there were several crimes occurring on a certain block or in a certain area, we would want to make the block captain aware and they would get that information out to their neighbors.”

Hermosa Beach MOMS will have a booth on the pier plaza with information for residents during the St. Patrick's Day Festival.