The Greg Jarvis Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial at 14th Street and The Strand in Hermosa Beach is to be be renovated with a $10,000 donation from the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce.
The Jarvis memorial funds are included in a $164,000 donation the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce made to the City of Hermosa Beach at the Tuesday, September 9 city council meeting. The memorial is a popular resting place for walkers, bicyclists, and dogs, who have there own dog-level water fountain. The renovations will include new landscaping, solar lighting and a new bench.
Jarvis was a Space Shuttle payload specialist, Hermosa Beach resident and avid bicyclists. He died with six fellow crew members when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986.
The memorial improvements are scheduled to be completed in time for the January 28, 2015 anniversary of the Challenger disaster.
Chamber representative and Establishment restaurant owner David Lowe told the council that the Jarvis Memorial has special significance to his family because Ellison Onizuka, a mission specialist on the Challenger was the best man at his parent’s marriage. Onizuka attended El Camino College when he was assigned to the Los Angeles Air Force Station in El Segundo. Each year the college awards scholarships in his name and hosts the Onizuka Space Science Day.
The balance of the chamber donation will help fund a new electronic sign at Pacific Coast Highway and Pier Avenue ($50,000), the city’s economic development director’s salary ($54,000) and the Aviation/Pacific Coast Highway Improvement Project ($50,000).
The Aviation/PCH Project is scheduled to take five years and cost $25 million. ER
