Monthly Archives: October 2014

Rowland Heights Buckboard Days parade set 9 am Saturday

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It’s time for a parade! The community is invited to the 42nd Annual Buckboard Days Parade and Festival this Saturday in Rowland Heights!

The parade kicks off at 9 a.m. at the corner of Nogales and Colima, and will feature a variety of local school bands and student performance groups, community organizations, equestrian groups, floats and the Wells Fargo Stage Coach.

The theme for this year’s parade is “Nature in Our Own Backyard” and the Parade Grand Marshal is local environmental scientist and educator/Rowland Unified School District Parent Kimo Morris, Ph.D.

The parade ends at Rowland Heights County Park where the Family Festival takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., featuring parade awards, entertainment, food and 50 community information and service booths organized by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. Visit www.buckboarddaysparade.org for more event information.

Before the parade, enjoy a $5 pancake breakfast by the Hacienda Heights Kiwanis starting at 7 a.m. The breakfast is in the Bell Memorial Church parking lot on Nogales near the corner of Colima (1747 Nogales St, Rowland Heights).

The community comes together to celebrate this annual parade co-organized by the Rowland Heights Chinese Association and the Rowland Heights Community Coordinating Council. Parade Co-Chairs are Rachel Fung, Rowland Heights Chinese Association and John Grant, Rowland Heights Community Coordinating Council.

THANK YOU TO THE BUCKBOARD DAYS PARADE SPONSORS:

Event Sponsors: Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe and First General Bank.Diamond Sponsors: Rose Hills, Rowland Water District, Sabrina Lee, Southlands Christian Schools, STC Foundation, Walnut Valley Water District, Wells Fargo Bank. Gold Sponsors: Aera Energy, LLC, Southern California Edison Co. Silver Sponsors: Association of Rowland Educators (ARE), Henry Woo Architects, Rowland Heights Community Coordinating Council, SK Taekwondo School. Bronze Sponsors: Advanced Martial Arts, Shaolin Temple Cultural Center. Banner Sponsors: Puente Hills Mall and Whittier Hospital Medical Center.

Diamond Bar seniors have ghoulish time at Howling Ball

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On Oct. 23, adults age 55 and older are invited to don their Halloween finery or ghoulish garbs and head over to the Diamond Bar Center for a fun dinner-dance event that runs from 6 to 9 p.m.

Tickets to the HOWLING BALL event cost $15 per person and include
dinner and an open soda bar. Costumes are encouraged but not required.

Ticket sales end Friday. The Diamond Bar Center is located at 1600 Grand
Avenue. For more information, call 909.839.7068.

Puente Hills Habitat leads hikes in Sycamore Canyon this week

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Puente Hills Habitat will host several hikes this month in these locations:

 Saturday, October 18th – Sunset Bat Hike, 5pm to 7pm

The Preserve is often a great place to watch for emerging bats in the early evening. Let’s take in a 2 mile hike in the late afternoon light, as long shadows stretch across the landscape. We’ll show you some of our bat houses, discuss bat feeding habits and benefits, and search the skies for some of the bats living on the Preserve. FAMILY-FRIENDLY: a good choice for those with children who like to hike. No dogs.

Thursday, October 16th & 23rd– 10,000 Steps Hike, 5pm to Sunset

Join Docent Maria in a 4.7 mile strenuous fitness hike that amounts to about 10,000 steps! The hike begins Black Walnut Trail   curbside.  It leads you through the Schabarum Trail and back again. Be ready for this fitness hike, bring water and wear hiking boots and long pants. Snakes are a factor on these less visited trails. Pedometers optional.

Walnut looking for volunteers to decorate for trunk or treat

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Are you psyched for Halloween? Ready to fill your house with spooktacular decorations? Ever think about decorating your car?

Walnut is looking for volunteers willing to decorate the trunks of their cars with ghoulishly great ideas and participate in the City of Walnut’s Mostly Ghostly event on Friday, Oct. 31, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Walnut Senior Center.

For more information, call Kim Watts at the Senior Center at (909) 598‐6200.

Caltrans closing portions of 60 Freeway for construction

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The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) will close portions of SR-60 from the San Gabriel River Freeway (I-605) to the Orange Freeway (SR-57) separation, as part of a pavement rehabilitation project.  Closures are as follows and subject to change.

Monday, October 13, through Friday, October 17

Eastbound SR-60

  • 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. – Up to three lanes between I-605 & Azusa Avenue
  • 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. – High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane CLOSEDbetween I-605 & Azusa Avenue

Westbound SR-60

  • 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. – Up to three lanes between southbound SR-57 & Azusa Avenue
  • 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. – HOV lane CLOSED between southbound SR-57 & Azusa Avenue

 Friday, October 17, through Saturday, October 18

Eastbound SR-60

  • 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.   – Up to three lanes between I-605 & Azusa Avenue
  • 7 p.m. to 9 a.m.     – Seventh Avenue on-ramp CLOSED
  • 12 a.m. to 8 a.m.   – HOV lane CLOSED between Seventh Avenue & Hacienda Boulevard
  • 11 p.m. to 11 a.m. – Connector from north- and southbound I-605 to eastbound SR-60 CLOSED

Westbound SR-60

  • 12 a.m. to 4 a.m.   – Up to three lanes between southbound SR-57 & Azusa Avenue
  • 10 p.m. to 11 a.m. – Fairway Drive and Old Brea Canyon Road on-ramps CLOSED
  • 12 a.m. to 8 a.m.   – HOV lane CLOSED between southbound SR-57 & Nogales Street
  • 11 p.m. to 10 a.m. – Connector from north- and southbound SR-57 to westbound SR-60 CLOSED
  •  Friday 11:59 p.m. to Saturday 5 a.m.  –FULL FREEWAY CLOSUREbetween southbound SR-57 & Azusa Avenue

Detours will be posted. New pavement will improve mobility and enhance safety for motorists.  Flatiron West Inc. is the contractor on this $121.5 million project which is expected to complete fall 2014.

Water agencies consider dry-weather water capture

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Even without rainfall, the gutters, channels and storm drains of Los Angeles County pulse with about 330 million gallons of water every day.

Enough water to supply 668,000 typical Southern California homes in a year — unaccounted water streaming over green lawns, down paved streets and concrete channels. Water wasted to the ocean during one of the worst droughts in California history.

Most of this dry-weather runoff originates with homeowners who overwater lawns. Next, it comes from over-irrigated golf courses, parks and ball fields, leaky water mains and fire hydrants as well as industrial outflows from factories.

Water managers from the South Bay to the Antelope Valley know about dry-weather runoff but have let it pass them by because it was seen as miniscule when compared to billions of gallons of potable water imported from Northern California and the Colorado River.

Now that those sources are drying up due to decreases in snowpack in the Sierra Nevada and environmental uses of water to keep fish and wildlife alive in the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, engineers and legislators have turned their eyes to this overlooked source as a supplement to outdoor water supplies.

“Dry-weather runoff has been the poor, forgotten Cinderella out there,” began Esther Feldman, president of Community Conservation Solutions, a nonprofit based in Venice that has studied the unusual source of water for eight years and helped contribute to a sea change in state water policy.

On Sept. 25, Cinderella was discovered. Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 985 by state Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, which will require water agencies to consider dry-weather water capture in future water-saving plans and water-recycling projects.

Read more in Steve Scauzillo’s story RUNOFF.

Walnut Famil Festival holds blood drive

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Beside the usual fun and games, this year’s Family Festival in Suzanne Park will give Walnut residents have a chance to save lives. The American Red Cross Blood Mobile will be on hand on Saturday to take donations to help those in need.

“We hope we can get at least 42 donors to donate a pint of blood,” said Walnut Recreation Director Gabriela Encinas. “If we collect 42 pints of blood, we can save up to 126 lives because they figure each pint can save three lives.”

Law Librarian of Congress coming to Diamond Bar

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David Mao, the 23rd Law Librarian of Congress, will talk about “Serving Digital Natives in Libraries Today” on Saturday, Oct. 18, at 2 p.m. in the AQMD Government Building, 21865 Copley Drive,Diamond Bar.

Mao, who manages the world’s largest collection of legal materials, will highlight ways that libraries can grow, adapt, and innovate in order to appeal to a new generation of students that have grown up immersed in modern technology.

Rep. Ed Royce will also talk about the state of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education across our nation’s schools and universities.

“The digital revolution has touched virtually every part of our lives. Students today have never known life without smart phones and the cloud and access to worlds of information at the touch of a keystroke. While some may suggest this means libraries are less relevant today, I believe this revolution makes libraries and librarianship even more important,” said Mao.

Mao manages the operation and policy administration of the Law Library of Congress, which contain the world’s largest collection of legal materials and serves as the leading research center for foreign, comparative, and international law.

Mao describes the position as part law librarian to Congress, part steward for the law collections, and part ambassador to the word’s legal and library communities.

“I look forward to speaking at Diamond Bar – and am honored to do so on the occasion of its 25th anniversary – about the role of libraries in the 21st century,”  he added.

“I’m looking forward to hearing Mr. Mao’s presentation on how our libraries can evolve to engage our kids that have grown up with cell phones, iPads, and wireless internet,” said Rep. Royce.

“Public libraries that move forward with the technology of the day will continue to attract students who are eager to learn, and Mr. Mao shares my passion for ensuring that the next generation of Americans has the resources it needs to excel academically,” Royce said. 

Seating is limited and reservations are a must for this very special afternoon.  Please call (626) 960-2861 to reserve your seat.  A reception will follow after Mao’s talk.

The winners of the Student Essay Writing Contest “How a Book Changed My Life” will be announced that afternoon.  Students from ages 13 to 18 are encouraged to write a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any genre—fiction or non-fiction, contemporary or classic, explaining how that author’s work changed their way of thinking about the world or themselves.  For more information on the essay contest, please call (626) 960-2861.

For more information visit www.dblibraryfriends.org or call909 629-2711.

 

Buckboard Days Parade seeks entries in Rowland Heights

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Don’t miss the opportunity to appear in this year’s 42nd Annual Buckboard Days Parade and Festival on Saturday, Oct. 18, in Rowland Heights.

The parade is co-organized by the Rowland Heights Chinese Association and the Rowland Heights Community Coordinating Council.

The final deadline to appear in the Buckboard Parade is this Friday, Oct. 10. Applications at  www.buckboarddaysparade.org, email to buckboardparade@hotmail.com.

There is no parade entry fee for community organizations and individuals. There is a $50 fee for commercial or business applications.             

The parade will feature a variety of local school bands and student performance groups, community organizations, equestrian groups, floats and the Wells Fargo Stage Coach. 

The theme for this year’s parade is “Nature in Our Own Backyard” and local environmental scientist and educator/Rowland Unified School District Parent Kimo Morris, Ph.D., is this year’s Parade Grand Marshal.

The parade begins at 9 a.m. at the corner of Nogales and Colima and will conclude at Rowland Heights County Park.

Following the parade will be a Family Festival at Rowland Heights County Park from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. with more than 45 booths offering handmade arts and crafts, food, community information and services organized by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation.

The Hacienda Heights Kiwanis will be sponsoring a pancake breakfast before the parade, starting at 7 a.m. Come early and enjoy breakfast at the Bell Memorial Church parking lot on Nogales near the corner of Colima (1747 Nogales St, Rowland Heights). Breakfast is $5 per person.

Parade Co-Chairs are Rachel Fung, Rowland Heights Chinese Association and John Grant, Rowland Heights Community Coordinating Council.

It’s Not Too Late to Sign Up! www.buckboarddaysparade.org

Diamond Bar woman pepper sprays mugger

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A man robbed a woman of her wallet Thursday, but the woman fought back with pepper spray, officials said. The robbery took place about 2 p.m. on Diamond Bar Boulevard, just south of Grand Avenue, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Frank Rivera said.

The robber pushed the woman and grabbed her wallet when it fell to the ground, the lieutenant said. The woman sprayed pepper spray toward the robber, though it was unclear if it hit him in the face.

Deputies searched the area for the robber, but he was not found, Rivera said. A detailed suspect description was not available.

The woman, who was in her 20s, was examined by paramedics but did not appear to have suffered significant injury, Rivera said.