Community

GLENDALE — Danette Goulet, editor of the Glendale News-Press and Burbank Leader for four years, announced plans Thursday to step down, citing plans to move her family to Boston and raise her 7-month-old son. She will stay on as director of editorial for all four local Times Community News titles, including the Crescenta Valley Sun and La Cañada Valley Sun, until a replacement is found. In announcing her decision to all four local community newsrooms Thursday, Goulet stressed that it was based on a family decision to move back to the East Coast.

March 6 will present our school district with a new reality, as the outcome of Measure S will have been decided by the voters of this community. If elected to the Burbank school board, I will be asked to make decisions based on either outcome. This is why I believe that the question of my support, as a candidate, deserves an answer that warrants more than just a simple yes or no. If the measure passes, and if I am elected, I will be one of five people who is ultimately responsible for oversight of Measure S implementation.

Jeff Tully Local athletes are used to having the annual Golden State International Friendship Challenge youth gymnastics meet in their backyard. The event is usually held at the Burbank Airport Hilton, only a short vault from Burbank's Golden State Gymnastics, which organizes the meet. However, for the 24th installment of the meet that runs Friday through Sunday, the event will take place at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton. "The Burbank Hilton couldn't accommodate us this year for our usual meet in March," said Camille Goldberg, the meet's director.

Two men were arrested Tuesday by police who say the pair was about to rob a bank in Burbank. The men -- Spencer Wygle, 26, of Burbank, and Evan Kent, 27, of Glendale -- reportedly took a cab to Chase Bank in the Pavilions parking lot on West Alameda and allegedly told the cab driver they couldn't pay the cab fare. Police were dispatched to the scene at 12:35 p.m. when someone reported the disturbance. When police arrived, Wygle was allegedly seated in the cab with what police believe was a heroin-loaded syringe.

Our reporters are hard at work nailing down the details of the deliciously ridiculous "Shift It" music video-slash-auto commercial-slash-Internet meme, but I couldn't let another second go by without embedding the video on our sites. For those as-yet-unaware, the video is an ad for Arlen's Transmission, near the corner of Burbank and Edison boulevards, starring its owner, Gorgen Zargarian, in a Persian-style music and dance routine. In a world that can sometimes seem a bit unfair, harsh or cruel, it's refreshing to see such a piece of sublime, and joyous, weirdness.

Burbank officials have proposed axing the city's primary election, a move they say would save roughly $72,000 a year, but would also require voter approval. Critics called the proposal "short-sighted," but election experts said it may actually bring more voters to the polls. POLL: Shoudl Burbank axe its primary election? Burbank is one of just about 15 cities in the state that has more than one election, according to a city report. Neighboring cities Glendale, Pasadena and La Cañada-Flintridge are among the more than 460 cities in California with just one. The last time in Burbank that the primary results differed, in terms of top vote-getters, from those of the general election was in 1989, when the second top-vote getter in the primary won the treasurer seat in the general election, according to Deputy City Clerk Susan Domen.

Joyce Rudolph The competition was stiff during the first Tennis Ball dinner dance. But no one was near a court. Instead, a superb array of silent auction gifts kept guests running back and forth to the bidding sheets during the fundraiser for the Family Service Agency, now known as Families First in Burbank. City Manager Mary Alvord was mistress of ceremonies and welcomed the more than 200 guests to the Oct. 8 event at The Castaway. A steak-and-salmon dinner was served and dance music was provided by the band Orange Colored Sky. Mayor Marsha Ramos presented Kermit Floyd, president of the board of directors, with a Mayor's Commendation for his financial guidance of the agency.

The son of a Burbank woman who was electrocuted Wednesday when she tried to save a crash victim in Valley Village called his mother a hero. David Aguilar, 21, said when he got a call about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday that his mother, Irma Zamora, had been electrocuted, he went to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, where his stepfather “was a mess.” He also saw his mother lying in a hospital bed, where she looked “just peaceful.” ...

A court-ordered injunction issued Thursday against a planned Walmart in Burbank could sideline the project and force the city to prove the world's largest retailer won't cause significant harm to local roadways and businesses. Walmart had been planning to renovate the former Great Indoors site adjacent to the Empire Center in time to open in mid- to late 2013, but the Los Angeles County Superior Court injunction on Thursday effectively stops all work until the claims raised in a lawsuit filed by three Burbank residents earlier this year are settled.

After getting an inside look at Burbank police operations - including demonstrations by the Special Weapons and Tactics team and presentations about gangs, forensics and force - members of the first-ever Armenian and deaf community academy classes have graduated. “You probably know a lot more now about the police department than when we began,” Burbank Police Officer Joshua Kendrick said Wednesday to the more than 30 Burbank residents who completed the seven-week course. PHOTOS: Burbank Police Department's first Armenian and hearing impaired community academy graduation ceremony Tigran Khachikyan, who graduated from the deaf class, said that before taking the course, he had problems with police and struggled to understand their operations.

On Valentine's Day, when we all exude a little more care and appreciation than we do on the 364 other 24-hour cycles of the year, Zita Lefebvre, the director of operations of Cartoon Network Studios has made it an annual tradition to show the love to representatives from the city of Burbank, school district, business community and nonprofit organizations that she and the studio work with throughout the year. Serving as the hostess of the downtown animation studio's ninth annual Valentine's Day luncheon, Lefebvre welcomed her guests that included Police Chief Scott LaChasse, the city's new fire chief, Tom Lenahan and Community Development Director Joy Forbes this past Wednesday.

March 6 will present our school district with a new reality, as the outcome of Measure S will have been decided by the voters of this community. If elected to the Burbank school board, I will be asked to make decisions based on either outcome. This is why I believe that the question of my support, as a candidate, deserves an answer that warrants more than just a simple yes or no. If the measure passes, and if I am elected, I will be one of five people who is ultimately responsible for oversight of Measure S implementation.

The Burbank Community Band will present a free concert at 7 p.m. Feb. 16 in the Burbank High School Auditorium, 902 N. Third St. This is the first public concert by the band in more than 10 years, outside of the annual Veterans' Day, Memorial Day and Flag Day performances. The program will include standard concert numbers - overtures, marches and familiar tunes including a “Salute to Bob Hope” with songs such as “Buttons and Bows,” “Moonlight Becomes You” and, of course, “Thanks for the Memories.” A free-will offering will be solicited to cover renting the auditorium.

Deputy City Manager Joy Forbes will take on a new role in City Hall this week as Burbank's community development director, officials announced Wednesday. Forbes, who spent 13 years in community development before serving in the city manager's office, will oversee city planning, building, license and code, transportation, housing, and economic development. “In some ways, I'm returning to my roots,” Forbes said in a statement. She was to start her new job on Saturday. Forbes replaces Greg Herrmann, who retired last month, and will continue her current duties as deputy city manager while Interim City Manager Ken Pulskamp searches for an internal replacement, according to the city.

Harlem Globetrotters teammates Herbert Lang, aka “Flight Time,” and Nate “Big Easy” Lofton generated a lot of excitement in December when they stopped by the Burbank Community YMCA to shoot a breast cancer awareness video and entertain some of the kids from the Child Development Center with their basketball skills. In fact, the YMCA and basketball have a storied history, said Susan Sebastian, senior director of membership and communication, who adds that the sport was invented at a YMCA more than 120 years ago. On a gloomy December morning, a young physical education teacher named James Naismith had a few weeks to come up with a new game to attract the football and rugby-loving-class of future of YMCA directors.

The St. Francis Stage Company is challenging its creative abilities in acting and set design with Alfred Hitchcock's thriller “The 39 Steps,” opening at 8 p.m. Friday and continuing for two weekends in the social hall of St. Francis Xavier Church. Co-Director Jesse J. Adams saw the award-winning production on Broadway and thought it would be a perfect fit for the sixth annual production that raises funds for the church and school, he said. What makes this play fun is the producers are encouraged to use their imagination to interpret the script any way they want.

Ten members of the Burbank Road Kings took a road trip of a charitable kind the Sunday before Christmas. They played Santa Claus, but instead of arriving by sleigh, they delivered a special gift to a woman in need via classic vehicles. The car club wanted to help a family this holiday season and heard about Sarah Haynes through local businessman Charlie Cusumano, who supports projects to help the military. Haynes served four years as a Marine and is now in the reserves while she cares for her mother and sister who have health issues.

Months after becoming superintendent of Burbank Unified, Jan Britz is still riding the learning curve at the helm of a district faced with unprecedented budget cuts and the hard decisions they demand. All fine by someone who describes herself as a “change maker.” “In this day and age, you have to create the vision and then get people to believe in it and then make it happen,” she said. “You can't settle for less.” When Britz was growing up on a farm in Michigan - the third oldest of seven children - she didn't settle for mediocre grades, knowing they were her path to college and a career when most of her family hadn't graduated from high school.

Burbank Sunrise Kiwanis is the host of the annual Mayors Cup Charity Golf Tournament each spring. All proceeds from this golf tournament are donated back to the community. One of the recipients is the Family Service Agency, and recently Executive Director Laurie Bleick received a check that was part of a five-year pledge made by the service club to the agency that provides counseling services to public school children, individuals and families. Other community charities that receive donations from the Sunrise Kiwanis Club are Burbank Boys & Girls Club, Children's Hospital Los Angeles Foundation (Children's Miracle Network)