The 818 Now

A volunteer works on the La Canada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association float on Tuesday. The float, titled "Scizzored Wizard," is the city's 32nd entry in the Rose Parade. (photo/Megan O'Neil)

While young volunteers applied the finishing touches to the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn. Float, more than 100 people gathered Tuesday for the Under the Bridge Major Donor Party.

The event honors donors who contributed $125 or more to the association, and serves as an annual reunion for all La Cañada float participants.

Don Ziehl, the first association president and a former La Cañada Unified School District superintendent, said assembling the inaugural float in 1978 was a whirlwind. 

“It was a real scramble to get that float down the parade route that first year,” he said. “It turns out it is a bit of a scramble every year.”

The best part about being involved with the association is the joy of seeing people work together on a project that at some points seems impossible, he added.

“I don’t know anything else that was going on during the 25 years I was here that brought three generations together like building this float does,” Ziehl said. “That alone [makes] it very worthwhile.”

A portion of the proceeds generated by the Station fire charm bracelet will go toward re-planting efforts. (Photo/Raul Roa)

A contigent of La Cañada Flintridge residents are spearheading a grassroots effort to generate money and volunteers to assist in the re-forestation of Angeles National Forest.

The Foothill Communities Re-forestation Committee is trying to mobilize residents from all the Station fire-impacted communities to participate in an already existing volunteer program run by the U.S. Forest Service. The program trains individuals to plant seedlings and prune unwanted weeds.

In addition, La Cañada merchant Sue Stranger designed a Station fire bracelet, which is currently for sale in her store, Adobe Designs. The charm bracelets are $48, and $10 of the proceeds will go toward purchasing Big Cone Douglas Fir seedlings that will be used in the replanting.

“It doesn’t matter who started the fire, it matters who is going to get it done,” committee member Sheri Morton said. “Many hands make light work. We are always complaining about the government wanting out money, well now we are going to give them our hands.”

You would think warm rays of sun and an occasional celebrity siting would be enough to put a smile on Californians’ faces.

Not according to a study published recently in Science magazine, ranking California as the 46th happiest state in the country.

Economics professors Andrews Oswald, of the University of Warwick in Britain, and Stephen Wu, of Himilton College in Clinton, New York, used self-reported data from a random sample of 1.3 million Americans to determine life satisfaction.

The happiest state in the Union? Louisiana, followed by Hawaii. The least happy state? New York.

Malia Mailes, the local Girl Scout who made headlines last spring for her work highlighting the dangers of commercial truck traffic on Angeles Crest Highway, has been named a 2009 National Young Woman of Distinction by Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.

Mailes is one of 10 scouts across the country to receive the award and will be honored at the Girl Scouts’ national meeting in St. Louis in February.

Last Spring, the scout launched an investigation into safety on Angeles Crest Highway, conducting research online, interviewing the city traffic engineer, Erik Zandvliet, and convincing her parents to drive her up and down the highway multiple times.

Buddy Imbriale, 16, glues a piece of foam to the La Canada float on Monday. Imbriale has worked on the annual float for six years. (photo/Megan O'Neil)

Two dozen paint-spattered volunteers were hard at work on the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses float on Monday. The city’s entry, titled “Scizzored Wizard,” features a 33-feet-tall animated dragon that will fold and unfold like origami paper.   

Volunteers, ages 4 to 92, cheerfully worked on foam detailing, wire framing and painting. 

Dustin Crumb, who was working on the float with his father, Dwight, and grandfather, Don, is spearheading the design and computer engineering for the project. 

“This one has been a challenge for the design side … trying to figure out how to make everything fold right and look like an origami dragon,” Crumb said. ”I have spent hours folding up origami [paper].” 

The float will be moved under the 210 freeway overpass directly behind Flintridge Prep school this week. On Dec. 26, hundreds of additional volunteers will apply thousands of flowers to the float during what is traditionally referred to as “deco week.”

La Cañada Flintridge Mayor Laura Olhasso replaced her gavel for a shovel Thursday, planting a new tree in Glenola Park as part of the annual Arbor Day celebration.

Olhasso was joined by mayor pro tem Don Voss, Los Angeles County Deputy Forester Tamara Hanna, as well as a dozen community leaders, in planting the crape myrtle sapling, which will bloom in August.

La Cañada traditionally celebrates Arbor Day in April, but delayed the event by several months. The city had to get the tree planted before the end of the year in order to retain its status as a Tree City U.S.A.

“I think it is a really great way to celebrate,” Olhasso said.

VIDEO BY MEGAN O’NEIL

Credit: Creative Commons

From Christmas Tree Lane in Altadena to the DWP Holiday Light Festival at Griffith Park, there are some spectacular viewing options for those who love Christmas decorations.

To find the most festive neighborhoods in Southern California, or to suggest one or two of your own, check out this post on L.A. Now.

La Cañada High School finished 80th in a recent U.S. News & World Report ranking of top public high schools in the nation. LCHS finished first among open-enrollment high schools in Southern California.

Open-enrollment schools are defined as schools that accept all students within district boundaries without specific admissions requirements and regardless of special education needs.

La Cañada Unified School district governing board president Jeanne Broberg said the ranking is an example of what can be accomplished when dedicated families and committed district staff come together.

“It is very exciting, and it represents hard work by everyone,” Broberg said. “It represents the efforts of the students, but also the faculty and the parents. It is an illustration of why we have all come to live in La Cañada, because almost everyone has moved here for the schools.”

The La Cañada Unified School District is in the process of forming a parcel tax oversight committee that will ensure that special tax funds are spent for their authorized purpose.

The LCUSD parcel tax, passed on June 30 by an overwhelming majority, will bring the district some $900,000 annually for the next five years.

The committee will consist of nine community members, including one schoolboard member who will serve as a liaison between the two bodies. The community members will include two local business organization members, one member active in a senior organization, one community member at large, one parent of a child enrolled in the district, one parent of a child enrolled in the district who is also a member of a parent-teacher organization and three site parent representatives.

Applications are available at the district office at 4490 Cornishon Ave., and can be requested via e-mail at kbergner@lcusd.net. The deadline is Jan. 8.

From the La Cañada Valley Sun

Residents in the Station fire burn areas no longer have to check the weather channel for the latest forecast. They know the prediction is for rain when they see television news vans cruising local neighborhoods and hovering at major intersections along Foothill Boulevard.

La Cañada Flintridge, thrust into the national spotlight during the Station fire in late August, is once again making headlines with the ongoing threat of mudslides. Reporters, photographers and cameramen have joined the mix of safety engineers, public works crews and city officials who swarm impacted communities at the first sign of rain.

On any given cloudy day, a dozen news vans can be seen traveling up and down Ocean View Boulevard and Angeles Crest Highway. In Paradise Valley, camera crews set up equipment in the streets, stopping joggers, dog-walkers and motorists for interviews.

Bud Slotky, president of the Paradise Valley Neighborhood Association, described the television news crews as hovering “harbingers of doom.” He and his neighbors are already under tremendous stress as they fight to protect their homes, Slotky said, and the TV vans are adding to the commotion.

Their presence, however, is not all negative, Slotky said. The media has done a lot to educate the public about the seriousness of the situation in his neighborhood.

“I know they have interviewed a lot of the neighbors,” Slotky said. “The good side is that they are helping raise awareness in the community…about the dangers of the mudslides and about the danger the Station fire has caused.”

For more of this story, read here.

From the La Cañada Valley Sun

On Dec. 8, 1985, an intentionally-set fire destroyed a small retail shop in the garment district in downtown Los Angeles. One person was killed, and Rosie Sanchez, a single mother of four, was charged and convicted of first-degree murder.

Twenty-nine years later, Jennifer Farrell, a 1999 La Cañada High School graduate and second year student at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law School, is trying to secure parole for Sanchez, who she believes was falsely convicted.

Working with the Post Conviction Justice Project, a clinical program at USC Law that gives students hands-on experience, Farrell travels regularly to the California Institution for Women (CIW) in Corona on a regular basis to meet with Sanchez and prepare her for the grueling parole process.

Farrell has already scored a major victory. In mid-October, the California parole board found Sanchez suitable for parole. The recommendation will go before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in February.

The case against Sanchez was riddled with holes from the start, Farrell said. At the time of the incident, Sanchez, a Mexican immigrant who spoke no English, was operating her own small shop two storefronts down from the scene of the fire. The prosecution argued that the crime was financially motivated, Farrell said, and that Sanchez’s business was suffering from unwanted competition brought on by her neighbor. Tax records show, however, that her shop was prospering.

In addition, the defendant had multiple witnesses to corroborate her alibi — she was with her children at a friend’s house at the time the crime took place. Sanchez’s public defender called only one witness, Sanchez’ sister, to the stand to testify. It is normal, Farrell said, for jurors to disregard a witness who is related to the defendant because jurors assume such a witness would be willing to lie.

For more of this story, read here

From the La Cañada Valley Sun:

The San Gabriel Mountains remained intact Monday despite a steady rainstorm that set city and county officials on edge.

The threat of rain, however, has not passed entirely. The National Weather Service is predicting a 20% chance of rain starting Wednesday night, 70% chance of rain on Thursday and a 30% chance of rain Friday. A third storm is expected to hit the area on Sunday.

The weather prompted the Los Angeles County Public Works Department to temporarily close Angeles Crest Highway, Angeles Forest Highway, Big Tujunga Canyon Road and Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road just one week after being reopened. The roads were reopened Tuesday afternoon.

The most recent storm dropped just over an inch of rain in La Cañada Flintridge, said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“The reason [La Cañada] didn’t get clobbered with mudlfow was because [the rain] was pretty gentle,” Patzert said. “One inch over 12 hours was just perfect because it gave everything a good soaking but not enough to initiate the mud and debris flows.”

The rain caused little damaged. Debris basins, designed to catch and contain runoff, functioned perfectly, according to Edward Hitti, La Cañada’s director of public works. County crews worked through the weekend to prepare the basins in anticipation of the storm, he added.

“All the debris basins in the city were already completely emptied by Sunday…They are at the full capacity they’re designed for,” Hitti said.

County engineers and excavation crews are now expanding the capacity of four local debris basins, including Mullally, Big Briar, Snowbird and Pickens, Hitti said.

For more of this story read here.

La Cañada Flintridge residents living on streets threatened by mudslides are refusing to let sandbags and cement barriers dampen their holiday cheer. K-rails up and down Ocean View Boulevard, and on Big Briar Way, have been decorated with Christmas lights, tinsel, wrapping paper and flowers.

On Friday, 20-year-old Brian Laguna was stringing colored lights along waist-high K-rails in front of his house, located at the corner of Ocean View Boulevard and Manistee Drive. The decorating idea started with a neighbor a few blocks down the street, he said, and slowly began to spread throughout the Paradise Valley neighborhood.

“The K-rails are pretty ugly,” Laguna said. “We are trying to make them a little more attractive. We actually hadn’t put lights up [on our house]  for two years, we just went out and bought these.”

From the La Cañada Valley Sun

Two holiday lighting events that have become family rituals in La Cañada took place the first week of December, drawing celebratory crowds to both.

Nothing gets the attention of people like the promise of a celebrity appearance, and locals who turned out for the La Cañada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce’s 15th Annual Festival in Lights Thursday weren’t disappointed when the star of the evening finally arrived, by motorcade, at the Memorial Park event.

Santa and Mrs. Claus took a break from Christmas preparations to visit with hundreds of local families, who lined up outside the park’s light-strung gazebo to share their wish lists.

“I like Santa Claus,” said 5-year-old La Cañada resident Ethan Kim, sucking on a candy cane treat. Kim’s wish this year: A remote controlled-helicopter.

The celebrity visit was a main event for attendees 10 and under, but it wasn’t the only reason for the fete. The festival showcased the singing talents of students who took turns belting out carols. Their tunes mixed with the laughter of children playing at the nearby snow pits — created just for the occasion — and petting reindeer on display.

The winners in the annual Miss La Cañada Flintridge contest were also named at the festival. They were chosen from 21 finalists, who had all turned out to learn their fates.

To read more of this story, go here

From the La Cañada Valley Sun

Angeles Crest Highway (State Highway 2), which has been closed between La Cañada Flintridge and Wrightwood since late August due to damage sustained during the Station fire, reopened to traffic on Monday morning.

The fire, which burned more than 160,000 acres in the Angeles National Forest, damaged thousands of feet of guard rail and pavement, rendering the highway impassable. Dan Freeman, director of maintenance for Caltrans District 7, said Caltrans and Los Angeles County Public Works crews labored for two months to clear debris basins and storm drains, re-strip roads and replaced guardrails, road signs and road markers The crews also implemented some mitigating measure to try and protect Angeles Crest Highway from landslides, he added.

“Caltrans has been working in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, U.S. Forest Service, California High Patrol and several other entities to ensure that the repairs to the Angeles Crest Highway are safe and seamless,” Freeman said.

The reopening of the highway, however, is tentative at best. Geological experts at the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Geological Survey have warned repeatedly that the conditions in the Angeles National Forest — namely charred soil and steep slopes — are ripe for massive and dangerous mudslides.

A brief but intense rainstorm on Nov. 12 sent mud and water pouring down into the Paradise Valley neighborhood of La Cañada Flintridge, seriously damaging six homes.

On Monday, the reopening of Angeles Crest was delayed slightly while crews cleared debris from the roadway, the result of a small rock slide. Motorcyclists, eager to visit a favorite local route, described having to slowly weave their way through debris.

For more of this story, read here.

Janella Rodriguez, right, rings up a purchase for Brian Buchanan at the Hallmark store on Black Friday.

Tempered predictions about the holiday shopping season didn’t stop determined bargain hunters from lining up outside of local retail stores for the ever popular consumer frenzy known as Black Friday.

In La Cañada, a dozen people waited ouside the city’s biggest retailer, Sport Chalet, for the doors to open at 5 a.m. Linda Ingraldi, a La Crescenta resident, was at the front of the line. She said it was the first time she had tried to take advantage of the Thanksgiving weekend sales. She planned  her purchase carefully, consulting with her sister about a GPS navigation system which she hoped to buy as a present for a her son. It was marked down $90.

“They say they have the GPS I want…Nowadays, saving anything makes me feel good,” Ingraldi said.

Saving is exactly what millions of Americans are looking to do today as they browse shelves of toys, books, clothing and electronics. The day after Thanksgiving, which has evolved into a national holiday in and of itself, is one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

Read the full story here.

Angeles Crest Highway (2), which has been closed since late August due to damage sustained during the Station fire, is scheduled to reopen on Monday at 5 a.m., according to Los Angeles County Public Works officials.

Gary Boze, public works spokesman, said the department, working in conjuction with Caltrans, has completed extensive repairs to damaged paving and guard rails.

The reopening of the highway, however, is subject to weather conditions. In the case of moderate to heavy rainfall, Boze said, Angeles Crest will be closed until the threat has passed and road crews have completed safety inspections.

Some erosion was pushed onto the highway during a brief but intense rainstorm on Nov. 12, Boze said.

The driver of a white Lexus is moved to an ambulance and transported to Verdugo Hills Hospital following a four car collission at Foothill Boulevard and Oakwood Avenue at 12:30 p.m. The driver apparently ran a red light, narrowling missing two pedestrians and striking a northbound car. (Megan O'Neil/Valley Sun)

A four-car collision at the intersection Foothill Boulevard and Oakwood Avenue in La Cañada Flintridge sent two people to the hospital and snarled traffic for more than an hour on Wednesday afternoon.

La Cañada resident Richard O’Toole, who witnessed the accident, said a white Lexus was traveling eastbound on Foothill Boulevard in the left lane when it rolled through the Oakwood Avenue intersection well after the light had turned red. The Lexus barely missed two young school girls who had already stepped into the crosswalk to make their way across the street, he added.

“As [the Lexus' driver] entered the intersection the second car was traveling north on Oakwood and they kind of collided in the intersection,” O’Toole said.

The two vehicles were thrust east on Foothill Boulevard into westbound traffic, hitting a Volkswagen Jetta and a minivan.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Milburn Robinson said the investigation was ongoing, but added that it did appear that the Lexus had run a red light. The driver of the Lexus, and the driver of the vehicle that was struck in the intersection, were both transported to Verdugo Hills Hospital with minor injuries, Robinson said.

Andrea Gorman, driver of the Volkswagen Jetta, said she, her daughter and her daugther’s friend were on their way to the movie theater when they were hit head-on.

“I was sitting at the stop light on my way to the movies with two girls in the car, we were going to see New Moon,” Gorman said.

Gorman’s car, along with two other cars, had to be towed from the scene. The fourth car, which was only lightly damaged, was driven away.

La Cañada Flintridge residents donated $50,000 to benefit emergency personell and social services agencies in the wake of the Station fire, according to a statement released Tuesday by the city.

Kevin Chun, director of administrative services, said the community mobilized quickly to thank the firefighters and law enforcement personnel who worked to protect the city.

The donations are being forwarded to the Captain Ted Hall and Firefighter Specialist Arnie Quinones Memorial Fund, fire and Sheriff’s equipment funds, the Wildland Firefighter Foundation, the Sheriff’s Relief Fund and the Fire Chaplain’s Benevolence Fund. Donations will also be made to the American Red Cross, San Gabriel Pomona Valley Chapter, and the Pasadena Humane Society. The majority of the funds will be distributed by Thanksgiving, according to Chun.

“The generosity of donations from our residents is indicative of the heartfelt thanks for those that kept our community safe,” Mayor Laura Olhasso said.

From the La Cañada Valley Sun

Through a combination of fund transfers, cash reserve spending, program reductions and staff reductions the La Cañada Unified School District will remain financially solvent through the 2012-13 fiscal year, according to a preliminary budget released this week.

The district has been grappling with how to manage a year-over-year multimillion dollar reduction in funding, the result of the economic downturn and subsequent California budget crisis.

Stephen Hodgson, a financial and budgetary consultant for the district, told the Governing Board Tuesday the district will have to tap into its reserves, spending as much as $3.36 million in savings to make in through the coming years.

Much of the budget discussion focused on funding lost on a per student basis. In 2007-08, the district received $5,795 per students from the state, Hodgson said. In 2009-10, the district will received $4,960 per student, a loss of $835. Compounding that reduction in funding is the fact that district enrollment numbers are dropping.

For of this story read here