Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

E-mail: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

The Monterey Park City Council opened the August 16th meeting with very sad news that three members of the Monterey Park city family died in August.

On August 6th Wolfgang “Wolf” Berger, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher, whose big insights about tiny fossils helped reveal the history of the world’s oceans, died at 79.  His son, Karl Berger, is the Assistant City Attorney.

On August 14th Police Officer Adrian Carrillo, 36, died tragically in an off-duty vehicle collision on the north bound 605 freeway early this morning. Officer Carrillo had been with the Department since December of 2015 and was well liked by both his colleagues and the community. He was highly regarded and respected by those who knew him. His loss has deeply affected the department personnel and he will be missed by all members of the police department and by fellow Monterey Park city employees.  Officer Carrillo leaves behind his wife and two young children.

On August 15th Public Works Department employee Ronald “Ronny” Quarton died.  Fellow employees will long remember Mr. Quarton for his British accent and his work ethic. He spent his last day on earth working for our Monterey Park.

The Council discussed amending the Monterey Park Municipal Code Chapter 9.06 regulating Aircraft within the city.

The city attorney reminded them that the FAA  (Federal Law) governs all aspects of commercial aircrafts including, without limitation, flight patterns and altitudes.

They discussed have a curfew on the times planes could flyover the city and how high should they flyover us.

They reviewed the old ordinance and requested changes be made to help reduce the noise and air pollution since they can be considered public nuisances.

One of the issues was how to determine the safe altitude over populated areas.

The Council suggested a nighttime curfew for over flights be between 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM over residential areas.

They all agreed that drones or low flying aircraft operated by people cannot be flown over the city. An exception would be made for law enforcement.

The Council wanted the amended ordinance to allow private citizens to seek judicial intervention for enforcing the regulations.

They asked staff and the city attorney to send a letter to the FAA stressing the complaints made by residents about the low flying airplanes with their noise and air pollution.

Council asked this item be brought back at the next meeting.

The ordinance with additional changes was presented to the Council during the September 6th meeting as well as a strongly worded letter to the FAA requesting changes be made to protect the health and welfare of the residents of the city.

Council presented several studies that airport noise causes health issues for children and adults.

The amended ordinance specified the minimum safe altitude over the populated areas of the city be not less than 6,000 feet above the ground level with the same nighttime curfew.

The Council voted to accept the amended ordinance with changes and agreed that all five members should sign the letter to the FAA.

The city attorney and Councilmembers wanted the public to remember that this is a symbolic measure since that the FAA  (Federal Law) governs all aspects of commercial aircrafts including, without limitation, flight patterns and altitudes.

You can review the amended ordinance and the letter to the FAA on the city’s website.

September 11th, 2001 is a moment in our current history that stopped time as we watched our America be attacked by enemies that hate our way of life and us.

All those people killed were going about living and enjoying their lives in our free America.

Now in 2017 history is repeating itself, as enemies of our freedoms, want to rewrite our history and destroy any monuments and flags that offend them.

Currently they have decided to destroy all traces of the Confederacy in the south.

The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The result of a long-standing controversy over slavery and states’ rights, war broke out in April 1861, when Confederates attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, shortly after Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated. The nationalists of the Union proclaimed loyalty to the U.S. Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States of America, who advocated for states’ rights to perpetual slavery and its expansion in the Americas.

This war was declared to be the worst war in our history because it turned family members against family members based on their personal beliefs.

Is this current movement against Americans who support President Donald Trump, who was elected to be our president in November 2016?

People wonder why many reporters in the mainstream media don’t condemn the violence against people who want to preserve our history as a way to remember that our country is not perfect.

We have learned many lessons over the years to help protect our fellow Americans and help everyone to prosper and enjoy life.

History provides insight on the mistakes made by our forefathers to help us make our American a better country for all.

Watching the violence on TV I recalled a class I attended at Catholic University in 1964. The teacher and his family left Poland as the Nazis were marching into their homeland.

He said you could tell the instigators, who were paid to cause trouble, since they left the scene as the police arrived to break the heads of the protestors.

This leads one to ask if the violent people are Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters since their candidate lost the Presidential Election?

This theory does give support to the many rumors that the Clinton and Sanders “big buck supports” may be paying these instigators to cause trouble in our country so President Trump will waste his time on their issues and not solve the ills of our country.

Some of these troublemakers hide their faces behind masks so their family, friends and the police will not recognize them. They are cowards.  They deserved to arrested and sentenced for causing riots and destruction of public and private property according to our laws.

Our free country allows us freedom of speech no matter how hateful we may think another person’s speech is.

If we restrict one type of free speech then we restrict free speech for all of us.

Too many men and women have fought long and hard over our county’s history to allow a few hateful people to destroy our America.

If you “freedom-haters” want to live in a restricted society then we strong suggest you give up your US citizenship and move out of our free country.

Your radical mentality to destroy our America makes you a homegrown terrorist.

Since September 11th our government has vowed to destroy all terrorists.

We do not want your hate to destroy our free America.

The world is in turmoil and we need our world leaders to work together to keep us all safe from harm.

Please recall that our lives and world can be changed in a flash as you remember the 2,996 men, woman and children died on September 11th, 2001.

History does repeat itself since we humans seem to only learning from our mistakes the hard way.

Veterans of our many wars keep reminding us “Freedom is not free”.

Our American history maybe filled with sorrow and pain but our America is the best free country in the world.