By Ted AYALA

Those who can’t help but juggle their phones and MP3 players while driving may want to start curbing their bad behavior. Glendale City Council approved the acquisition of a $200,000 grant that would go into curbing distracted driving.

The grant, which is provided by the state’s traffic safety program, will pump $200,000 into the city’s distracted driving enforcement program.

“What [these finds] would do is allow us to supplement our existing resources,” said Carl Povlaitis, representing Glendale Police. “The way that [Glendale’s] traffic safety department works is that it does not provide full-time personnel, but [the state] provides grants on a competitive basis to allow us to address these problems. Distracted driving is one of the major problems we have in Glendale. This [money] will supplement our resources.”

Povlaitis also assured council that no further monies would need to be appropriated in addition to the grant.

“I’m certainly in favor of traffic safety … especially with distracted driving enforcement,” said Councilmember Rafi Manoukian.

Council also approved a grant to the city’s libraries that would aid the system’s efforts to digitize its collection and improve the efficacy of its English language literacy programs.

The funds allocated for the libraries will total $10,000.

Representing the city’s libraries was Jay Wollenhaupt who noted the importance of acquiring the grant.

“This is sort of a pilot project the state did to see how the scores of people who went into our program were affected,” he said.

The literacy program sign-ups are at the Glendale Central Library where tutors are matched with pupils. Though the program aids those for whom English is a second language, it also helps those native English speakers who are in need of improved literacy skills.

“This is an important item and the community needs to know about it,” said Manoukian before council approved it unanimously.

  Ted Ayala