Highlights of last night’s Altadena Town Council meeting:
- Changeups: La Vina resident Doug Colliflower was named to the town council seat 4603.01, vacated by Dennis Bridwell last month. Colliflower runs DC Golf, which operates the Altadena and Eaton Canyon golf courses. In a shifting of responsibilities, Ruth Nielan was named vice-chair, and Jamie Bissner corresponding secretary.
- Post office drop boxes: Chairman Gino Sund said he is soliciting comments from residents about the removal of blue post office drop boxes from around town. He has scheduled a meeting with the Altadena postmaster next week to address the issue: email esund@att.net
- Cell tower: ATT is resuscitating its plan for a cell phone tower on the west side, and is expected to come to the Town Council with a plan in a month or so. The new proposed location for the tower will be Loma Alta Dr., one street east of McNally by the wash.
- Hillside ordinance: The Altadena Hilside Ordinance will be before the regional planning commission next Wed., Feb. 24, downtown.
- Public Safety: Retiring Sheriff Capt. Roosevelt Blow received a distinguished service award from the town council for his three years as Altadena Station’s captain. Incoming captain Steven McLean gave a report about the arrest of Ralph Wyatt, 49, a registered sex offender, for burglary, stalking, and sexual battery (i.e. leaving sexually explicit threatening notes).
Several residents of the neighborhood — which is near St. Elizabeth’s parochial school — were concerned that Wyatt’s previous record was not known to the neighborhood, and that he was not listed on the Megan’s Law website, and lived in close proximity to a school. McLean said that Wyatt fell into loopholes in the law — 20-25% of sex offenders are not mandated to be on the website, and ones who live near schools before the law about proximity to schools was passed are grandfathered in. McLean said that Wyatt had complied with his address registration requirements and hadn’t earned any extra attention until the notes came to light — and was arrested within days after they did (Wyatt remains in jail under $500,000 bond).
Some residents also blamed a lack of attention by the Pasadena Police Dept., which handled earlier complaints about notes being left. For a long stretch, the north side of Woodbury is in Altadena and the homes across the street south are in Pasadena.
- Altadena Crossing Follies: Councilman Ken Roberts, who attended the latest WAPAC meeting on the Lincoln Crossing shopping center, said (1) that managing partner Dorn Platz withdrew its request to cut 24 parking places from the development’s plans, and (2) also sold the plot of land that was to contain the parking places. Ta-da!
- Water, water: the Foothill Municipal Water District, which buys water from the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District and sells it to Lincoln Ave., Las Flores, and Rubio Canyon Water DIstricts, is embarking on an ambitious plan to provide a “local, reliable water supply program.” Nine years of drought and a Federal court decision restricting deliveries of state project water to Southern California have put all water districts on high alert. Foothill plans to work on cutting use, developing local water sources and cutting reliance on imports from MWD. To help fund the initial phases of the program, Foothill plans to sell about $20 million in bonds with a 30 year payback, and is considering a property assessment to repay the bond, which must be approved by property owners.
