Lunch at Cafe Opera

Lunch at Cafe Opera (corner of Myrtle and Lime). Got the Black Sesame Tuna Salad. Came with fresh jalapeño bread. Very delicious lightly seared ahi tuna on a bed of garden salad with pasta. With iced tea and a shared bread pudding (awesome!) for desert, $44.57 for the two of us.

- Brad Haugaard

Lots of Full Nighttime Closures of Eastbound 210

The 210 eastbound (around the Gold Line bridge) will be completely closed nightly from Sunday, Sept. 16 through Thursday, Sept. 20, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. the following day. Also, it will be closed nightly from Sunday, Sept. 23 through Thursday, Sept. 27, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. the following day.

- Brad Haugaard

Monrovia Council: Business Visitation, Gang Report, Greenhouse Gas

Main items on the Monrovia City Council's September 18, 7:30 p.m. meeting (agenda: http://goo.gl/m4VjR ):

~ The city is planning a three-month program to visit businesses in Old Town. The report says that while the "economic engine of Monrovia is found primarily throughout Huntington Drive, auto row, and in manufacturing zones near the I-210 Freeway, Old Town Monrovia is the symbolic heartbeat of the community." http://goo.gl/caOhp

~ The mid-year report from the Monrovia Police Department on the anti-gang program, Operation Safe Neighborhoods, shows quite small crime numbers. Details: http://goo.gl/1jAEv

~ As part of California's requirement that "greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020," the Monrovia City Council will hear an Administrative Draft Energy Action Plan. Lots of data here: http://goo.gl/NHgiB

- Brad Haugaard

Monrovia Activities: MAP, Sports, and Classes

~ Mentioned this before, but City Manager Laurie Lile emphasizes the Monrovia Area Partnership (MAP) Leadership Academy in her weekly letter. It is a six-week program that provides information on Monrovia, municipal government, community building, and neighborhood strengthening. Interested? Details here: http://goo.gl/reOrJ

~ The Monrovia Community Center is offering flag football and cheer for kids, and classes for youth and adults. Youth classes include: Lego building, drawing, soccer and Mad Science. Adult classes include: Zumba, Mommy Fitness, Pilates, Beer and Bread and Jewelry Making.

Source: http://goo.gl/YXEsC

- Brad Haugaard

Rose Gardens Project | Relief to China | Sacramento Successes and Failures | CrossFit Remembers 9-11

~ Update on construction of the "Rose Gardens at Santa Teresita" project lapping over 12 acres in Monrovia and Duarte. http://goo.gl/iR0jX

~ Monrovia Christian relief organization, World Vision, has sent 1,000 hygiene kits and 113 big tent covers to the earthquake disaster zone in Yunnan Province, China, to supplement government relief efforts. http://goo.gl/eNwE6

~ Video: Senator Bob Huff, who represents Monrovia, outlines the budget successes and failures during the latest Senate session in Sacramento. http://goo.gl/yRLio

~ CrossFit Monrovia honors 9-11 victims. http://goo.gl/qGnrE

- Brad Haugaard

Monrovia Police: Felon With Body Armor, Biker Volunteers for Arrest, Bullying, Etc.

[Monrovia Police activities from the Police Department's Neighborhood Watch Report for September 10-12. - Brad Haugaard]

  

During the last seven-day period, the Police Department handled 468 service events, resulting in 85 investigations.

  

Felon in Possession of Body Armor - Suspect Arrested

September 10 at 4:20 p.m., a speeding vehicle in the 2100 block of South Myrtle was stopped by an officer on patrol.  The driver was identified and found to be on felony probation.  A consent search of the vehicle was conducted and a bullet resistant vest was found in the vehicle.  The suspect was arrested for the charge of felon in possession of body armor.

  

Fire Assist

September 10 at 10:09 p.m., officers responded to a local private college in the 100 block of East Huntington due to smoke coming from the roof of the building.  The Foothill Air Support Team helicopter was on scene as officers arrived to check for flames.  Air Support advised that the smoke was coming from the northwest corner of the roof.  Officers evacuated the entire building and stopped northbound traffic on Myrtle and westbound traffic on Huntington.  The Monrovia Fire Department arrived and located an air conditioning unit on the roof that was on fire and put the fire out.  There were no injuries involved.  

 

Possession of a Controlled Substance - Suspect Arrested

September 11 at 4:01 a.m., an officer on patrol stopped a male adult riding a bicycle at Peck and Longden for a traffic violation.  Prior to any search, the subject stated he was on parole and had methamphetamine in his pocket.  The officer retrieved a small plastic container that contained methamphetamine.  The suspect was arrested and taken into custody.

  

Under the Influence of a Controlled Substance - Suspect Arrested

September 11 at 10:08 a.m., a couple was arguing in the lobby of a hotel located in the 900 block of West Huntington and police were requested.  The subjects left the location prior to officers arriving, but were found nearby in a parking lot.  The officers contacted the subjects and determined the male subject to be under the influence of drugs.  He was arrested and taken into custody.

  

Burglary

September 11 at 9:58 p.m., a male subject at a gym in the 700 block of East Huntington put his property in a locker and secured it.  When he returned to the locker, he found his lock missing and his wallet stolen.  Investigation continuing.

  

Possession of a Methamphetamine Pipe / Driving on a Suspended Driver's License - Suspect Arrested

September 12 at 3:57 p.m., Special Enforcement Team officers on patrol observed a driver acting suspiciously in the north end of the city.  While the officers were following the suspect, they saw the driver throw a glass pipe out of the vehicle.  When the officers tried to stop the vehicle, the driver slowed down, but did not stop for several hundred yards, eventually stopping at Foothill and Heliotrope.  The suspect was also found to be driving on a suspended license.  He was arrested for the above listed charges without further incident.

  

Grand Theft Auto - Suspect Arrested

September 12 at 7:33 p.m., an officer on patrol saw a suspect walking in the area of Canyon and Foothill that was wanted for grand theft auto.  The suspect was arrested without incident.  The suspect was later found to be in possession of items that belonged to residents who live in the 300 block of Wildrose.  When officers contacted the residents, it was learned they were victims of unreported thefts which occurred on September 10.  An unknown suspect had stolen their wallets from their two unlocked cars.  The victims identified their stolen property, and the suspect was additionally charged with receiving stolen property.

  

Tip of the Week: Bullying Prevention

Bullying is one of the most serious concerns in our schools today.  Bullying occurs in all grade levels and can consist of words, name calling, threatening or intimidating comments.  It can be sexually, verbally, or emotionally harmful, which often results in serious violent crimes.  If you think you have witnessed a bullying situation or your child has been the victim of bullying and you want to learn more, please go to stopbullying.gov.  Learn how you can be part of the solution to bullying.

Hot Days | Monrovia Book Sale | Staar Board Member | Damage at Mt. Sierra

~ Temperatures are supposed to be in the high 90s today and perhaps as high as 102 Friday. http://goo.gl/MsJ9C

~ The Friends of the Monrovia Public Library Fall Sale, with more than 5,000 books, will be held on October 13 & 14 in both Library Park and the Library Community Room from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The famous $2 a Bag Sale is on Sunday from 3-5 p.m. All proceeds benefit the Monrovia Public Library. Prices for regular books and media range from 25¢ to $2. Collectables are individually priced from $5 to $40. Book sellers are welcome, scanners are not permitted.

~ Charles Slacik, CPA, 58, has joined the board of Monrovia's Staar Surgical. Mr. Slacik has over 30 years of executive level experience in the health care industry. http://goo.gl/suuw2

~ A fire at Mt. Sierra College caused $15,000 damage. http://goo.gl/D4ZMc

- Brad Haugaard

Look-Ahead Football Video: Monrovia vs. San Dimas

Video: Sports writers look ahead at Monrovia-San Dimas football game. http://goo.gl/XBFv0

- Brad Haugaard

Monrovia Comedy Night | Donnelly Objects

~ The Volunteer Center of the San Gabriel Valley is sponsoring a comedy night with raffle prizes September 27 at 7 p.m. at the Monrovian Family Restaurant. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Two drink minimum.

~ Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, who represents part of Monrovia, writes "An Open Letter to Governor Brown" asking him to veto AB 1081, which in an earlier message, he said would turn California into "a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants" ( http://goo.gl/s1Qbj ). Also, he criticizes Brown for raising taxes on lumber: http://goo.gl/fLHX1

- Brad Haugaard

Old Track Removed at Monrovia Station

The old train tracks have been removed at the old Monrovia train station in preparation for the Gold Line. http://goo.gl/OVBVg

- Brad Haugaard

Meeting about Wildfires on the Edge of Town

If you are interested in "best management practices of mitigation, prevention and response to urban-interface brush fires," the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) Fire Chief Advisory Group will be held on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. in the Community Room of the Monrovia Public Library. You can't speak at the meetings, just watch. However, the "Fire Department will be holding a series of public forums and scoping meetings in the near future to allow for participation from all members of the community and those stakeholders that would be impacted by a brush fire." http://goo.gl/KuX9a

Smoke Causes Evacuation of Mt. Sierra

Smoke causes evacuation of Monrovia's Mt. Sierra College. http://goo.gl/mM8eO

- Brad Haugaard

Monrovia Flags at Half-Staff for 9-11

Flags in Monrovia will be flown at half-staff Tuesday, September 11, in recognition of Patriot Day and the National Day of Service and Remembrance. http://goo.gl/O6BHB

- Brad Haugaard

Monrovia Police: Black Tape Over Licence Plates is Suspicious, Vehicle Burglaries

[Monrovia Police activities from the Police Department's Neighborhood Watch Report for September 6-9. - Brad Haugaard]

 

Following are the weekend's highlighted issues and events.

  

Gang Injunction - Suspects Arrested

On September 7 at 8:56 p.m., an officer conducted a traffic stop in the 400 block of East Duarte for a littering violation.  Upon contacting the occupants, the officer found the three occupants to be in violation of Monrovia's gang injunction.  The occupants were arrested for the violation and later released on a citation.

 

Burglary

On September 7 at 10:44 p.m., police responded to a business in the 100 block of West Foothill regarding a burglary.  A security guard in the parking lot observed two females exit a vehicle and place black tape across the rear license plate to obstruct it.  The two females entered the business and the guard remained in the parking lot to monitor the vehicle.

  

Several minutes later, the two females exited the market with a shopping cart full of store merchandise.  As the females approached their vehicle, they saw the security guard and fled on foot, leaving the merchandise and their vehicle behind.  The officer who responded recovered enough evidence to establish a burglary and to possibly identify one of the suspects.  The vehicle was stored and the investigation is continuing.

 

Vehicle Burglaries

On September 8, four vehicle burglaries were reported throughout the day.  The burglaries occurred in the 400 block of East Cypress, the 800 block of West Hillcrest and in the 600 and 700 blocks of West Foothill.  The entry into the vehicles appears similar and was possibly made by the same suspect(s).  The door locks on all four vehicles were broken to gain entry.  The investigation is continuing.

GoDaddy Takes Down MonroviaNow.com

A hacker group called "Anonymous" crashed the GoDaddy.com hosting service ( http://goo.gl/RDmHx ), which in turn took down websites around the world, including MonroviaNow.com. MonroviaNow is not hosted at GoDaddy, but it uses a redirect service provided by GoDaddy, and without that MonroviaNow was effectively taken off line, Sorry for the inconvenience.

Update: GoDaddy.com is now saying it was fully responsible for the outage that took down websites around the world, so apparently not hackers. In an apology letter to customers the company said, "The service outage was due to a series of internal network events that corrupted router data tables." It said no customer information was released and it is giving to each customer a credit "for the value of 1-month of service for each of your active/published sites."

- Brad Haugaard

Health Screening | New Thrift Store Opening | Toastmaster Club

~ Fifty-plus health screening sponsored by Set for Life on Saturday, Oct. 13, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Fannie M. Goodwin Education Building, 925 S. Shamrock, in Monrovia. For details, email info@setforlifenews.org or call (626) 386-8701.  http://setforlifenews.org

~ United Thrift, a new thrift store, is opening in Monrovia to benefit the Foothills Pregnancy Resource Center and First United Methodist Church of Monrovia. The store will be at the church (140 E. Palm) and will hold an open house October 17 from 6-9 p.m.

~ A new Toastmasters Club is opening at the Monrovia Y. Toastmasters teaches public speaking.

- Brad Haugaard

City Manager: Monrovia Bond Rating Should Go Up When Lawsuit Resolved

Monrovia City Manager Laurie Lile told the Monrovia Coordinating Council she is "confident" the city's bond rating will go back up when the "scary" developer lawsuit for an "amazingly large amount" ($106 million) is resolved. She said she believes the developer is open to settling, but that negotiations with the Gold Line will affect those talks. Even best case, she said, the lawsuit is not going to be resolved in a couple of months.

- Brad Haugaard

New Monrovia Food-Truck Regulations Coming

City Manager Laurie Lile told the Coordinating Council that the city settled it's food-truck lawsuit because it had become clear it would lose and would have to pay the food-truck folks' attorney fees. She said the city will redraft it's rules and try to control the trucks using parking regulations.

- Brad Haugaard

Read Across Monrovia

Read Across Monrovia is looking for adults who would like to read to
young students in town on Oct. 11 from 8 to about 9 a.m. Contact
Joanne Spring if interested: jspring@altrionet.com.

- Brad Haugaard

Batchelder Tile Designs in New Monrovia Train Station

Historic Batchelder tile designs will be incorporated into the new Monrovia Gold Line Station, according to Jim Wigton, writing in the Monrovia Historic Preservation Group's newsletter. He writes that "Cha-Rie Tang, the artist who has designed the Monrovia Gold Line Station," has contacted homeowners who have the tiles and "is making impressions that she plans to incorporate into the Gold Line Station design." Examples of Batchelder tile: http://goo.gl/JxOzJ

- Brad Haugaard