The Crescenta Valley Town Council fully condemns and promotes a zero tolerance policy on racism, injustice and violence of any kind toward anyone in our community. Total respect and value for human life, as well as the dignity of every individual, must be at the forefront of our principles and conduct as citizens of a law abiding and civil society. We must be guided, at all times, by decency, compassion and understanding, and continually strive to practice and demonstrate active listening, empathy, self-awareness and kindness towards one another and our fellow community members. In trying times such as these, we look to our collective sense of goodness, humanity and community to act as our guideposts and as positive forces of change and progress. We support, promote and believe in our collective and individual right to exercise freedom of speech and to peacefully assemble and protest to make voices heard.

The devastating destruction of property and businesses and the harming of innocent people, livelihoods and communities must stop if we are to move forward in fostering constructive dialogue that will invariably result in progress; instead of further division and setbacks, we must act responsibly. As for the grievances of our societal injustices, we must address their compounding, negative impacts on our communities by fostering open, free and honest conversations, the aims of which must be to institute clear and functional solutions so that we can all collectively heal, advance and grow together.

Though we do not have all the answers, I firmly believe that, with time, patience, courage and civil dialogue, combined with long term decisive planning, cooperation and action, we will get through these troubles together and move forward toward clear paths of peace and progress.

The civil unrest throughout our communities of late has been exacerbated by the complexities associated with our efforts to cope with issues brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, including deep personal, emotional and economic pain throughout our communities. Our citizens must know that we are here for one another, that they are not alone and that there are several federal, state and local services and agencies that can help; we invite you to learn more about these by reaching out to our local elected officials and/or government offices.

We also extend to you, the Crescenta Valley High School Graduating Class if 2020 and your families, our sincerest and heartfelt congratulations. The Town Council is also honored to announce, at this time, the recipients of our community scholarship, which this year are, in no particular order: Zhanna Galstyan, Annika Park, Alexa Hernandez, Tae Wook Kim, Ravi Riley, Shyla Summers, Brenden Harvey, Madeline Yi; the Recognition Award recipients are: Samantha Moore, Asher Towner, Phoebe Barnes, Kevin Bradford, Denise Dayag, Junsink Yoon, Keegen Schmidt. Big thanks are extended to CVTC Scholarship Committee Chair Councilmember Sophal Ear and co-Chair Ted Yu.

The CV Town Council, through its Streets and Transportation Committee, has also been hard at work over the course of the past 3½ years coordinating and receiving presentations from LA Metro and County Public Works in collaboration with Caltrans to initiate the 210 Freeway Sound Wall Project scope. The main effort of this program was to assess how freeway noise most affects our residential communities along the 210 Freeway Corridor from Pennsylvania Avenue to Ocean View Boulevard.

According to the engineering report, this proposed sound wall will function as a significant noise reduction barrier for our residential neighborhoods. Over the course of the past month, Caltrans staff contacted local residents to inform them of these noise (decibel) recordings and have collected all of the pertinent data, which they will now synthesize and, once their analysis is complete, will be able to identify and make public its size, cost, and priority locations.

For those who have an interest in attending and participating in our virtual meetings and to submit comments and/or questions, we encourage you to please contact CVTC at contact@thecvcouncil.com.

Harry Leon, President

Crescenta Valley Town Council

  Harry LEON