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| 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) |
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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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