Bellflower Using Pot Sales Fee To Help Support Area Band
The band chosen to participate in 136th annual Pasadena New Year’s Day parade will be composed of 500 selected band students from Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Gahr, John Glenn, La Mirada, Mayfair and Norwalk high schools.
Bellflower will use funds from a marijuana sales fee to help finance an area band’s effort to march in the Rose Parade in Pasadena Jan. 1, 2025.
The City Council has allocated $7,500 from its Cannabis Education Fund to help the 605 All Star Band, being formed by Thomas Philips, a Bellflower Unified School District music teacher and the band director of the 605 All-Star Band.
The band will be composed of 500 selected band students from Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Gahr, John Glenn, La Mirada, Mayfair and Norwalk high schools.
The band was chosen by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association to march in the 136th Annual Rose Parade, according to Bellflower City Manager Ryan Smoot. It will be one of 20 bands in the parade.
Phillips, the band director for Mayfair High School in Bellflower, requested financial aid from the City, noting expenses of $572 per student.
The Cannabis fee charged the 12 groups with marijuana-related operations in Bellflower. The fund is to teach students and dangers of drugs, city officials have said.
In PARAMOUNT, users of Ralph Dills Park will have access to a new 48-space parking lot this summer.
The City Council has contracted with Deark E&C, Inc. in the amount of over $1 for use of a 48-space parking lot off Somerset Blvd. to serve park users and add additional walking trails and landscaping improvements on the south field at Dills Park, City officials said.
Also in Paramount, city officials said they continue a project to install new monument signs to
both Progress Park and Paramount Park.
Over the past several years, the city has been upgrading its existing signage citywide to reflect the improvements to the downtown area completed in 2017, according to Public Works Director Adriana Figueroa.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, has announced the launch of a new Farmers’ Market in the City Terrace community of East Los Angeles.
“I’m excited today to announce the launch of City Terrace’s first-ever Farmers’ Market, scheduled to open this summer,” Solis said. “The need for another neighborhood farmers’ market in East Los Angeles in addition to the market at the East Los Angeles Civic Center has been growing for years.
“Through our new partnership with In the Making — a non-profit with an established track record of empowering small businesses across East Los Angeles with vital resources and mentorship – we will be delivering the funding they need to create an all-new fresh-food oasis in what is now, unfortunately, a fresh-food desert.”
Sunitha Menon has been named executive director by the Board of Supervisors to head the county’s first-ever LGBTQ+ Commission, which will make recommendations to the board on future policies to ensure greater inclusivity and equity.
As a first-generation queer person of color, Sunitha Menon has seen firsthand how inequalities and discrimination have affected the health, safety, and well-being of marginalized communities.
Menon previously served as managing director of operations at Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization.
In DOWNEY, A Los Angeles County mental health clinician will work with the police department to respond to calls concerning mental health and drug issues under a new one-year contract approved by the City Council.
The previous one-year contract with the County Mental Health Department ended Dec. 31, 2023. The new contract is retroactive to March 31, 2025, said Acting Police Chief Scott Loughner, who said the system of a county mental health clinician working with two members of the Downey Police Mental Evaluation team worked well the past year.
The city will use a $225,250 grant from the California Department of Health to pay up to 525 hours of overtime for the county clinicians, Loughner said.
Also in Downey, a controversial plan to build 33 three-bedroom, three-bathroom townhomes on a 1.3-acre site at 7630 Foster Bridge Boulevard, at the northwest tip of the city, is going through after a 3-2 vote by the City Council. The boulevard intersects with Suva Street and South Bluff Road.
A letter of opposition containing 282 names was received along with 178 letters of support, officials said.
Those opposed were mostly concerned about traffic congestion and off-street parking, including the adjoining city of Bell Gardens, who sought more information prior to the decision, according to Planning and Building Director Imra Huitron.
She said the project will help Downey meet the state demand of building 6,525 new homes.
Mayor Mario Trujillo, Mayor Pro-Tem Hector Sosa and Councilwoman Claudia Frometa voted for the project. Councilwoman Dorothy Pemburton and Councilman Horacio Ortiz dissented. The project is in Pemberton’s Fourth District.
Arnold Adler, a longtime reporter for Wave Newspapers, may be contacted at arnoldadler123@gmail.com.
