Mountain Views News          Saturday, May 7, 2011

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Mountain Views News Saturday, May 7, 2011

Duarte’s Promise and Local Volunteers Plant 

Native Oaks on Duarte Trail in Honor of AmeriCorps Week

New Drop Off Locations for Duarte Clean-Up, 

E Waste Round-Up May 7

DUARTE, CA – Members of Duarte’s Promise 
– The Alliance for Youth will help 30 volunteers 
from Keller Williams Real Estate plant native oak 
trees along the Duarte multi-purpose trail and 
around the 102 year-old Oak Avenue Bridge. The 
service project will take place at 8:30 a.m. on May 
12 in conjunction with National AmeriCorps 
Week (May 14-21) and Keller Williams Real 
Estate RED Day (Renew, Energize and Donate) 
community service initiative.

AmeriCorps provides opportunities for more 
than 80,000 citizens across the nation, including 
seven AmeriCorps Fellows serving at Duarte 
City Hall, Duarte Public Safety, Duarte Teen 
Center, Santa Anita Family YMCA, and the Foothill 
Unity Center. In this contract year alone, fellows 
have provided over 8,000 hours of service to 
Duarte and its surrounding areas. AmeriCorps 
members of Duarte have also earned more than 
$100,000 in Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards 
to help pay for college or pay back student loans 
since the program’s inception in 2000.

Mayor Tzeitel Paras-Caracci, in proclaiming 
AmeriCorps Week in Duarte, urged citizens to 
thank AmeriCorps members and alumni for 
their service and to find ways to give back to their 
communities.

For more information about AmeriCorps opportunities 
in Duarte and Duarte’s Promise – The 
Alliance for Youth, contact: Deputy City Manager, 
Karen Herrera at (626) 357-7931, ext. 221.

DUARTE, CA – Duarte residents can dispose 
of large refuse items and electronic waste on Saturday, 
May 7 by bringing those items to collection 
sites at Duarte City Hall, 1600 Huntington 
Dr., and Beardslee Elementary School, 1212 Kelwill 
Way in Duarte. Southern California Edison 
is also offering a refrigerator/freezer collection 
on the same day. Residents can schedule their 
pick-up by calling (800) 234-9722. 

Appointments are made on a first come, first 
serve basis.

For more information about how to participate 
in the Duarte Community Clean-Up Day and E-
Waste Round-Up, call Duarte City Hall at (626) 
357-7931, ext. 221 or visit the City’s website at: 
http://www.accessduarte.com

Kiwanis Club News

Kiwanians Travel to Nicaragua to Support Needy Children

Reyna Diaz, Board Member of Duarte Kiwanis 
Club and of the school district of the city 
of Duarte, California, is visiting the Foundation 
Abandoned Children of Nicaragua www.abandonedchildren.
org. Reyna and her husband, Ruben 
along with fellow Kiwanian and School Board 
President, Pam Kawasaki are coming to provide a 
of donation of 3 computers. They will also attend 
a reception for the Children in the center of protection 
in the city of Managua. 

One of the objectives of the Duarte Kiwanis 
Club is to visit the center and see the work they 
are doing. The Duarte Kiwanis Club has taken the 
responsibility to deliver the computers directly 
to the center and to see the work of the center in 
helping the children of the street Nicaraguans.

Personalities and businessmen Nicaraguans are 
guests to attend to the reception of Reyna Diaz 
and of provide support in this commendable 
work for the children. The President and founder 
of Abandoned Children In Nicaragua Foundation, 
Camilo I Neuter and his wife Amelia I Neuter, 
are happy to accompany the Duarte Kiwanis 
delegation, to receive their generous donation and 
to strengthen ties among both organizations to 
serve needy children.

Reyna will also be taking a gift of “Eliminate” 
lanyards to the representatives in Nicaragua. Kiwanis 
International is partnering with UNICEF 
in an effort to eliminate Maternal and Neo-Natal 
Tetanus worldwide. Reyna is pictured below (l) 
with Yvette Mack – Kiwanis member from Hacienda 
Heights who is heading the effort for Kiwanis 
Division 35.

Duarte Schools and Businesses Honored for Recycling

Programs with LARA San Gabriel Valley Green Awards

DUARTE, CA – Two Duarte schools and two 
Duarte businesses were recognized for their outstanding 
recycling programs by the Los Angeles 
Regional Agency (LARA) at the annual San Gabriel 
Valley Green Awards presented May 4 at the 
Garvey Community Center in Rosemead.

Among organizations honored were Duarte 
Unified School District’s Valley View Elementary 
School and Mt. Olive High School, and Duarte 
businesses Fresh & Easy and We Pack It All.

LARA is a consortium of 17 member cities in 
Los Angeles County, which includes the City of 
Duarte, whose mission is to assist members in 
meeting and exceeding the 50% waste diversion 
mandates of State Assembly Bill 939. The diversion 
rate of the LARA consortium is currently 
75%.

Valley View Elementary School was honored 
for its various school-wide recycling programs 
that encourage the entire school community to 
participate. Recyclables collected each week include 
four large bins of paper, as well as bottles, 
cans, cafeteria cereal bowls and juice pouches. In 
addition, cafeteria food scraps are composted to 
help enrich the soil in the school’s educational 
garden. Valley View has also recently added a 
worm composter that uses food scraps to make 
worm tea for the garden. 

Mt. Olive High School students have become 
champions of the environment through the innovative 
and award-winning Mt. Olive Outdoor 
Science Experience (MOOSE) program. Students 
plant native foliage, perform ongoing upkeep of 
the pond ecosystem and garden, conduct field 
experiments and observations, construct raised 
beds, build solar water features and run drip irrigation. 
The main focus of MOOSE is to teach 
students and the community how to solve some 
of the world’s current environmental challenges 
through water conservation, vermiculture, organic 
farming, urban horticulture, ethnobotany and 
recycling while training them for green careers.

We Pack It All, a co-packer company, utilizes 
certified organic materials for packing. Materials 
left over from packing are recycled. The company 
recycles an average of 67,200 lbs of cardboard a 
month and another 50,000 pounds of cardboard 
bundles at the end of the year, as well as 2,560 lbs 
of pallets a month; four 40 yard bins a month in 
recycled plastic, two 3 yard bins of paper a month, 
and 1,200 pounds of foil backing a year.

Fresh & Easy, which opened its doors in Duarte 
in January 2009, recycles or reuses all its shipping 
and display materials and uses environmentally-
friendly trailers to transport food. The company 
is a pilot member of the Leadership in Energy 
and Environmental Design (LEED) Volume Certification 
Program and has invested in a 500,000 
square foot solar roof installation on its distribution 
center.

From the desk of the City Manager...

Power Outage Affects Homes and Businesses

On late Thursday afternoon, the lights flickered 
and the computer monitors and phones 
went dead. A significant power outage (primarily 
affecting the area from Mountain to Myrtle, Lime 
to Colorado) gave us a nice earthquake drill, but 
also pointed out some weaknesses in the system. 
Specifically, this wasn’t a disaster - not even close. 
It was an unscheduled interruption in service 
that affected a significant area, but it certainly 
wouldn’t have warranted even a partial activation 
of the Emergency Operations Center.

Granted, we don’t operate the electrical system 
(Southern California Edison does) and SCE did 
a great job of responding immediately. Still, this 
outage - coming prior to the really hot weather in 
July and August - pointed out that we need to develop 
a better message to residents about the integration 
of the overall power grid. For example, as 
SCE tried to replace the blown transformer, folks 
who were just coming home from what was one of 
the warmer days that we’ve had in a while, likely 
turned on the A/C, the plasma screen, etc. This 
placed additional strain on the already disabled 
system, which made it more difficult for SCE to 
complete the repairs. The system was mostly functional 
by the evening; still, we will work with SCE 
on a better and more cohesive communication for 
these less-than-traumatic outage situations.

So, what caused the outage? Darn Mylar balloons. 
They got caught in the lines near the 
California-Jasmine Avenue neighborhood and 
caused the transformer to blow. The power lines 
actually ended up on the ground. Fire and Police 
units responded immediately; however, we are 
fortunate that no one was hurt. Mylar balloons 
- don’t buy them. Get your special someone a 
book, or a card, or savings bond - just no more 
metallic balloons.

Monrovia Police Blotter

Economic Recession Ebbing...but Slowly

On Monday, April 25, the City of Monrovia held 
its annual CEO Roundtable and Commercial/Industrial 
Brokers Reception. We hold this annual 
meeting as one way of connecting with Monrovia’s 
larger businesses and employers. Monrovia casts a 
long shadow as a place to do business. We are home 
to such companies’ regional and international 
headquarters as Trader Joe’s, Aerovironment, Staar 
Surgical, Unitek Miyachi, The Original Tommy’s 
hamburgers, Worley Parsons and Green Dot; and 
we feature significant investments by the City of 
Hope, Ducommun Aerostructures and Genzyme, 
to name but a few. Additionally, we hold an annual 
meeting with the commercial and industrial 
brokers as a method of outreach and collaboration; 
after all, the brokers and the City have a shared interest 
in promoting Monrovia.

Our featured speaker on Monday evening was 
Dr. Nancy Sidhu, the Chief Economist of the Los 
Angeles Economic Development Corporation 
(LAEDC). Dr. Sidhu provided a range of statistics 
and data that indicated that the devastating economic 
recession was easing. However, the optimism 
was moderated by the fact that housing, construction 
and government employment were still 
significant drags on the recovery. The good news 
is that even the default housing market appears to 
have bottomed-out; and once those REO units are 
absorbed, the new construction market can begin 
to recover in earnest. Dr. Sidhu also noted that 
travel and leisure, entertainment and international 
trade were helping lead the way on recovery; however, 
she noted that most every sector in the economy 
(save housing, construction and government) 
were growing again. Unemployment is still a drag 
on the LA County economy, yet the mild rebound 
reflects the number and types of jobs that were lost 
in the recession - especially in the financial services 
sector.

Given the increase in activity we have seen in 
Monrovia - the relative lack of commercial vacancies 
in our office buildings, the steady business 
among our restaurants and retailers and the stabilization 
of the housing market - I believe that we 
are indeed emerging from recession. What’s more, 
I believe our economic diversity will bring us back 
sooner than most and stronger than most. The City 
Council has made diversification of our economic 
base a priority, and truly it is proving a saving grace.

Lastly, thanks and congratulations to the R/ED 
Team for executing the event flawlessly. Monday 
was a great reminder to our companies that doing 
business in Monrovia is unlike - and better than - 
doing business elsewhere; and to our brokers that 
they have a real and true partner in the City of 
Monrovia.

During the last seven day period, the Police Department 
handled 578 service events, resulting in 101 investigations. 
Following are the last week’s highlighted 
issues and events:

Grand Theft Auto

On April 22 at 9:09 a.m., an officer was dispatched 
to a parking lot in the 1600 block of South Myrtle regarding 
a stolen vehicle. The victim reported that he 
parked his vehicle in the lot at approximately 5 a.m. 
on April 21. He returned to his vehicle that same day 
at 6 p.m. and found it missing. No broken glass was 
found on the ground where it was parked. He waited 
a day to make the report as he did not know the license 
plate number of his vehicle.

Grand Theft Auto

On April 22 at 12:11 a.m., an officer responded 
to the parking lot of a business in the 3300 block of 
South Peck regarding a stolen vehicle report. The victim 
parked his vehicle in the parking lot at 11:30 a.m. 
and went into the business. He returned to his car at 
12 p.m. and found it missing. There was no broken 
glass on the ground where it was parked. The vehicle 
is a red, 1989 Toyota Cressida with over-wide tires, 
spoke rims and tinted windows.

Petty Theft - Suspects Arrested

On April 22 at 1:01 p.m., police responded to the 
report of a petty theft at a business in the 500 block 
of West Huntington. Loss prevention officers saw a 
male subject grab and conceal cologne and perfume 
on his person. The suspect walked outside where he 
met with a female subject. Loss prevention officers 
followed at a distance and provided the direction of 
travel to police. Officers located and detained the suspect. 
The female did not take part in the theft, but was 
arrested for two outstanding no-bail felony warrants. 
The male suspect, who was found to be on parole, was 
identified by loss prevention and arrested for theft.

Medical Assist

On April 22 at 10:57 p.m., officers were dispatched 
to a residence in the 800 block of Naples regarding a 
male subject having a heart attack. Upon arrival, officers 
found the subject unconscious. The officers examined 
the subject and discovered he was not breathing 
and had no pulse. The officers administered the 
defibrillator and revived the subject. He was taken to 
a hospital for treatment. At last check, the subject was 
recovering in the hospital.

Burglary

On April 23 at 10:48 a.m., an officer was sent to an 
apartment complex in the 400 block of West Duarte 
on the report of a burglary. The apartment complex 
is under construction and some windows were left 
open for ventilation. The suspect(s) entered an apartment 
through a kitchen window and removed a dish 
washer. They left the location unnoticed.

Vehicle Burglary

On April 25 at 5:31 p.m., an officer went to the 300 
block of West Lemon regarding a vehicle burglary. 
The victim parked and secured her vehicle in the alley 
behind her residence. She returned to the vehicle and 
saw the interior had been ransacked. She checked her 
vehicle but could not determine if anything had been 
taken. There were no obvious signs of forced entry.

Attempted Grand Theft Auto

On April 26 at 12:35 a.m., a resident in the 700 
block of South Fifth heard his car engine start. The 
victim looked outside and saw someone backing his 
car out of the driveway. The vehicle became stuck 
when it hit a wall. A male suspect exited the vehicle 
and fled on foot. An area search was conducted by 
officers, but the suspect was not located. The victim 
had left his keys in the unlocked car.

Probation Sweep - Two Subjects Arrested

On April 26, Monrovia Special Enforcement 
Team officers and Los Angeles County Probation officers 
conducted probation checks at two locations 
in Monrovia. The first was in the 300 block of East 
Altern. The subject was home and put up some resistance 
to being arrested. He was charged with delaying 
officers, probation violation, and possession of 
a controlled substance. The second location was in 
the 2100 block of Redell. The subject was home, but 
hiding in the residence. He was located and arrested. 
He was charged with probation violation and several 
no-bail warrants.

Grand Theft

On April 26 at 10:10 a.m., an officer responded 
to an apartment complex in the 700 block of South 
Myrtle. The victim reported two expensive bicycles 
were taken from the public garage. Both bicycles were 
secured with the same chain and lock. The chain was 
cut and the suspect(s) took the bicycles.

Grand Theft Auto

On April 27 at 12:39 p.m., an officer responded 
to a business parking lot in the 1600 block of South 
Mountain. The victim is an employee of the business 
and had parked his truck in the lot and secured it. He 
was away from his vehicle between 10:30 a.m. and 12 
p.m. The vehicle is a white, 2000, extended-cab Chevy 
Silverado with a camper shell.

Attempt Burglary

On April 27 at 2:46 p.m., an officer went to the 100 
block of East Cypress on the report of a burglary. Two 
windows had been broken to the rear of the residence. 
One of the windows is to the kitchen and the other 
is to the living room. There were pry marks on the 
window frame. Fortunately, entry was not made and 
there was no loss.

Commercial Burglary

On April 27 at 3:32 p.m., a business in the 600 block 
of West Huntington reported a burglary. An employee 
doing inventory had discovered numerous items of 
store merchandise missing. He reviewed surveillance 
video and saw four women, early 20s to approximately 
60 years old, working in concert stealing merchandise 
on April 17, 2011. Investigation continuing.

Residential Burglary

On April 27 at 4:44 p.m., a resident in the 300 block 
of West Lime reported that someone had broken into 
their home. The victim was away from the residence 
from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. When she returned, she went 
inside and discovered items missing. She then noticed 
the east facing kitchen window had been broken. The 
suspect(s) used a piece of red brick to break the window 
and made entry; they exited through the same 
window.


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MONROVIA CALENDAR –

Thurs., May 12, 7 p.m. - Monrovia Day Parade

Sat., May 14, 7 a.m. - MFD Fire Service Day/Pancake Breakfast, 141 E. Lemon Avenue

Sat., May 14, 7 a.m. - Fountain to Falls Run/Walk

Sat., May 14, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. - Monrovia Day Festivities; Library Park

Tues., May 17, 7:30 p.m. - City Council Meeting