Summit to do The public is invited to a city-sponsored Shared Services Summit organized by former Councilman George Barks, exploring how neighboring cities could merge some of their services, 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 5 at City Hall, 1315 Valley Drive, in the Hermosa Beach City Council chambers.
Presenting will be Burlingame City Manager Jim Nantell, a veteran of fire department merger and providing shared services with neighboring communities, and Stewart W. Gary of Citygate Associates.
Gary has 39 years of experience in fire service. In 1996, he designed and led the implementation of the Livermore-Pleasanton fire department consolidation, which won a California League of Cities Helen Putnam award. He is currently conducting a fire consolidation study with the cities of Anaheim, Orange, and Fullerton.
Barks is reaching out to public officials in the beach cities and El Segundo, and so far expects attendance by members of the Hermosa Beach City Council and local school boards.
Barks noted that previous overtures to merge the Hermosa and Redondo Beach fire departments have fallen flat, but he said local officials should continue exploring varieties of shared-service possibilities.
“It’s a way to save money and preserve services” in an era of tight budgets, he said.
Mural unveiled
The nonprofit Hermosa Murals Project will officially unveil the first of a planned 10 large murals on exterior walls around town, a recreation of a 1924 photo of downtown Hermosa, high on a north-facing wall of the downtown municipal parking structure.
The mural was painted in a multi-week process that saw renowned mural artist Art Mortimer and his assistant artist Hilary Wootton working atop twin scissor lifts.
The unveiling ceremony will be 5:30 p.m. Saturday, May 14 at Hermosa Avenue and 14th Court.
Following the unveiling and dedication, the celebration will continue with a live auction and special print sales at the Conference Room of the Beach House hotel on the Strand, from 6 to 7 p.m.
The first 10 Limited Edition Digital Giclee prints of Mortimer’s final rendering of the mural, measuring 13 by 25 inches, will be auctioned as “original collectors’ items” of Hermosa Beach, organizers said. Mortimer will be on hand to tell of his creation of the mural, and additional Giclee prints will be sold at a 20 percent unveiling discount. The proceeds will help raise funds to sustain the plan of the Hermosa Beach Murals Project for 10 murals in 10 years.
The Murals Project was hatched after a group of friends, including prominent Hermosans, went to Santa Paula, a town located 14 miles east of Ventura, and saw exterior-wall murals for which the city is regionally known.
The Santa Paula murals attract school students from other cities who take walking tours that include educational talks about Santa Paula’s history, which is rich with Chumash Indians, lemon orchards and oil.
Ex-councilmen Chuck Sheldon, George Schmeltzer and J.R. Reviczky sit on the Murals Project board.
The Murals Project recently held its second annual “Walk in History” fundraiser in which participants gathered clues along a one-mile course to win gifts and prizes. The guided walks focused on the “Roaring ‘20s.”
Another Hermosa cultural-historical mural, spanning 40 feet across the western wall of Cantina Real on the Pier Plaza, was commissioned for the city centennial in 2007.
Created over about 100 hours by husband-and-wife team Neal and Dawn Von Flue, the mural features images such as old Red Line cars, the Strand Bathhouse, jazz great Howard Rumsey, surfing great Dewey Weber, punk rockers Black Flag, and pro beach volleyball players.
For more see Hermosamurals.org. ER
