Mountain Views News, Pasadena Edition [Sierra Madre] Saturday, August 12, 2017

5 Mountain View News Saturday, August 12, 2017 
HAVE YOU SEEN CARL FOOTE? 
5 Mountain View News Saturday, August 12, 2017 
HAVE YOU SEEN CARL FOOTE? 
The Sierra Madre Police Department and Sierra Madre Search and Rescue are asking for the

public’s help to find an experienced hiker and cyclist who’s been missing in Sierra Madre 

since Sunday.

His family told police that Carl Foote, an avid hiker and walker, had planned to hike the

base of Mount Wilson’s trail on Sunday. He left his home in the 100 block of Laurel Avenue

without taking his car, wallet or cell phone and has not been seen since, according to Sierra

Madre police.

Foote’s wife reported him missing Sunday night and he did not report to work on Monday,

police said.

 Authorities have canvassed the area using all available resources including dogs and aerial

equipment but as of press time, to no avail.

Foote is a Vice President of a well known aerospace industry firm and formerly served for

16 years as the Director of Human Resources at the Huntington Library.

Carl Foote is white, about 6 feet 9 inches tall and 200 pounds, with hazel eyes and brown

hair with a gray patch behind his right ear. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, khaki

shorts, white socks and tennis shoes. 

Anyone with information about his whereabouts was asked to call Sierra Madre police at

(626) 355-1414 or dial 911. 
COMMUNITY'S QUESTIONS ABOUTWATER ADDRESSED 


Madre's Water Supply, the City of Sierra Madre hosted a Town Hall 
type Q & A in an effort to bring the community up to date on the 
city's water issues. 

City Manager Gabe Engeland and Water Department Director 
Jose Reynoso answered most of the questions presented. Also in attendance 
were Public Works Director Chris Cimino, Mayor Rachelle 
Arizmendi and Mayor Pro-Tem Denise Delmar.

 The most pressing issue of the evening was billing/water rates. 
The current system is rather complex acknowledged Engeland. He 
noted two changes that the city would implement in the near future, 
the first being changing from bi-monthly billing to a system 
that generates bills every month. The second change will be to have 
the entire system on the same water rate. (For example, in the last 
billing cycle, half of the town was billed on Summer Usage Rates 
while the other half was billed on Winter Usage Rates). 

While those answers did help clear the air a bit, the cost of water 
in the city was the number one topic. 

Accusations that the city's water rates were unjustifiably high, 
that the rates were not properly noticed and that the city was billing 
at a future rate (2018 rates) rather than the current year's rates were 
all presented to city staff. In addition, the rumor that residents of 
the City of Arcadia paid less for their purchaed water than Sierra-
Madre does was also addressed. 

Engeland and Reynoso noted in great detail the following: 

1. The cost of water is higher due to the fact that we are still 
purchasing more than half of our water from the MWD. Reynoso 
informed the residents that while our wells are replenishing, we are 
still well below the minimum level of 500 acre feet. (See chart Page 
3). 
2. The city's rate from MWD is not higher than what other cities 
pay for untreated water, however, Sierra Madre does pay an additional 
cost to treat/improve the water quality. 
3. When comparing the Sierra Madre water rate to what consumers 
in Arcadia pay , it was noted that the City of Arcadia subsidizes 
resident rates. Sierra Madre is not able to provide such subsidies 
due to the fact that Sierra Madre has virtually no commercial/
sales tax revenue. 
4. The rates currently being charged to residents is for the 20172018 
fiscal year which began July 1st. It was also noted that there 
had been no additional rate increases since the last voter approved 
increase a few years ago. 
Detailed explanations were given on the Tiers that people are 

Walking Sierra Madre…The Social Side


by Deanne Davis 

This week, this quote fits perfectly! 

“August in sub-Saharan Los Angeles is one of thegreat and awful tests of one’s endurance, sanity andstamina.” 

Henry Rollins 

The beginning of last week was an absolute nightmare,
weather-wise, just as we were returning from Texaswhere we celebrated granddaughter, Emily’s, 7thbirthday and her mommy’s somewhat older birthday.
Gosh, it was just like Texas here.. hot and humid. 
Then it cooled down into the high 90’s. Woo hoo!

We continually offer thanksgiving to the fine mindswho came up with air conditioning and, thanks toWikipedia, here’s something you might not knowabout this best invention ever: The basic conceptbehind air conditioning is said to have happened inancient Egypt, where reeds were hung in windowsand moistened with trickling water. The evaporationof water cooled the air blowing through the window.
Neat! This process also made the air more humid,
which was beneficial in that dry desert climate (gotthat right!). In ancient Rome, water from aqueductswas circulated through the walls of certain houses(think mansions!) to cool them. 2nd century Chineseinventor Ding Huan of the Han Dynasty invented arotary fan for air conditioning, with 7 wheels, 10 ft. indiameter, manually powered by prisoners of the time.
Emperor Xuanzong (712-762) of the Tang Dynastyhad the “cool hall” built in the imperial palace whichused water-powered fan wheels for air conditioning,
as well as rising jet streams of water from fountains. Inthe 17th century, Cornelis Drebbel “turned summerinto winter” for James 1st of England by adding saltto water. And we, here in the 21st century just pressa button and enjoy instant relief... thank you moderntechnology! We are beyond grateful!

Walking Sierra Madre has been a challenge whenit’s in the mid-70’s at six in the morning. All thesucculents around town look fabulous and we don’t 
look at the lawn anymore. You probably don’t either.
We are, however, talking seriously with our landscapeexpert Gerardo Jimenez about covering the lowerpart of our yard with wood chips, which would lookso much better than the dirt and dead grass that is allthat’s left of the tons of sod we put in down there afew years back, well, 18 to be exact, when daughter,
Crissy, was planning her wedding reception here. Itwas beautiful, friends and neighbors, and we wateredit constantly. And that’s when we first met raccoons,
who rolled up our new sod when it was just a week ortwo old, and cast it aside to look for worms and grubs.
Ah! Good times! 

Going to the bank this morning, we noticed thisnifty thermometer thing in Kersting Court, giving usa terrifying visual about our water situation, whichpromptly covered us with guilt as we haven’t been asgood about water usage as we were when the watershortages were first brought to our attention. I haveresolved anew to use less and make it go further.
Currently we are only trying to keep our trees aliveand wish we could have a huge thunder and lightningstorm like we had in Texas which was accompaniedby tumultuous rain. Yes, we had a little rain here andwe’re sure glad we didn’t have what happened in Actona few days ago when the entire town was flooded andfolks were being rescued out of their pickup trucks byhelicopters. That’s more that we need. Seriously! 

Tiers, with Tier 1 being the lowest 
and Tier 4 the highest with the highest 
rates and penalties. 

Several residents presented bills 
that did appear to be flawed. Bills 
were presented and discussed that 
were over $1,200 for one billing 
period. One resident had a bill that 
skyrocketed from $200 to $1600. 
Others had bills that had significant 
spikes of several hundred dollars, 
and many in attendance complained 
about the penalties.

 The city encouraged any resident 
that felt that bill was miscalculated 
to file an appeal and the billing 
would be investigated. 

quired to enforce conservation efforts and are subject (both the city 
and resident's)to fines and penalties for failing to do so. 

billed under. There are currently 4 
Sierra Madre City Manager Gabe Engeland (standing) responds to questions from residents 
ranging from water rates to conservation. There was a standing room only crowd at the Hart 
Park House Wednesday evening. S. Henderson/MVNews 

As a result many inquiries from residents regarding Sierra 


St. Rita’s is doing fabulous renovations and whentheir students start back to school, they are going tobe elated with what they find. New windows, betterA/C. Good work St. Rita’s! You have such a beautifulchurch and when it’s all spruced up and painted, itwill be even more beautiful. 

By this time next week, all the kids at Sierra MadreElementary will be back in school. Go see the Emojimovie, kids, it was great fun!

Speaking of going to Texas, we drove over to FortWorth to see Dinosaurs Live! This was so cool. Hugerobotic dinosaurs that moved their heads and looked 
as terrifying as possible. This was a tremendousmerchandising opportunity and we got out fairlycheaply with just a stuffed dinosaur apiece for Jessieand Emily at a mere $19.95. Here are our girlsfearlessly riding a terrifying dinosaur.

May all your students have the best year ever, thebest teachers ever, and success in all they do thiscoming school year. 

“The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the 
book.” Anonymous 

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis 
Blog: www.authordeanne.com 

“A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter”
is now available at Sunrise Books + Coffee at Pasadena 
First Church of the Nazarene – just down the road onSierra Madre Blvd. 

Kindle readers, give yourself the gift of:
Just Dessert: A Fall Fantasy

It’s on Amazon.com on my book page!

Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@
playwrightdd 

We’d like to hear from you! 
What’s on YOUR Mind? 
Contact us at: editor@ 
mtnviewsnews.com or 
www.facebook.com/ 
mountainviewsnews AND 
Twitter: @mtnviewsnews 
At the mention of filing an appeal, several residents expressed 
frustration and dissatisfaction with how appeals had been handled 
in the past. Engeland and Reynoso assured the audience that with 
the recent reorganization of city staff, the process will be more responsive 
to citizen's concerns. At that point, Mayor Pro-Tem Denise 
Delmar accurately noted that she had always stressed better 
Customer Service by city staff when dealing with residents. 
Engeland also noted that if your water usage is beyond Tier 1, 
then your conservation efforts are not effective and penalties are 
accessed accordingly. He reminded residents that despite the fact 
that the Governor has declared the drought over, cities are still re-
CLASSIFIED 


OFFICE SPACES FOR RENT IN 


SIERRA MADRE 
Near Baldwin on Sierra Madre Blvd. 
Please email your type of business 
and space requirements to:

sierramlaw@cs.com 

Other items discussed were conservation targets, smart meters, 
how meters are read and where the city stands in terms of our water 
bonds and water company financing. 

And, to the surprise of many, Engeland pointed out a number 
of decisions that were made in the past regarding the Water Company's 
financing and the need for the city to address those issues 
in the near future. His comments seemed to verify Moody's (the 
municipal credit rating agency) statement in a Sierra Madre credit 
analysis a few years ago that noted the city "lacked the political will"
to correct the water company's financial problems. See: http://mtnviewsnews.
com/v07/htm/n50/index.htm 

To learn more about the city's water situation go to: http://cityofsierramadre.
com/cms/one.aspx?pageId=237412 

S. Henderson/MVNews 
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