The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 46

ly yi ri r1 1 T1 TTTIl Tf ryT f'Tt Tl'l TT I H'TTI I 'r' yT B2 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1995 LOS ANGELES" TIME'S Street Beat Arleta N. Hollywood San Fernando Sunland-Tujunga Universal City Lake View Terrace Pacoima Sherman Oaks Sun Valley Valley Village Mission Hills Panorama City Studio City Sylmar Van Nuys THE FIGHT AGAINST CRIME: NOTES FROM THE FRONT Heartbroken Family Looks for Their Mom By JULIE TAMAKI TIMES STAFF WRITER The rumors have been cruel. "I heard they found your mother chopped up in pieces in a plastic bag behind the Laundromat," said one caller. "I heard they found her dead at Sylmar Park," said another. Those are just a couple of the calls that Tanya Nevarez says her family has received since launching a search for her mother, who disappeared Jan.

to put the system in the senior lead officers' office at the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys Division. A senior lead officer is in charge of the Neighborhood Watch program in a giv en area. 4 The Mid-Valley Community P.olice Council, a community booster group, will receive the grant and give it to the The division also will use the money to install a paging system at the station. a The equipment will allow senior lead officers to field and respond to messages more efficiently, according to Flip Smith, the booster group's president. Eric Rose, an aide to Councilwoman Laura Chick, said when officers are out, callers now must leave messages on an old answering machine that frequently breaks down.

When the voice-mail system is installed, police officers will be able to retrieve and return their messages from the field. The system also can be programmed to dial the homes of Neighborhood Watch participants and play a message that informs them of upcoming meetings, Smith said. The money will come from a discretionary fund controlled by each council office that can be used for community improvement projects such as this one in Chick's district. Rose said the remaining $17,500 fii Chick's fund will be used to help meet unfunded needs of the LAPD's Valley Division. -KAY HWANGBO of neighborhood associations that includes a Lake View Terrace community group.

"In my mind, in 1991, the city's decision to grant the extension was contingent on the fact that the city would close the landfill this time," Christopher said. "Landfills were originally designed for remote areas. Lopez Canyon has become an urban area in the past 30 years. It's time to take a new look at how to dispose of the city's waste." Other speakers highlighted a spate of recent environmental violations issued to the landfill by the Air Quality Management District board. Several violations were issued in November because operators failed to capture gas fumes leaking from the methane collection system.

Another violation was issued to the landfill on Tuesday, for excessive odors, officials said. -TIM MAY VAN NUYS Police to Install Voice-Mail System Residents who want to talk to a police officer about crime problems in their neighborhoods will soon have an easier time of it, thanks to a Los Angeles City Council vote Tuesday that allows police to install a voice-mail system. The City Council voted to grant $2,500 tended operation of the facility represents "environmental racism." Council members Richard Alarcon and Joel Wachs both oppose extending the landfill's operating permit, as does Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Syl-mar). Alarcon noted that his 7th Council District which includes a high percentage of Latino residents takes in about 80 of household wastes generated by Los Angeles residents. "This whole process is flawed," Alarcon said.

"Condition Six of the 1991 agreement says that the extension 'shall be valid and in full force and effective for a period of five years, with no further extensions or I believe that shows a clear intent to close Lopez Canyon in 1996." Alarcon suggested that sanitation officials delay any request for another extension until alternatives can be considered. Eight alternative proposals submitted by major waste disposal companies have not yet become public record, but sources privy to the documents said the costs of the proposals in tons of garbage disposed per day-would not be much higher than the cost of keeping the Lopez dump open. Other options include shipping waste by rail to other sites, both inside and outside the city. Among those who spoke against the extension was William Christopher, a former Los Angeles planning commissioner who reviewed the 1991 request to extend the dump's operating permit. Christopher now works for a consortium LAKE VIEW TERRACE Residents Press to Close Landfill Dismayed at the prospect of living with a garbage dump for another five years, about 200 northeast San Fernando Valley residents including religious, political and student leaders this week asked Los Angeles sanitation officials to close Lopez Canyon Landfill on schedule next year.

The landfill was originally slated for closure in 1991, but Bureau of Sanitation officials requested an extension of the operating permit, saying they needed time to study alternatives to closing it. Now, sanitation officials have proposed another five-year extension, and residents said they feel betrayed. Pinning a banner to a wall inside the Lake View Terrace Recreation Center on Monday, Sharon Faison, 37, of Kagel Canyon said the city is "just playing a big game. There is a list of alternatives to this site that nobody has yet seen. They won't publish it.

And the environmental review they've conducted does not mention the numerous citations for air quality violations and other problems there." Her banner read: "Not In My Back Yard Anymore It's Already Full!" Located in the hills above Lake View Terrace, the dump has become the rallying cry of residents who say ex i 17. "I don't know if they're trying to be mean or if they're just ignorant," she says. Despite the pain the malicious calls cause, Tanya Nevarez says she and about 100 of her friends and family members Sandra Nevarez GLENDALE City Council Calls Cable TV Debut a Success -1 I -it 7 1 fii I i 1 TV ''111 91 00 r-si xh Photos by GERARD BURKHART For The Times are continuing to search for her mother, Sandra Nevarez, who was reported missing to police after two of her sons found her Chevy Nova parked, abandoned, behind a Sylmar Laundromat in the 13200 block of Gladstone Avenue. The family got a boost last week when the Los Angeles City Council approved a $25,000 reward for information leading to the location of Sandra Nevarez and the conviction of any abductors. According to family members, Nevarez, a 41 -year-old mother of four, had gone to do the family's laundry in the morning and was then spotted at a thrift store in the same mini-mall at about 3:30 p.m., which is around the same time she should have been picking up her youngest son from school.

Detectives who investigated the scene found spatters of blood nearby and the missing woman's purse containing more than $100 cash underneath her car. But there was no sign of Nevarez, who hasn't been seen since. In addition to an ongoing police investigation, Tanya Nevarez, 20, said friends and family have combed the nearby foothills, searched through abandoned houses and posted more than 4,000 flyers from Los Angeles to Palmdale. "Every day we're just going out there and looking," Tanya Nevarez said. By "we" she means herself, her father and two brothers, and sometimes other relatives and friends.

Her family fears, she said, that members of the Latino community may be hesitating to come forward and help the police with their investigation because of Proposition 187's strictures on illegal immigrants, even though almost all of the initiative's provisions have been suspended by federal court order. "We've walked around and questioned people and told them not to be afraid and that we just want to find my mom," she said. Their search has led them on many wild goose chases, triggered by people calling to say they had spotted the missing woman at locations throughout the San Fernando Valley. "We jump in our car, and we get our hopes up," Tanya Nevarez said. "Then we're back at home wondering 'Where are we going to search For their part, Los Angeles police detectives have interviewed people in the community, contacted coroner's offices in surrounding counties and notified the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

"There was evidence at the scene, but that could easily be because she was a victim of an accident," LAPD Detective Frank Bishop said. "She could have also fallen and hit her head and somebody could have helped her, or she may have got up on her own and left." Bishop, the lead homicide investigator at the Foothill Division, said such cases typically are handled by his department's missing persons unit Downtown. But because that unit is understaffed, the Nevarez case was handed over to his division. Right now, Bishop said, it is still being treated as a missing-person investigation, but he warned that "We're handling it as a worst-case scenario, just in case." The "worst" is something that has plagued Tanya Nevarez's mind since her mother disappeared, she said. "I feel that somebody wanted her and that they took her," Tanya said.

"I wonder what are these people doing to her if she's still alive?" Even sitting down to eat a meal has become a painful chore, the distraught daughter says. "I stop and think 'Is my mother eating; is anybody feeding her?" she says. "I just want to find her so that she can rest." Crew checks credits at start of Glendale City Council broadcast. Council mem-bers stand for prayer at start of first televised meeting. Camera and audip operator Renea Blanck, left, and director Michael Kamm discuss broadcast; IT They may never break any records for Nielsen ratings, but members of the Glendale City Council called their debut Tuesday on government-access TV a "history making event" nonetheless.

"I think it's a good move for our city and hopefully it will do a far better job of informing all the citizens of this community," Councilman Sheldon Baker said of the city's new cablecasting system. The city will air meetings of the City Council and redevelopment agency live beginning Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m. and rebroadcast them Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. on Sammons Communications channel 6. Some residents and activists have long called for the city to begin broadcasting its meetings on local TV, but the idea was opposed by several former council members who thought it would cost too much.

But officials said they have succeeded in putting together a "creative, yet low-budget" on-air system for about $90,000, much less than what some similar-sized cities spent on broadcast equipment. "It was a really limited budget. They didn't think it could be done for that amount of money," said Ken Buckows-ki, president of Studio Spectrum, an audio-visual firm hired by the city to operate the broadcast console installed in the City Hall basement. Using a computer-controlled device called a video toaster, the council broadcasts have many of the trappings of a commercial program like "Court TV." There are on-screen graphics to identify the person speaking, summaries of the agenda item being discussed appear at the bottom of the screen, and even an original music introduction. Two people operate the control console: one to operate the three remote-controlled cameras in the council chamber, the other to run the computer.

City spokesman Ritch Wells said the city hopes to eventually use its broadcast capabilities for more than just the weekly council meetings. Among the possibilities are broadcasting local community events as well as results of local elections live on election night. Wells said all the expenses incurred by the city to start broadcasting will be reimbursed by Sammons Communications. Under its newly approved franchise agreement, Sammons will pay the city $200,000 for government-access related equipment and projects. Still, not everyone is thrilled with Glendale's entry into the broadcasting arena.

ry 111 tr "I think it's going to be a headache," said Gene Blankenship, president of Glendale Citizens for Law and Order and a regular at council meetings. "I think it's going to invite all the gadflies to come and speak just to be seen on TV. People who are interested in their government should be here, they shouldn't see it on TV." The premiere broadcast went without a hitch, and council members said they got through it with only a few butterflies. "I wasn't nervous, but I was keenly aware that I had more eyes on me," Councilman Rick Reyes said. "When I have more eyes on me, I strive to be proper; I get stiff.

But I think as we get used to it, we'll all relax." -STEVE RYFLE officials at Loomis Armored Inc. report'," ed the theft and police interviewed' several employees at the company's headquarters in Los Angeles. Jones, who also works for the company, was arrested at his home at 3:45 a.m? Tuesday. Bank documents and cash', were found at Jones' home, police said. Lt.

Bob Giles of the Burbank Police Department said the armored car was1 picking up cash from automated teller? machines in the Burbank area when the" theft is believed to have occurred. "This was an inside job," Giles said. "We believe there was a conspiracy between the driver and the other to commit theft." Police did not disclose how much money the armored car was carrying or how much was stolen. -STEVE RYFLE BURBANK 2 Workers Held in Armored Car Theft Two employees of an armored car company were arrested in connection with the theft of "a large amount of cash" over the weekend, Burbank police said Tuesday. Hugh Doswell 28, of Los Angeles and Corlies Jones, 25, of Adelanto were being held Tuesday at the Burbank city jail in lieu of $100,000 bail each.

Doswell was arraigned in Burbank Municipal Court on grand theft charges, and Jones was expected to be arraigned today. Doswell, the driver of the armored car, was arrested Sunday evening after 1 1 0 4 JPft tefc jft W.A tfKt JfSt dSR iiftft JPH -HHt 4ik Ml jflttt rffc jtfH rfP0 4m L4flft fcft JPfc. Jtb. -nlfc rfPlt jfk -4Hl J0tk jtfte.A A.