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More than 600 people were served at the March
28, 2009 Community Appreciation Day, including the Mayor, Councilmen
Alarcon and Weiss, and Senator Padilla. Photos provided by Voila
Photography.
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Fabulous BBQ
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Memo greets arrivees.
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Free trees
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Youth activities
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SNC President Quyen Vo-Ramirez begins the awards
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SNC Directors with Councilman Alarcon
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Mayor Villaraigosa thanks Director Tammy Flores
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Director Rick Donnelly presents an award
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Many thanks for a job well done
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Thanks to the youth for helping in the evacuation center
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Directors Nick Krall and Memo Reyes present an award
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SNC Director Jeanne Rowe
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View the complete photo gallery at Voila Photography
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

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
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One crew headed out to clean an area near the entrance to the fire devastated mobile home park in Sylmar.
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Workers put on masks and gloves to start a route that covered about a mile of roadside clean up.
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Trash bags begin to fill quickly with a crew of about 20 youth and adults worked as a team.
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This clean up crew ended their day at the burnt hillside very close to the mobile home park disaster.
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The Mayors day of Service honored all the area workers with a celebration at the Hansen Dam Recreation area.
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Lunch was provided by the City of L.A. to honor our hard working crew members.
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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.
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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:
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Captain Villegas
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Chief Moore
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Chief Earl Paysinger (Southeast)
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Bruce Riordon (City Attorney’s Office)
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Alex Alonso (USC PhD Candidate)
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Peter Bibring (ACLU Staff Attorney)
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Luis J. Rodriguez (Tia Chucha's/Writer)
Special Guests:
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", 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.
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.
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. |