Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, April 18, 2020

5


Mountain Views-News Saturday, April 18, 2020 

Face Masks 
Mandatory 
in Pasadena 


Pasadena Transit, Dial-A-
Ride add Safety Measures, 
Protects Riders and Drivers

 
Following others cities 
in Los Angeles Councty, 
Pasadena Public Health 
Officer Dr. Ying-Ying Goh 
issued a revised order for 
control of COVID-19 
requiring face coverings 
for essential workers, along 
with customers patronizing 
essential businesses. The 
revised order is effective 
immediately and will 
remain in effect until 
further notice.

 “This order by no 
means replaces the need 
for physical distancing 
and everyday hygiene 
precautions, such as 
frequent hand washing,” 
said Dr. Goh. “When 
you do need to venture 
out for groceries or other 
essentials, wearing a 
face covering can help 
reduce community 
spread of COVID-19, 
especially by those who are 
asymptomatic and don’t 
even know they have the 
virus.”

 All workers who work 
at essential businesses or 
perform essential services, 
as defined in the order, must 
wear face coverings over 
their noses and mouths 
while performing their 
work. These face coverings 
must be provided by the 
employer at the employer’s 
expense. Essential 
businesses are requirement 
and provide evidence of 
implementation to the 
Pasadena Public Health 
Department.

 Additionally, all customers 
and visitors of essential 
businesses must wear face 
coverings over their noses 
and mouths. The face 
coverings should not be 
medical-grade masks or 
N95 respirators reserved 
for healthcare workers 
and other first responders. 
Instead, the general 
public should wear fabric 
coverings, such as scarves 
and bandana coverings, or 
single-use face coverings.

 At this time, the face 
coverings required by this 
order for workers are not 
medical-grade masks or 
N95 respirators, but rather 
fabric coverings, such as 
scarves and bandanas. All 
workers required to wear 
face coverings must wash 
any reusable face coverings 
daily for the health and 
safety of themselves and 
others. Single-use face 
coverings must be properly 
discarded.

 As per the order, an 
essential business owner 
may deny service to 
anyone not wearing a face 
covering.

 All employers must 
continue to implement 
social distancing measures 
for employees, customers, 
and visitors that provide 
a six-foot buffer, to the 
extent possible, between 
individuals.

 Violation or failure to 
comply with this order is 
a crime punishable by fine, 
imprisonment, or both. 

 For more information 
visit: cityofpasadena.net. 
Click on “Coronavirus 
(COVID-19) Information.”

 

 In response to the 
COVID-19 outbreak, 
the City of Pasadena’s 
transportation department 
announced Wednesday they 
taken a number of steps to 
protect passengers utilizing 
Pasadena Transit and 
Dial-A-Ride for essential 
trips. Transit drivers are 
going above and beyond to 
keep vehicles extra clean 
throughout the day; in 
addition to every transit 
vehicle being sanitized every 
night, high-touch surfaces 
are cleaned several times a 
day.

 To help limit the number of 
passengers on each bus and 
help passengers maintain a 
safe social distance between 
each other, Pasadena Transit 
is also increasing the number 
of buses servicing Route 20, 
the system’s heaviest route, 
starting April 19:

Route 20 weekdays: every 15 
minutes

Route 20 Saturdays & 
Sundays: 20-30 minute 
service

Route 10: every 30 minutes

Other actions that have been 
taken to facilitate social 
distancing include:

Rear door boarding to 
minimize contact between 
passengers and the driver

Free fare to minimize 
contact between passengers 
and the driver

Taping off select seats on 
buses to encourage social 
distancing

 Finally, in accordance 
with the City of Pasadena 
health order, passengers 
must wear a clean cloth face 
covering over their nose 
and mouth while on board 
a Pasadena Transit or Dial-
A-Ride vehicle. “As essential 
workers, our drivers are 
also wearing face coverings. 
Their face covering protects 
you, and yours protects 
them,” says Transit Manager 
Valerie Gibson.

 Pasadena Dial-A-Ride 
is still running regular 
hours and transporting 
members for their essential 
errands, including grocery 
and medical trips. Special 
scheduling accommodations 
are also being made to help 
people visit grocery stores 
during designated “senior 
hours.” In addition, Dial-
A-Ride is working with the 
Foothill Unity Food Bank to 
deliver food from the food 
bank to members’ homes.

 Dial-A-Ride is available 
for seniors 60 and over 
and those under 60 with 
disabilities who are residents 
of Pasadena, Altadena, 
San Marino and parts of 
unincorporated Los Angeles 
County in the San Gabriel 
Valley. Anyone interested in 
using Dial-A-Ride should 
call (626) 744-4094 to 
become a member. Please 
leave a message, and your 
call will be returned between 
the hours of 10:30 a.m. and 
3:30 p.m., Monday through 
Thursday.

Union St. Protected Bikeway Moves Forward

By Dean Lee

 The Pasadena city council is set 
Monday afternoon to approve 
more funding for the Union 
Street Two-way Protected 
Bikeway project that will 
improve intersection crosswalk 
ramps beyond current 
Americans with Disabilities Act 
(ADA) requirements. The new 
dual ramps will allow for more 
anticipated pedestrian activity. 

 According to Director 
Department of Transportation 
Laura Cornejo, the funds 
would include design work 
to provide dual curb ramps 
at each intersection corner of 
heavily pedestrian trafficked 
intersections. Current 
intersections along Union Street 
have only one curb ramp at each 
intersection corner. Dual curb 
ramps enhance accessibility 
for the disabled community by 
allowing pedestrians to move 
directly towards the crosswalk 
they are trying to cross rather 
than having to travel down the 
existing single corner ramp 
between two crosswalks towards 
the middle of the intersection 
before turning towards their 
intended direction.

 The design work was not 
identified in the original 
contract due to the necessary 
relocation of utilities such as 
traffic signal poles and catch 
basins associated with dual curb 
ramp installation the report 
reads.

 The designated bikeway from 
Wilson Ave to Arroyo Parkway 
would be located on the south 
side of the street. DKS services 
would include environmental 
documentation, preliminary 
engineering, preparation of 
plans, specifications, estimate, 
right-of-way and public 
outreach.

 Residents in the area had 
expressed concerns, at two 
design workshops in 2018 and 
May 2019, over removing lanes 
and parking on Union Street; 
currently Union is a one way 
street. Pasadena Department 
of Transportation officials 
said, at the time, that parking 
would be evaluated block by 
block. According to the original 
staff report, the project would 
remove 21 parking spaces, 14 
of which are in the Central 
Playhouse District. 

 The idea to improve 
intersection crosswalk ramps 
was also based on public input 
at those meetings. 

 If approved by the council, the 
contract with DKS Associates 
would increase by $93,450 with 
a total fiscal impact for the 
entire project not-to-exceed 
$1,093,164.

 The meeting will be held at 
2 p.m. by video conference/
teleconference and 
livestreamed with captioning 
at: pasadenamedia.org, 
and at: cityofpasadena.net/
commissions/agendas. For 
public participation goto: 
cityofpasadena.net/city-clerk/
public-comment.

Warning, 
Identity Theft 
and Forgery 
Scams

NASA Observes Earth Day 
With Downloadable Art

 Officials warn, your 
government-issued Economic 
Impact Payment, known as 
a “stimulus check,” is not a 
typical check. Payment is made 
by direct deposit, from the 
IRS, into a known checking 
account. You do NOT have 
to fill out any forms or pay 
anything up front to get your 
stimulus check, and there will 
be no fees or charges. The IRS 
will simply deposit the money 
into your account. You won’t 
be asked to give your Social 
Security number, bank account 
information or credit card 
number to anyone. Anyone 
calling or door knocking 
regarding your stimulus check 
is likely a criminal.

 There are currently no 
commercially available in-
home tests for COVID-19 
that consumers can purchase. 
Please do not trust anyone who 
contacts you to offer to test you 
at home, or to sell you an in-
home test. There is currently 
no approved vaccine, treatment 
or cure for COVID-19. Anyone 
attempting to sell you a vaccine, 
treatment or cure is attempting 
to scam you out of your money.

 Be particularly aware of emails, 
texts and calls claiming to be 
from health or government 
officials. These calls may 
be an attempt to sell you a 
bogus treatment, deceptive 
safety product, a fake cure, 
or a false test. They may also 
be attempting to obtain your 
credit or personal information. 
Emails may tempt consumers 
to click on links to receive 
information or updates that 
will install malware of various 
kinds on your computer.

 Anyone with information 
regarding a COVID-19 scam 
should call Pasadena Police 
Department at (626) 744-
4241. If you wish to remain 
anonymous, call Crime 
Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS 
(8477).


Playhouse Postpones and 
Cancels some Productions

 When Apollo 8 astronaut 
William Anders snapped 
the iconic Earthrise image 
(pictured), it captured the 
imagination of the people on 
Earth and helped to inspire the 
first Earth Day, on April 22, 
1970. In the image, our planet 
hangs at a gibbous phase, as 
a far-off world rising in the 
night sky, and reminds us of the 
fragility of our home.

 “We came all this way to 
explore the Moon, and the 
most important thing is that 
we discovered the Earth,” was 
how Anders summed up the 
astonishing sight.

 In honor of Earth Day, NASA’s 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory has 
created downloadable posters 
that celebrate this remarkable 
planet. 

Earth Phases

 Humanity has spent millennia 
studying the Moon and 
depicting its phases, but people 
often don’t realize that Earth 
has phases, too. 

 Our planet’s phases wax and 
wane — just as the Moon’s 
phases do — but in reverse 
order. Unlike the Moon, which 
always shows the same face 
to Earth, our planet spins 
noticeably on its axis every 
day. So someone on the Moon 
looking at Earth would observe 
its surface features change each 
day, as well as its phase. Shifting 
the perspective between planets 
and their moons, this poster 
captures those phases as they 
would be seen from the Moon, 
including the full Earth as it will 
actually appear on April 22.

Layers of Earth Science

 We live on a dynamic, living 
planet. Land shifts. Seas rise. 
Volcanoes erupt. Storms rage. 
Snow melts. Plants grow. Cities 
expand. These ever-changing 
systems are intertwined and 
affect all life on Earth, as well as 
the planet itself.

 To understand these natural 
and human-caused changes, 
NASA Earth Science research 
uses unique global observations 
from space, from the air, at sea 
and on land to study Earth’s 
interconnected systems. The 
Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission 
— a joint U.S.-European 
effort — will use two identical 
satellites to study how the 
planet’s climate is changing. The 
satellites, the first of which will 
launch in November 2020, will 
measure sea level rise, as well as 
the temperature and humidity 
of Earth’s atmosphere.

 Titled “Layers,” this poster 
shares the complex layers 
of Earth science that NASA 
studies. The poster can be 
viewed and downloaded at: 
go.nasa.gov/2wGGtPu.

 To honor the day’s 50th 
anniversary, NASA’s JPL 
has unveiled posters in 
which our home planet is 
the star.

 Pasadena Playhouse officials announced Friday that 
they are postponing the upcoming production of Ann, 
originally scheduled for May 27–June 28 (new dates to be 
determined), and have cancelled Annie Get Your Gun, 
originally scheduled July 28–August 21.

 As the State Theater of California, the health and safety of 
patrons, staff and artists continues to be the top priority of 
Pasadena Playhouse they said. 

 “The COVID-19 crisis is something we have never 
experienced in our lifetime, and its impact on the theater 
community has been significant. Pasadena Playhouse 
knows the importance of darkening its stage to do its part 
in flattening the curve and keeping the community safe. 

 The motto “the show must go on” has never been more 
poignant, and Pasadena Playhouse is committed to raising 
their curtain again when it is safe to do so. Members and 
ticket holders have all been contacted about this change.”


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