ARCADIA

PASADENA/ALTADENA

SIERRA MADRE 

 

SNOW NO SHOW

CRA FUNDS ENCUMBERED

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

MONROVIA

WRITE IN CANDIDATE 
CUSHON BELL AND

INCUMBENT RENATTA 
COOPER

ADAMS PACK STATION 
RECEIVES HISTORICAL 
MARKER

 

FULLER SEMINARY 
SPEAKS ON PIRATE 
TRAGEDY

NEW 51 UNIT 
REDEVELOPMENT 
PROJECT

 


Page 5

Page 6

Page 4 

Page 3 

Page 9

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 26, 2011

VOLUME 5 NO. 9

WRITE IN 
CANDIDATE 
CHANGES 

DYNAMICS IN 
PUSD BOARD 
RACE FOR 
SEAT 2

MOSCA TO 

DELIVER STATE OF 
THE CITY ADDRESS

Sierra Madre to host State of the 
City Event on February 28, 2011

On Monday, from 6:00 – 7:00 pm 
the City of Sierra Madre will be 
hosting its first ever State of the 
City address at the Community 
Recreation Center in the newly 
renovated Sierra Madre Room at 
611 East Sierra Madre Boulevard. 
This year’s theme is “Working 
Together the Sierra Madre Way” 
and this event will highlight programs 
and services the City has 
provided over the past year and 
give residents insight to the City’s 
goals for the next fiscal year.

 

Mayor Pro Tem John Buchanan 
will emcee the evening. A special 
performance by Sierra Madre 
School Third Grade Students will 
precede Mayor Joe Mosca’s State 
of the City Address. Representatives 
from each City Department 
will have booths highlighting 
current programs and projects 
and will be available to answer 
any community questions.

 

Although the event will not be 
aired live on SMTV3, the event 
will be recorded and rebroadcast 
on Channel 3 for Time Warner 
customers and will be able to be 
viewed on the City’s website no 
later than March 7.

 

Child care will be provided by the 
Library and Community Services 
departments and refreshments 
will be provided by the sponsors 
of the event. For more information 
on this event please contact 
626.355.5278 

THE NO SHOW SNOW

Sierra Madre was ready for an historic snowfall but it never 

appeared - at least not by Saturday morning.

 
The name Cushon Bell has been 
making a lot of headlines lately. 
She was recently elected to the 
Mom’s Congress as the sole representative 
for the State of California. 
And now, at the ninth hour, 
she has qualified to run as a Write 
In Candidate for Seat 2 in the 
March 6th school board race.

 
This is her first run for public office, 
but not her first foray into 
public service. She worked in 
the Measure CC campaign and 
has been described as a “Supermom” 
because of her many volunteer 
hours in a variety of parent 
orgzanizations. 

 A resident of Altadena, she is the 
mother of A teacher for 14 years 
in the LA Unified School District, 
she is married and has three 
children: Devan, Dylan, 6, who 
attend Sierra Madre Elementary, 
and Dustin, 4. She has been a 
teacher with the Los Angeles Unified 
School District for 18 years, 
on leave for the past four.

 Qualifying as a write in candidate 
on Tuesday, Bell has an uphill 
battle if she intends to win. 
She has chosen to run for Seat 2 
against incumbent Renatta Cooper. 
Prior to Bell throwing her hat 
into the ring, Cooper was the only 
candidate running unopposed.

 With a limited amount of time 
to get her message out, she has 
been busy visiting parents on 
PUSD campuses including Muir, 
Blair, Marshall, PHS, Eliot, Wilson, 
Willard, Washington (both 
sites), Rose City, McKinley, Sierra 
Madre (both sites), Field, Don 
Benito, Cleveland, Roosevelt, 
Jefferson, Don Benito, Norma 
Coombs, Longfellow, Jackson, 
McKinley, Field, Burbank, Loma 
Alta, and Altadena.

 Bell says she wants to be a parent 
role model and advocate for 
all children.

 

For more information see 

candidates statement on page 9.


When the National Weather Service 
forecast snow down to elevations 
of 500-1,000 feet, the whole 
town of Sierra Madre was buzzing 
with excitement. In fact, the notion 
of snow in our little village 
caught the attention of the major 
networks.

 The unpredictable storm did bring 
rain and even hail, but the temperature 
did not drop below freezing 
and the snow stayed above 2500 
feet.

 Although the city did issue a green 
flag alert for possible problems 
from the rain, preparing for the 
snow was something no one could 
anticipate. The alert is activated 
under a prediction of 80% - 100% 
chance of precipitation and alerts 
residents to get “READY” for potential 
evacuation. This includes 
keeping a close watch on weather 
forecasts. With temperatures dropping 
to record lows, that precipitation 
could have turned from rain to 
snow.

 If snow were to fall on our fair 
town, according to certain Sierra 
Madre purveyors of folklore, the 
city is prepared for a snow storm. 
The town does not own a snow 
plow but does, or so it has been reported, 
there is a 1954 road grader 
ready to go. If the grader does in 
fact exist, by the time anyone got it 
to start, the snow would be melted.

 In the event snow does fall 1,000 
feet and below, that would mean 
that part of Alverno and above 
could get a ‘dusting’. 

 When the snow was nowhere to 
be seen, many Sierra Madreans 
expressed their disappointment. 
However, with temperatures forecast 
to drop to 30 degrees Saturday 
night and a 30% chance of more 
rain, Sierra Madre may in fact get 
some snow other than the annual 
Snowman or the Dickens Village 
Slide. 

The view up Baldwin Avenue early Saturday morning displayed the beautiful hillsides sans snowflakes. 

WISTARIA FESTIVAL 

VOLUNTEER MEETING

TUESDAY, 

MARCH 1, 2011

7:30 P.M.

HART PARK HOUSE 

SENIOR CENTER

SIERRA MADRE

COUNCIL ENCUMBERS REDEVELOPMENT FUNDS

Council also authorizes a Sierra Madre Facebook Site

 Consistent with the 5-year Implementation 
plan adopted by the 
Sierra Madre Community Development 
Agency, the City Council 
on Tuesday night, took action on 
funding several projects by directing 
staff to prepare the necessary 
agreements. The projects that were 
authorized were:

 New Bathrooms in Memorial Park;

 Repaving of East Montecito;

 Incentive Program for Businesses

 to move in or expand;

 A facade improvement program

 modification. The current pro-

 gram is a loan program. The

 modification is for a 100% grant

 program to pay for actual con-

 struction costs.

 

 The projects must be in the CRA 
area. 

 By encumbering or ‘earmarking’ 
the funds for specific projects, 
it is believed, based on the current 
standards set in Sacramento, 
that should the Governor follow 
through with his threat to take local 
redevelopment agency funds, these 
projects would be exempted. 

 In addition to the items discussed 
on Tuesday evening, the city had 
previously encumbered the funds 
to complete the renovation of the 
Hart Park House Senior Center. 
Requests For Proposals for that 
project are expected to be released 
in the very near future.

www.facebook.com/Sierra 
Madre?!

The city council also voted to bring 
Sierra Madre communications to 
the 21st century. After much discussion 
and public comment, the 
council authorized the establishment 
of the appropriate social media 
accounts, namely Facebook and 
Twitter. In the staff reported provided 
to the council, social media 
was defined as: “a variety of web applications 
to open new communication 
channels between people with a 
more personal, and less formal and 
authoritative style”.

 

Having Facebook and Twitter accounts 
are being used by many cities 
currently including South Pasadena, 
Monrovia and the Arcadia 
Police Department.

Staff presented guidelines for the 
implementation and operation of 
the sites to the council which included 
making the Facebook page 
a one way form of communication 
from the city.

Also approved was the Management 
Policy and Regulations for 
the site.

Also Inside...

CALENDAR Page 2 

FEATURES

Education & Youth Page 8 

Good Food & Drink Page 10

Arts & Entertainment Page 11

Legals Page 12

Opinion Page 13

The World Around Us Page 14

 The Good Life Page 15

Homes & Property Page 16

SPORTS Page 17

 Bobby Eldridge - On The Course

 FYI Page 18 


Read The Paper Online At: www.mtnviewsnews.com