The new Type III Wildland Engine was specifically designed to traverse through the rough terrain of Catalina Island while carrying a large amount of water. With a capacity of 700 gallons, the Catalina Type III Pumper engine holds more water than standard pumpers, and can tilt up to 27 degrees without rolling over. When connected to a water source, the engine can pump out 750 gallons of water per minute.

“This new engine will give our fire crews an upper hand when battling brush fires in the remote areas of Catalina Island,” said Supervisor Knabe. “It is important for fire crews to be well-equipped to battle wildfires until help from the mainland arrives.”

The engine is currently being outfitted with radios and equipment and will be in service on Catalina Island by December 1, 2011.

The $5.423 million project was constructed on a parcel of land adjacent to City Hall that was donated to the County by the City of Avalon. The building is a two-story, 7,005 square foot lifeguard/paramedic station, which consists of a two-bay apparatus area for housing a paramedic truck, a utility vehicle and watercraft trailers; an office with storage rooms; and a reception area with a public restroom. Additionally, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission through its Civic Art Program commissioned artists Sandow Birk and Elyse Pignolet to create a ceramic tile mural for the fa cade of the new Avalon Lifeguard Paramedic Headquarters.

Los Angeles County lifeguards have faithfully and effectively served Catalina Island for 40 years, said Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman. With the completion of this state-of-the-art facility, their base of operation and commitment to the Avalon community is solidified. We are very appreciative of the collaboration with the City of Avalon and Supervisor Don Knabe to accomplish this important project.

The Avalon Lifeguard facility will also have one unique feature among all of the County’s similar buildings. This will be the first to include dormitory space for workers, which will consist of a living room, kitchen, dining room and bedroom space for up to eight personnel. County lifeguards on Catalina Island are on-call for 24-hour periods, meaning that anyone stationed in Avalon must secure housing in the City’s limited and expensive housing market. With the new building, lifeguards will be able to complete their shifts without having to acquire housing off-site.

I am very excited about this new station, which was a truly collaborative effort between the City and County, said Supervisor Knabe. I know that the lifeguard station will enhance current operations here in Avalon. Currently, the housing we do have for our lifeguards is in short supply so this new station will allow our lifeguards to have the housing that they need to provide critical services to the both the residents and visitors of Avalon.

The grants for the Fourth District are part of awards totaling $4,418,000 to 153 nonprofit arts organizations countywide for fiscal years 2009-10 and 2010-11. An estimated 9 million people will be served by the organizations receiving grants.

23 additional Fourth District organizations will also receive grant funds in 2009-10 through two-year awards made last year, bringing the total number of Fourth District organizations funded by the Board of Supervisors to 43. A double asterisk next to the organization name indicates a first-time grantee.

ORGANIZATIONAL GRANT PROGRAM I/SMALL BUDGET ORGANIZATIONS

Bluepalm: Art Culture Education (ACE) (Los Angeles)

Grant Amount: $11,400

Project: To provide, for the first time, salaries for the Executive and Artistic Directors

Chorale Bel Canto (Whittier)

Grant Amount: $18,700

Project: To support development of marketing plans, improve the website, and develop a succession plan.

Culture Shock Los Angeles Dance Troupe (San Pedro) **

Grant Amount: $19,400

Project: To support Program Director position, professional development for teaching artists, and program evaluation.

JC Culture Foundation (Cerritos) **

Grant Amount: $4,200

Project: To support the purchase of performance and technical equipment and hire a part-time administrator.

Long Beach Community Concert Association (Long Beach)

Grant Amount: $13,500

Project: To support artists’ fees for two concert seasons.

Los Cancioneros Master Chorale (Torrance)

Grant Amount: $7,800

Project: To support the production of eight concerts.

Whittier Community Theatre (Whittier) **

Grant Amount: $8,900

Project: To support musicians for productions.

ORGANIZATIONAL GRANT PROGRAM II/MID-SIZE BUDGET ORGANIZATIONS

Downey Symphonic Society, Inc. (Downey)

Grant Amount: $13,500

Project: To support funding for the live concert part of our Music In the Schools Program.

Hernandez Mariachi Heritage Society (South El Monte)

Grant Amount: $15,200

Project: To recruit sponsors, help sites become financially self-sustaining,establish new sites and provide curriculum training.

Institute of Art, Music and Science (Bellflower)

Grant Amount: $11,500

Project: To support fundraising and development plans to increase the participation of low-income children in music education.

Khmer Arts Academy (Long Beach)

Grant Amount: $38,600

Project: To support the Salon Series.

Regina Klenjoski Dance Company (Long Beach)

Grant Amount: $14,100

Project: To support the administrative manager and booking managers .

Rio Hondo Symphony Association (Whittier)

Grant Amount: $17,700

Project: To support planning initiatives with new conductor and a grant writer.

San Pedro City Ballet (San Pedro)

Grant Amount: $11,600

Project: To support the development of a year-round studio performance program that advances works-in-progress.

Shakespeare by the Sea (San Pedro)

Grant Amount: $21,600

Project: To support the Artistic Director and Festival Producer staff positions.

South Bay Ballet (Torrance)

Grant Amount: $21,400

Project: To support artistic and administrative staff.

ORGANIZATIONAL GRANT PROGRAM 2.5IMID-SIZE BUDGET ORGANIZATIONS

Angels Gate Cultural Center (San Pedro)

Grant Amount: $31,900

Project: To support visual and performing arts programming.

Arts Council for Long Beach (Long Beach)

Grant Amount: $75,500

Project: To support temporary public arts projects in vacant lots.

Friends of the Cerritos Center (Cerritos)

Grant Amount: $45,100

Project: To support educational programming and professional development workshops for teachers.

Long Beach Opera (Long Beach)

Grant Amount: $35,700

Project: To support two fully-staged large scale contemporary operas.

The projects include resurfacing and improvements on Meyer Road from Leffingwell Road to north of Imperial Highway, and Valley View Avenue from Telegraph Road to north of Imperial Highway. Other resurfacing projects will be completed with the $2.3 million in federal funding from the Federal Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in the Florence-Firestone area. A total of 68 jobs are expected to be created as part of these projects.

ARRA is intended to not only save existing jobs and create new ones, but also to improve our local infrastructure with projects exactly like these. We will be using these stimulus funds not to grow government, but instead to grow our local businesses that we will be contracting with to complete these projects, said Supervisor Knabe.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works will deliver 19 transportation infrastructure projects throughout the County using over $46 million of ARRA funds. Public Works is actively seeking small businesses and community based enterprises to bid on contracts for this and future ARRA Stimulus projects. County businesses seeking more information regarding these and future ARRA Stimulus projects may visit the Public Works Business Outreach website

at http://dpw.lacounty.gov/PRG/business

This project will be advertised for construction bids early next month.

Under the Governor’s government efficiency proposal, DBW would be merged into the California Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR). DBW, which is completely self-funded by the boating public’s resources, currently funds launch ramp construction, loans for marina construction, construction of boating safety centers, boating safety and law enforcement programs, abandoned vessel removal, public outreach programs, and even weed control in boating areas throughout the State. If the two Departments merge it will likely result in cuts and delays to current projects and programs for boaters, including the County projects and programs.

The County of Los Angeles directly benefits from many DPW programs: the Department of Beaches and Harbors benefits from grants and loans for dock construction; the County Lifeguards get funding for boats, as does the Sheriff for boats and safety programs. The County will need to find different funding, if such funding is even available, for these projects and programs.

The Department of Boating and Waterways is critical to the future of boating in California, and any diversion of funds may result in the rapid deterioration of California’s boating waterways and infrastructure, said Supervisor Knabe. Additionally, diverting its resources to another State department, which has its own priorities, robs the very community that funds it. Boaters will still pay registration fees, but they won’t be getting the full benefit of those fees as they have in the past.

The first project allocates $415,000 in Cities Excess Funds to the City of Avalon to continue the restoration of Joe Machado Field, a community park that was damaged by mudslides and flooding following a wildfire on Catalina Island in May 2007. The total cost of the restoration is estimated at $1.4 million and will be completed in four separate phases. The first phase, removal of debris and demotion of the damaged areas of the park, is currently underway.

In exchange for the $415,000 allocation, the City of Avalon will return an earlier grant for the exact same amount of money that had been previously given to the City. In June 2005, the County committed $415,000 to Avalon from the 1996 Safe Neighborhood Parks Proposition fund. That initial grant was to be used for the construction of a community center, but the project was postponed due to lack of additional funding. Because of the community center postponement, the City of Avalon will return the initial $415,000 grant to the County in exchange for today’s new grant for the same amount of money. The funds from the new grant can then be applied to the restoration of Joe Machado Field.

The second project allocates $500,000 from Fourth District Capital Project funds at the request of Supervisor Knabe to help the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy complete road improvements across portions of Catalina Island. The money will be used for making all-weather improvements to roads that are currently unsealed and dirt roads.

The study, Revitalizing Arts Education Through Community-Wide Coordination, cites Arts for All as an outstanding example of how organizations that pool resources and coordinate activities can make it possible for more children to benefit from arts learning. Leadership is identified as a key factor in the success of such efforts and the study underscores Arts for All’s setting of standards for collaborative approaches and particularly its success in garnering community-wide support for the initiative.

Among the key partners in the initiative, helmed by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, are the Music Center, the California Alliance for Arts Education, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros. Entertainment and The Getty Foundation.

Since 2002, when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors adopted Arts for All, the initiative has made great strides:

- Arts for All is now at work in 28 of the County’s 80 school districts, representing 410,066 K-12 public school students or 40% of the County’s public school population minus the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has its own arts education initiative launched prior to Arts for All.

- 16 of the districts now have arts coordinators at the district level, one of the five critical success factors for arts education for all students in a district.

- Arts for All, through coordination with the school districts, leveraged the historic arts education allocations from the state of California in 2006-07 and 2007-08 to expand and deepen the work of the initiative. Nine districts joined the program in 2007-08 as compared to four the previous school year. Districts that were already part of Arts for All were able to accelerate the implementation of key strategies.

Los Angeles County was one of six initiatives in the country examined in the study; the others were in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York City and Alameda County in Northern California. Los Angeles County’s initiative is the largest in number of students and schools (p. 26 of the report) and the only one driven by a local arts agency.

The study highlights Los Angeles, Alameda, and Dallas as the three case studies that deliberately combined several strategies, especially in their attempts to improve access. They all conducted audits, set a goal of access for all, developed strategic plans, made a case for arts education and advocated for the arts, these activities complement each other well and are more powerful in combination than in isolation (p. 77).

The study was commissioned by The Wallace Foundation and conducted by RAND, a non-profit research organization. The complete study is available at www.rand.org

For more information about the Arts Commission and Arts for All may be found at
www.lacountyarts.org