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MAYOR’S COMMUNITY BREAKFAST RAISES MUCH NEEDED FUNDS FOR CAMPERSHIP PROGRAM
BY SUSAN MOTANDER
BY BILL PETERS
Metro on 19
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Fire Inspections Start in Local Foothills Cities
Metro Expands Service with Stimulus Package Money, Soothes Passengers with Poetry
As Metro bus service expands using stimulus package funds, the Los Angeles County Authority seeks to soothe passengers traveling through Union Station with poetry readings from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. today. Poet Brendan Constantine is seen last year reading his works.—photo courtesy Metro
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THURSDAY, APRIL 30 - MAY 6, 2009 VOLUME 14, NO.35
In It for the Long Haul
Metro, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority, is determined to change your mind about public transportation and is employing a number of tactics to convince you that their bus and rail line systems are intelligently designed and user-friendly. To make the ride-along a more positive experience, Metro will upgrade some buses and even entertain passengers. Stimulus package money will be put to use in the purchase of more environmentally friendly fueled buses and on Thursday, April 30, poets will wax soothingly at Union Station. Metro will provide contract bus-lines with up to 150 buses using money coming to them as a result of stimulus program contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. At its April 23 board meeting, the Metro Board approved the purchase of 50 32-foot buses which will run on Compressed Natural Gas, at a cost of $23.6 million and be added to the fleet of 181 buses used by 22 bus lines under contract to Metro. The new buses will retire 33 diesel buses and 17 propane-fueled shuttle buses that have been in service since 2001. Contract lines operate 16 municipal services including Arcadia Transit
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STIMULUS BILL GREEN CREDITS AVAILABLE
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-Photos By Terry Miller
BY MEL MALMBERG
It’s something I’ve been interested i n do ing for a while now. I have always been one to put my money where my (big) mouth is. I am what I would call an amateur/dilettante conservationist — I bought a hybrid car in ‘03 (a Honda, because I could not see out of the back of a Prius, though in retrospect Toyota turned out to make the much cooler/better car), have travelled a lot and observed how other cultures manage on little or no electricity, and frantically turn off lights around my house, even though I leave my computer on 24/7…. When I read that the gloomy, northern country
of Germany is able to generate solar power, I thought, damn it, I’m going to do it here in sunny Altadena. I started the process in late October through Sol Source in Arcadia, a group with extensive solar experience recommended by my architect friend Georgie Kajer,
Marez (a manager in the PV — that’s photo-voltaic — group), came over and we looked at our electricity bills. My family’s house is served by Southern California Edison, and we frequently get into the fifth tier (customers are charged a higher amount in each tier, the first being a baseline, the fifth
One Local ResidentÊs Firsthand Account of the Transition to a Greener Economy, One Home at a Time who used them for the solar panels on her home in La Canada. The first part of this process is the consultation. Jesse
being the highest per-kilowatt rate) in the summer, when our bills are in the $500 range. Ouch. Free electricity would
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Most of the local foothill communities are beginning fire inspections in May if they have not already begun. These inspections are done in the high risk areas which include the wildland urban interface. Each city notifies those property owners affected by the clearance requirements. For information contact the fire prevention office in the community in which you live. Most of the communities along the foothills follow the state guidelines for brush clearance, i.e. maintaining a defensible space of 30 feet and that brush be cleared within 100 feet of the a building. Monrovia’s requirements are more stringent; it requires a 200 foot clearance. In Arcadia the inspections will begin on May 4 and the city requires that the brush be cleared in “a timely manner”, generally this is two weeks. The city follows the state guidelines regarding clearance requirements. These are listed below. The fire prevention bureau can be reached at (626)) 574-5104 In Monrovia inspections will start on May 15 and required cleared done by July 1. Those Monrovia properties found not to be in compliance will be facing fines of as much as $1000 for the first offense and up to $5000 for a third offense. To assist property owners in the annual clearance requirement, the Fire Department is again offering its Brush Chipper Program. This program provides for a chipper company which will come to a property owners residence and chip the brush which when it is stacked and placed at the curb. For details on the program, to make request a chipper service, or for answers to specific questions, contact thee Monrovia Fire Department nt at (626) 256-8109. Pasadena has already begun its inspections and will be completed by June 1. Property owners ers have 30 days to complete clearance. Mark Fasick, Fire Marshall arshall of the city, says that hat the
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Roberta White receives a check from former mayor, Bob Harbicht for the campership program
-Photo by Terry Miller
Coordinating Council Receives Check from City, More Funds Still Sought BY JOHN STEPHENS
The City of Arcadia Wednesday presented the Arcadia Community Coordinating Council Campership Fund with a check for $780 to go towards funding the program which sends underprivileged children to summer camp. The money was raised through the sale of tickets to last month’s wildly successful Mayor’s Community Breakfast which featured musical presentations by the Highland Oaks Musical Theatre Group, the Arcadia High School Chanteurs and Arcadia resident Jonathan Suszynski, as well as speeches by Mayor Bob Harbicht, Rose Queen Courtney Chou Lee and conservative talk show host Laura Schlessinger. The event was planned and managed by the City Manager’s office staff members including Linda Garcia, Mary Buttice, Stephen Deitsch, Lislene Ledezma, Kristen Olafson and Connie Schacatano. Also instrumental in the planning and success of the community event were Arcadia High School, Arcadia Rotary, AUSD, Highland Oaks Elementary, Kip McClain and the Tournament of Roses. Funded entirely by donations from individuals, businesses and organizations, the Campership Pro-
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Pssst... Ballots start next week...