Mountain Views News          Saturday, January 15, 2011

4

Mountain Views-News Saturday, January 15, 2011 

Planetary Society Remarks 
on Rep. Giffords’ Recovery


City to look 
at Ten-Day 
Ban on All 
Outdoor 
Watering 

 
In the wake of last week’s 
shooting at an Arizona 
supermarket that left six 
people dead and 13 injured 
including Rep. Gabrielle 
Giffords, The Planetary 
Society —the largest space 
interest group in the world 
based in Pasadena— issued a 
statement on the situation.

 “The board members and 
staff of the Planetary Society 
are saddened by this attack on 
Representative Giffords and 
other innocent bystanders, 
and offer their best wishes 
for her recovery and their 
sympathy to the other victims 
and their families.”

 On Wednesday, President 
Barack Obama announced 
that Giffords had opened hers 
eyes for the first time since the 
Jan. 8 shooting. 

 According to Planetary 
Society members, Giffords, 
holds a seat on the House 
Committee on Science, Space, 
and Technology, and has 
served as chairwoman of the 
House Space and Aeronautics 
Subcommittee. Giffords is also 
married to shuttle astronaut 
Mark Kelly.

 Monday night Pasadena 
City Council Member Steve 
Haderlein asked they conclude 
their regular meeting with a 
moment of silence in honor of 
the victims of the shooting.

 Council member Steve 
Madison said the council 
should deplore what occurred 
echoing the sentiments of 
other council members. 

 “I was stuck by the fact that 
there were two braches of 
government victimized,” he 
said. “The legislative branch 
with a member of the U.S. 
Congress and then the judicial 
branch.”

 Madison said they should 
all take a hard look, being 
elected officials, at how they 
conduct business and political 
discourse in public, “There 
are, sadly in this country, 
extremists who react.” 

 Chief Federal judge, John Roll 
was also killed in the shooting. 
It is believed Giffords was the 
target of the attack. She was 
shot point blank through the 
head by 22-year-old Jared 
Loughner who was arrested at 
the scene. His motive for the 
shooting still remains unclear.

 Total Shutdown 
planned of MWD 
Treatment Plant 
March 18 to 27. 

 The city’s department of 
water and power is set to 
go before City Council later 
this month to urge a total 
prohibition on all outdoor 
watering from March 18 
to 27 during a temporary 
shutdown of a major 
regional water treatment 
plant.

 According to city Officials, 
“The Metropolitan Water 
District of Southern 
California (MWD), which 
supplies about 60 percent 
of Pasadena’s water, is 
planning a seismic upgrade 
of its Weymouth Treatment 
Plant in LaVerne and will 
stop all water deliveries 
from the plant to Pasadena 
and neighboring cities to 
perform the retrofit. 

For those 10 days, Pasadena 
must rely solely on 
groundwater and reserves. 
We’ll need to eliminate all 
outdoor watering to cut 
citywide water use by 40 
percent.”

 In prepare of the shutdown 
officials are asking 
residents, well in advance, 
to share this information 
with your gardener, family, 
neighbors and co-workers. 
Notification about the 
final plan approved by 
the city council will be 
mailed in February to every 
household they said. 

 Officals say “during a 
typical March, PWP customers 
use almost 250 million 
gallons over a 10-day 
period. During the shutdown, 
we’ll have only 150 
million gallons.” 

 They also said PWP 
would temporarily ease 
enforcement of the current 
water shortage rules from 
March 11 to 17 only. Residents 
may water on any day 
that week and as much as 
they see fit to prepare landscaping 
for the shutdown.

 More information can be 
found on the city’s website 
under, “Pasadena In Focus.”

$152 Million Renovation Begins

By Dean Lee

 Rose Bowl General Manager 
Darryl Dunn explained 
Wednesday morning that the 
$152 million long awaited 
stadium renovation plan started 
Monday would be done in a 
way that dose not interrupt the 
football season, including the 
Rose Bowl Games Jan. 1.

 “It’s a three phase project,” 
he said. “And the reason it is a 
three phase project is, this way 
the football seasons won’t be 
interrupted.” 

 Dunn added that they are also 
trying to accommodate other 
events, “it just depends on what 
happens, over the next four or 
five months, the power is going 
to be down, the plumbing is 
going to be down… so it’s going 
to be difficult to have events.” He 
said their next big happening 
is an international soccer 
tournament June 25. 

 “The timing worked, so we 
were able to work around it,” he 
said. “But if we had a call for an 
event two months from now, we 
would, unfortunately have to say 
no.”

 He said the start of phase 
I includes the stadium’s 
infrastructure including 
utilities, “We’re an 88 year-old 
building so utilities need to 
be upgraded.” This week work 
crews also started to removed 
two rows of seats on the south 
side making the field longer 
Dunn said. 

 “We are going to be having 
advertising signage and that’s 
where that’s going to be located. 
He said phase I also includes 
cleaning up the scoreboard and 
advertising rim. 

 “There is going to an historic 
scoreboard from 1940 installed,” 
he said explaining it would go on 
the south rim. On the north rim 
he said all the advertising panels 
would come down, “What you 
will have is a very long brand 
new video board.” 

 He said phase I would end 
in August and phase II would 
begin the week after the 98th 
Rose Bowl Game Jan. 1, 2012. 
Phase II, will include completely 
redoing the press box making it 
wider and longer although he 
said that part of the press box 
overhaul will start in the next 
few months.

 Phase I is expected to cost 
about $25 million. 

Citizen Journalism Meet-up

 

 

 

 The Pasadena Community 
Network and this newspaper 
are holding a workshop on 
Citizen Journalism. 

 This group is the place where 
aspiring journalists can learn 
from trained professionals 
and support their local 
community by covering 
what’s really happening in 
their neighborhoods.

 We will put the news in your 
hands. Learn how to find 
the story, the tools needed 
to capture the story and the 
means to tell the story using 
the power of video, audio and 
print along with online social 
media The next meeting is 
Jan. 18 from 6 p.m. to 8p.m. 
at the Pasadena Community 
Network - Studio G, 2057 N. 
Los Robles Ave.

 For more info call 
626.794.8585 or visit 
pasadenan.com.

 Learn not just how 
to blog but how to 
report the news


City Keeps Its Resolution to 
Recycle New Year’s Trash

 It was the best kind of New 
Year’s resolution: huge impact 
and completed the first week of 
2011. Typical for a resolution, 
it involved reducing pounds – 
approximately 78,000 pounds.

 The Pasadena Public Works 
Department, in collaboration 
with the Rose Bowl Operating 
Company, Tournament of 
Roses, and LA Conservation 
Corps, worked to ensure that 
as much waste as possible 
would be recycled from this 
year’s Rose Parade and Rose 
Bowl Game. Their partnership 
resulted in about 39 tons of 
waste being diverted from 
landfills.

 As part of the cleanup, Public 
Works Department crews 
collected and transported 72 
tons of waste to a material 
recovery facility for sorting 
and recycling. 

 An additional 100,000 
beverage containers were 
recycled at the Rose Bowl 
Game, where attendees were 
encouraged to deposit bottles 
and cans at any of more than 
500 recycling stations with 
“Recycling is Part of the 
Game” signs.

 This year special emphasis 
was placed on collecting 
cardboard from the Rose Bowl 
Stadium and Rose Parade 
float viewing area. Cardboard 
recycling increased more than 
three-fold, for a total of 10.5 
tons.

 Unconsumed foods and 
flower arrangements collected 
from hospitality areas, media 
media centers and the press 
box were donated to local 
senior centers and shelters.

 In total, through new and 
ongoing recycling programs 
and partnerships, the city 
diverted 72 percent of its waste 
from local landfills.

 In 2010 the Public Works 
Department received the 
Building Excellence/Shaping 
Tomorrow (BEST) Award 
from the Southern California 
Chapter of American Public 
Works Association for year-
round recycling at the Rose 
Bowl Stadium.

 For more information call 
(626) 744-4721.

Steve Haderlein To Host 
District 4 Candidates Forum

 Councilman Steve Haderlein 
will host a candidates forum 
featuring District 4 residents 
who are running for that seat 
on the council.

 The forum is scheduled 
Wednesday, Jan. 19, from 7 to 
8:30 p.m. in the dining hall at La 
Salle High School , 3880 Sierra 
Madre Blvd.

 The public is invited to the 
forum, which will be videotaped 
for future broadcast on the 
Arroyo Channel, 32 on the 
Charter Communications cable 
system. The replay schedule 
will be announced.

 For more information or 
to provide questions for the 
candidates, contact District 4 
Field Representative Rhonda 
Stone at rstone@cityofpasadena.
net or (626) 744-4740.

 For election information 
visit www.cityofpasadena.net/
cityclerk/election_2011 or call 
(626) 744-4124.

 Haderlein is not seeking re-
election.

Pet of the 
Week


Police Seek 
Missing 
Pasadena 
Man

Caltech Professor Awarded 
Gold Medal In Astronomy

 Richard Ellis, the Steele 
Family Professor of 
Astronomy, has received the 
Gold Medal of the Royal 
Astronomical Society. 

 Awarded annually since 
1824, the Gold Medal is the 
society’s highest honor and 
one of the premier prizes in 
astronomy. 

 According to the London-
based society’s award 
citation, “[Ellis] has been 
one of the most influential 
British astronomers in the 
past thirty years,” and the 
Gold Medal recognizes 
his “outstanding personal 
research achievements and 
his leadership in astronomy.” 
Ellis’s research focuses on 
the large-scale distribution 
of matter in the universe; the 
cosmic expansion history; 
and the evolution of galaxies, 
through detailed studies 
of nearby systems and the 
exploration of the very 
earliest objects. 

 After Ellis joined Caltech’s 
faculty in 1999, the 
latter observations were 
accomplished in large part at 
the Keck Observatory.

 “We are very proud that 
Richard continues the long 
tradition of outstanding 
achievement in astronomy 
at Caltech,” says Tom Soifer, 
professor of physics and 
chair of the Division of 
Physics, Mathematics and 
Astronomy.

 He served as director of the

Palomar Observatory 
(now Caltech Optical 
Observatories) from 2000 to 
2005.

MTA Retires Last Diesel Bus

 


 

 Los Angeles County 
Supervisors, along with MTA 
members joined Wednesday 
to officially retire the fleet’s 
last diesel bus.

 “What was once just a 
vision of removing diesel-
belching buses from our 
streets is now a reality,” said 
Mayor Michael Antonovich, 
who also serves as MTA 2nd 
Vice Chairman and on the 
South Coast AQMD, on the 
initiative started nearly two 
decades ago in 1993. He was 
joined by MTA Chairman 
and Supervisor Don Knabe.

 “With today’s retirement 
the MTA now has a 100% 
alternative fuel bus fleet of 
2,221 Compressed Natural 
Gas (CNG) buses, six hybrid 
buses and one electric bus,” 
said Antonovich. 

 “CNG buses only cost 40 
cents per mile to operate 
versus 80 cents per mile 
to operate for diesel buses, 
and are over 97% cleaner 
than the diesel buses they 
replaced and reduce cancer-
causing particulate matter by 
98%, carbon monoxide by 
over 80%, and greenhouse 
gases by over 20%,” said 
Antonovich.

 “Along with eliminating the 
emission of 300,000 pounds 
of greenhouse gases daily, we 
reduce our nation nation’s 
dependence on foreign oil 
by utilizing clean-burning 
natural gas of which 98% is 
produced in North America.”

 The MTA receives an annual 
$30 million dollar rebate 
from the federal government 
for utilizing CNG buses. 

 Antonovich presented a 
proclamation to the MTA 
on behalf of the South Coast 
Air Quality Management 
District on the MTA’s historic 
clean air achievement of 
operating a 100% alternative 
fuel bus fleet.

 
Dresden, an adorable, 
two year old Boxer mix is a 
bit on the shy side but has 
started to come out of his 
shell. He gets along with 
other dogs and likes to play. 
He is looking for a home 
with someone who will 
continue his training and 
build his confidence. Come 
visit with Dresden today!

 The regular dog adoption 
fee is $120, which includes 
medical care prior to 
adoption, spaying or 
neutering, vaccinations, 
and a follow-up visit with a 
participating vet.

 Please call 626-792-7151 
and ask for A280883 or 
come to the Pasadena 
Humane Society & SPCA, 
361 S. Raymond Ave , 
Pasadena CA , 91105 . 
Our adoption hours are 
11-4 Sunday, 9-5 Tuesday, 
Wednesday, Thursday, and 
Friday, and 9-4 Saturday. 
Directions and photos of 
all pets updated hourly 
may be found at www.
pasadenahumane.org

 The Pasadena Police 
Department is actively 
seeking Michael P. Loretta, 
who was last seen by a family 
member at his apartment 
in the 500 block of East 
Villa Street in Pasadena on 
Wednesday, Jan. 5, at about 
1:30 p.m. Mr. Loretta is 78 
years old and described as 
a white male, 5’ 6” tall, 140 
pounds, white hair, blue 
eyes, light complexion. 

 Anyone who has any 
information on Mr. 
Loretta’s whereabouts 
or who may have seen 
him recently is asked to 
contact the Pasadena Police 
Department at (626) 744-
4241. 

Doo Dah set to Romp 
Through East Pasadena

 

 Daring to go where no parade 
has gone before, this year’s 
Pasadena Doo Dah Parade 
will again bring its own brand 
of raucous eccentricity East, 
after its successful relocation 
last year. The 2011 Parade 
takes place on Saturday, April 
30th, stepping off at 11am in 
East Pasadena along Colorado 
Boulevard.

 While the alternative event 
enjoyed popular acclaim 
in the Old Pasadena retail 
and entertainment district, 
organizers like the low profile, 
small town setting of the 
LaManda Park district. Last 
year, dozens of inventive, if zany, 
art cars and floats accompanied 
a legion of frolickers past the 
mom-n-pop shops along East 
Pasadena’s shady tree-lined 
streets. Many long-time parade-
goers felt it was reminiscent of 
Doo Dah’s early years.

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No.327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com