S IGNA L T R IBU N E Serving Bixby Knolls, California Heights, Los Cerritos, Wrigley and Signal Hill
Your Weekly Community Newspaper
VOL. XXXVIII NO. 23
In with the new Bixby Knolls business district continues growth as new retail, eateries and services open. Cory Bilicko Managing Editor
Bixby Knolls has lost a few of its longtime businesses in recent months, but so many new restaurants, stores and services have been filling up spaces that the shopping district is thriving, according to Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association. In an interview with the Signal Tribune on Wednesday, Cohn said the Bixby Business Center is nearly at capacity, and a local broker is in the process of filling up the tower at 3711 Long Beach Blvd. “We want all the offices to be filled because we want everybody to come out and have lunch or shop or take their dry cleaning in,” Cohn said, adding that more than just retail and eateries are filling up the business corridor, but also various types of services, such as medical care. At the northern end of Bixby Knolls, Aldi Market will eventually fill the now gutted former post office. Cohn said it is expected to open in October. He added that the owners are implementing façade improvements on that building as well. Just south of that retail space, Smart & Final Extra will take over the site that Orchard Supply Hardware had occupied. Nearby is the newly opened Massage Envy and also where the new post office is expected to open this summer. Immediately to the south of those spaces, a Yogurtland will be moving in. “The long list of wishes, since I got here, has been, ‘We need a yogurt place,’” Cohn said, referring to surveys in which the BKBIA has participated over the years. “Now they’re asking for steaks and seafood, specifically. Any new entrepreneurs, we tell them, ‘Look, here’s the voice of the neighborhood.’” The new Yogurtland will take see BIXBY page 19
June 3, 2016
‘You put your money where your mouth is’ Signal Hill City department directors discuss financial goals at budget workshop. Sebastian Echeverry Staff Writer
Members of Signal Hill’s various departments hosted a public budget workshop in the council chambers on May 31. The workshop highlighted each departments’ achievements for the 2014-2015 fiscal year and laid out goals for the 2017-2018 fiscal year. A quick overview of Signal Hill’s General Fund was also part of the workshop’s presentation. Terri Marsh, Signal Hill administrative services officer/ finance director, led the presentation. She introduced the department leaders who presented during the workshop. The key driving force for the departments setting fiscal-year goals stems from the City’s strategic plan. According to Marsh, every five years members of the community, council, staff and anyone involved with the City put together the strategic plan. She said it takes time to formulate a strategic plan. The current plan took three years to develop. The City hosted public workshops to receive feedback from the community. “You put your money where your mouth is,” Marsh said. “It’s not just something high up in the clouds.”
A taxing case of déjà vu The fight over the LB salestax measures resurrects old foes and old fights. CJ Dablo Staff Writer
If the tone of the Long Beach debates over the two proposed sales-tax measures feel a little
Courtesy City of SH
This graph shows a breakdown of how Signal Hill’s general fund is distributed to its various departments.
General fund The workshop kicked off with a presentation on the City’s general fund. Tax revenues make up a majority of the general fund, which is 88 percent. According to Marsh, the top three sources of tax revenue are sales tax, property tax and franchise tax. The Signal Hill Police Department make up 44 percent of the general fund’s expenditures, followed by the Signal Hill Public Works Department, standing at 23 percent.
library, manage construction for the dog park and participate in the Community Recreation Needs Assessment. Also, the department plans to host a potential special election for the medical-marijuana initiative. According to Signal Hill City Manager Charlie Honeycutt, the initiative must gather 15 percent of voters in order to host the special election.
Administration The Signal Hill Administra-
tion Department breaks off into three divisions: administration, personnel and economic development. Some accomplishments of the department include the securing of bonds in 2011 for construction of the new library, starting construction for the dog park and completing the financing needed for the Well 9 water pump. The department also highlighted its success with the Signal Hill phone app and a transition into paperless agendas. In the coming years, the department’s main goals are to oversee construction of the new
familiar, it should. That debate over whether to increase the Long Beach taxes in favor of infrastructure investment happened eight years ago, and some of the players remember that fight very well. They were there. At the June 7 election, Long Beach voters will ultimately decide on the fate of two proposed measures that will effectively raise the sales tax within the city by 1 percent. Measure A is really called a Transactions-and-Use-Tax measure, but as the Signal Tri-
bune reported earlier this year, the tax will likely be noted as a “sales tax” on invoices. The tax is meant to be temporary, and specific language in the measure notes that it will only last for 10 years. If Measure A passes, the tax will be raised by 1 percent for the first six years then drop to one-half of a percent for the next four years. If the sales-tax rates don’t change, shoppers in Long Beach will be paying 10 percent. LA County’s sales-tax rate is currently set at 9 percent. Measure B is linked to Mea-
sure A, and it establishes a rainyday fund. The first 1 percent of new tax revenue would be set aside in that fund to maintain city services and to balance the budget. The ballot measures are intended to address the infrastructure costs in Long Beach, which last year were estimated to be $2.8 billion over the next 10 years. The new tax revenue is expected to raise an additional $48 million every year. The tax
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Finance Administration Marsh said she was happy to announce that Xpress Bill Pay had been implemented for citisee BUDGET page 15
see TAX page 13
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