Big trial date
A 12-year-old lawsuit that could bankrupt the city has been scheduled to go to trial once again on Jan. 18, 2012.
“We have assembled a highly qualified and experienced team of lawyers and expert consultants to vigorously defend the city’s right to protect the health and safety of the community without having to face the threat of huge judgments that could affect the city’s financial future,” Mayor Peter Tucker said in a prepared statement.
At issue is a $700 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against the city by the Macpherson Oil Company, which once held a contract with the city to slant-drill under the Pacific Ocean from municipal land at Sixth Street and Valley Drive.
Hermosa voters banned the project in 1995, and a previous City Council in 1998 declared the contract canceled, citing safety concerns.
After a dozen years of arguing up and down the court system, the city has been told that it can get out from under the breach-of-contract claim if it can convince a jury that the oil drilling project was too dangerous to allow.
More beach tennis
The City Council has approved the installation of a third net on the beach sand at 14th Street for the growing sport of beach tennis.
Donny Young of West Coast Beach Tennis said Hermosa has become the west coast capital of the sport, and in time players might ask to share some courts with volleyball players.
Vampire weekend
The Kiwanis Club of Hermosa Beach hosts a blood drive on Sunday, Feb. 27 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Kiwanis Club Hall, 2515 Valley Dr. The blood drive is sponsored by the American Red Cross which has been supplying about 40 percent of the nation’s needed blood since 1940.
Donors must be 17 or older, weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good general health. A sterile needle is used only once for each donor and then discarded.
To make an appointment see www.redcrossblood.org and enter sponsor code: Hermosa Kiwanis, or contact Mickey McRae at 310-372-6939 or mickmacr@aol.com.
Donors will receive two tickets to an LA Galaxy soccer game and a coupon for a free Cold Stone’s Creation ice cream, and will be eligible for a regional spa package drawing.
Kiwanis President Adrienne Slaughter said that every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood due to a life-threatening illness, serious injury, or accident. ER
