Palisades PRIDE has plans to install a 10-foot-high decorative clock on Swarthmore Avenue in front of the Baskin-Robbins shop. ’It will be a nice landmark feature on a major street in downtown,’ said Sam Rubin, president of PRIDE, which was established in 1992 with the mission of enhancing the visual appeal of the Palisades, especially the business district. The clock, which will cost about $15,000 including installation, will replace a dead Chinese flame tree that Palisades PRIDE member Hal Maninger and his wife, Jean, purchased. In 1996, Maninger and Chuck McGlothlin led an effort to beautify Swarthmore with new sidewalks, lampposts, hanging flower baskets, benches and trash bins. The ficus trees, which were tearing up the sidewalks, were replaced with 18 Chinese flame trees. While all the other Chinese flame trees thrived, the Maningers’ tree died about four years later. They bought another tree to replace it, and then that tree died. ’We concluded that we were wasting our money,’ Maninger said, adding that he speculates the soil is damaged because Baskin-Robbins clients dump their leftover ice cream and trash on it. PRIDE now plans to purchase the two-dial clock, which will sit on a cast aluminum post with forest green finish and gold highlighting, from Electric Time Company, based in Massachusetts. The organization will then hire Alexander Construction, Inc., based in Woodland Hills, to install it. So far, PRIDE has raised about $8,000 from the Riviera Masonic Lodge No. 780, Optimist Club, Chamber of Commerce, Swarthmore Merchants Association and individual PRIDE members. Rubin is talking to two other potential donors to close the funding gap. PRIDE has submitted a permit application to the Los Angeles Board of Public Works’ Office of Community Beautification to install the clock. Rubin expects to hear back in the next two to three months. He has received letters of support from L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, the Pacific Palisades Community Council, the Village Green, Swarthmore Merchants Association and the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association. The clock will be synchronized to a GPS satellite to ensure that the time is always accurate, Rubin said. Palisades PRIDE will have its name displayed on the top. ’This proposed street clock is the cherry that never got placed on the sundae,’ Rubin said of the beautification work completed in 1996 by Maninger and McGlothlin, who received the Palisadian-Post’s Citizen of the Year award in 1997 for their efforts. PRIDE continues to sell sidewalk tiles on Swarthmore for $450 and is also looking for someone to donate $1,500 to pay for the bench in front of the old Wells Fargo building (Wells Fargo relocated to 15240 Sunset Blvd. on April 26). The donor will have his or her name placed on a plaque next to the bench. All money donated supports PRIDE’s projects around town. Information: www.palisadespride.com.
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