Inside the cozy dining hall in Temescal Gateway Park, a group of community volunteers gathered to celebrate the holidays and each other last Thursday. At a potluck dinner, the Pacific Palisades Community Council honored Mary Cole, Haldis Toppel and George Wolfberg with its annual Community Service Award for their many hours of volunteer service over numerous years. To start the evening’s festivities, Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl recognized the winners, who all serve on the Community Council. ‘[Wolfberg] has done so much for this community at every level,’ Rosendahl said. ‘He’s truly a great community leader. We love you.’ Since 2000, Wolfberg has played an active role on the Council, serving as chair from 2002-04, chair emeritus from 2004-06 and now the at-large representative. For more than 30 years, he has served as president of the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association. He is also a long-time volunteer for the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) and chair of the Potrero Canyon Community Advisory Committee. Rosendahl then acknowledged Toppel and Cole, giving them certificates and saying, ‘These two ladies care about the community and are great heroes of mine.’ Toppel has served as president of the Marquez Knolls Property Owners Association for the past two years. This is her first year on the Council, serving as secretary, but she has volunteered for committees since 2003. Cole is vice president of the Palisades AARP chapter, and the organization’s representative on the Council. She volunteers on the Chamber Music Palisades board and is a driver for the Santa-Monica-based Independent Transportation Network, which provides transportation for the elderly. Community Council vice chair Susan Nash presented the winners with glass trophies. She saluted Cole for her service to the Council such as organizing that night’s potluck and helping with the newsletter. She commended Toppel for the administrative work she does for the Council. ‘She is really the backbone of this organization,’ Nash said. ‘There is no job that I have ever heard her say ‘no’ to.’ Nash, who serves on the Potrero Committee with Wolfberg, called him her hero for his efforts to devise a community-based plan for the creation of Potrero Canyon Park and to ensure the city follows that plan. In response, Wolfberg said, ‘I have volunteered countless hours, and I have never regretted it.’ Toppel thanked the other volunteers in the room for their contributions to the community, while Cole said she donates her time because ‘I love the Palisades, and I have met really great people. It’s been a lot of fun.’

The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power is moving forward with plans to cover the Santa Ynez Reservoir, which provides water for domestic use and fire fighting in Pacific Palisades. DWP is planning to cover the 9.2-acre reservoir in the Highlands and switch disinfectants from chlorine to chloramine to meet two new rules established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The city will open bidding on a construction contract for the project today. Work is scheduled to begin in October 2009 and finish by August 2011. The anticipated cost is between $18 million and $22 million, paid for by revenue received from water usage, said Paul Rugar, DWP project manager. The DWP initially informed the community about the project in 2002 and had planned to have it complete by 2006. ‘However, when the EPA finally promulgated the water-quality regulations in December 2005, significant changes were made to the deadlines,’ Rugar said. ‘The department altered the timeline for constructing the Santa Ynez Reservoir Floating Cover Project as a result. This project is on track to be completed in time to comply with these new regulatory deadlines [by 2012].’ The goal of the EPA’s new rules (Stage 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproduct Rule and Long-Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule) is to make our drinking water safer. The DWP will switch from chlorine to chloramines to reduce the amount of disinfectant byproducts such as trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids in the drinking water. These byproducts can cause cancer and reproductive and developmental health risks when consumed in excess over many years. The reservoir is being covered to strengthen protection against microbial contaminants, especially Cryptosporidium, which can cause gastrointestinal illness. ‘Also, chloramines break down faster in uncovered reservoirs, which results in algae blooms,’ Rugar said. ‘Covering the reservoir prevents this from occurring.’   DWP representatives started meeting with a committee of Pacific Palisades residents in 2002 and devised a landscape master plan for the project area. A part of the debate was selecting a cover that would blend into the landscape. DWP had initially planned to cover the reservoir with an aluminum roof. ‘We went over every aspect of this,’ said Paul Glasgall, who served on the committee and is former chairman of the Highlands Presidents’ Council. ‘We didn’t realize how far-reaching this project was. We met every month, taking time off from our jobs, for 1′ years.’ The group agreed on a landscape plan in 2003, deciding on a green-and’black-streaked floating cover. The helipad, debris retention basin, access road and service road along the perimeter will be surfaced with a darker color to visually blend with the adjacent reservoir cover. To prepare for the project, DWP has already constructed a new cistern at Pacific Palisades Reservoir (on upper Chautauqua) for the L.A. Fire Department’s large helicopters to use for fighting brush fires. ‘Once the floating cover is in place, these helicopters will no longer be able to dip their snorkel into the Santa Ynez Reservoir, but will instead have to use the cistern at Pacific Palisades Reservoir,’ Rugar said. ‘However, the smaller choppers will still be able to land at Santa Ynez Reservoir and use the fire hydrants to fill their tanks.’ DWP has also constructed two pressure-regulating stations at Avenida de Santa Ynez and at the intersection of Romany and Almalfi ‘to improve system reliability in the service area and to facilitate the removal of Santa Ynez Reservoir from service for a prolonged period of time,’ Rugar said. Construction on the reservoir will be done in two six-month phases in the winter when the weather is cooler and the demand for water is reduced. On October 1, 2009, DWP will begin draining the water from the reservoir, which will take one month. Construction will begin in November and last until May 1, 2010. The reservoir will then be refilled until October 1. At that time, the reservoir will be drained again and construction will resume until May 1, 2011. The landscaping will be the final touch and should be completed by August 2011, Rugar said.

City Councilman Bill Rosendahl and L.A. Police Chief William Bratton hosted a town hall meeting attended by more than 300 people last Thursday to address concerns about the loss of police officers from the West and Pacific Police Divisions due to the opening of two new police stations.   Meeting at the Felicia Mahood Senior Center in West L.A., Bratton assured the audience that the move of officers was temporary. There are 550 cadets currently at the academy who, once graduated, will replace the 300 police who have been taken from stations citywide. With about 400 officers a year retiring, and if the current statistics hold, it could still take Bratton many years to get the force he wants if the City Council doesn’t put a freeze on hiring to balance next year’s budget. The audience learned that for several years now, a computer program has been tracking crime citywide and if there is a spike in crime in an area, Bratton and his commanders can move police around to serve the need of that community. But he added, ‘I am not expecting an increase in crime.’   Although the 2006 hike in trash fees was implemented in order to stop subsidizing trash collection from the general fund, thus allowing the City to use those funds to hire additional police, there is concern that the city’s budget crisis will freeze the hiring of police officers, preventing the reinstatement of officers to the Westside.   ’I’m worried that the City may renege on a promise to hire 1,000 officers,’ Bratton told the Palisadian-Post after the meeting. ‘The City has never had enough police. We’re bouncing them around all the time. We have 9,000 and we need 12,500.’   It may be a tough sell for Bratton when the city is down $86 million this year and facing a possible $400-million shortfall next year. Since he took over the department in 2002, overall crime is down, with violent crime down 48.9 percent and property crimes down 27.7 percent.   ’We need those 1,000 cops,’ he said. ‘The obligation of a democratic society is safety.’   The audience agreed with Bratton, including Richard Cohen, chairman of the Pacific Palisades Community Council. ‘Our community has special needs because of our geographical isolation,’ Cohen said. ‘When an officer makes an arrest and takes the prisoner to a jail in the Pacific or Van Nuys division [the West Division doesn’t have a jail], then our one car is pulled out, leaving our community unprotected.’   A Brentwood resident agreed, saying ‘We don’t have enough protection.’ West L.A. resident Jim Donaldson warned, ‘When the trash fee went up, we were told it would put more cops on the street. I would hope that the City Council doesn’t do cutbacks in the police and fire department.’   A woman from Playa Vista complained that her newly-built neighborhood rarely saw police officers. ‘At least lower our property taxes because we get no services.’ Several audience members questioned the wisdom of opening two new stations without the funding to man them through direct hiring. ‘There’s a $60 million commitment to open those stations,’ Bratton said. ‘If we don’t open them, they [City Council] probably won’t because of the budget crisis.’   ’We have to decide what our priority is as a city,’ Rosendahl said. ‘Do you want more police or do you want your trees trimmed?’   In order to balance the budget this year, the City used one-time fixes like hiring freezes and selling surplus City property, which City Controller Laura Chick in a recent L.A. Times article called addictive and easier than cutting programs or asking voters for higher taxes.   But residents of Los Angeles want both police and tree trimming. Rosendahl was asked about the $45 million in overtime paid to city workers in last year’s budget (which didn’t include firefighter or police overtime). El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the department that maintains the L.A. Historical Monument listed $34,500 in overtime. The Bureau of Contract Administration had $1,099,000 in overtime and the Planning Department received $624,500.   ’We will go through the budget line item by line item to find the right priorities without impacting services by the City,’ Rosendahl told the Post on Tuesday. ‘I do believe we need more officers. We’re underpoliced.’   The City funds the Commission for Women, which was made a permanent department in 1980, to assure that women have equal participation in city government. Twenty-eight years later, with one woman running for president and a second running for vice president, and more women than men attending college, Rosendahl was asked about the validity of the department, given its $292,450 budget.   ’Some are historical,’ he said. ‘But we will look at all departments, and consider consolidating and eliminating. Everything will be on the table. Everyone will have to justify his or her existence.’   Rosendahl, a former vice president at Adelphia, is familiar with the hard choices that businesses have to make and takes that experience to the City’s budget. ‘We’ll do zero-based budgeting and start with a blank piece of paper,’ he said. ‘In the private sector we justify positions or eliminate them.’

Pacific Palisades residents voted equally for Smokey and Pali as their choice of a name for the new Dalmatian puppy at Fire Station 69, located on Sunset at Carey. Subsequently, the deciding vote was cast by the Miller family, which had purchased the dog for the firefighters. Born at the Allen Kennels in Winder, Georgia, Smokey arrived in the Palisades on Saturday afternoon, and Hollywood animal trainer Clint Rowe picked him up Sunday to begin a month of basic training. Firefighter Scott Gill reported that Smokey slept through his first night in the station in his crate, until 4:30 a.m. (7:30 a.m. Georgia time), at which point the jet-lagged puppy awakened the entire station. Thus far, firemen have received checks totaling $300 from residents for their puppy fund, which will help pay for ongoing expenses. Anyone wishing to donate should make out a check to Fire Station 69 and on the memo line write, ‘Puppy Fund.’ Station 69 has a special significance for the Miller family, because on November 22, 2004, Gigi was born there when her parents realized they wouldn’t make it to the hospital in time. Each year, the family (parents Ram and Carolyn, plus Gigi and her older brothers, Jake and Cole) holds a birthday celebration at the fire station with the firefighters.