All Things HERMON. . . (8/24/08)

*** This coming Thursday, August 28, at 7 p.m. is the Hermon Safety Committee meeting in the Hermon Church Fellowship Center (5800 Monterey Road, off Wheeling Way). The Hermon Safety Committee is our community-wide neighborhood watch, and is open to all. At this meeting we’ll have our LAPD Senior Lead Officer John Pedroza with information and updates on the “Suicide Tribe” daredevil motorcycle riders around Hermon, as well as the gang-related shooting that occured August 16 on Avenue 60 — just across the bridge in Highland Park — and other community updates

Double Savers market applied for a beer and wine license last May, so Sgt. Marquez of LAPD Vice will be at this meeting to speak with us and hear from the community about our wishes regarding the market being granted (or denied) the license.

Then we’ll meet with Senior Lead Officer Javier Barragan of L.A. General Services Police. They patrol city parks, libraries, and other public buildings around the city. He’ll report on the safety of our Hermon Park.

Lastly, we’ll hear the Hermon Emergency Preparedness/Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) status report. This is a large, exciting and forward-thinking group of neighbors and we’re proud to have them be part of the Hermon Safety Committee and Hermon Advance Team.

See you all Thursday, 7 p.m.!

*** The Emergency Preparedness/CERT meeting last Tuesday, led by Mark Legassie, was full of good information. Margaret Vinci, Manager of Earthquake Programs at Caltech spoke on the Great Southern California Shake Out (Nov. 12 - 19, 2008), the largest earthquake drill in U.S. history. An 10 .m. on November 13, millions of Southern Californians will practice “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” to prepare for the inevitable part of our future. Practice is for a potential magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the San Andreas Fault.

In this scenario, shaking could last 2 to 3 minutes (wheras in 1994, the Northridge earthquake shook for 7 seconds). The drill is not to scare, but to prepare. You can look up more information and even register to help with www.ShakeOut.org

CERT Refresher: Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; registration starts at 7 a.m. Location: LAFD Fire Station 88, 5101 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91403. Hosted by the Los Angeles Fire Department; sign up at www.cert-la.com/refresher.htm The drill is open to all graduates of CERT training progams. Come practice and refresh the skills you learned during the basic CERT program course.

*** Last Thursday, our Historic-Cultural Monument application for the Hermon Car Wall went before the City’s Cultural Heritage Commission, asking that they take the property under consideration to determine if it is significant enough for further investigation.

The staff report summarized the possible monument: “Constructed in 1932-1940s and located in the Hermon area, this undulating retaining wall of varying height is a creative work of folk art. The structure is located on a section of Pullman Street in a hilly and vegetated setting. Materials used to construct the retaining wall include automobile parts, from engine crankcases to wooden spoke wheels, local bricks, and nonindigenous stones. The curved, central section is the highest portion of the wall and is topped with four wooden spoke wheels from the 1920s. Various engine and transmission parts from Model T’s and other early GM cars are embedded within the lower levels of the wall.

“The proposed Hermon Car Wall monument was built by Albert Emmanuel Sederquist . . . . over a period of ten years, serving to protect Sederquist’s property as well as celebrate the early years of ‘America’s love affair with the automobile’.

“Roots, erosion, and deterioration have damaged some of the lower parts of the wall, causing some of the artifacts to come loose. Most of the ejected parts have been stored by neighbors.”

Yay! The findings were that the property (only the third folk art application in city history) is significant enough to warrant further investigation as a potential L.A. Historic Cultural Monument. One hurdle crossed. Bravo, and thanks to Charlie Fisher for his work on the project and to the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council for their funding of Charlie’s research work.

*** You may have driven by or used the Hermon Dog Park and noticed that we now have two new beautiful Sycamore trees inside the large dog area for more needed shade. Huge thanks go to the L.A. Dept. of Recreation & Parks for procurring and plating the new trees for us.

Soon, the Friends of Hermon Dog Park will purchase and have planted an additional two trees to provide even more shade in that part of the large dog area, making our dog park even more “park” like.

*** Save the date! Thursday, September 11, 2008, at 7 p.m., Monterey Adult Day Health Care Center, is our next Hermon Local Issues meeting of the City-certified Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council. More to come of what’s on the agenda.

*** And this, from one of our neighbors in Hermon: “There is a woman, probably 50 to 55 years old, who came to my home with an envelope and a photo taped to it of her niece, who had recently passed away. She was collecting donations for her funeral. Funny thing is I had seen her several years ago, twice before, at other people’s homes, and the only thing that had changed was how the niece had died. The woman dresses like a guy, has shoulder-length gray hair, and is about 120 lbs. I just want the community to be aware,” explained this Hermon neighbor.

*** Coming soon! Hermon Clean Team, Saturday, Sept. 6, 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Meet the other team members by Monterey Donuts at 5930 Monterey Road (in the Monterey Plaza). We’ll enjoy some yummy donuts and then set about to work off those calories carrying huge bags supplied by the City, which we fill with trash from our main traffic corridors and bridges. Please join us!

It’s all good . . . in Hermon
Where quirky works,
Families return,
And dogs smile all night long

Wendi

Hermon EP Cmte Status Report – Aug 08
==================================
From April 29 through June 10th, 30 students from Hermon and surrounding communities attended a 7-week CERT training class taught by the LA Fire Department’s Disaster Preparedness Unit. This course teaches laymen how to take care of themselves and local community members after a major disaster. Of those 30 students , 20 graduated with most of the remainder are only missing 1-2 classes.

A Hermon Emergency Preparedness meetring was held on Tue 8/19 at the Fellowship Hall. A medical triage drill was conducted using scenarious from our recent CERT class. Also Margaret Vinci from the Caltech Office of Earthquake programs spoke on how Hermon can get involved with the Great Shakeout in November 08. See www.shakeout.org for more info. On Wed 8/20 a successful emergency radio drill was conducted in Hermon using FRS and ham radios. This monthly drill is open to all residents and is a good chance to practice using your FRS radio. The next drill will be held on Wed Sep 24th, so mark your calendars. No experience necessary!

Future Emergency Preparedness meetings will be integrated into the quarterly Hermon Safety Cmte meetings. No more individual EP meetings will be held unless needed. CERT committee meetings, including Logistics, Planning, and Operations, will replace the normal EP meetings and will move to Wed eve.

The Hermon EP Cmte has generated two cornerstone documents – our local Emergency Response Plan, and a Disaster Communications Manual. Hard copies are available tonight at the info table, or availabe by calling Mark at 323.823.3046 or emailing mark@legassie.com. Please take a copy on your way out.

On Tue Sep 9 at 7pm a CERT medical practice drill will be held in Silver Lake at 650 Micheltorena St at the Russian Orthodox Church Meeting Hall. This drill will cover head-to-toe assessments which are conducted after initial disaster triage. Carpooling from Hermon will be provided. No experience necessary — only a willingness to learn!

On Sat Oct 18 am, (exact time TBD), a realistic, hands-on drill will be held solidifying skills learned from the Sep 9th practice drill mentioned above. Sponsored by the LAFD, this drill will be held at the Memorial Training Ctr, 1700 N Stadium Way, LA 90012. We will have carpooling from the Hermon Church parking lot.

For questions on any of the above activities please contact Mark at 323.823.3046 or email mark@legassie.com.

All Things HERMON. . . (8/16/08)

*** A message from the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition:

“Help keep L.A’s. first museum in our community! Monday, August 18, at 10 a.m., City Hall, Room 1020. Autry’s project to relocate the Southwest Museum to Griffith Park will have a critical hearing before the City Planning Dept. We need everyone! IT’S NOW OR NEVER. People in numbers, people expressing outrage and concern for the removal of the City’s first museum. YOU MUST ARRIVE EARLY; Autry’s lobbyists are busing people in!”

*** What if you were involved with triage after a major disaster and stumbled onto a 25-year-old female 8-months pregnant and in active labor? Knowing she has a respiration of 28 breaths/minute, has a blanch test of <2 seconds on her fingertip and she can follow simple commands, would you tag her as requiring IMMEDIATE care, DELAYED care, OR MINOR?

Believe it or not, this woman would be marked as needing delayed care since she is not in immediate danger of dying!

If you’re interested in learning more about disaster triage and other scenarios such as these, the Hermon Emergency Preparedness Committee and Hermon Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) will be sponsoring a mini-triage drill, as well as an FRS radio practice drill, on Tuesday Aug 19 at 6:45 p.m. at the Hermon Church Fellowship Center, 5800 Monterey Road, L.A., 90042. The drill will include volunteer victims and local rescuers attempting to perform basic triage and immediate care for shock and bleeding. (Note: If you are a CERT graduate and want to participate in the drill, please bring your CERT helmet/vest to the meeting as well as your FRS radio — we’ll use them during the drill. Hermon Neighborhood Captains — please bring your captain’s kit so the CERT forms can be replaced with more recent versions from our CERT manual. Anyone wishing to participate, please bring a small flashlight, paper and pen). Members from the L.A. Fire Department will be present to help. You do NOT have to be a CERT graduate to participate — only be willing to learn!

Also included is a special presentation by Margaret Vinci, Manager of Earthquake Programs at Caltech, on how we can participate in the November Shakeout exercise (www.shakeout.org).

The optional 10-minute FRS radio drill will include practicing how to use your personal radio to communicate with other local residents in a disaster. During the recent small Chino Hills quake many cell phones were down for over an hour — expect much longer outages after a large quake. That’s why it’s important to have alternate communication capabilities.

Don’t own an FRS radio? You can purchase one at our drill at our cost of $15 (including batteries).

*** Check out a story on the Hermon Community in the Los Angeles Times’ Home Section, Saturday, August 16. They tease the story on page F4 with the first paragraph and a photo of one of our picturesque local cottage homes, then continue it as a “Web exclusive” full story in the weekly “Neighborly Advice” section at: www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-guide16-2008aug16,0,3991927.story

*** Have ideas on how to beautify our neighborhood? Concerned about noise or air pollution in the community? The Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council (ASNC) Committee on the
Environment wants to hear from you! We are holding our next meeting on Wednesday, August 20, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Cycleway Cafe, 5526 Monterey Road (at Redfield).

For questions, contact Marybelle Ang, ASNC At-Large Representative for the Environment, at environmentASNC@gmail.com.

*** The Mayor’s Water Conservation Ordinance goes into effect Sunday, August 24 and limits outside watering to before 9 a.m. and after 4 p.m. There is a 15-minute watering limit per sprinkler head. Water cannot be used to wash down driveways or sidewalks, or there could be a fine of $100. And now, when you’re at restaurants in Los Angeles, you’ll also have to ask for water; it won’t be automatically served to you.

*** Within the last two weeks, a young man approached a senior citizen past the Monterey Pass in the 3800 block of Monterey Road, about getting inside his house for a water sample. He said he was with Clark Construction and that the water had been contaminated from their building site. The young man was described as handsome and a very convincing smooth talker. Fortunately, the senior didn’t let him in the house. After the young man lefrt, the senior drove around the neighborhood to find the construction site, but there was none. The last incident that took place almost identical to this one was in mid-February. Then he claimed that he was doing construction around Ernest Debs Park and wanted to know if the indoor water was contaminated. Both times the young man didn’t wear a uniform or carry any equipment with him. Please be alert to this person and don’t let him into your home. Police reports have been made.

*** Senior Lead Officer John Pedroza needs to know if we are still seeing any gang activity in Hermon Park. If not, they want to use the extra resources that have been used in our park elsewhere. You can let him know annonimously by phone at 213.793.0748 or by email at 23514@LAPD.LAcity.org

*** Our next Hermon Safety Committee meeting is Thursday, August 28, 7 p.m. at the Hermon Church Fellowship Center, 5800 Monterey Road (at Wheeling Way). LAPD Senior Lead Officer John Pedroza will be with us and we’ll meet Senior Lead Officer Javier Barragan of L.A. General Services Police (the agency that provides security services for city buildings and local parks — such as Hermon Park). We’ll also be discussing the beer and wine license application that local supermarket “Double Savers” has applied for. Please join us for that important meeting.

*** The Friends of Hermon Dog Park, along with generous co-sponsors Councilmember Jose Huizar and the ASNC, held the fun dog-centered “Dog Days of Summer” in mid-July around the Hermon Dog Park and it was a “howling” success. (You may have seen the gigantic inflated dog at the park entry inviting people to the festival. If not check out the photos of it, the events, and many of the hundreds of attendees at: www.HermonDogPark.com). Then read what Councilmember Huizar posted on his blog about the day’s events, here: http://lacityorgcd14.blogspot.com/2008/07/hermon-dog-park-dog-days-of-summer.html

It’s all good in Hermon. . .
Where quirky works,
Families return,
And dogs smile all night long

Wendi

All Things HERMON. . . (7/29/08)

*** On Saturday, July 12, eight Hermon CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) members joined in a Los Angeles Fire Department simulated medical disaster drill organized by the Silverlake Neighborhood Council.  The drill involved participants splitting into groups of three (the triage responder, the scribe, and a Family Radio Service operator).  More than 20 “victims” in full make-up with fake blood etc., acted their parts.  It was the team’s job to triage, or identify, who was either immediate, delayed, minor, or dead, and then give them the appropriate care.

Many thanks go to LAFD’s Captain Gerlich and Chief Malais who provided most of the infrastructure for this event.  See attached pictures.

*** Nearby neighbors on Monterey Road gave me a jar of homemade apricot jam from their new trees and wrote me this intriguing and informative letter.  Here are some excerpts:

“Hermon at one time was the home of spacious sheep ranchers. . . we did find a couple of 100-year-old bells when we dug the backyard hole for our pool.  Since we probably can’t fully return to our roots, here’s a proven idea: help establish Hermon as the Apricot Capital of Southern California (or at least Los Angeles)!

“We have discovered, much to our delight, that somehow, the conditions here are perfect to grow the tastiest fruit in the world.  Our seven trees are rooted in very average soil, they get little sun, lots of soot, and plenty of wind; yet, they are hearty and productive.  The fruit we harvested in the past week would fill a Volvo, including the trunk and glove compartment.

“If everyone was encouraged to grow cots (ours, by the way, are far more flavorful than those from Little Rock or even Fresno), we would be the envy of our neighboring communities. . .

“The beautiful apricot leaves would add oxygen to Northeast LA and provide windbreakes; they could eliminate confusing landscape choices; they would provide bird food (the un-netted portions); and they will reduce our carbon footprint while producing a marketable and very edible product.  So, why not?

“Let’s encourage everyone to plant their open lawn spaces and replace their junipers and pines with the fruit made famous by the itinerant traveler, Johnny Apricot Seed.  By the way, we have hundreds of pits for those neighbors wanting to start from scratch.

“We will be the consultants if you will be the mouthpiece; if this idea sounds too far fetched, forget it and sit back with a piece of toast and jam [the most delicious apricot jam I have ever tasted] and salute fertile Hermon!”

So, let me know, Hermon!

*** And just around the corner, another Hermon family sends this:

Jewish Learning for Children, Ages 7-8-9

Explore holidays, history, stories, music, values, literature, tzedakah, basic Hebrew, and all things Jewish in a vibrant interactive learning community designed to be engaging and fun for both children and parents, with activities, projects, discussions and field trips, eventually leading to Bar/Bat Mitzvah.

Sundays (once or twice a month); now forming - first time is free.

Local to Eagle Rock, Mt. Washington, Highland Park, Hermon, South Pasadena, and surrounding communities, Temple Beth Israel is a little known gem - a small, warm, exceedingly friendly, inclusive, egalitarian, historic synagogue with roots in Conservative Jewish tradition.

Temple Beth Israel is located at 5711 Monte Vista Street in Highland Park (Two blocks west of Figueroa at Avenue 57).  For more information: (323) 255-5416 or www.tbila.org

And, anyone is welcome to participate.

*** Check out Los Angeles International Charter High School’s new website www.LAIcharter.org

*** This crime report comes from Captain Blake Chow, Commanding Officer of our LAPD Hollenbeck area:

Violent Crime: Down 15 percent, year to date
Homicides down 61 percent, year to date; 9 versus 23
Robbery down 28 percent, year to date
Aggravated assaults down 6 percent

Violent crime is down 28 percent from 2006 vs. 2008

Property Crime: Down 3 percent, year to date
Burglary is down 6 percent, year to date
Grand theft auto is up 5 percent, year to date

Total Violent and Property Crime is down 6.1 percent, year to date, and down 15 percent from 2006

Arrests continue to be up 20 percent, year to date, and up 30 percent from 2006.

*** You can enjoy free music in an historic setting at Concerts at the Square.  This Thursday,  July 31, you can step out of your car or get off the Metro Gold Line on your way home from work for a relaxing evening of live music in the historic atmosphere of Heritage Square Museum.  This is a free event with free transportation from the Gold Line provided by Budget Rent-a-Car.

Doors open at 4 p.m. with music beginning at 5 p.m.  Arrive early at the museum to see the architecture up close.  Visitors will have a chance to try local food and drink, and shop in the museum store.

Thursday’s music begins with Groove Session, who won the best jazz category from the 2007 Inland Empire Music Awards.  The group has been called a “soul-filled genre fused with space funk odyssey.”  Following is the Susie Hansen Latin Band.  A long-time favorite in Los Angeles, Susie and her band have played at such events as the Playboy Jazz Festival, Fiesta Broadway, San Jose Jazz Festival, LA Salsa Festival and Newport Beach Jazz Festival.

Heritage Square is a living history museum dedicated to telling the story of the development of  Los Angeles.  At the museum, eight historic structures, saved from demolition and moved to the site, provide a glimpse of Southern California as it looked 100 years ago.  The Museum is located at 3800 Homer Street, off the Arroyo Seco Parkway (110/Pasadena Frwy) at Avenue 43, just south of Hermon.  For further information visit their website at: http://www.heritagesquare.org/calendar_of_events.htm

*** This Saturday, August 2, is Hermon’s monthly Clean Team — beginning at 8 a.m. and going ’til 9:30 a.m., meeting by Monterey Donuts in the Monterey Plaza.  We’ll fortify ourselves with Lee’s delicious donuts, then arm ourselves with huge bags and protective gloves, and clean the main street parkways and bridges.  Join us!  We need your help, because the more help we get, the more we can get done.  See you there!

*** Have hazardous and/or electronic waste to get rid of and you don’t know how?  The county has a permanent Los Angeles/Glendale location at 4600 Colorado Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90039.  Its hours are Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and its services are FREE.  For more information call 1(800) 98 TOXIC or 1 (888) CLEAN LA.

It’s all good in Hermon. . .
Where quirky works,
Families return,
And dogs smile all night long

Wendi

1st Quarterly  Emergency Radio Drill – Aug 20 @ 7:30pm
===============================================

Cell phones and land lines will most likely not be available after a disaster.   As a result, Hermon’s Emergency Response Plan includes the use of battery-powered FRS radios to communicate between the Hermon Command Post  and the surrounding community(ies).  A radio operator at the Command Post (meeting area at Via Marasol /Lomitas) will be listening and recording all important communications and help requests.

Hermon’s very first quarterly radio drill will be conducted on Wed, Aug 20 @ 7:30pm.  If you own an Family Radio Service (FRS) radio or ham radio, we encourage you to test your radio and practice your skills by participating in this drill from the comforts of your home. We also encourage FRS and ham radio owners from other surrounding neighborhoods (Monterey Hills, Montecito Hgts, Mt. Washington, Sycamore Grove, Highland Park)  to check-in.   Directions on how to check-in will be provided in a future email.

You can listen to this “radio net” (network) by tuning your FRS radio to Channel 12, Privacy Code 12) on Wed, Aug 20 @ 7:30pm.  You can also listen in and respond via ham radio simplex channel 146.550 MHz .  You are highly encouraged to participate by checking in on FRS Channel 12 when your  Hermon zone or surrounding neighborhood (Monterey Hills, HP, El Sereno, etc) is called.  Forgot your Hermon neighborhood zone?  See attached map.

Many already own an FRS radio (available at Target and most retail stores).  Don’t own an FRS radio?  You can purchase one at our meeting the night before this drill at a cost of $15  (including batteries). These particular brands have been tried and tested throughout the Hermon community and work from all neighborhood zones (historic trailer park may require relay through Zone 1).

Finally, if you have a ham radio license, during a major disaster Hermon will also be scanning and monitoring the following emergency ham radio frequencies:

LAFD CERT 1  (ACS repeater):   147.300 + PL 110.9
LAFD CERT 2  (ACS repeater):  224.680 - PL 114.8
Hermon Simplex 1: 146.550 MHz
Hermon Simplex 2:  447.800 MHz

HERMON TRIAGE DRILL, 8/19 @ 7:00pm
==================================

What if you are involved with triage after a major disaster and stumble upon  a 25-year-old female 8 months pregnant and in active labor?  Knowing she has a respiration of 28 breaths/minute, has a blanch test of <2 seconds on her fingertip and she can follow simple commands, would you tag her as requiring IMMEDIATE care, DELAYED care, OR MINOR?

Believe it or not, this woman would be marked as needing delayed care since she is not in immediate danger of dying!

If you’re interested in learning more about disaster triage and other scenarios such as these,  the Hermon Emergency Preparedness Committee and Hermon CERT Team will be sponsoring a mini-triage drill, as well as an FRS radio practice drill, on Tuesday Aug 19 at 7:00pm at the Hermon Fellowship Hall (5800 Monterey Rd, Hermon CA 90042).  The drill will include volunteer victims and local rescuers attempting to perform basic triage and immediate care for shock and bleeding.  (Note:  Please bring a small flashlight, paper and pen if you’d like to participate).  Members from the LAFD will be present to help.  You do not have to be a CERT graduate to participate — only a willingness to learn!

Also included is a special presentation by Margaret Vinci, Manager of Earthquake Programs at Caltech, on how we can participate in the November Shakeout exercise (www.shakeout.org).

The optional 10-minute FRS radio drill will include practicing how to use your personal radio to communicate with other local residents in a disaster.  During the recent small Chino Hills quake many cell-phones were down for over an hour — expect much longer outages after a large quake.  That’s why it’s important to have alternate communication capabilities.

Don’t own an FRS radio?  You can purchase one at our drill at our cost of $15  (including batteries).  The Hermon Emergency Preparedness Committee has an Emergency Response Plan which includes the use of these radios (see end of email).

Recent CERT training flushed out flaws in our previous Hermon Response Plan, including presumed coverage of all 9 zones, and no plan for zone coverage when captains/assts not available.

As a result of this CERT training, the Hermon Response Plan has been updated and is included below. To summarize, all CERT rescuers should first congregate at the community meeting area to wait for assignment. Please read the detailed changes below and make note of them for future reference.

Hermon Emergency Preparedness Committee
——————————————————–

HERMON RESPONSE PLAN (updated 7/08)

In case of disaster, residents should:

1.Take care of yourself, your family, home, and neighbors

2.If safe, proceed to the Hermon meeting area (Lomitas & Via Marasol ballfield, LACHS)
- If CERT member, please make damage assessments along the way that would be helpful for CERT’s Incident Command (IC) decision-making
- Wear CERT helmet/vest & bring any S&R, triage supplies
- ALL ASNC residents welcome to stay at community mtg area

3.First CERT member at the meeting area is the initial Incident Commander for the response. As other CERT members arrive, leadership may be passed to someone more qualified.

4.IC formulates prioritized Action Plan and sends out S&R teams to hardest-hit zones first, updates LAFD via ham radio (ACS)

All residents with FRS radios should attempt to contact IC via Channel 12, Privacy Channel 12 with emergencies & status.

On Saturday, July 12th, the Hermon Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) participated in a LAFD simulated medical operations disaster drill organized by the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council (SLNC). 8 Hermon CERT members and approximately 10 Silver Lake CERT personnel participated in this drill held at the LAFD training center at 1700 Stadium Way.

CERT rescuers were broken down into teams of 3 (triage responder, scribe, and FRS radio operator). The training center was very large which allowed for realistic out-of-sight communications activities.

This drill involved over 20 “moulage” victims — full make-up (fake blood ,etc) — acting their parts. Some were hyperventilating, unconscious, hysterical, etc, and our job was to triage and identify who is IMMEDIATE, DELAYED, MINOR or DEAD. We performed rapid treatment for IMMEDIATES (ie. raising legs for shock victims, etc).

Many thanks to LAFD’s Captain Gerlich and Chief Malais, who both are staunch supporters of CERT and who provided most of the infrastructure and support for this event. Also many thanks to the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council who organized this event.

For questions on how you can become involved with the Hermon CERT Team please contact Mark

Don’t get caught uninformed before the next disaster strikes. The Hermon Emergency Preparedness Committee will be conducting an important community meeting on Tue, Jul 15 from 7:30-8:30pm at the Hermon Fellowship Hall, 5800 Monterey Rd (entrance on Wheeling Way).

In addition to learning what our ASNC community will do in the event of a disaster (and what your community can do), we’ll be sampling some MREs at our first MRE Dinner Party! Our special guest speaker will be Margaret Vinci (Caltech Office of Earthquake Programs), who will tell us how we can get involved with the Great Southern California Shakeout earthquake drill in November 08!

Agenda
=======
1) Revised Hermon Emergency Response Plan (updated as a result of recent CERT training)
2) Personal Emergency Preparedness info
3) Formation of new EP Working Groups (Logistics, Planning/Intelligence, Operations)
4) Upcoming Drills & Quarterly Division Training schedule
5) Guest Speaker: Margaret Vinci (Nov 08 earthquake drill)
6) MRE Dinner Party

You don’t need CERT training to attend this meeting — all residents are encouraged to attend. Hope to see you there! For more information contact Mark at 323.823.3046 or mark@legassie.com.

All Things HERMON. . . (7/02/08)

*** This Saturday is the first Saturday of the month and that means “Clean Team”! We’ll meet you at 8 a.m. by Monterey Donuts in the Monterey Plaza for some of Lee’s great donuts and then we’re off to clean-up Hermon’s parkways, median, and bridges. Join us — we’re starting while it’s cool at 8 a.m. and we’re done by 9:30 a.m. The more volunteers, the more we get done!

*** The next Hermon Local Issues meeting of the Arroyo Seco Neighorhood Council will be Thursday, July 10, 7 p.m., at the Monterey Adult Day Health Care Center (5926 Monterey Road at Avenue 60). This time, folks from Monterey Hills will be joining us in a combined local issues meeting of two neighboring ASNC communities, because one of the topics to be discussed has to do with Betheseda Christian University, the new owners of the hillside campus here, and their “change of use” plans discussed earlier in “All Things HERMON” for a satellite campus of their Anaheim-based school.

We’ve invited our neighboring community, as we did once before when the program included plans for this property located on the eastern edge of Hermon, because it’s borders Monterey Hills as well. BCU’s immediate plans include landscaping, refurbishing of buildings, and adding 180 parking stalls at Via Marisol and Lomitas. University representatives and their architect have been invited to share their plans, and the City’s Planning Department will allow us to provide written public input on the plans up until July 16, 2008.

Other issues planned for discussion at Thursday’s meeting are public opinion surveys, with Christy Zamani — who has been leading our recent “20-year Plan” discussions about how we see Hermon — and, as always, bring your issues, ideas, and concerns for our community and especially how City services affect us.

*** Don’t miss the next Hermon Emergency Preparedness meeting on Tue, July 15. There will be an interesting and informative speaker talking about the largest earthquake drill in U.S history. The meeting will be held at the Hermon Fellowship Hall, 5800 Monterey Road (at Wheeling Way), starting at 7:30 p.m. sharp.

Margaret Vinci, manager of the Office of Earthquake Programs at California Institute of Technology, will be the distinguished speaker. Her 30-minute presentation, entitled “Great Southern California ShakeOut: Earthquake Scenario” will detail this important event being held November 12-16, 2008, and will show us how we can get involved in the drill simulating a 7.8 mag eartquake on Thursday, November at 10 a.m. — regardless if we’re at home or at work. The purpose of this drill is to get ready for big earthquakes, and to prevent disasters from becoming catastrophes.

To find out more info about this event go to www.shakeout.org. The Hermon Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is already registered to participate as a community organization.

*** Keep holding July 19 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. for the “Dog Days of Summer” at the Hermon Dog Park, 5568 Via Marisol, L.A. 90042 (at the end of the driveway walk under the bridge and you’re there!) Admission is free and there’ll be dog and cat adoptions, a Puppy Party, dog agility demonstrations, booths of cool pet services and supplies, fundraising raffles for the Friends of Hermon Dog Park (FHDP), and Vet Care with services like low cost vaccines, medications and doggie check-ups.

This event is sponsoreed by the FHDP (www.HermonDogPark.com), Councilmember Jose Huizar (www.lacity.org/council/cd14/), the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council (www.asnc.us), and Indie Printing (www.indieprinting.com).

*** A neighbor in the south part of Hermon says she would like to get the word out about two African-American males in their late teens or early 20s seen attempting to break into homes. They have also tried to sell marijuana to people in Hermon. Another neighbor near Kendall Avenue and Monterey Road was going to be their next break-in victim, but luckily, her sons were home and scared them off.

It’s a good reminder to keep an eye out of what’s going on around us and then report it to the police’s 24/7 non-emergency number — 1-877-ASK-LAPD, (unless a crime is underway, then call 911).

Another problem we’re hearing a lot about here (but LAPD Senior Lead Officer John Pedroza isn’t getting enough direct reports about) are the rogue young motorcycle riders (usually without helmets) that are racing up and down Hermon’s streets. We need a plan and here it is from SLO Pedroza. When we hear them on our street (even if it’s everyday) we are to call the LAPD 24/7 non-emergency number 1-877-ASK-LAPD and report that bikers are loudly racing down our streets without helmets. Give the time and where they are riding. THEN, call SLO Pedroza at 213-793-0748 and tell him when and where the bikers are riding. The more reports the police have, the more they can help us.

*** And this from Councilmember Huizar:

Dear Neighbor,

For more than a year, many of you have participated in public meetings and workshops held by the Planning Department to provide input on issues related to the appropriate scales of development in the hillsides throughout Northeast Los Angeles. These included a recent series of small group workshops held in April at the CD14 Constituent Center in El Sereno and a number of others. Thanks for your participation.

The Planning Department has put their materials for the Northeast LA Hillsides Ordinance on their website. The direct link is:
http://planning.lacity.org/code_studies/NELA/Toc_NELA.htm

As your Councilmember, protecting hillsides and sensitive natural resources is of great importance to me. I strongly supported the NELA Hillside Interim Control Ordinance (ICO), which led to the Hillsides Work Program, intended to better control development in environmentally sensitive areas.

The purpose of the Hillside ICO was not to prohibit private development, but rather to determine how the hillsides could best serve the public and be developed safely and legally, if developed.

For further information on this issue, please do not hesitate to contact Edel Vizcarra on my staff at (213) 473-7014 or by e-mail at Edel.Vizcarra@lacity.org .

It’s all good in Hermon. . .
Where quirky works,
Families return,
And dogs smile all night long

Wendi