Featured Articles from the Burbank Leader

Parents of children who attend two schools located near the Little White Chapel held a news conference on Thursday calling on the Burbank City Council to block the installation of a wireless telecommunication facility inside the church because of the dangers they say radio emissions pose to the public. The public pressure came as the Burbank City Council prepares to hear three appeals on Tuesday to a Planning Board decision to approve the T-Mobile equipment. Julie Fisher, whose 6-year-old attends Bret Hart Elementary, said her house is only 600 feet from the planned wireless equipment and feels that allowing the installation takes away her rights as a parent.

I have been a Burbank resident for 10 years. When I was looking to buy my home, I knew Burbank was where I wanted to live. Burbank has a retro charm, beautiful tree-lined streets, darling homes, kids playing outside, friendly neighbors, a wonderful small-town feeling. My East Coast relatives are convinced I live in Mayberry. The quaint Little White Chapel added to this charm. I knew when I moved so close to the church there would be traffic and parking issues, but what I didn't know was that the quaint church would be at the center of such turmoil.

Burbank police on Friday continued their search for an FBI agent on foot in the Verdugo hills, one week after he was reported missing from his home. Authorities had been relying on air support in their search for 35-year-old Stephen Ivens, who on May 11 apparently left his Burbank home in the 1700 block of Scott Road with his department-issued gun. But after a week of chasing down tips and leads, authorities have reported little progress, saying only that the search remains "wide open.

KATHLEEN T. GHEZZI EGGERT Kathleen T. Ghezzi Eggert died Feb. 3, 2005. Ms. Eggert was born Sept. 13, 1936, and was a resident of Burbank for 55 years. She is preceded in death by her father, James Ghezzi; and mother, Lena Ghezzi. She is survived by her husband, Norman; step-daughters, Karen Finch and Patricia Tait; brother, James Ghezzi; nephew James Ghezzi Jr.; and niece, Dani Ghezzi. Services will be at noon Thursday at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive.

Four men have been arrested on suspicion of illegally possessing firearms after Burbank police responded to reports of gunshots Thursday morning that sparked a brief neighborhood evacuation. Those arrested on Thursday include: Burbank resident Armen Galstyan, 52; Artak Grigoryan, 37, and Vigen Manukyan, 27, both of Glendale; and Armen Mouradian, 23, of Los Angeles. Galstyan was also arrested on suspicion of identity theft. Police responded to reports of shots fired at a home in the 1800 block of Keeler Street at 6:50 a.m. Thursday.

Ryan Carter Two-year-old Luke is the Police Department's latest recruit. He's fresh from an Indiana kennel that caters to police. Authorities here are billing him as a new crime-fighting machine during patrol shifts and a playful friend during visits with the public. Luke, a German shepherd and native of Czechoslovakia, is the newest member of the department's K-9 unit. He teams with Officer Theresa Geier to work on patrol, looking for suspects and sniffing out illegal drugs when called upon.

I don't think we can have such a huge store as Walmart in Burbank without losing what makes Burbank a great and special place. It sounds like there are serious traffic considerations that have not yet been addressed, and will certainly need to be addressed, if a store the size of Walmart would move into the Empire Center. I don't think any extra tax revenue would be worth it. The extra traffic, pollution, noise, and impact on the city's small town feel would be significant. This store will have a huge impact and we should know what those impacts are. I have shopped at the Empire Center and as it is without the Walmart store.

Ryan Carter BURBANK -- As Burbank Police make a plea for information on the 15th anniversary of the shooting death of off-duty police officer Charles Anderson, they're stressing that his case isn't the only one unsolved. "There are other cases on the books, and we'd like to solve those, too," said Burbank Police Lt. Tim Stehr, who heads the agency's Crimes Against Persons Unit. Anderson, 35, worked as a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy. On Jan. 24, 1987, he was shot in his home in the 1700 block of West Oak Street.

Residents on Groton Street are drawing a line in the sand in their fight to restore property markers that they say were misplaced or removed by a city-hired contractor. After a sidewalk renovation project earlier this year on Groton Street, resident Dana Bleitz-Sanburg noticed that the traditional survey monuments, small indentations in the ground denoting property lines, were missing on her block. Although her own survey monuments were unaffected, the sidewalk farther up on Groton Street no longer had any indication of where each property line was laid out. According to Bleitz-Sanburg, who has lived in the same house her entire life, when the city returned to replace two of the survey monuments, they were placed incorrectly.

BURBANK TENNIS CENTER -- Michael Chang will be back in Burbank this week. But unlike his first visit to the Media City, Chang will not be appearing in front a television audience on a popular late-night show. Instead, Chang will be appearing in front of fans at the sixth annual $25,000 U. S. Tennis Assn. Challenger of Burbank at the Burbank Tennis Center. Play in the main draw begins Monday and runs through Oct. 20. Wild-card qualifying matches are taking place today and Sunday.

Re: writer Mel Wolf's challenge via Mailbag (“It's time for the church to speak up,” May 16): I serve as Little White Chapel's elected elder chairperson, responsible for the congregation's spiritual life. I didn't participate in the cell tower project, but heard occasional updates (“no action”) during this multiyear effort. We are puzzled by the last-minute opposition to this project, because the prerequisite canvas/survey of our neighbors yielded a petition containing hundreds of signatures supporting its development.

After initially reporting the case as a suspicious death, police now say a woman in her 30s found dead in a Burbank driveway was the victim of a yet-to-be specified crime. However, a man who would only identify himself as "local business owner" said he knew the family, and that he believed the woman had died of a drug overdose. "I mean, I know," the man said Friday. "It's a small town. " The woman, who has yet to be identified, was discovered by Burbank firefighters at 7:31 p.m. Friday in the passenger side of a black Kia in the 500 block of North Sparks Street.

A 23-year-old Burbank man was killed Saturday afternoon after colliding into another motorcyclist on the westbound I-10 Freeway, officials said. Kevin Butcher was traveling about 4:25 p.m. on a Ducati motorcycle on the freeway behind a 29-year-old North Hollywood man on a Honda motorcycle, officials said. The pair was driving at speeds in excess of 90 mph, said Sgt. Denise Joslin, a California Highway Patrol spokeswoman. At some point, Butcher didn’t see traffic slowing ahead and struck the back of the Honda, Joslin said.

BURBANK HIGH SCHOOL Burbank High School Class of 1980 will have its 25-year reunion on Aug. 6 at Brace Canyon Park. For more information, call Jimmy J. Norris at jimjnorris@charter.net or Bonnie "Cordier" Galloway at (661) 547-3738. Burbank High School Class of 1985 will have its 20-year reunion on Aug. 6 at The Castaway. For more information, call (800) 827-8427. Burbank High School Class of 1955 will have its 50-year reunion on Oct. 29 at the Burbank Airport Hilton.