West Valley Journal July-August 2012 : Page 1
Journal Monterey Park & West Valley Serving Rosemead, Monterey Park, Alhambra San Gabriel & Neighboring Communities www.sgvjournal.com July 2012 For our Chinese Language Section, please go to back cover. We hope the pages serve as a bridge to unit our our ethnic communities. Please support us in this effort ! Rosemead Ratifies Trash Contract ROSEMEAD – The Rosemead City Council recently voted unanimously to ratify a 10-year contract with Consoli-dated Disposal Services, the city’s trash company for more than 20 years. Under the ratified contract, there will be cuts in residential rates while busi-nesses and multi-family residences will see their rates stay about the same. The agreement will be put in place Aug. 1, 2013 and calls for Consolidated Disposal Services to do a variety of little things, like involve itself in communi-ty services, be willing to pick up more bulky items and to participate in program to help the city of Rosemead meet new environmental laws when it comes to re-cycling for commercial and multi-family customers. The city will collect $800,000 in franchise fee revenues in fiscal 2013 and 2014, according to the contract. After that, the city will be entitled to at least $500,000 for the rest of the agreement. The council was nearly split when it voted back in March to begin negotia-tions with the garbage company on a new decade-long agreement as the initial pro-posal lowered residential rates by 14 per-cent, but increased rates for commercial and multi-family units a great deal. Monterey Park Installs New Fire Chief 25 Cents Per Copy NEW FIRE CHIEF --Monterey Park’s new Fire Chief Jim Birrell receives his Chief’s badge from his wife, Carmen, during swearing-in ceremonies on July 11. -Photo by Dave Barron Consumer Magazine Gives Alhambra Hospital Top Marks ALHAMBRA -Alhambra Hospital Medical Center has been ranked as one of the safest hospitals in California and the nation in a report issued recently by Consumer Reports, a national consumer organization. Alhambra Hospital received a score 64 points and was listed as one of the top six hospitals in California. Consumer Reports rated hospitals for safety, using visit us at www.SGVJournal.com Twitter.com/SGVJournalnews Get the Latest News ( Continued on Page 5 ) “the most current data available to us at the time of our analysis.” The report in-cludes information from government and independent sources in 1,159 hospitals in 44 states. Among the categories reviewed were infections, readmissions, communica-tions and scanning. Alhambra Hospital Medical Center is a medium size hospi-tal with 144 beds and 700 employees of-fering many special services, according to Iris Lai, chief executive officer of the hospital. “We are a small community hospital with strengths and niche services,” Lai said. She credited the high ranking for the hospital to the work of the owners, staff, doctors and communications with the community. Alhambra Hospital ranked higher MONTEREY PARK -Before a crowd of more than 100 family mem-bers, well wishers and local public safety personnel, James Birrell was formally sworn-in as the city’s fire chief Wednes -day. Birrell could be the city’s last fire chief if the citizens vote in the future to transfer the fire department to Los An -geles County. A citizen’s committee is currently studying a proposal to transfer the fire department to the county. For the transfer to occurr, the city council must approve placing the proposal on a ballot for approval of the voters. Birrell, with 29 years of service in the city fire department, has served as acting fire chief since the departure of chief Cathy Orchard, who was the city’s first female fire chief. Birrell was offi -cially appointed by City Manager Paul Talbot last month after serving as acting fire chief for the past two years. Birrell began his career with Monterey Park Fire Department in 1983 as a firefighter and moved up through the ranks. Members of the Birrell family, in-cluding four grandchildren, assisted in placing the new fire chief’s buttons and pins designating him as “Chief.” His wife, Carmen, placed the chief’s badge on his uniform. Speaking in an emotional voice, Bir-rell thanked his many supporters in at-tendance, which included fire officials from throughout the area. Farmers’ Market Grand Opening MONTEREY PARK – The grand opening for the Monterey Park Famr -ers’ Market will take place on July 20 from 4 to 8 p.m. in the parking lot of the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library, lo-cated at 318 South Ramona Avenue. The grand opening will include spe-cial food demonstrations and food trucks and will be highlighted at 6 p.m. by a commemorative ceremony. Journal P.O Box 987 Monterey Park, CA 91754 M ONTEREY PARK, CA U.S. POSTAGE PRSRT. STD PERMIT #80 PAID
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