Weeds

GLENDALE — Residents in the city’s canyon areas have started their own rite of summer — removing brush and weeds. Glendale Fire Department officials asked homeowners to clear at least 100 to 150 yards from behind their homes to prevent fires, Fire Department Capt. Tom Propst said. Fire crews clean up weeds and brush during the summer and inspect the homes to confirm they are in compliance. If the homeowner chooses to not clean up, they can be taxed. The Fire Department started sending weed-abatement notices on May 1 to homeowners in the areas of La Crescenta, Adams Hill, Forest Lawn, Verdugo, San Rafael, Glenoaks Canyon and Chevy Chase Canyon.

Hundreds of volunteers Saturday fanned out across Glendale to paint over graffiti, remove overgrown weeds and plant rosebushes as part of an effort to foster civic pride and improve the quality of life in the Jewel City. Glendale’s 21st annual Great American Cleanup, which runs in conjunction with a nationwide effort of nearly 3 million volunteers beautifying more than 17,000 communities, is one of several local events organized by the Committee for a Clean and Beautiful Glendale and the Neighborhood Services Division.

Tim Willert GLENDALE CITY HALL -- More than 700 property owners facing fines for having overgrown weeds, will get a chance to object during a public hearing at Tuesday's City Council meeting. The L.A. County Agricultural commissioner has identified 743 undeveloped parcels in Glendale with excessive weeds, brush, trash and dirt that are considered a public nuisance and a fire hazard. Property owners will be required to pay for the removal of weeds growing on the streets and sidewalks in front of their homes, which the city considers private property.

I find very intriguing the story in the book of Luke that describes an angel telling John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, about his future son John’s life. Zechariah’s wife was pregnant with John and the angel told Zechariah, “He will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous — to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17, Holy Bible, New International Version)

Tim Willert CITY HALL -- Overgrown weeds sprouting from private property is an annual problem throughout the city, and this year is no exception. The L.A. County Agricultural Commissioner has identified 743 Glendale undeveloped parcels with excessive weeds, brush, trash and dirt that are considered both a public nuisance and a fire hazard. "These are all underdeveloped parcels in the city whose property owners are given the option to have their parcel cleared by a contractor or do the work themselves," Glendale Fire Marshal Steve Howard said Friday.

trash, weeds Have you ever noticed the amount of papers, wrappers, tin cans, cigarette butts and other trash and weeds that greet you when you leave the 210 Freeway at Ocean View Boulevard, La Crescenta Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue here in La Crescenta? Motorists seem to find it very convenient to dispose of their trash at these off-ramps while waiting for the signal to change. We have a great living area here in the Crescenta Valley. We enjoy and appreciate our lifestyle for many reasons.

Inquiring minds want to know Many individuals have inquired about the vacant land on the corner of Ramsdell Avenue and Foothill Boulevard, enclosed with a chain link fence, scattered with weeds, and hosting one sign from Rich Development. I told the public it was slated to be a Walgreens sometime on their 10-year plan. The building plans are on our website ( www.yourtowncouncil.org ) under Land Use. On Nov. 29, I spoke with Joe Rich of Rich Development who immediately sent a crew to clear the weeds and cited multiple delays with permits from the county as the reason for their delay.

For all the complaints the city gets — deserved and undeserved — city leaders certainly deserved a hearty thank you from the community this week. They watched as a community mourned the loss of its oldest cemetery, as mourners scaled walls and hopped fences to tend to the graves of loved ones lost, and stepped in. It was not their job. It was not their responsibility. But they stepped in and worked to get Grand View Memorial Park's gates reopened, even if only for four hours a week, to the residents who need to visit there.

I recently finished moving to another apartment, an excruciatingly drawn-out endeavor that took far longer to finish than it should have. Of course, I complained bitterly every step of the way -- you'd have thought I was moving uphill into a POW camp. But now, with most of the boxes unpacked and the muscle aches finally starting to subside, I realize that it was far from the worst moving experience of my life. That would have been the great move of 1973, when my family moved into an old house a few blocks from the cramped apartment where we had been living.

From huffing chemical sprays to smoking poisonous roadside weeds, nothing seems to be out of the question for teens looking to get high, police warned parents this week. Displaying an array of spray cans, including body sprays and dust removers, drug paraphernalia and other chemicals sold over the Internet - Glendale Police Officer Joe Allen told parents at a meeting on Tuesday night that the items were just some of the drugs of choice these days among teens. Allen bought most of the items from a 99 Cents store, taking some parents aback as they looked on during the informational drug meeting at the Crescenta-Cañada Family YMCA.

On a sweltering morning deep in the San Gabriel Mountains, Katie VinZant donned work gloves and boots, hoisted a pickax and began bashing alien species. The 31-year-old botanist enjoys a Sunday in the Angeles National Forest as much as the next person. But when it comes to weeds that have colonized and multiplied since the 2009 Station fire, she's a terminator. Slender and trim in a T-shirt, grubby pants and tattered straw sombrero, VinZant swiped the sweat stinging her eyes.

In an effort to shorten a lengthy waiting list for federal affordable housing vouchers, Glendale is considering running criminal background checks on 4,400 people who currently receive the help to make sure they still comply with the rules. The one-time check could find violators, thus making room for the more than 5,700 qualified people on the wait list. “We've got people on the waiting list who are law-abiding and deserving, and then we have people who choose to break the law,” Mayor Laura Friedman said Tuesday.

I've had my disagreements with Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, but my hat's off to him for bucking his party by voting against the recently passed state budget. The Democratic leadership is punishing him for voting his conscience instead of what the party demanded - the price one must pay for daring to vote what's best for California, rather than what's best for Democratic politics. His political career may be over, but I salute him for risking it all for the good of California.

A flare-up of non-native growth in Deukmejian Wilderness Park is causing concern among naturalists trying to shepherd the popular North Glendale site to a full post-Station fire recovery. The 709-acre park was laid bare by the Station fire, which ripped through the foothills in August 2009. But with the destruction came certain opportunities. Glendale's Community Services and Parks Department staff last year planted 50 big-cone spruce trees. “The whole foothill area used to have a lot of big cone spruce in it, but it was logged in the late 1800s,” said park development project manager John Pearson.

It’s been a good winter for weeds in Southern California, with heavy storms softening the ground for growth that will create fire danger and other hazards later in the year. This month, Burbank and Glendale unveiled their annual lists of properties considered to be public nuisances due to the fire threat posed by unchecked brush. Property owners will be given a chance at hearings in the coming weeks to either prove they’ve taken care of the problem or face the prospect that city and county crews will clean up the properties this spring — and charge them for it. In Glendale, 647 private parcels — all but five on unimproved lots — made it onto the public nuisance list.

H omeowners facing legal action for derelict property conditions have a new option for getting their land up to snuff, one that covers any job from removing weeds and overgrown vegetation to hauling away waste and debris. The city's Property Clean Up Pros Program is an expanded version of what's been offered in previous years. The city's Neighborhood Services Division would oversee court-ordered community service workers who cleared vacant parcels and removed graffiti from the public right-of-way.

Hundreds of volunteers Saturday fanned out across Glendale to paint over graffiti, remove overgrown weeds and plant rosebushes as part of an effort to foster civic pride and improve the quality of life in the Jewel City. Glendale’s 21st annual Great American Cleanup, which runs in conjunction with a nationwide effort of nearly 3 million volunteers beautifying more than 17,000 communities, is one of several local events organized by the Committee for a Clean and Beautiful Glendale and the Neighborhood Services Division.

GLENDALE — Residents in the city’s canyon areas have started their own rite of summer — removing brush and weeds. Glendale Fire Department officials asked homeowners to clear at least 100 to 150 yards from behind their homes to prevent fires, Fire Department Capt. Tom Propst said. Fire crews clean up weeds and brush during the summer and inspect the homes to confirm they are in compliance. If the homeowner chooses to not clean up, they can be taxed. The Fire Department started sending weed-abatement notices on May 1 to homeowners in the areas of La Crescenta, Adams Hill, Forest Lawn, Verdugo, San Rafael, Glenoaks Canyon and Chevy Chase Canyon.

Half a dozen children crouched in a patch of dirt near the front entrance of Valley View Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon, hacking at an unwanted plant with trowels. The students were trying to dislodge a plant called society garlic — which smells like you might expect — that was growing on both sides of a fence that borders the school. They were clearing a small patch of land of rocks, weeds and the existing plants to make way for prettier, more mild-smelling vegetation.