Hawthorne Press Tribune
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 61, No. 16 - April 18, 2019
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............2
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................5
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Food.......................................5
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals............................. 4,6,7
Pets........................................8
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Mostly
Sunny
69˚/57˚
Saturday
Partly
Cloudy
63˚/56˚
Sunday
Partly
Cloudy
63˚/55˚
The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
Rock Around the Block at Dana
Here’s a shout out to all the awesome Dana Dolphins who rowed their hearts out at Rock Around the Block and were rocking the obstacle course in P.E. last week! Photo: Dana Middle School
Mayor Vargas Touts City, Business
Development Successes in Address
By Derrick Deane
Hawthorne Mayor Alex Vargas covered
a number of topics during his State of the
City speech earlier this month. In addition
to spending half of his speech touting the
success of Hawthorne schools over the past
year, the mayor also touched on the police
department, city projects, and major business
developments in town.
Vargas first spoke about the Hawthorne
Police Department, which underwent change
in leadership recently with former Chief
Robert Fager retiring and current Chief Mike
Ishii being confirmed to his new role. “The
Hawthorne Police Department continues
to keep our community safe and making a
high impact in the community,” Vargas said.
“Chief Ishii brings a wealth of experience,
knowledge and community partnerships that
will help the department to continue to grow
and provide the best public safety services
to the residents of Hawthorne.”
A few Hawthorne Police Department
projects were highlighted as well. “Our
police department is addressing [the homeless]
by creating the Community Improvement
Task Force, which focuses on providing
services to those who unfortunately are out
on the streets and are unable to have shelter
and find the resources to make it through
life,” Vargas said. The task force handled
“over 900 homeless outreach incidents,”
last year.
“The chief has also pledged a renewed
commitment in partnering with our local
schools in order to provide the best possible
safety and security for the staff and
the students,” Vargas said. “There’s a strong
focus on active shooter training, medical aide
training, and traffic safety.”
The police department’s Safe Parks Initiative
has also seen positive results, according
to Vargas. “In 2018, the police department
conducted over 3,200 park checks across
the city,” Vargas said. “With the installation
of security cameras at all the major parks,
the police department now has the ability
to monitor and respond to incidents with
increased safety to our police officers.”
In 2018, the Hawthorne Police Department
hired 10 new officers to fill in vacancies that
exist and continue to hire this year due to
the vacancies from retirements. “Our Coffee
with a Cop continues to be highlighted
around the world and adopted,” Vargas said.
Vargas said that recently a police department
in Australia adopted the program and
there has been some interest from Mexico.
Public Works was the next topic that Vargas
highlighted. “The City of Hawthorne’s
Public Works Department has been continuing
its tremendous efforts to improve our
city,” he said.
Vargas broke down the projects into three
categories – the completed projects, the projects
that are in progress, and the maintenance
of the projects. Among the completed projects
were $310,000 in storm drain inlet improvements,
$320,000 in alley improvements, $2
million of intersection widening and traffic
signal improvements at Inglewood Avenue
and El Segundo Boulevard., plus traffic
improvement at Crenshaw Boulevard and
Rocket Road, and at Crenshaw Boulevard
and Northrop Avenue. Of the Crenshaw and
Northrop project, Vargas noted that “it is right
there at SpaceX making sure that employees
are safe when crossing the street.”
Among the projects currently in progress,
Vargas highlighted the $5.2 million
Hawthorne Boulevard Improvement project,
$6.4 million El Segundo Boulevard Improvement
project, $280,000 for Hawthorne
Municipal Airport Master Plan updates, and
an aerial survey to “measure things through
pictures over the city of Hawthorne.” Additionally,
there is a $500,000 project to
address Hawthorne Municipal Airport noise
exposure map updates.
Among the maintenance updates, Vargas
mentioned that 27,000 square feet of allies
and sidewalks were reconstructed, 20 local
streets have been repaired, 1,400 square feet
of sidewalks have been grinded down, 780
catch basins were serviced, 104 square feet
of graffiti have been removed, and 120 miles
of sewer pipe have been serviced.
The City has also distributed 70,000
quarterly environmental newsletters to the
community and businesses and implemented
the Green Business Certification Program with
15 businesses already certified. “Whenever
there’s something that goes on during the
week – an accident, and we need to block off
the streets or clean up, these are the people
we call. We have people on call that just
get up in the middle of the night because
of their dedication,” Vargas said.
The final topic for the evening was about
the development in Hawthorne. “Development
in our city has been moving forward and
with great speed,” Vargas said. “We have a
Room Garden Inn hotel that staff has been
See City Council, page 8