Bits 'n' Pieces

ACS Launches Strategic Plan Process

The public is invited to participate in a community workshop to start developing a strategic plan for Long Beach Animal Care Services (LBACS). The workshop will be held on Sunday, March 3, from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the El Dorado Park West Community Center, 2800 Studebaker Road.

The workshop hopes to engage the Long Beach community in LBACS’s long-term vision and strategic direction. Comments about issues facing cats, dogs and other animals, the mission of LBACS, LBACS’s impact in the community, and planning for future LBACS operations and organization will be solicited.

The agenda will include: an overview of the strategic planning process; an introduction of the Mayor’s animal care visioning task force that is providing input on animal care services operations and goals; and an introduction of leading shelter consulting firm JVR Shelter Strategies, LLD.

For more information about the workshop, call Staycee Dains, manager of Long Beach Animal Care Services at (562) 570-3051.

ACS continues its 10-year trend of increasingly positive results for shelter animals as well as ongoing medical and infrastructure improvements:

From 2017 to 2018, ACS decreased the number of animal impounds by 13.2 percent.

Total euthanasia was reduced by 6.7 percent in 2018 from the year before.

Over 2,200 animals taken by the spcaLA and local rescue groups, an additional 686 were adopted directly from the ACS operated shelter.

Measure A funding of about $450,000 for the ACS facility have provided new cottages for the cat population and will enable future investments.

A full-time veterinarian position has been approved to improve medical services for shelter animals. A full-time Adoption/Volunteer Coordinator will increase the animal adoption and volunteer programs to improve the live release rate for 2019.

Long Beach Architecture Week Presented

Long Beach Home + Living is thrilled to present Long Beach Architecture Week 2019, a series of tours, events and educational opportunities that celebrate architecture, promote preservation, sustainability, and new developments. Beach Architecture Week will be presented concurrently with a special issue of Long Beach Home + Living Magazine dedicated to celebrating the incredible history, diversity, and future of the architectural environment in our city.

Our city is experiencing one of the greatest building booms in its history. Long Beach Home + Living is offering the opportunity for residents and visitors to experience the city as a living organism through its cherished, historic buildings that anchor the community. The Long Beach Home + Living Architecture Issue will delve into historic structures and their stories, including the Art Deco building boom on the heels of the 1933 earthquake and the new building boom that promises to create the iconic buildings of our future.

Proposed tours include an Art Deco Bus Tour through downtown with Art Deco Expert John Thomas who is currently working with the preservation team at the Queen Mary. A walking tour of homes by noted craftsman bungalow builder Minor Smith with CSULB Professor Norbert Schurer. The week will culminate in a signature tour of iconic high rise buildings that shape the Long Beach skyline. Long Beach Home + Living is working to provide participants with unprecedented access to some of the most important buildings in Long Beach. Talks on historic architecture, preservation, and new and noteworthy building projects in our city promise to enhance the week’s experiences.

We are grateful to have amazing community collaborators for Long Beach Architecture week, including Studio One Eleven, American Institute of Architects (AIA) Long Beach/South Bay Chapter, Art Deco Expert John Thomas, East Village Association president Joe Harding, Dr. Brian Trimble who developed the popular Modern Home Tour for University Art Museum at CSULB, and many more.

For More information go to: www.lbarchitectureweek.com.

Zero Cases of Virus

Health officials announced for the first time in nearly a decade there had been no cases of West Nile Virus (WNV) reported in Long Beach in 2018. The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services’ (Health Department) Vector Control and Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) programs work closely to coordinate efforts around mosquito control by focusing on mosquito abatement along with education and outreach.

WNV first appeared in Southern California in 2003 and in Long Beach in 2004. Long Beach has documented human cases of WNV almost every year since it arrived. Last year, Long Beach experienced 15 human cases, and in 2016 there were 53 human cases.

WNV is transmitted through the bite of an infected Culex mosquito and can cause fever, body aches, rash, nausea, vomiting and headache. Most people infected have no symptoms. Approximately one in 150 may develop a more serious disease, such as brain inflammation or paralysis, and on rare occasions, illness can lead to death.

In addition to monitoring and treating mosquitoes in public areas daily, the health department works diligently year-round to educate residents on how to protect themselves from mosquitoes, report mosquito breeding, and take action against mosquito infestation around their home. The health department participates in numerous community outreach events, and PHEM has a hotline (562-570-7907) and online reporting system where residents can report mosquito cases and receive education and prevention tips on how to eliminate breeding sites and prevent mosquito bites.

For more information on how to protect from mosquito bites, the community can visit www.longbeach.gov/mosquitoes, or call the Mosquito Hotline at (562) 570-7907.

No Stamp, No Problem

2019 is the first year that all California vote-by-mail ballots will come with prepaid postage return envelopes. This week marks the beginning of vote-by-mail ballots being sent to voters for the March 26 Special Primary Elections in Senate Districts 1 and 33 – these are the first state elections to occur under the new prepaid postage return envelope law.

AB 216 (2018), authored by Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez, amended the California Elections Code to require that all vote-by-mail ballot return envelopes have prepaid postage. The bill became effective Jan. 1, 2019.

Starting today, vote-by-mail ballots will be sent out for the March 26, 2019 Special Primary Elections in Senate Districts 1 and 33. These special elections were triggered when Senator Ted Gaines resigned his Senate District 1 seat after winning election to the California Board of Equalization and Ricardo Lara resigned his Senate District 33 seat after being elected California Insurance Commissioner. Senate District 1 encompasses all of Alpine, El Dorado, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, and Siskiyou counties and portions of Sacramento and Placer counties. Senate District 33 is wholly contained in Los Angeles County.

O’Donnell Introduces Hospital Transparency Bill

Assembly member Patrick O’Donnell (D – Long Beach) introduced Assembly Bill 1014 Feb. 21, which will require hospitals to provide a 180-day public notice before closing or eliminating services. Current law only requires a 30-day notice before closing a hospital and 90 days before eliminating emergency services.

“Hospital closures are devastating for communities. Just last year, Community Hospital of Long Beach closed its doors after abruptly diverting emergency room patients to other hospitals with little notice to residents. There was very little time to engage the hospital provider on an alternative to closure, and patients ultimately paid the price. There are longer wait times for services, longer ambulance travel times, and overcrowding at other facilities,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell also continues to work with the City of Long Beach and stakeholders to reopen Community Hospital of Long Beach. He plans to introduce legislation to extend the hospital’s seismic compliance deadline should the city finalize an agreement with a new provider.

AB 1014 is pending referral to its first policy committee.

$300,000 Planning Award for Davies Launch Ramp

The Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine has received a $300,000 Facility Planning Grant from the California Department of Boating and Waterways (DBAW) to design improvements for Davies Launch Ramp. The Davies Launch Ramp is located below the Davies Bridge at the cross street of Second Street and Marina Drive.

DBAW supports the operation and maintenance of publicly owned boat launching facilities. The grant will go toward completing designs, obtaining permits and establishing an engineer’s estimate of probable costs for future improvements, which includes replacing the existing seven-lane concrete V-grooved boat launch ramp with one that meets current design standards; replacing the pile-guided dock and gangway used by trailer-able vessels; and replacing the concrete apron and slip protection as needed. The plan will also estimate costs for building a new restroom, overlaying and re striping the parking lot, replacing the boat wash station waste enclosures and lighting, installing a fish cleaning station and additional signage.

The completed plan will put the city in position to act when construction funding is identified for the project.

LB State Top Destination for Transfer Students

Cal State Long Beach enrolled nearly 3,800 transfer students for the Fall 2017 term, a number that placed the campus among the Top 10 U.S. transfer destinations in a new U.S. News & World Report survey.

U.S. News & World Report surveyed nearly 1,200 colleges and universities. Only nine of those institutions enrolled greater numbers of transfer students for the Fall 2017 term.

On average, surveyed institutions enrolled fewer than 500 transfer students for Fall 2017.

The Long Beach campus received more than 91,000 total applications for the Fall 2017 term, and nearly one third of those applications came from students wanting to transfer from another school. The campus received even more applications for the Fall 2018 term – a record of more than 102,000 total applications.

2019 Impact Award Winners Announced

The Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office announced the winners of the Eighth Annual IMPACT Awards. Each year, IMPACT Awards are bestowed on those who have made “a positive, significant impact in the City of Long Beach in the past year.”

Those selected to receive City Prosecutor IMPACT Awards this year include:

1) Long Beach Police Detective Steve Fox, who will be given the Kim Maddox Impact Award for his investigation of vehicle-related crimes, including a significant case where a truck driver was convicted of manslaughter after a jury trial in August 2018.

2) Jason Ballou and Evelina Rubio, of Lutheran Social Services of Southern California, South Bay/Long Beach, for assisting with intensive case management and housing for homeless individuals.

3) Cinthya Alcaraz of Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH), Court Linkage Program, and Bill Tarkanian of Los Angeles Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse (LACADA), for helping to initiate and administer Long Beach’s Priority Access Diversion (PAD) program.

4) Long Beach Police Officers Nicholas Kent and Brendan Murphy, both foot patrol officers assigned to Belmont Shore, for their assistance with the City Prosecutor’s Neighborhood Impact Prosecutor program and curbing crime in Belmont Shore.

5) Long Beach Police Detective Denise Green, for her exceptional work in investigating and assisting in the trial of a case involving the sexual assault of a woman.

6) Downtown Long Beach Alliance (DLBA) and Broc Coward, COO of DLBA, for partnering with the Long Beach Prosecutor’s Office to pioneer and implement the Neighborhood Impact Prosecutor program in Long Beach.

7) Megan Traver, Principal of Washington Middle School, for her efforts in connection with the “All In” program, a City of Long Beach and LBUSD partnership to reduce chronic truancy.

8) Long Beach Lifeguard Captain Scott Dixon and Long Beach Police Officer Jason Lehman, for their assistance with the City Prosecutor’s Summer Internship Program and Rockett Academy educational program.

9) Long Beach Clean Team, the team of dedicated city employees focused on areas in most need of debris removal, for its assistance with cleanup of encampments near beaches, rivers and parks.

IMPACT Awards will be presented at a reception next week. Awardees are chosen by prosecutors and staff in the City Prosecutor’s Office based on efforts made by persons during the preceding year. Any person wishing more information about IMPACT Awards may contact Sherri Seldon, chief of staff for the City Prosecutor’s Office, at (562) 570-5621.

NovaWurks Supports Rocketry Team at CSULB

NovaWurks Inc., a provider of high-technology space products and services, announced today that the company is supporting California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) engineering students by providing Diamond Package level ($2,500) funding for their Long Beach Rocketry (LBR) team. LBR is actively raising funds to attend the NASA 2019 University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) in Huntsville, Alabama. In addition to the financial commitment, NovaWurks will also provide on-going support for CSULB engineering students and LBR with a variety of services and resources including: mentoring and coaching, company internship opportunities, shared laboratory space and project technical assistance.

This year, LBR is competing in the NASA 2019 University Student Launch competition. Their objective is to launch a vehicle as close to a target altitude of 5,000 feet as possible, then deploy a drone upon landing. Student Launch is a research-based, competitive, experiential exploration activity that strives to provide relevant, cost-effective research and development of rocket propulsion systems. This project offers multiple challenges reaching a broad audience of middle and high schools, colleges and universities across the nation. LBR is made up of 50+ passionate students across all fields at California State University, Long Beach.

Currently LBR is looking for additional sponsors. Sponsorship packages are being offered to organizations or individuals interested in supporting the team in their competition. They are seeking financial help for travel and lodging expenditures for 25 students to Huntsville, Alabama in April. The team’s goal is to give students an experience that will greatly assist in their academic and professional careers, as well as building a solid foundation for future aerospace industry experiences. To learn more about sponsorship opportunities, please visit: https://longbeachrocketry.com/.

CSULB Announces Process for New Mascot Selection

Long Beach State University will begin its selection of a new mascot by asking students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members to submit their ideas for evaluation later this month.

The effort began when the Associated Students Inc. Senate - the legislative branch of student government – adopted a resolution during its Jan. 30 meeting calling for a student-led process to select a new mascot. Students will be able to vote on their choice for mascot in May, an online community poll (alumni and community members) will run April. 15-May 3, and ASI will recommend a new mascot to President Jane Close Conoley in late May-early June.

Conoley will announce the new mascot in August, prior to the start of the 2019-20 academic year, and the final design will be unveiled the campus community in spring.

Students, alumni, faculty, staff, community members and others may submit mascot proposals to www.asicsulb.org/mascotsearch from Monday, Feb. 11 through Friday, March 8.

Those wishing to propose a new mascot must include a sketch and narrative explaining why their proposal would function as a quality representative for Long Beach State. Mascots based on human figures or personae will not be considered.