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MONDAY
03.26.18 Volume 17 Issue 109
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WHAT’S UP WESTSIDE ..................PAGE 2 LIBRARY CONCERT SERIES ........PAGE 3 CRIME WATCH ..................................PAGE 5 COMICS & HOROSCOPES ..............PAGE 8 MYSTERY REVEALED ....................PAGE 9
Santa Monica Daily Press
Council poised to approve construction contract for new downtown fire station KATE CAGLE Daily Press Staff Writer
The City Council is expected to approve a $26.5 million contract (with a ten percent contingency) with Bernards Bros. construction
Tuesday to break ground on Fire Station No. 1, beginning the end of a decade-long ordeal to replace a cramped and seismically unsafe but vital city facility. A 2007 study found the wood frame and stucco fire station that
serves downtown in dire need of a seismic retrofit, upgrades and various improves to come up to code. The report said an earthquake could cripple the building badly enough to trap or even kill firefighters and damage lifesaving equipment.
The total cost of the new fire station is expected to be $41.6 million, according to a report by senior architect Alex Parry. A portion of the project will come from the
SEE SCHOOL PAGE 7
Jennifer Nystrom
RUGBY: Santa Monica’s local rugby club, The Dolphins, wants to increase community awareness of their sport.
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Daily Press Staff Writer
SEE RUGBY PAGE 7
SMC Corsair / Daily Press staff writer
two very different sports. Rugby is a continuous game that runs for two halves of 40 minutes each. “It’s a contact sport, it’s about the only real connection,” Fredericks said. A game is set up with two teams, each consisting of 15 players — eight forward players and seven backward. To compete for the ball, the players tackle and run through their opponents to score in the opponent’s in-goal, similar to the end zone in football. The ball can
KATE CAGLE
never be passed forward, only backward. For a score to count, the ball must touch the ground of the in-goal by the attacking team, known as the try, which is similar to a touchdown in football. They can then attempt a two-point conversion, with a player kicking the ball over the crossbar and between the goal posts, similar to a field goal in football. Players are allowed to tackle their
JENNIFER NYSTROM
more,” says Fredericks and continued, “We are pretty much bootstrapping this sport in the U.S.” The team has players coming in from all around the world to play. “I´ve come over from England just to play some rugby here,” says Conor Clancy, a member of Santa Monica’s rugby team. Rugby is originally from England, but the sport has been around in the United States since 1874. Even though it has similarities to American football, they are
Local cooking school finds recipe for success Pastry chef Clemence Gossett is a tour de force at the Wednesday farmers market. The Paris native and Santa Monica resident expertly weaves through the crowd to familiar stands where the farmers and bakers know her by name. Recently, a small group followed her path, eagerly listening as she picked up a loaf of bread and described its journey from seed to slice. The half dozen aspiring cooks following Gossett were students at The Gourmandise School of Sweets and Savories, which teaches everything from how to crack an egg to how to transform a cocoa bean into a chocolate bar. In a town full of self-described foodies, Gossett is on a mission to elevate the conversation surrounding food. Gossett’s classes emphasize using the best ingredients: local, fresh and organic when possible. “Explaining to people where the food comes from, how it affects us economically and environmentally and showing the difference in flavor and texture is really a big part of it,” Gossett said leaning over a stainless steel counter in the school’s current location. Soon the school inside Santa Monica Place will quadruple in size, as Gossett and her business partner Sabrina Ironside make room for more courses, private classes and summer camps for teenagers. Gossett, a pastry chef, opened the Gourmandise (which means a craving for sweets in French) in 2011, emphasizing cooking technique over recipes. A glance at the course calendar reveals the phrase
SEE STATION PAGE 7
Introducing Santa Monica’s Dolphins Dark clouds swarm over Dodson Middle School’s grass field, where Santa Monica’s rugby team, the Dolphins, played their fourth game of the season this month. They travel from Santa Monica all the way to Palos Verdes, California, to play — an hour-long drive. The crowd mostly consists of family members coming to watch the game. “We’ve been here for 45 years, we’re Santa Monica Rugby Club, you know, that name represents the city, and we deserve to have a little more support from the city,” said head coach Riaz Fredericks. Founded in 1972, The Dolphins are still struggling to get a footprint in the community. “We just don’t get enough numbers I guess at the gate, people watching,” Fredericks said. The team has been kicked off of various fields, and due to not having their own field to play at, they have to travel as far as San Diego and San Francisco to play. “We got kicked off a field that we’ve been playing on for four to five years, and we got kicked off it because soccer has a better connection to the principal who decided we’re not gonna play here any-
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