The Monrovia Fire Department is pleased to announce the promotions of four members of its current personnel. The recent promotions were awarded to Ryan Phillips, Jeremy Sanchez, Dave Phillips and Harvey Hewitt, who combined have over 40 years of fire fighting experience.
Division Chief Ryan Phillips – With over 18 years of service, Ryan Phillips, a Monrovian resident, assumed the duties as the “A shift” commander on the morning of February 16. “Chief Phillips’ ability to effectively manage emergency operations is exceptional,” said Fire Chief Chris Donovan, who went on to highlight Phillips’ long tradition of professionalism and dedication to Monrovia. The Chief’s faith in Phillips was quickly confirmed; by 2 p.m. of his first shift as Division Chief, Phillips’ crew had already responded to four emergency incidents, and established incident command at both a vegetation and a structure fire. Under his new title, Chief Phillips will oversee the department’s Administration and Disaster Preparedness operations.Fire Captain Jeremy Sanchez – Chief Phillips promotion created a vacancy at the Fire Captain position. Monrovia Fire Department filled this by promoting Jeremy Sanchez. Captain Sanchez has over eight years experience in fire service. He has served as a Paramedic with the last three years as a Fire Engineer at Monrovia Fire. “Captain Sanchez has natural leadership abilities in addition to exceptional emergency operations and administrative skills,” said Fire Chief Chris Donovan. “This is a critically important position within our department, and Jeremy is certainly capable of performing his responsibilities.” Captain Sanchez has recently been placed in charge of the department’s apparatus. This includes being responsible for studying future needs for repair and replacement of the department’s fleet and maintaining the department’s overall operational readiness.
Fire Engineer Harvey Hewitt – Jeremy Sanchez’ promotion to Fire Captain created a vacancy in the Fire Engineer rank, which is being filled with the promotion of Harvey Hewitt. Fire Engineer Hewitt has four years of experience with Monrovia as a Firefighter/Paramedic in addition to five years experience with the Monterey Park Fire Department. In addition to his new duties as an engineer, Fire Engineer Hewitt will continue to evaluate requirements and training mandates for the department’s cadet program.
Fire Engineer Dave Phillips – Dave Phillips was promoted to Fire Engineer in September 2011 to fill the vacancy left by Fire Engineer Rob Vita’s retirement. Prior to this position Dave had served as a Firefighter/Paramedic for five years. During his service with Monrovia Fire, he has been instrumental in the brush abatement program, as well as many other programs involving training and development, including the successful Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) program.
- Brad Haugaard
Gold Line press release:
This morning, the Construction Authority, City of Monrovia, and the Successor Agency to the Monrovia Redevelopment Agency signed an agreement that will result in the Authority acquiring the remaining land needed for the project’s maintenance and operations facility. The agreement includes settlement of all lawsuits and claims related to the land acquisition and follows the City Council and Successor Agency’s approval of the terms earlier this week, and the Construction Authority Board’s approval last night.
The agreement is actually a “Stipulation for Entry of Judgment in Condemnation” and will now be sent to the Superior Court judge overseeing the eminent domain case for final approval and judgment. Once approved, the Authority will have the ownership rights it needs for 100% of the land required for the maintenance facility - an important milestone for the project, per our funding agreement with Metro and our contractual agreement with the Kiewit Parsons Joint Venture (the Alignment design-build contractor).
The terms agreed to today include four separate elements. The Authority agreed to pay $40.6 million to obtain the land held by the City and the Successor Agency and to settle the eminent domain case and all current and future claims and objections by the City related to this land acquisition. The Successor Agency and City agreed to reimburse the Authority up to $200,000 for legal expenses related to the Excalibur Property Holdings, LLC case and $650,000 environmental remediation costs associated with mitigating contamination on the land. The City and the Authority agreed to arrangements related to the planned parking facility for the future Monrovia Gold Line station. The Authority agreed to pay the actual amount (up to $15.75 million) needed to make public improvements around the 24-acre maintenance facility, as required under the City’s Transit Village Planned Development Area.
Needless to say, the terms agreed to today are an important achievement for the project. With this and all of the other property acquisition and design-build agreements complete, we are on track to stay within the approved budget for the M&O facility. We are appreciative of the City of Monrovia’s efforts to work with the Authority to come to terms that were mutually acceptable, and to keep the project on time and on budget.
- Brad Haugaard
