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Artisan bicycle racks unveiled in Hermosa Beach

By Robb Fulcher | June 8th, 2011 |
Hermosa Beach Artisan Bike Rack

The 'Crown Jewel' stands ready on the Strand. Photo by Jani Lange

Leadership Hermosa Beach will formally unveil new artisan bicycle racks 11 a.m. Saturday, June 11 at 14th Street and the Strand, celebrating a project to place decorative racks with shapes suggesting waves or surfboards at six locations around town.

The racks are the fruits of the 2011 “class project” by the nonprofit group, which was formed to identify civic leaders in the community and to provide service to Hermosa.

Thanks to the group, it will be possible to lash 33 bikes or more to racks along the Strand at 14th, 22nd and Second streets, and at Hermosa Valley Park, the Community Center, Clark Field, and on one concrete pad on private property, at E.T. Surf on Aviation Boulevard.

The “Crown Jewel” of the racks, in the shape of waves lapping an upturned surfboard, sits at the Strand and 14th. The other bike racks suggest waves without the board, and each bear the city seal. They were all designed and crafted by Hermosa artist Daniel Baranbo.

The selection of bike racks for the class project was inspired by a similar one in Long Beach, which was carried out by the city, instead of by volunteers.

Leadership Hermosa’s counterparts in neighboring Manhattan Beach also chose bike racks as a service project; the Hermosans say they made the selection first, and the Manhattanites followed their lead(ership), said Hayley Larkin, group leader for the rack project, who is also a real estate broker with a property management business.

The class of 2011 worked to select a community service project, then formed subgroups to strategize fund raising, public relations and various logistical aspects.

Jani Lange of Leadership Hermosa Beach, a sales rep in the surfing industry who is also in event management, said the 20-person class, the largest ever for the group, worked as a team to get the project done.

“We’ve put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this,” he said.

He said the diversity of the class, which included longtime Hermosans and relative newcomers, helped keep a broad perspective on the project by bringing a wide variety of viewpoints.

The class established a $6,000 budget and spent about $4,600 on creation of the racks, with the rest going to items such as a publicity campaign including fundraising T-shirts that read “I bike Hermosa,” with the word bike represented by a drawing of a bike.

The lion’s share of the money for the project, $3,300, came from an event at the Comedy & Magic Club that was headlined by Ralph Harris and featured a surprise appearance by Garry Shandling. The Beach Cities Health District contributed $1,500, and an event at Watermans raised $500.

The group chose Baranbo to craft the racks, and he began by working up designs based on concepts that the Leadership program wanted to convey.

“They wanted something that would represent Hermosa Beach culture and ties to the surf community and its influence on surf culture,” Baranbo said. “What better to represent surfing than waves and surfboards, right?”

Baranbo hand-fabricated the racks from round and square mild steel tubing, cutting with a high-powered water jet, bending the steel “using lots of leverage and manpower,” and welding everything together. The racks were galvanized and powder coated to prevent rust and add a pleasing finish. Baranbo had to slightly alter the city-seal logos “to keep them structurally sound” within the racks.

“Working with the Hermosa Beach Leadership group was a great experience,” Baranbo said. “Everyone in the group was dedicated to getting great things done within their community. I’m happy I was given the opportunity to work on such a cool project within my own community and so close to home. Hermosa Beach has done a lot for me and it’s great to be able to give a little something back.”

Leadership members said they got help and guidance from City Manager Steve Burrell, Councilman Michael DiVirgilio, Police Chief Greg Savelli, Public Works Commissioner Julian Katz, and the city’s Publics Works Department, which took up the task of installing the racks.

New artisan bicycle racks will be unveiled 11 a.m. Saturday, June 11 at 14th Street and the Strand. Those in attendance can win a bicycle donated by Hermosa Cyclery if they ride a bike to the unveiling.

 

Leadership Hermosa plans bike racks

By Kevin Cody | April 6th, 2011
daniel-baranbo-and-lauren-heath
Daniel Baranbo and Lauren Heath.
Picture 1 of 11

by Andrea N. Giancoli. Photos by Jani Lange

It was a night of laughs and guffaws for the Leadership Hermosa Beach Class of 2011 on March 2 at the Comedy and Magic Club. The side-splitting event raised over $3,000 for Leadership Hermosa Beach’s 2011 “I Bike Hermosa” campaign. The project will make Hermosa more bike friendly by installing locally, designed, artisan bike racks throughout Hermosa Beach. The racks will double as art installations to further beautify our beach city and encourage green travel.

Ralph Harris was the hilarious headliner for the evening, but an impromptu appearance by funnyman Garry Shandling took everyone in the audience by pleasant surprise. Other comedians on the laugh roster were Daniel Kinno, Dave Landau, Heidi Foss, Todd Glass, and Marty Pollio.

For more information about “I Bike Hermosa” visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ibikehermosa.  For more information about Leadership Hermosa Beach go to leadershiphermosa.org

 

January 13, 2011

Hermosans Hoop on New Gym Floor

A new gym floor has been installed at the Community Center as a gift to the city from Leadership Hermosa and the youth basketball league.

By Jacqueline Howard | Email the author | HERMOSA BEACH PATCH 6:00am
 
Sunshine glistened against the brand new Community Center gym floor Wednesday afternoon, reviving the Pier Avenue facility that has been a part of Hermosa Beach for years.

With a $19,000-grant from the Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation, Leadership Hermosa and the Hermosa Beach Youth Basketball League joined forces to renovate the eroding floor.

"The gym is done, it's open, it's being used," Leadership Hermosa's Carol Russell told the City Council at a meeting Tuesday night.

Russell proposed the idea of renovating the gym floor at a City Council meeting in September. Once the project was approved, contractors immediately began to extract the old floorboards. 

“The floor was supported by sand," City Manager Steve Burrell told the council. As he helped oversee the implementation of the project, he said that "it was done on time and on budget."

 

 

August 10, 2010

Surf Legends Memorial becoming a reality

On October 28, 2003, the City Council unanimously approved the installation of a memorial statue commemorating Hermosa's great surfing heritage with the only caveat being that it be funded entirely through donation. Public Works staff have been fundraising since then by selling memorial bricks at $200 each (71 sold to date) and tee shirts. The fundraising was going pretty slow until Leadership Hermosa's Class of 2008 adopted the Surf Legends

Memorial as their class project. They took the project to the community in a big way by organizing a fund raising event which was held at Sangria restaurant in June of 2008. This event raised approximately $30,000 after expenses. As of today we have approximately $45,000 in the project budget.

GREAT NEWS! We have just received confirmation of an additional $50,000 to be donated by a local resident, Joe Melchione. This brings our total budget to approximately $95,000, making this project a feasible reality! In addition, local contractor Bennett Talsky has offered his companies' services at no cost, including structural engineer, lighting, electrical and paving.

The artist, Phil Roberts, who has been working with us since the inception, has prepared a preliminary drawing of the new design of a bronze statue (without the water fountain component) that can be done within this budget (see attached drawing). With up-lighting and surrounded by memorial bricks, this will be very dramatic piece of art to serve as a gateway landmark for Hermosa Beach at Pier Ave. and PCH. You'll see on the back side that there will be space for Hermosa's great surfing history, photos of Leroy Grannis and his iconic photo of Dewey Weber that will be etched into the bronze along with biographies of each written for our memorial by Steve Pezman, editor of The Surfer's Journal. Phil Roberts is constructing a scale model of the statue for casting in bronze which is needed to get a cost proposal from the foundry. When this is completed I hope to be bringing a contract to City  Council for approval to start this long awaited project.

 

Blue dots project to benefit citizens
 

by Eric Michael Stitt
(Updated: Thursday, December 3, 2009 12:51 PM PST)
 
Last year’s Leadership Hermosa class was given $19,000 from the Lakers Youth Foundation to help renovate the Community Center gym, which was part of its class project. Above, the class reacts to news of the large donation. Beach Cities Orthopedics also paid for painting the gym and Hermosa Beach Youth Basketball has offered to pay for the new floor. This year’s class project will be to place blue dots throughout town that locate fire hydrants to help firefighters. (photo courtesy of Carol Russell)


This year’s Leadership Hermosa class has chosen a project that aims to benefit all residents and businesses by simply placing blue dots throughout the city.

Along with learning about how Hermosa Beach works, Leadership classes pick a civic-minded project to focus on throughout the year and this year it’s making sure every fire hydrant in town has a blue locater dot so firefighters can quickly find them in an emergency.

Leadership member Erik Bleitz said the blue dots are rectangular reflectors about 5 by 4 inches in size and are placed in the lane of a road to mark the nearby hydrant, similar in appearance to a lane reflector. He said locating fire hydrants quickly during an emergency can be difficult, especially if a car is parked in front of one, if there is brush and foliage or it’s dark out. Even though there are maps that locate all the hydrants in town, the blue dots should jump out at firefighters, saving valuable time, he said.

“It’s very important because it can be difficult to locate a fire hydrant and an extra 30 seconds to a minute when somebody’s house is burning is very important,” Bleitz said.

Public Works Director Rick Morgan said making sure every fire hydrant has a blue dot is a project that’s long overdue.

Morgan said he’s grateful Leadership Hermosa is “jump starting” the city on getting the project done.

“We’re very excited about it. I think it’s an excellent project,” Morgan said. “I’ve always enjoyed working with Leadership Hermosa and I’m looking forward to working with them on this one.”

Morgan said there are about 400 hydrants throughout town and almost 200 have a blue dot, but even some of the existing ones need replacing.

Bleitz said Leadership will be in charge of locating all the fire hydrants that need a blue dot or a replacement one and the class plans to organize a fund-raiser to help pay for the cost of the dots. Each dot is about $5 he said, and lasts about 10 years. They’d like to also have enough stockpile of dots so the city can replace them when streets are refinished. Public Works will install all the new dots.

Hermosa Beach Fire Chief David Lantzer was unavailable for comment at press time, but Bleitz said Lantzer expressed excitement about the class’s project.

“The Fire Department said it’s very important for us to have these,” Bleitz said.

Dorothy Forba-Hartley, director of recruitment for Leadership Hermosa, praised the class and said they chose a great project that will benefit homeowners, renters and businesses for years to come.
“It encompasses the entire community,” she said. “I know I’m going to see great things from this class. This is a really remarkable class.”

Bleitz said he’s already learned a lot from his two months with Leadership and is anxious to see the “behind the scenes” work that’s part of successfully running a city.

“It’s really been an eye-opening opportunity, Bleitz said.

For more information about Leadership Hermosa, visit www.leadershiphermosa.org.

 

 

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