Spelling Bee Today

Besides meeting the Claremont City Council at the Farmers' Market today or attending the Japan Day fundraiser at the Claremont Colleges this afternoon, you can also check out the 6th Annual Friends of the Claremont Library Spelling Bee at Taylor Hall in Claremont's Cahuilla Park.

The Bee begins at 2pm, and there will be plenty of familiar faces on hand. The Friends of the Library have a new website with details about the event, as well as photo albums from years past. We borrowed a couple, courtesy of our friends The Friends:

City Meetings

Only two more Claremont City Council meetings to go until the council's annual August break. Here's what to expect tonight in the council chambers at 225 Second St. in the Claremont Village:


CLOSED SESSION

The Claremont City Council will meet in closed session at 5:15pm for a super secret briefing from City Manager Jeff Parker on negotiations with the Claremont police rank-and-file and management associations.

The council will also discuss a liability claim against the City by Kiran Se Corporation, the company that wanted to put a 7-Eleven convenience store in the prize-winning building at 601 E. Foothill Blvd. Seems understandable - the Kiran Se people were encouraged by city staff to proceed with their plans and then had their feet knocked out from underneath them when citizens complained about the proposed store for a variety of reasons (pedestrian safety, worries about binge drinking by college students, the usual Claremont snootiness).

In keeping with a long-standing Claremont tradition, we can probably expect a lawsuit by Kiran Se Corp., which has filed a claim against the the City of Claremont for unspecified damages. We're not sure how far that will go, though. As we recall, Kiran Se withdrew its appeal of the Planning Commission's denial of their Conditional Use Permit, so they did not exhaust their administrative remedies.

If you're interested, you can read the closed session agenda here.


REGULAR SESSION

As usual, the council's regular session begins at 6:30pm. You can see the meeting streamed online or watch it later. Just click here.

It's a light agenda.

The consent calendar shows that the City will likely deny a claim for property damage due to the construction of Padua Park.

The public hearings portion of the regular session will take up the matter of Claremont's crosswalk policy with a recommendation to not have new crosswalks installed on Mountain Ave. between Foothill Blvd. and Harrison Ave.--something that may ruffle some feathers in the neighborhoods along Mountain.

City staff is also recommending revising the City's system of in-lieu parking credits by introducing a second price tier. Businesses in the Claremont Village have a certain number of so-called parking credits that are supposed to reflect the number of actual parking spaces a business requires for customers and employees. The number is dependent on the type of business. Retailers have fewer parking credits than restaurants because stores generally don't bring in as many customers restaurants.

The parking credits can become a problem when someone wants to convert shop space into a restaurant. Under the City's current policy, that businessperson would have to pay $9,000 for every parking space deficiency they had under the formula used by city staff. The City allows businesses to purchase credits in lieu of having the actual spaces available. The proposed modification to the in-lieu parking credit policy would be to create a second tier at $1,000 per credit. The new tier would apply only to businesses employing more than 15 people or that will bring in over $500,000 annually.

We found the way City Hall looks at parking very illustrative of the general myopia afflicting our fair city. According to Housing and Redevelopment Manager Brian Desatnik's report for this agenda item, the council's recently passed resolution 97-105 states:

The Village is a mixed use neighborhood as well as a City center. People desiring to visit the Village should be able to park there. However, people should not expect that parking be available immediately adjacent to the business or place to which they are destined. The supply of parking shall not be deemed a problem as long as persons visiting a Village destination can park somewhere in the Village.

Notice that it's the City defining the parking problem. If you're from out of town and you stop in the Village to buy something, you should know that you have no right to expect to park near your destination. If you think there's a problem here, you are wrong, says Claremont.

Like many area residents, we know what to expect with Village parking, so we don't begrudge a little walk. Neither we nor the City, however, gets to define the problem. Customers and visitors do, and they'll vote with their wheels if they find the parking arrangements inconvenient.

By the way, the Conscious Claremont blog has an interesting take on this issue. They're attributing this parking policy redefinition solely to one location: the old Casa Flores building at 232 Yale Ave. Conscious Claremont says:

But, after taking a longer view, I suspect this policy may be created specifically for the Casa Flores location---there are few cases with usage change [i.e. retail to restaurant]. I was told the $150,000 CDBG grant has been earmarked for this property---the proof seems to be the lack of advertising about the funds availability, & a year has gone by with no takers. This would fit the pattern of altering general policy to facilitate specific plans.

Um, excuse us, but did we miss the City Council meeting the disposition of that $150,000 Community Development Block Grant was decided? Who decided this? If true, it's just another case of the way public policy is decided in Claremont..


WEDNESDAY, JULY 14 - COUNCIL MEETING WITH SUPERVISOR ANTONOVICH

Now we know why Claremont lets L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich ride in the City's annual 4th of July parade. It requires a lot of buttering up to secure those much-needed county grant dollars for the city's projects.

Tomorrow at 8am, the council will hold its annual meeting with Antonovich. The meeting will take place in the Citrus Room, right above the council chambers.

The council has four items on the agenda for tomorrow's meeting:

• Sycamore Canyon Park
  
• The College Ave. affordable housing project
  
• Funding for more open space
  
• Library hours
  

These are all items involving county funds. Come on out and watch the supplicants perform.

Got a Bee In Your Bonnet?

The Claremont Sunrise Rotary Club's "Phun Club" was the winner of the Fourth Annual Friends of the Claremont Library Spelling Bee. They reclaimed the title that they last won in 2007 and lost to the House of Ruth team in 2008.

The Phun Club won the grueling third round by correctly spelling "rubefacient." They faced strong competition, however, from the likes of the Jane Austen Book Club (don't let their bluestocking name fool you! Real Janeites are tough competitors!), the Ruthless Spellbinders (from the House of Ruth), and the widows'-weeds-bedecked trio, the Tombstone Terminators (Friends of Oak Park Cemetery).

The Claremont Courier also had a team this year...which is interesting, as the Courier has had an ongoing run of mispelled words in its issues.

The El Roble cheer squad performed "YMCA" for the crowd and "The Flight of the Bumblebee" accompanied the spellers as they took their seats (which were decorated with bee-shaped containers of honey).

A great time was had by all, and the emcees entertained the crowd with many a pun and poked fun at several city staples, such as the infamous Claremont trolley (how do you spell "bus"?).


Think you have what it takes to spell in the bee next year? Here are some of the words from today's bee:

stridulated (which, when read to the competitors, really sounded like "strigulated")
palladium
plenilune
speleology (this one elicited a collective gasp from the audience when it came up!)
lackadaisical
cinematheque
teratology
habiliments
brunneous
ormolu
gammelost
ghurry (don't feel so bad about missing this one...read here about a speller in Hawaii that struggled with it in 2005)
seicento
sederunt
rapprochement
Pentateuchal

Spelling Bee Sunday

Don't forget the 4th Annual Friends of the Claremont Library Spelling Bee is next Sunday, March 29th at 2pm in Claremont's Taylor Hall, located on Indian Hill Blvd. just north of Claremont High School.

The Friends of the Library will also be announcing their 2009 On the Same Page book before the Bee's conclusion. Last year's community read was Distant Lands of Our Fathers by Bo Caldwell.

Here's a video from Claremont Community College showing last year's Bee. Judy Wright shows up early on, and Councilperson Linda Elderkin makes an appearance at the 2:00 mark. It looked like Hai Muradian from The Ravelers was there, too:

4th Annual
Friends of the Claremont Library Spelling Bee
Sunday, March 29, 2009 @ 2 p.m.
Taylor Hall
1775 Indian Hill Blvd.
Claremont CA 91711

Free admission

______________________________

The Friends of the Claremont Library are also asking for book donations for their next semi-annual book sale April 30 to May 2:

Our next semi-annual book sale will be at the end of April ~ can you help us by contributing your unwanted books, DVDs, CDs or anything else you might run across during your spring cleaning? When you bring your donations to the library, please ask at the front desk for a receipt - so that you can claim your donations as a tax deduction. The staff will not place a value on your books and other items - you will need to do that yourselves.

All of the proceeds from the Friends' book sale and bookstore are applied towards funding special programs, purchasing current books and movies and presenting you with annual events such as Claremont: On The Same Page and the Spelling Bee.

Please help us if you can ~ we would be most grateful!!

Friends' Day (of the Book Sale): Thursday, April 30 4-8 p.m. (Friendships can be purchased at the door)
Open Sale: Friday, May 1, 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 2, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m

Sustainability Talk Tonight

Sustainability is all the rage right now among government policy wonks (apparently fiscal sustainability is just beginning to enter into the discussion). If you are interested in the subject, you can hear Michael Shea, chair of Claremont's Sustainability Task Force, speak at 7pm tonight at the Active Claremont meeting in the Claremont Public Library.

The library is located at 208 Harvard Ave., directly across from Claremont's City Hall.

Active Claremont has a new website, by the way. It gives a little information about the organization:

About Us

Active Claremont attempts to define issues which are of major interest to the citizens of our town. Some of the issues of concern involve local taxation, city revenues, city policies, regional issues that may impact Claremont, controversial projects, and proposals and policies of the city government.

To bring specific local issues and information before the public, the organization holds nine programs annually featuring speakers who have working, in-depth knowledge of issues affecting the daily lives of all our citizens. As part of our efforts to keep the voters informed, we also sponsor candidate forums for local elections including city council, school board, water board, and community college board of trustees.

Water Show Tonight

On a wet Friday, we received a water-related email from a reader who wanted to pass on a heads-up about a Huell Howser show tonight at 7pm on KCET. You can learn a bit of history about a really big water project, one that has a local angle:

DATE: Friday, February 6, 2009 6:46 PM
SUBJECT: Howser KCET Special 2/08/09 on Edison/Frampton Big Creek Story
TO: Claremont Buzz

Dear Claremont Buzz,

This Sunday, 2/08/09 and again on Saturday 2/21/09, on KCET Huell Howser will have a one hour program on "The Big Creek and Florence Lake Story". It has double meaning for Claremonters because of the involvement of Claremonters Bob and May Frampton and their son Rick in the program. The program tells how the largest water-to-electricity system of its type in the world, brings electricity to Southern California.

The Framptons checked and regulated lake and stream levels at isolated snowy Florence Lake from 1935-38. The films they took and an interview with their son Rick by the house they lived in there, ends the program on a beautiful note. The story gives a rare explanation of Southern California Edison Company's ingenious engineering feat in the early 20th Century. It is especially relevent now with water rationing ahead, to realize that not only our Central Valley food growers, but our electricty supply, is dependent on the High Sierra snow packs which store so much water for us.

Rick Frampton has also edited a book about his parents years at Florence Lake, filled with photographs they took, and has donated copies to several libraries in town including the Claremont Library, Honnold Library, Claremont Heritage, and the Gardens (where May Frampton lives) and Pilgrim Place.

Tuesday Mail

A ROYAL PROCESSION

One last 4th of July note, this time from a reader who seems to think Claremont Mayor Ellen Taylor is more a divider than a uniter:

Re: Ellen Taylor in the 4th of July Parade or The Cheese Stands (or rides in this case) Alone.

This year I had, for a change, a great view of the participants in the 60th Claremont 4th of July Parade. So with my up close and personal view of the parade, I was able to see the whites of the eyes, so to speak , of the parade participants. I expected to see the Claremont City Council in the usual flatbed truck on bales of hay, all five of them perched on high waving to the great unwashed in the crowd (hey, it was a hot day!). Instead., what I saw was Mayor Ellen Taylor in an old car all by herself (maybe after spending all day in the hot weather nobody wanted to sit by her) followed by Mayor Pro-Tem Corey Calaycay and Councilmember Linda Elderkin in another car, followed by Councilmembers Peter Yao and Sam Pedroza in yet another car (hey, aren't we supposed to be a sustainable city--what about 1 car or 2 Priuses?)

It occurred to me that this line-up was a perfect example of the way the Claremont City Council seems to operate these days---Ellen Taylor out in front of the pack, the Queen, waving to her subjects below and followed , at a respectful distance of course , by her loyal court. Calaycay and Elderkin together as they get along best with each other on the council, and last, and maybe least, Yao and Pedroza (remember that Yao nominated Pedroza not Calaycay for Mayor Pro-Tem) bringing up the rear. I wondered what the real reason for this line-up was and if there was a message here that I was missing . Ironically, the Claremont School Board members were all riding together on the flatbed truck on bales of hay ( a hand-me-down from the Council?).

Queen Ellen riding alone in her royal palanquin is a fitting image. All she needs is a throne. Come to think of it, she may already have one.....


POLICE STATION FIX

And then there was this from a problem-solving reader who had an idea of what the city might do with their first choice for the new police station site. Recall that the land, currently owned by Corey Nursery, has the inconvenient problem of straddling the county line:

I was just thinking that development of the proposed CPD site could be accommodated if the city were to annex the portion of that site and the city yard site into the city and exchange that small portion of developed property south of the proposed station that is in Claremont and run the county line south on the east side of Monte Vista. Just a thought.

LIBRARY FRIENDS ASK CITY FRIENDS FOR $50,000

The Friends of the Claremont Library, a group that has done good works in the past (such as helping raise money for the local LA County library's magazine collection or working to get hours extended with the help of city money), is asking the Claremont City Council to give $50,000 to the library for works by Claremont authors (i.e., former Claremont Mayor and very amateur historian Judy Wright).

While such a city donation would certainly be useful in good times, a reader contacted us and wondered if such a collection shouldn't be created through a private fundraising effort. The money could then be used for more important things like library operations, or if they weren't needed, set aside in a city rainy day fund. The city is, after all, work hard to balance its budget as it is.

Our reader says:

Dear Insider,

On the July 8 City Council agenda, there is a request by Friends of Claremont Library for $50,000. They want the money so they can catalog books by Claremont authors. Should this money not be used for keeping the library open longer hours instead? And if they think the library is already open long enough, why can't the city council just put the money in the reserve account for a rainy day - especially with the looming State $15.2 billion deficit which could negatively affect city budgets? If this project is so important, why can't the Friends solicit donations from the community with the "convincing" argument that the community could not do without the very necessary and important project? Inquiring minds want to know.

The Friends used to be a really top-notch local group that didn't involve itself in the Claremont 400 social scene. In recent years, however, the Claremont 400 have taken over the group (can't they leave anything alone?). Consequently, we get harebrained ideas such as this latest bit, which is simply an extension of the Judy Wright-Claremont Heritage myth-making effort.

Get the city to spend $50,000 on this item, make a promise of $25,000 to the League of Women Voter's extremely flawed commemorative marsh proposal, $890,000 or so on the downtown trolley. You get the picture. Pretty soon you're talking about real money.