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Photo of lily pads at Hearst Castle by Kaelyn Bruno
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SERVING BIXBY KNOLLS, CALIFORNIA HEIGHTS, LOS CERRITOS, WRIGLEY AND THE CITY OF SIGNAL HILL
Debate over mentally-ill homeless site stalls reuse of Schroeder Hall again
Michelle Lecours Staff Writer Six years after Long Beach was designated as the local redevelopment authority for the Army Reserve Center property Schroeder Hall, plans to reuse that facility as an eastside Long Beach Police substation and homeless facility, currently a source of concern for city and community leaders, remain delayed after Tuesdays’s closed City Council session. According to those plans, the
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police substation will occupy Schroeder Hall at Willow Street and Grand Avenue, while the homeless accommodation would be installed by Mental Health America (MHA) in a one-acre space across the street on the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services property. At the center of the controversy is that the type of homeless population receiving services in this space is the mentally ill. The close proximity of the proposed MHA facility to the out-
lying neighborhood is a hotly contended issue, partially because those citizens must use public transportation or walk to receive onsite services. The safety of that neighborhood is in peril if MHA builds its facility here, says 4th District Councilmember Patrick O’Donnell. “That’ll kill the neighborhood…Long Beach is already doing a lot, and to put this next to a neighborhood on the east side, I think it’s poor policy.”
July 13, 2012
SH Council orders in-depth analysis of proposal to change city’s tax and bond laws
see FACILITY page 5 CJ Dablo/Signal Tribune
The families of Sgt. Russell Hefte and Lt. Christopher Nunley gathered around them during the July 9 Signal Hill City Council meeting in celebration of the officers’ recent promotion within the city’s police department.
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Site for the eastside Long Beach Police Substation at Army Reserve Center’s Schroeder Hall
Luan’s Dress Shop celebrating its 60th year of transforming little girls into princesses
Nick Diamantides Staff Writer
In the same year that Dwight D. Eisenhower won the election for the presidency of the United States of America, Luan’s Dress Shop opened in Bixby Knolls. Tomorrow, July 14, the store will celebrate its 60th birthday by providing refreshments to anyone who drops by and will display some of the dresses sold in the shop in the early 1950s. The store’s current owner, Luan Fogg, has been involved with the business since day one. Her mother, Marion Pistole, was the original owner, and she named it after Luan, who was just a very young girl in 1952.
“Before she opened this store, she had a ladies’ shop during the war, and she would drag me to work as a 2-year old,” Fogg said. “My mother told me that even at that young age I was trying to take merchandise off the shelves and show it to the customers.” Fogg was 10 by the time the dress shop opened. “I was certainly old enough to be able to talk to the customers by then and try to help out,” she said. “I was very much a part of this business early on and just got more and more involved as I was growing up.” Fogg’s father, Lewis, also worked in the business. “He was the handyman that built everything that needed
to be built,” she said. Fogg noted that over the years her leadership role in the store increased as her mother gradually handed the store over to her. “My mother sort of retired in the early 1980s, but other than that we always worked together,” she said, adding that her mother passed away many years ago. “If not for that, she would still be here helping run the store,” she said with a chuckle. Luan’s Dress Shop is one of the original Bixby Knolls businesses. It has managed to survive several economic recessions and is still going strong with three employees: two fulltime, and one part-time. “It's my see LUAN’S page 14
CJ Dablo Staff Writer At its July 9 meeting, the Signal Hill City Council unanimously approved a recommendation to request a staff analysis to determine how the City would be affected by a proposed petition that would dramatically change the city’s charter governing taxes, fees, assessments and bonds. If the charter’s changes stipulated by the petition are passed, all taxes, fees and assessments must be approved by two-thirds of the voters. Even more sig-
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see SH COUNCIL page 4
Luan’s Dress Shop in Bixby Knolls is celebrating its 60th year of business.
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nificantly, the proposed petition puts an expiration date on these revenue sources for the City. Taxes and fees would expire within 10 years. Assessments would end within 20 years, and the time limit for the City to pay off the principal for bond debts would be decreased from 40 years to 20 years, according to a summary from the city attorney’s office. If the petition gains enough signatures, the City Council has the option to
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