September 2010 Archives

Assemblyman Tony Mendoza is going back home Tuesday -- so to speak. Mendoza, D-Norwalk, is going to hold a press conference at noon at Brooklyn Avenue Elementary School, 4620 E. Cesar E Chavez Ave., Los Angeles.

That's the school he taught at before he was elected to the state Assembly in 2006. However, this school is not even close to Mendoza's district that includes Artesia, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, Lakewood, Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs, unincorporated South and West Whittier and parts of Whittier.

Mendoza is expected to ask Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign his AB 211, a bill that requires new school construction projects to have doors with modern locks that can be locked from the inside.

Sariqbal Singh, owner of Valero station, 14005 Whittier Blvd, Whittier, is going back Monday for a second try to persuade the Planning Commission to give him permission to sell beer and wine. Last time, he ran into opposition from a resident and concerns about his plans from commissoners.

The commission's again has a long agenda -- it's been a busy September for them. The members dealt with four alcoholic beverage requests on Sept. 7, spent more than three hours Sept. 13 going over proposals to modify the Whittier Boulevard Specific Plan and on Monday will have even more items. They will include Singh's proposal, another liquor permit from a Casa De Espana, a nonprofit group at 6532 Greenleaf Ave., Whittier, a proposal for a new and larger McDonald's at 8840 Painter Ave. to replace the existing one, more study of the Whittier Boulevard plan. Tuesday's meeting begins at 7 p.m. and a look at a new plan for signs for institutions such as churches. 

A project to restore a 15-acre area east of Colima road and north of the Murphy Ranch Little League was unharmed by Thursday's brush fire in the Whittier hills, said Andrea Gullo, executive director of the Puente Hills Landfill Native Habitat Authority. "I was out there today and (the fire) wasn't near it," Gullo said. "It wasn't in the vicinity.

The authority has spent about $1.7 million -- money given by the Orange County Waste and Recycling that operates the Olinda Alpha Landfill in Brea -- to plant seedlings, including California sagebrush, California buckwheat, prickly pear cactus and white and purple sage.
Even if there had been a problem from the fire, Gullo said the authority has contingency funds to address any problems.

About 3,000 eucalyptus trees were removed from the Whittier hills two years ago, including the 15-acre area, as a fire-safety move. The trees are hot and have oil in them and are considered dangerous. And if the fire had gone south, those trees are now gone -- a good thing -- Gullo said.