THE VIEW FROM BLAIR HILLS

Open Board Meeting 7:00 PM

Blair Hills "NERT" Meeting 8:00 PM

Monday, December 4th

5802 Vicstone Court

(Rosie and Jon’s house)

Gabe Garcia from Culver City will discuss results of the license plate traffic survey.

All of us who have taken CERT will plan for the December 7th city-wide earthquake preparedness drill. (Note- "CERT" is the Community Emergency Response Team, and "NERT" is the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team. These programs train individuals to help neighbors in the event of a major disaster.) We all should have received information mailed by the City of Culver City about the December 7 drill (See below.).

GENERAL MEETING

Wednesday, December 6th 7:00 PM

Ohr Eliyahu School

5950 Stoneview Drive

· Lt. Williams and Lt. Ron Azuko from the Culver City Police Department will speak about a neighborhood watch program. We will sign up volunteers for a Blair Hills neighborhood watch program.

· A committee will be formed to help formulate good-neighbor ideas to resolve neighbor-to-neighbor conflicts over noise, plant growth, and other issues.

· At the request of residents, we will discuss the gate on Perham and decide whether we want to ask to have it removed, or to accept it as is.

· Materials will be brought from the city for people to apply for restricted parking on their street.

December 7th at 7:00 p.m. is Community-Wide Disaster Drill Day. As we have all seen from recent events in the Gulf Coast states, disasters can strike quickly and without warning. It can force you to evacuate your neighborhood or confine you to your home. Have you ever thought about what you would do should basic services like water, gas, electricity or telephones were cut off? Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster, but they cannot reach everyone right away.

Families can--and do--cope with disaster by preparing in advance and working together as a team. As a member of our team, I urge you to create a Family Disaster Plan, Family Disaster Supply Kit and Family Communication Plan. In the event of a disaster, knowing what to do is your best protection and responsibility. We are doing our part by making sure that every preparedness resource is at your disposal and have made this drill a priority in our preparedness efforts. This drill not only gives you an opportunity, if not a reminder, to prepare and practice your "Plan", it also gives us first responders an opportunity to implement and practice our plan.

On December 7th at 7:00 p.m. there are two things that we ask you do. The first is practice and activate your Family Disaster Plan and the second is practice and activate the "OK" Sign Program. Your Family Disaster Plan is a scenario-driven plan that you prepare with your family that allows you to discuss in advance what your family's needs and responsibilities are should a disaster strike. The "OK" Sign Program is a program wherein should a disaster strike and your Family Disaster Plan is activated, helps you communicate with first responders by placing an "OK" sign in your home at a location most visible from the public right-a-way (street) after you have verified that everyone in your home is "OK". This will assist emergency personnel by notifying them that you are "OK" and they can go directly to those who need immediate help.

Culver City recently mailed to all residents the "Culver City Family Disaster Guide," which was

funded and sponsored in part by Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke of Los Angeles County and contains detailed information on Family Disaster planning. Please read it and follow its guidelines as much as you can in preparation for this drill. Other things you can do are:

· Call Jon Melvin or Siggi Busha if you'd like someone to come by your home and identify things you can do to prepare for an earthquake.

· Check on neighbors on each side of your home.

· Come up to BH Park to help us survey the neighborhood in teams, count the OK signs and report to the fire department via ham radio. If you want to do this, attend the Dec. 4 meeting.

The BH NERT team members are:

· Vicstone: Jon Melvin (coordinator), Rosalie Kirsch, Lois Soter, Siggi Busha.

· Lenawee: Denise Friese

· Wrightcrest Drive: Patrick Hayden, William & Patricia Thomas

· Stoneview: Dorothy Steiner

· Blairstone: Richard & Cheri Sakai, Paul Richter

1. Activate your Family Disaster Plan

2. Verify that your family is "OK"

3. Call your out-of-state contact

4. Place your "OK" sign [attached to this newsletter] in a location most visible from the street (i.e. front door, window, garage door, etc.)

5. Evacuate to your pre-determined meeting place outside of your home

Culver City Police, Fire and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) will be patrolling city streets beginning at 7:00 p.m. We will be counting "OK" signs and the number of people we see evacuating. This will allow us to gauge how many residents have participated and where we need to improve our efforts. Participation figures will be posted in local newspapers as well as our website upon the conclusion of our drill. Thank you in advance for your efforts and participation. Remember, "Emergency Preparedness Begins With You."

California State Parks held a community meeting on Wednesday, November 15, at Kronenthal Park. Blair Hills residents at the meeting included Bobbi Gold, Rosalie Kirsch, Dorothy Steiner, Hank and Mim Shapiro, Harriette Williams, Mary Ann Greene, and Joyce Guinyard. There were also several disgruntled residents of the Hetzler Road neighborhood, which is suffering through the access road construction.

The presentation was by three employees of California State Parks: Sean Woods, the new LA Sector superintendent; Barney Matsumoto, the supervising landscape architect, who has been on this project since the beginning; and Karma Graham, the District Interpretive Specialist (which has nothing to do with English language proficiency). Representing Culver City were Bill Lapointe, Parks and Rec Director; Charles Herbertson, Director of Public Works, and Council members Gary Silbiger, Alan Corlin and Carol Gross.

Sean Woods gave some brief background information, noting that State Parks purchased the 58-acre property from the housing developers in the year 2000 for $32.5 million. He also noted that the passage of Proposition 84 in the recent election would provide $400 million for State Parks. Barney Matsumoto and his slide show described the Visitor Center, which will house an open air pavilion, offices, a small theatre and an exhibit hall. It will be built into the slope to make it visually less obtrusive. Improved trails will provide safer access as the hillside is re-graded to prevent slides and other slope failures. The parking lot will have 92 spaces. Karma Graham described the interpretive aspect of the park, including an interpretive garden, educational programs for adults and students, small signs around the trails, a video program in the theatre, and conservation programs involving Audubon Society.

A major part of the meeting was devoted to problems experienced by the Hetzler Road\Thompkins Way residents as the road is being widened and reshaped and a storm drain installed. In addition to the noise and dust, they are suffering from two other problems: (1) a 4" very rough steel grate has been implanted in the road to knock mud off the construction trucks, but it's throwing the residents' cars out of alignment, and (2) the Post Office has temporarily stopped delivering mail because of the access problems. Sean Woods promised to see that a gravel bypass is properly constructed so that residents can go around the steel grate instead of over it. The mail problem will be solved by installing temporary locking mailboxes near Jefferson Blvd. There were also complaints that the construction crew has a bad attitude toward the residents, which Sean also promised to address.

Mary Ann Greene requested more frequent meetings between State Parks and the Blair Hills and Hetzler Road neighborhoods.

Sean Woods assumed responsibility for dealing with unresolved problems and asked people to contact him by phone at (213) 620-6152 or by e-mail. Culver City is also monitoring the project; for problems, contact CC Senior Engineer Andy O'Connell at (213) 253-5606 or by e-mail.