By Mary O’KEEFE

The Glendale City Council meeting on Tuesday night focused on honoring those within Glendale and highlighting the City’s unique diverse art culture.

Samples of the winning young artists’ work were honored with a mayor’s commendation for the 2023 Children’s Bookmark contest. This was the 46^th annual contest and the artists’ ages ranged from preschool to eighth grade. The theme was “Find Your Voice” and there were 700 entries received from students from Glendale Unified School District as well as other areas. There was one winner in each grade level.

The bookmarks will be on display throughout Glendale beginning June 1.

Mayor Dan Brotman shared a proclamation for EMS (Emergency Medical Services), which includes EMS staff at both the Glendale Fire Dept. (GFD) and Glendale Police Dept. (GPD), and paramedics. Bat. Chief Todd Tucker accepted the honor.

GFD responds to 20,000 calls a year with 85% of those calls being medical in nature, Tucker said.

“We are pretty busy out there,” he said.

He added that it was important for the public to be involved in and to get trained in CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). The GFD will be holding sidewalk CPR training events on June 1 at Glendale Community College from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at the Americana from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

GPD Chief Manuel Cid shared information on the arrest of a suspect who allegedly sold fentanyl resulting in the death of one young local man and caused another young man to be transported to the hospital. Cid joined a press conference with law enforcement agencies that included Dept. of Justice, Drug Enforcement Agency, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. and several local agencies regarding National Fentanyl Awareness Day on May 9 and the announcement of a dozen new federal cases targeting fentanyl dealers who, in all but one case, allegedly sold fentanyl and fake pills containing fentanyl that directly resulted in the death of at least one victim.

See page 6 in this edition of CVW to learn more about the GPD arrest of the suspect who allegedly sold fentanyl to two local men, one who died due to the drug.

GFD Chief Timothy Ernst then shared information on last week’s collapse of a roof at a local studio.

On May 3, GFD was called to the East End Studios that is located next to GFD Station 22. One of the fire command staff was at the station when the studios’ roof collapsed.

“He felt and heard the thunderous sounds,” Ernst said of the collapse. “It shook the ground that much.”

He added firefighters responded to the massive steel web truss spanning the building, about 100 feet by 300 feet, which all at once failed. Agencies assisting Glendale included Pasadena, Burbank, San Marino and two helicopters from Los Angeles Fire Dept. In all, 75 firefighters responded.

There were 75 construction workers at the location; six were injured with five transported to the hospital and then released.

“It was truly a lucky day for the construction workers on scene,” Ernst added.

Councilmember Ara Najarian asked what was being done regarding the construction company and an investigation in the aftermath of the collapse.

Bradley Calvert, AICP, director of Community Development for the City of Glendale, said that building inspectors arrived immediately and red tagged the location. After an inspection, the building was deemed safe to enter. Upon further investigation it was then yellow tagged, allowing workers to clean up the site.

Najarian said he was very concerned and that no additional work should be done at the studios until there was a safety review.

“Let’s not clean up the mess and say, ‘Go at it guys.’ I think that would be a mistake,” he said.