Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, October 31, 2020

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Mountain Views-News Saturday, October 31, 2020 

City of Sierra Madre

PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE

From: The City of Sierra Madre

Subject: Public Hearing: Fiscal Year 2019-2020 AB 1600 Annual Development Impact Fee Activity Report



Notice is hereby given that on November 10, 2019, at 6:30 PM, or soon thereafter, the Sierra Madre City Council will conduct 
a Public Hearing, to hear testimony on the 2019-2020 Use of Facilities Fees for eligible Capital Projects:

The projects were as follows:

 General Government

 City Hall ADA Restrooms

 City Council Chamber Upgrade (partial)

 Transportation

State Mandated Traffic Study (partial)

 Water & Sewer

City Yard Office Expansion 

 Automated Meter Project Replacement Project

DATE AND TIME OF HEARING

City of Sierra Madre City Council meeting; Tuesday, November 10, 2020 (Hearing begins at 6:30 p.m. or shortly thereafter). 
All interested persons may attend this meeting and the City Council will hear them with respect thereto. 

PLACE OF HEARING

This meeting will be conducted utilizing teleconference communications and will be recorded for live streaming. In accordance 
with the State of California Executive Order N-29-20 dated March 17, 2020, all City of Sierra Madre public meetings will be 
solely available via live streaming and made available on the City’s official website.

 Watch the meeting on Channel 3 (Government Access Channel) or live on the City's website at 
www.cityofsierramadre.com Email public comments to: publiccomment@cityofsierramadre.com by 6:00 PM on the day of the meeting.

 Requests for verbal public comment must include name, phone number, and agenda item number and must be e- 
mailed to above email address by 6 PM on the day of the meeting. 

 To participate in public comment please call: (669) 900-9128; Meeting I.D: 626-232-0232; Password: 232242

WALKING SIERRA MADRE - The Social Side 

by Deanne Davis


“Anyone could see that 
the wind was a special 
wind this night, and 
the darkness took on a 
special feel because it 
was All Hallows Eve.” 
Ray Bradbury

“Believe nothing you 
hear, and only one half 
of what you see.” Edgar 
Allan Poe

“I would like, if I 
may, to take you on a 
strange journey.” The 
Criminologist,

Rocky Horror Show

Halloween is upon us, 
in fact, this very night, 
witches may fly past 
the moon, zombies 
may be hiding behind 
a fence, beneath a 
tree, outside your 
door. Dare to walk 
alone on Halloween 
night and you may 
never be seen again. 
Those pumpkins that 
decorate porches 
and walls, with their 
happy faces, grotesque 
faces, scary faces are 
not always what they seem

Come with me to the Pumpkin Patch. An acre dotted with corn stalks and scarecrows 
and pumpkins, more pumpkins than you were expecting. Enormous pumpkins, flat ones, 
round ones, tall skinny ones; some misshapen, some with strange lumps and bumps, some 
with scars and some so little they are passed over again and again. “Not that one, Daddy! 
It’s too small. I want a really big one! I want that one…or that one…not that one, that one’s 
ugly!” For a pumpkin, whose entire life has been dedicated to growing into a carve-worthy 
orange globe, this is hurtful, degrading, and can bring a pumpkin to thoughts of revenge. 

The packet of Atlantic Giant Pumpkin Seeds from Burpee arrived at the Pumpkin Patch 
in a somewhat damaged condition. There were heavy, dark tire tracks over the face of it 
and minute holes where it had been ground into the ground. It had been rained on, left 
out in the sun and, in short, was not a beautiful thing. The owner of the Pumpkin Patch, 
however, having paid $2.99 for it wasn’t about to toss it out. Upon further inspection of 
the actual seeds, he discovered some were cracked, tiny pieces missing. “What the heck,” 
he thought, “I might as well go ahead and plant them, they’ll probably grow…maybe.”

And plant them, he did. But in a far corner of the Patch, not out in the rows where 
he put the rest of his seeds. It was late May and an unexpected rain thoroughly 
drenched the Pumpkin Patch. “This is great,” the farmer thought, “water these 
seeds in and give them a good start. These babies will be enormous by September.” 
The rains came, the owner fertilized and the pumpkin seeds sprouted and put out 
miles of bright green runners. Blossoms formed and turned into small orange balls. 

Everywhere except there in the corner of the Pumpkin Patch where the broken, 
cracked seeds had been planted. There the vines were thicker, stronger and stretched 
out in every direction, seething with dark green life. Quite frankly, that corner 
area made the owner just a little uneasy. There seemed something unpleasantly 
unusual about those vines. The word, “sinister” came to mind. Ridiculous! He 
thought. They’re pumpkins. That’s all, just plain old pumpkins. But were they? 

July came and went, and the pumpkins out in the middle of the field grew fat, 
bursting with orange life. August arrived and the pumpkins grew to such gigantic 
sizes that the owner visualized pictures of himself in the newspaper standing next to 
a pumpkin – his pumpkin - that weighed more than the heaviest pumpkin in North 
America “Tiger King” grown by Travis Gienger and weighing in at 2,350 pounds. 

September sauntered in and several of the pumpkins would need super forklifts to 
move them. The owner was delighted. Meanwhile, over in the damaged seed corner, 
the pumpkins were strangely dark, oddly shaped and not nearly as large as the beautiful 
orange ones. A really good pumpkin should look exactly like Cinderella’s fairy-tale 
carriage, perfectly round and bright orange. The damaged seed pumpkins were more 
Amber, Spice, Clay, Rust and Bronze than orange and tended to be anything but round. 

October at last! The owner put ads in the newspaper and banners at the entrance to the Pumpkin 
Patch. The Pumpkin Patch would open on Saturday, October 3rd! Come one! Come All! 

Friday night, October 2nd, the owner walked through his beautiful Patch one last time 
to be sure all was in readiness for the hordes of pumpkin seekers who would arrive in 
the morning. And then he went to bed and dreamt hectic dreams of large bank deposits.

Saturday dawned. The owner arose early, enjoyed a cup of Pumpkin Spice coffee with a 
pumpkin bagel and went out to survey his pumpkin kingdom. He was aghast! All his beautiful, 
enormous orange pumpkins were smashed, squashed, squished…their innards spilled out 
on the ground. Strangely, the damaged seed pumpkins had migrated to the center of the field, 
squatting triumphantly amidst the carnage, many of them marked with traces of pumpkin 
innards and seeds. These pumpkins were sated, stuffed with the flesh of all the highly 
favored orange pumpkins. They had grown huge, their dark green leaves and vines coiled 
about their carnivorous, cannibalistic nutmeg and cinnamon colored – dare I say it? Bodies?

“Pumpkins may seem benign, with their smiling jack-o-lantern faces,

but what horror may lie inside their hollow shells.”



Wherever you celebrate Halloween I hope you have fun, laugh a lot, and do everything 
you can to stay well. Most of all, I hope you end up with a few little boxes of Dots. Happy 
Halloween! Watch out for pumpkins and don’t forget to vote!

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Where you’ll find “Sunrises and Sunflowers Speak Hope”

And “A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter”

Both of these books are stuffed with hope and a good recipe or two.

All five of the Emma Gainsworth adventures are available on Amazon.com

They’re guaranteed to make you laugh and want to see what Emma does next.

You can follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/@playwrightdd


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M
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