Fabulous BBQ	Memo greets arrivees.	Free trees
Youth activities	SNC President Quyen Vo-Ramirez begins the awards	SNC Directors with Councilman Alarcon
Mayor Villaraigosa thanks Director Tammy Flores	Director Rick Donnelly presents an award	Many thanks for a job well done
Thanks to the youth for helping in the evacuation center	Directors Nick Krall and Memo Reyes present an award	SNC Director Jeanne Rowe

View the complete photo gallery at Voila Photography

Community Prayer Service and Lunch for Fire Victims: March 7, 2009

Friends:
I want to thank all who participated in the Community Prayer Service and Lunch held Saturday March 7th at Los Angeles Lutheran High School for the survivors of the fall 2008 Sesnon, Marek and Sayre fires.
Several Churches, Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council, Sylmar Neighborhood Council, Los Angeles City and County Offices supported the efforts of the outreach. We wanted to have a time of prayer and let everyone know we still care about them and certainly hope they get all the help they need to recover their losses.

Special thanks to Chief Chaplain of LAPD Ken Crawford, Captain William Scott LAPD Mission Station, Councilman Richard Alarcon CD#7 Office and the many Pastors from the Community for their comments.

My job was to coordinate the volunteers and we had more then we needed which of course (many hands make the load light) made my job easy. THANK YOU volunteers you guys ROCK!!!! I also had the unexpected pleasure of meeting 10 volunteers from Olive View Medical center. I also want to thank the local businesses that helped us with the lunch. I certainly hope to work with you all again.

God Bless,

Jim Schopper
Co-Chair Public Services Committee
Sylmar Neighborhood Council

Mayor's Day of Service A Success!

Thank you for your support and help with the "Sylmar Day of Appreciation", the Public Services Committee project in conjunction with the Mayor's Day of Service on November 22, 2008. We ROCKED!, raked, shoveled, and bagged, as we cleaned up two busy streets: San Fernando Rd. and Foothill Blvd. The two crews worked very hard and I am extremely proud to have worked with all of you. Two of our volunteers, former East Valley residents, drove in from Huntington Beach to help. One businessman, traveling from San Francisco, heard about our clean-up and volunteered. We also had student volunteers from CSUN, several high schools, El Dorado Neighborhood Watch, and Options for Youth to name a few.

Upon completion of our projects, many of us boarded a bus and headed to Hansen Dam. There we joined other city volunteers for lunch and entertainment. Our Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa addressed the many volunteers thanking them for their hours of service and encouraging all to continue to volunteer and make a difference in our city. He publicly thanked the Sylmar Neighborhood Council for our participation in regards to the Sayre Fire and relief efforts.

Driving home, we passed by the newly cleaned streets and were amazed by the number of filled trash bags. Thanks again for all of your work and help!

Working together,

Jim Schopper
Co-Chair, Public Services Committee
Sylmar Neighborhood Council

Mayor's Day of Service Photos
 

One crew headed out to clean an area near the entrance to the fire devastated mobile home park in Sylmar.	Workers put on masks and gloves to start a route that covered about a mile of roadside clean up.	Trash bags begin to fill quickly with a crew of about 20 youth and adults worked as a team.
This clean up crew ended their day at the burnt hillside very close to the mobile home park disaster.	The Mayors day of Service honored all the area workers with a celebration at the Hansen Dam Recreation area.	Lunch was provided by the City of L.A. to honor our hard working crew members.
Mayor Villaragosa visited to thank the volunteers who made this day a success and presented the U.S. flag that was salvaged during the fire.

SNC and Community Overwhelmingly Support Gang Injunction - June 2008

Because of the importance of the proposed Gang Injunction to Sylmar, the SNC sponsored two Town Hall meetings, held two board meetings and had two separate meetings with Captain Jorge Villegas of the Mission Area Police Station to be sure to hear all sides of this complicated subject. At the June 18, 2008 Town Hall meeting panelists included:

• Captain Villegas

• Chief Moore

• Chief Earl Paysinger (Southeast)

• Bruce Riordon (City Attorney’s Office)

• Alex Alonso (USC PhD Candidate)

• Peter Bibring (ACLU Staff Attorney)

• Luis J. Rodriguez (Tia Chucha's/Writer)

Special Guests:

• Councilmember Richard Alarcon

• Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes

• Senator Alex Padilla.

The Board took a position in favor of the injunction and issued this letter to Bruce Riordan of the Superior Court. The injunction was approved on June 24, 2008 and will take effect within 30 days.

BIG SUNDAY: MAY 2008

"Big Sunday", a City wide cleanup Sponsored by the Mayor's office was on May 3-4, 2008. The Sylmar Neighborhood Council planned a community cleanup Saturday May 3, 2008. Projects included painting, bulky item pick up and drop off at Sylmar Park, street cleanups, planting projects and freeway onramp cleanup.

We were supposed to meet with CALTrans at the freeway on ramp to clean that up, but they had to tend to a spill. So we regrouped and cleaned up Foothill from Yarnell to Bledsoe.

North Community Services Agency Stop Signal Switch On! - May 9, 2008 2:30pm

There was a Switch On ceremony at the intersection of Foothill and Yarnell. Councilman Richard Alarcon was there to switch on the long awaited and needed signal light in the Rancho Cascades area.

The stop signal at the intersection of Foothill and Yarnell has been under construction for more than a year because the original wiring was obsolete and needed to be replaced. Construction was further bogged down with challenges meeting ADA compliance requirements, reported board member Martin Laufer at the February 2008 meeting.

It appears the signal could not be turned on until there was a crosswalk, which could not be painted until there was a curb cut, which could not be done for lack of a curb and ADA compliant sidewalk. The signal was required by the developer of the Cascades in order to mitigate resulting traffic.

In the next few days there will be street improvements such as striping and reflector installations at the corner of Yarnell and Foothill Blvd. Please slow down for the cone zones and be cognitive of other drivers that may be unaware of the situation.

Board Tackles Local Sex Offender Influx

At the March 27, 2008 meeting the SNC board discussed the large quantity of sex offenders residing in Sylmar. The Megan's Law Website lists 157 registrants in the 91342 zip code. As this was not an agendized item, the board could not yet take action. However, they discussed creating an ad hoc committee to further investigate the cause of so many offenders locating in Sylmar and what actions can be taken for the future.

Officer Chacon reported that if the sex offender is not on parole or probation, and they’re registered, they don’t have to be monitored. Sylmar has so many living here, according to the State, because there’re so many hotels, especially on San Fernando Road. Officer Chacon encouraged people to write letters to State officials about this.