July 13, 2013 Meeting Summary

Agenda Items:
Preparation
Attendees
Meeting

Preparation

E-mail and phone reminders

Attendees

7 members

Meeting

Agenda Items:

The meeting began about 11:25 am

  • Water pipeline construction
    • Contractors to Pasadena Water and Power are installing a four mile pipeline called the Eastside Well Collector Pipeline.
    • The pipeline will take water from six groundwater wells on the eastside of Pasadena to the Jones Reservoir, which is located under Hamilton Park in Upper Hastings.  According to a report given to the City Council, the reason for doing this is:
      • Currently Pasadena disinfects its well water using chlorine and the disinfection has been done at each well site.  The water then goes directly into the Sunset Pressure Zone for distribution.  Well water accounts for as much as 40% of the water we use.
      • Meanwhile, the MWD (Metropolitan Water District), is using chloramines to disinfect the water it delivers.
      • However, when water disinfected with the two different agents is mixed together, the overall effectiveness of both chemicals is reduced.  That results in Pasadena having to add additional chlorine to overcome the chloramine.
      • The solution they’ve come up with is to convert Pasadena to using chloramine also, and to do it at a new central disinfection facility located at Jones Reservoir.
      • The new pipeline will therefore take the well water from each of the six wells and deliver it to Jones Reservoir for disinfection, mixing with MWD water, storage, and distribution.
      • In addition to the disinfection advantage, pumping it all through the reservoir provides more flexibility in how much is pumped and when.
    • The pipeline work:
      • Is supposed to take 6 months.
      • Is currently underway north of Foothill Blvd on Craig Ave and on Foothill Blvd between Vista Ave and Cook Ave.
      • Has been completed on Foothill west of Craig Ave.
      • Will go on Foothill Blvd from Greenwood Ave to Halstead Ave.
      • Will go south of Foothill on Halstead for 300 feet.
      • Will be on Sierra Madre Villa Ave from Foothill Blvd to Sierra Madre Blvd.
      • Will be on Sierra Madre Blvd for 2100 feet east from Sierra Madre Villa Ave.
    • In addition to the direct work on surrounding streets, the Pasadena Water and Power lot just north of the Goodrich power station is again being used by the contractors for construction storage.
      • The primary impact of this is the huge construction trucks going through our neighborhood to get there.  They are stored there overnight and carry dirt and debris as well as equipment back and forth during the day.
      • The construction trucks are supposed to use Alameda Street and Santa Paula Ave, but there is already an occasional stray to other streets.
      • They are supposed to use only the fenced in area of that lot and not extend their activities onto the parkland to the north.  They already dumped excavated materials there at least once and had to to be corrected.
      • Many, if not most, of us are hearing the super loud backup beeping noise of heavy equipment being used in that lot already at 6 am.  The primary culprit seems to be a bulldozer going back and forth moving piles of debris around.
      • Residents near Alameda St say trucks are also already moving on the street at 6 am.
      • Once again residents near there will be experiencing clouds of dust from the trucks crossing the Edison right of way on the dirt road.
      • Nearby residents say the gravel and dirt is not being swept up from the roads.
      • Trucks are knocking off street tree branches.  Observed near the intersection of Alameda and Santa Paula.
      • The gate to the area is open during the day for the trucks to come and go but is supposed to be closed and locked at night.
      • A letter has supposedly been sent by Pasadena Water and Power to residents of Alameda, Santa Paula, and Avocado.
    • If you observe contractor trucks speeding or other misbehavior, or have questions or comments, the Pasadena Water and Power contact is:  Principal Engineer Natalie Ouwersloot, [email protected], 626-744-4409.
  • Edison high tension wire activity
    • Subsequent to our meeting last month with City Engineer Dan Rix, he forwarded additional information about what they will be doing in the next couple of months.
    • The tower construction work is the replacement of an existing tower in the PCC parking area.  No other new towers are proposed within Pasadena.
    • Last information received is that stringing of the new high tension wires is expected to occur in August.  That will include shutting down Viña Vieja Park for about a week.
  • Dog licensing & Mandatory spay/neuter
    • Dog licenses
      • As of July 1, dog licensing is being handled by the Pasadena Humane Society under its contract with the City.  You will need to obtain dog licenses from the Humane Society instead of from City Hall.  Apparently during the transition, renewal notices that normally would have been sent out for June have been delayed.  They should be sent out in the next couple of weeks.
      • Although licensing paperwork will be done at the Pasadena Humane Society, City Hall’s Municipal Services Payment Office will have a drop box for payments.  The box will be checked and processed weekly.
      • The State of California requires dog licenses to be renewed annually, including proof of current rabies vaccination.
      • The current dog licensing fees are $16.07 for neutered/spayed dogs and $31.11 for unfixed dogs. (The fee for unfixed dogs is likely to more then double soon.  See below.)
      • For more dog licensing information, you can contact the Pasadena Humane Society at 626-792-7151 ext 115, or visit pasadenahumane.org/animal-control/pet-licenses/.
      • The Pasadena Humane Society will start door to door checks for proper dog licensing beginning in September.  This is also part of their new contract with the City.
      • There is not a licensing program for cats in the City of Pasadena.
    • Mandatory spay/neuter
      • At their meeting last Monday, the City Council instructed staff to prepare and return with an ordinance within 60 days that will require
        • All dogs and cats to be spayed or neutered by 4 months of age.  There will be some provisions to exempt dogs meeting certain criteria such as a “Competition Dog” that actively competes or is owned for breeding by “reputable” breeders.  Precise definitions still to be determined.  (The report does not mention any exemptions for cats.)
        • To raise the license fee for an unaltered dog to be $60 more then an altered dog.
      • The primary driver for these proposed changes seems to have started with a campaign by Councilmember Madison to ban “bully” breeds of dogs.  But state law forbids banning dogs by breed.  The Pasadena Humane Society recommended the spay/neuter requirement because it says that dogs are less likely to attack or fight if they have been spayed/neutered.
      • The Society also expects that the requirement will dramatically reduce the numbers of dogs and cats that are euthanized each year.
      • The Society is opening a new “low-cost” spay/neuter clinic by the end of this year which will provide increased capacity.
      • Here is the staff report to the City Council.
  • Local Crime Summary
    • For the last month, from crimemapping.com:
      • Nothing was reported in our neighborhood
      • There were multiple residential and vehicle burglaries in Upper Hastings, and several vehicle burglaries in the area immediately to our north.
      • Either there is a sudden outbreak of identity theft in Arcadia and around us, or they’ve just started to include it on crimemapping.  Aware of at least one instance in which a card number seems to have been stolen locally, likely in Arcadia.  It was put on a fake card and usage attempted, but blocked, at a Walmart in Texas.  Read your bank and card statements!  If your bank or card vendor supports it, use e-mail or text usage alerts so you don’t have to just hope a computer notices odd usage and/or wait for a monthly statement to discover fraud.
  • Report a crime online
    • The Pasadena Police Department now has an online crime reporting system you can use to submit a police report and print a copy.
    • You can report harassing phone calls, hit and run, lost property, theft, delayed traffic report, vandalism, vehicle burglary, and vehicle tampering.  Sometimes a form has to be filled out and mailed or delivered. Those forms can be downloaded from the website.
    • Only use this system if
      • It is not an emergency (call 911 for that)
      • The crime occurred within Pasadena City limits and Not on a State Freeway (the 210, 134, 110)
      • You do not have a suspect or something like a license plate number (If you do, but it’s not an emergency, call 626-744-4241)
    • www.cityofpasadena.net/Police/Report_A_Crime_Online
  • anything else attendees wish to discuss
    • Petition for permit parking near PCC
      • Fed up with being unable to park on his own street, the congested streets, and all the trash left behind by PCC students, Manuel reports he spoke to someone in the city’s Transportation Department regarding the ongoing problem of parking by PCC students and Kaiser employees.   The Kaiser problem should end after the new Kaiser parking is finished this year, but the PCC problem will continue.
      • Sometime soon residents in the area are supposed to receive a letter from the City asking whether they want to have a residential permit only parking zone.  This would be like the zones around the main campus of PCC and near Caltech that give residents permits so they can park on their streets but outsiders cannot.  Visitors need to get a parking pass hanger from the resident to use while parked at their home.
      • Not clear which street segments will be included.
      • This residential permit parking program seems to be the only way to address the problem other then banning parking for everybody.  It is unknown whether putting this program in place would also result in removing the time limits and no parking zones on the street segments that have them.
      • If you receive the letter and are not opposed to the program, you need to respond.  Non response equates to a no response.  And if you really want to see it happen, you need to talk to all your neighbors about it and encourage them to respond.  An insufficient response will indicate to city it isn’t a big issue and they will be unwilling to ask again anytime soon.
    • New street signs fixed
      • The incorrect new street signs for Avocado Lane were replaced the Monday immediately following our last meeting where it was brought to the attention of the City Engineer.
    • Proposed soccer field
      • Residents have been having more second thoughts about the soccer field proposal for Viña Vieja Park.
        • Why would this field have to be lighted?  Not all other parks have lights.  For example, Hamilton Park’s fields are not lighted.
          • Other members noted that because soccer is played in the fall/winter, without lights the field’s use would be extremely limited on weekdays because kid’s are in school and it gets dark so early.  Baseball, on the other hand, is mostly played during the spring and summer when the daylight lasts longer.
        • The traffic will be horrible.  And having only one entrance/exit will make it all the worse.
        • Inevitably, more people will discover the ability to park in our neighborhood and use our pedestrian entrance as an alternative to that parking zoo.  It won’t be any further walk then from the proposed additional parking to the south of the current park area.
        • Visitors driving to use the children’s play area or the shade structure are likely to be out-competed by the soccer people for the current parking spaces, resulting in a much longer walk to the new parking further south.
        • The hordes of soccer people will also attract other nuisances such as street cart vendors.
        • With the lighting, all the noise and traffic will go until at least 9 pm (depending on the agreed upon shut down).  This currently quiet, dark, peaceful area will be a zoo.
        • The outsider pedestrian traffic walking through our neighborhood from the south to use the pedestrian entrance is likely to greatly increase.
    • Bulldozer activity south of dog park to eliminate transient camps
      • In response to a query to the City Engineer at our last meeting, we have been told that the grading observed immediately south of the dog park in May and/or early June was done by Public Works “to mitigate the presence of transients in the area who were setting up tents and causing damage”.  The response also noted that the grading left a pile of sprinkler conduit that still needed to be removed.
    • Eaton Canyon waterfalls to be “disappeared”
      • In response to increasing numbers of rescues, injuries, and deaths of people trying to access the upper waterfall in Eaton Canyon, the board of the Eaton Canyon Nature Center and the U.S. Forest Service have decided on a number of measures to discourage or eliminate access to the entire canyon beyond the bridge including both waterfalls.
        • Elimination from maps.  The waterfalls will be removed from all maps, including the three dimensional map in the Eaton Canyon Nature Center.
        • Any literature, including any websites, brochures, hikes, discussions will be changed to alter any mention of their existence.
        • The Eaton Canyon Nature Center staff, docents, and volunteers are to respond to any question about the waterfalls by saying there are no waterfalls in the Eaton Canyon Natural Area.  Technically this is true because the waterfalls are in the National Forest.  If the questioner persists, they are to say there are several waterfalls in the forest and refer them to the Forest Service headquarters.
        • The Forest Service will be sending out a trail crew to eliminate all the trails into the canyon beyond the bridge.  According to the forest service, all the trails are “user created” and unofficial.
        • New warning signs will be placed at all entrances to the area that state there are no trails to the waterfalls and the area is unmaintained and dangerous. Memorial signs will be placed next to the warning signs that state the date, gender and age of the fatalities.
        • The Forest Service will be assessing whether there is a way to fence off the area, an “administrative closure for health and safety”.
        • On the four busiest weekends of the year, Fire and Police Explorers will be posted at all trail heads with flyers explaining the dangers of hiking off trail.
      • If you haven’t been to the canyon north of the bridge in recent years, it has become extremely popular.  Particularly in the warm months, the vast majority of visitors to Eaton Canyon appear to go to this relatively cool green area and not on the trail to Henniger or other hot, dry, dusty trails.

Next meeting is August 10, 11:15 am, at Hastings Branch Library

Adjourned about 12:45 pm