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SHP The Council granted Signal Hill Petroleum (SHP) with a six-month extension on its conditional-use permit that allows the company to operate seven consolidated drill sites with oil and gas storage, processing and shipping operations and a gas turbine facility within the city. City planning staff said the extension is needed to conduct further analysis of the sites, while developing a landscape plan and environmental reviews. City staff said SHP plans to request a long-term CUP but didn’t specify for how long. According to a staff report, SHP contributes approximately $619,000 annually to the City’s
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Public art The Council agreed to enter into a contract with artist Jon David CicMajor sponsors of the 2013 Concerts in the Park series were chetti of Land- recognized during this week’s Signal Hill Council meeting. scape Architects for the design, fabrication and installation of a new public art piece that will be placed in front of the Signal Hill Police Department’s new headquarters. The contract was awarded for $73,500. The art piece will resemble a plant-like form with a low glass block wall Ted Georges, left, owner of the Golden Eagle Restaurant, that will have his- speaks to the public during the Signal Hill Council meeting toric pictures and on Aug. 20 after receiving a proclamation from Mayor images etched into Michael Noll that celebrates the restaurant’s 25th anniversary. the blocks. Materials from the former police station will be examine the impacts of the initiative used in the fabrication of the art piece, on city services, economic developincluding the jail doors and glass block, ment and other city functions, according to a staff report. The according to city staff. analysis is expected to cost the City Right to Know and Vote The $32,665, which was not included in Council voted (3-0) to approve a the City’s Fiscal-Year 2014 budget. contract with Orange-based Urban On top of this contract, the City is Futures, Inc. to conduct an inde- also paying $30,000 for county elecpendent fiscal-impact analysis on tion costs for conducting the special the Right To Know and Vote initia- election and $25,000 for a public-infortive that will be on the ballot during mation program, according to the staff a special election in June 2014. report. Councilmember Lori Woods abstained from voting on the con- The next Signal Hill Council meeting tract award. Vice Mayor Ed Wilson will take place Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 7pm was absent. The contractor will in the City’s Council Chamber.
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Photos by Sean Belk/Signal Tribune
Signal Hill Mayor Michael Noll, right, presents Tony Virga, the son of late Frank Virga, with a certification of memoriam during the City Council meeting on Aug. 20 in honor of his father’s many years of service to the community. The Council meeting was also adjourned in his memory.
Other Council highlights Recognitions At the beginning of the meeting, the Council expressed heartfelt sympathy over the recent passing of Frank Virga, who was recently reappointed to a third term on the Signal Hill Civil Service Commission and has been a longtime community leader. The Council adjourned the meeting in honor of Virga, and Signal Hill Mayor Michael Noll presented Tony Virga, Frank Virga’s son, with a certificate in honor of his father’s dedicated service to the community. The Council also recognized major sponsors of the 2013 Concert in the Park series and presented Ted Georges, owner of the Golden Eagle Restaurant, with a proclamation, celebrating the restaurant’s 25th anniversary.
General Fun in business franchise tax, oil-well permits and oilbarrel taxes. The City pays for maintaining the Oil Field Services Program and annual facility inspections.
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been disputed by Signal Hill and other cities. However, he said the language has since been removed. “I think WRD recognizes that’s a different battle,” he said. Currently, Signal Hill has rights to pump 2,022-acre-feet of water per year from local aquifers. The City then pays WRD an annual water-replenishment assessment that is eventually passed on to residents through their water bills that are paid to the City. This allocation, however, doesn’t always meet the City’s water needs, and sometimes the City is forced to lease water or purchase imported water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) at a more expensive price than WRD’s rate. Still, for decades, cities and pumpers throughout the Central Basin have been unable to store water in underground aquifers as a way to plan for additional population growth and periods of drought and water surpluses. After several failed attempts to establish a water-storage plan that all parties can agree on, Signal Hill reached out to Long Beach in January 2012 to discuss coming up with a compromise. The discussion eventually included Cerritos, Downey and Lakewood to form a working group of five cities. The group eventually gained consensus from various stakeholders and water entities, while working through the City Manager’s Committee of the Gateway Cities Council of Governments.
tional flexibility as a community to do storage projects,” Farfsing said. “Maybe you don’t have to purchase any additional water rights for decades into the future.” He said, in total, the Central Basin has space for up to 233,000 acre-feet of water in underground reservoirs that pumpers throughout the basin may be able to tap, adding it’s important for cities to plan for upcoming water shortages as water is expected to become a more expensive commodity. “We’re really going to have to become more self-reliant as regions and as communities to deal with what could be some pretty major groundwater shortages or drinking-water shortages in the future,” Farfsing said. He added, however, that the new water-storage agreement, which includes a framework of 19 key elements, is still a “living document” and may need to be “fine-tuned” in court after it’s implemented.
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Though some large, private pumpers, including the Golden State Water Company and Tesoro refinery, may still have objections, Farfsing said the new agreement is the best shot at developing a “consensus proposal” that is more representative of all pumpers in the basin rather than the last water-storage plan. He said the new agreement establishes a “pumper panel” of water-rights holders, superseding a “watermaster,” to determine whether to allow cities and other pumpers to store water in underground aquifers and enable them to purchase additional groundwater. Pumpers would also be able to carry over stored water to the next year if it goes unused. The water, however, wouldn’t come for free. Cities would still have to pay WRD’s water-replenishment rate of $268 per acre-feet of water. The rate, however, is much less than purchasing imported water from the MWD at $987 per acrefeet of water. Farfsing said the new set-up would provide more “flexibility” for pumpers to conduct water-storage projects within the Central Basin, which extends from Commerce to the Long Beach coast and the Newport-Inglewood Faultline to the Orange County border. According to a city staff report, the new agreement guarantees Signal Hill space to store up to 1,011 acre feet of water either through purchasing imported water or converting unpumped water into stored water. The plan also provides additional space, on a first-come, first-served basis, for Signal Hill to store an extra 1,011 acre feet of water. “It basically provides us with addi-
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