A sweet event
There are often many great things to do right here in Signal Hill. The recent sixth annual pancake breakfast sponsored by the Signal Hill Historical Society at Applebee’s was a blast. It’s always great to share time and stories with other members of the community. It is often a chance to meet with the mayor, your local council members, City staff and your neighbors. It is also a chance to join the historical society and learn more about how we came to become the “Little City That Could And Did.”
With an all-you-can-eat breakfast and over $600 of donated door prizes, everybody who attended came out a winner. The historical society had dedicated the breakfast in the memory and honor of one of our past presidents— former council member and former mayor Ellen Ward. The profits of over $700 will be donated to one of Ellen’s favorite nonprofits, the LGBTQ Center in Long Beach, which helps so many people in our local communities.
To do such fun events in our city takes a team effort from our hard-working members and support from some of our great local sponsors. On behalf of the historical society, we would like to thank our corporate sponsors: Signal Hill Petroleum, EDCO, Kashiwa, Coldwell Banker and the Signal Tribune. We’d especially like to thank Applebee’s manager Keith and his wonderful staff for providing such a great breakfast. Most importantly, a huge thanks to Sylvia, Mary, Judy, Barbara, Tom, Joe, Bonnie, David, Dave, Aly, Terry, Larry M. and the many others who donated their time and helped sell tickets. We couldn’t have done it without you. Also, a big thanks to all who came out to have a great breakfast and for your generous support.
Lovin’ our great little city.
Larry Blunden
President
Signal Hill Historical Society
Getting off the hook
Please consider a few ideas I have which could help you to alleviate the problem of the many unwanted phone calls we all receive from solicitors.
First of all, do not tell them off or make them angry. Remember that they have your phone numbers and probably your addresses.
Instead, you can say in a polite way, “I’ll save your time. I never deal with solicitors on the phone, so please take my name off your list. Thank you and goodbye.” Then hang up immediately before they can argue with you.
I have a hard time being patient with the liars who say, “I talked with you last year, and you asked me to call you back.”
I tell them, “If I spoke with you, I told you not to call me back and to please take me off your list. Thank you.” and I hang up.
My relatives all have their phones on answering machines, but they are still disturbed by the ringing and having to hear the messages.
It also costs to have an unlisted phone, and you might want friends or people who owe you money to be able to find you.
Our phone companies should create rules like the ones the National No Call [Registry] unsuccessfully tried to initiate, and our cities should make it against the law to disturb our peace with unsolicited phone calls.
I rarely sign petitions, but if anyone wants to start one to make it unlawful to invade our privacy with unwanted phone calls, I will sign it.
R.A. Allen
Long Beach
Far and away
While our military commitments have been scaled back, our young men and women serving in the United States military are still in faraway lands on difficult assignments, under adverse conditions.
Many of our Long Beach family members are deployed overseas on long-term military assignments. The Long Beach Police Officers Association is currently collecting donations to build care packages for our deployed service members.
We are requesting monetary donations, cards, letters of gratitude and support. Every penny of every dollar donated will be used to purchase items and mail them to our service members.
We are accepting cash, checks and money orders, payable to the Long Beach Police Officers Association.
If you would like to participate, donations can be dropped off at the POA Office, 2865 Temple Ave. Donations must be received no later than Friday, Oct. 30. We are going to get these packages to the service members in time for Christmas and New Year.
If you have any questions, please contact [me] at LBPOA@LBPOA.org or the POA Office at (562) 426-1201.
Thank you for your support and participation.
Christopher Martin
Long Beach Police Officers Association
Sustaining inclusion
The City of Signal Hill professes to be progressive, mindful and inclusive of all its residents, regardless of gender, race, religion or sexual persuasion. Why then is its Jewish population overlooked?
After seeing an ad in the Signal Tribune seeking a volunteer member of the Sustainable City Committee, and being a concerned resident of our city, I submitted an application. The ad stated that applicants would be contacted Sept. 22 for interviews but gave no indication that it was a firm date for a committee meeting.
On Sept. 16, I received a call inviting me to attend a scheduled group orientation session late afternoon on Sept. 22 with members of the committee and other applicants. I had to decline as the 22nd is holiest of holy days for Jews around the world and involves preparation before sunset.
Yom Kippur— the Day of Atonement— is considered the most important holiday in the Jewish faith. It marks the culmination of the 10 Days of Awe, a period of introspection and repentance that follows Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Many Jews who do not observe any other Jewish custom will refrain from work, fast and/or attend synagogue services on the Eve and Day of Yom Kippur.
Coming from a corporate background, I understand how difficult it is to coordinate multiple people for a meeting and did not expect anyone to reschedule on my behalf. That said, would a meeting be scheduled for Christmas Eve?
It is unfortunate that no one in City Hall thought ahead to search the dates of the Jewish holidays for 2015. Perhaps then, meetings and functions would be calendared when all interested residents could attend and Signal Hill would truly be all-inclusive.
There’s always 2016.
M. Beth Paul
Signal Hill
Safety first?
(Ed. note: The following letter concerns Hughes Middle School, as indicated in the subject line of the writer’s email.)
Once again school has started, and all remains the same.
A year ago I alerted our city councilman and school board member that there are potentially dangerous issues for the students and their parents. I also sent recommendations about how to potentially lessen these and make the streets safer. I notice that the traffic still flows poorly and that students are racing across the street in front of cars because of double parking on Roosevelt and California. I am really not affected by this, but if I were a parent I would be concerned that there might be better ways to control the traffic, as was suggested.
Also, if I were a parent I would be concerned that my children are buying foodstuffs from unauthorized vendors on Roosevelt near Myrtle who are selling out of the back seats of their cars. Again, this has been pointed out— photos sent— and while once in a while the City will go after them, they show up again and again.
Why doesn’t the school take a more active role in controlling these issues? I have heard that some principals will patrol the neighborhood to ensure that the students’ transits are safe. Of course, the City and the district also have some responsibility in this but prefer to ignore or admire the problems without solving them.
John Oppenheim
Long Beach
Something to tweet about
Thank you @SignalTribune for this inspiring story about my client @DTapTavernCo /4th and Olive! [“Seeing the ‘abiliities through the disabilities,'” Sept. 18, 2015]
Terri Henry
@terrihenrymktg
via Twitter
