Trash

A 51-year-old Burbank man was cited and released Saturday after he asked a woman who was taking out her trash for sexual favors, police said. Michael Mayo was cited on suspicion of soliciting lewd acts - a misdemeanor - at about 3:23 p.m. in the 1200 block of Riverside Drive after she notified police about the incident and officers found him in a parking lot, according to Burbank Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn. The 28-year-old Burbank woman was taking out the trash outside her apartment when Mayo allegedly yelled repeatedly to get her attention before asking for sexual favors, according Ryburn.

Karen S. Kim HILLSIDE DISTRICT -- More than 40 community members and city officials donned their shades and comfortable shoes Aug. 2 to celebrate Burbank's newest resource: trash. The city hosted a dedication ceremony for its new set of 10 microturbines -- energy generators that are the size of refrigerators -- that began converting trash to energy at Burbank's landfill two weeks ago. Mayor Bob Kramer, Councilman David Laurell, Councilwoman Marsha Ramos and city officials met at the landfill, 2500 Bel Aire Drive, Thursday afternoon to tour the site of the new turbines.

Karen S. Kim HILLSIDE DISTRICT -- The old shoes, coffee grounds, orange peels and tattered clothes Burbank residents toss in the trash could be used to power their televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners and swimming pool heaters this summer. Eight microturbine units -- energy generators -- will be installed at Burbank's landfill by June to convert methane gas, the natural byproduct released when trash decomposes, into a renewable form of energy, the City Council decided Tuesday.

Molly Shore When park patrons want to stash their trash, they look for the Profiler. In the past year, Burbank's recycling center has installed 26 of the large, white Profilers -- so named because their profiles are easily recognizable -- in parks around town. The bins have three openings -- two on each side with a blue labels for aluminum cans and both glass and plastic bottles, and a yellow opening for newspapers. Before the Profilers were placed in parks, plastic bins were used on a trial basis in clusters with one for trash and two for recycling, city recycling coordinator Al Zorn said.

BURBANK ? Passengers and crew aboard the 9:30 a.m. Southwest flight came upon an unusual sight Tuesday as they landed at Bob Hope Airport: dozens of people in bright yellow T-shirts walking down the middle of Runway 826. They were searching for ?foreign object debris,? otherwise known as trash ? a potentially costly pest when sucked into jet engines. A plastic bag, screw, loose pebble or stick can cause hundreds of thousands of dollars? worth of damage to aircraft engines or tires.

SOUTH SAN FERNANDO DISTRICT ? Every day, about 300 tons of waste is hauled down Flower Street to the city's recycling center, where massive heaps of refuse harbor a putrid paradise for warlike swarms of flies. Honey bees hover over a trash bin overflowed with aluminum cans, extracting the sugar and water reminisces from hundreds of consumed soft drinks. "This is the new urban meadow ? the cans are like sparkling flowers filled with artificial nectar," recycling coordinator Kreigh Hampel said.

The Burbank Jaycees is headed to Playa del Rey to participate in the 21st annual California Coastal Cleanup Day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. today. Cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as "the largest garbage collection" in 1993, more than 50,000 volunteers will congregate to more than 700 cleanup sites to pick up items dumped on beaches. This is the second year the Burbank Jaycees will participate. "As Jaycees, we are committed to helping the communities we serve and are proud to be part of such a wide scale event," said Jaycee and event organizer Dominic Izon.

He arrived without saying hello. He would leave without saying goodbye. That’s not to say he didn’t talk. Oh, he talked all right. He just didn’t waste his breath on salutations. He came to do one thing: haul junk. And he did that well. The Jacuzzi in our backyard had gone the way of the workout bench, exercise bike, yoga DVDs and fondue pot: eagerly used at first, but soon neglected and collecting dust. Dormant for three years and too expensive to fix, it was the sedentary relative who overstayed his welcome.

Sitting on a concrete slope on Friday, Burbank Community Day School student Marissa Rauda peered into a patch of brush, palm trees and sand ? the wilds of the Los Angeles River. "I think it's so dirty that there's no water," the 16-year-old said. "There's just a lot of dust." Students from the Community Day School gathered at the stretch of the river in Atwater Village as part of the Friends of the Los Angeles River's River School Day Cleanup. The event gives students a chance to discover that there is water in the river, as well as plants and wildlife, said Katie Klapper, a member of Friends.

As I left home last Thursday morning to walk my dog, the trash man, a kind-looking gentleman, pulled up and emptied my black trash can. With a smile and a nod he continued down my street. As my dog and I briskly walked in the same direction as the trash truck, I noticed that a neighbor's trash can appeared to be stuck in the apparatus of the truck as it was idling at the curb. As we passed the truck, exchanging smiles again, I realized that he was waiting for my dog and me to pass before lowering the large can to the street.

I believe people who leave their trash cans out the day after pickup, and that day is sweeper day, should be ticketed the same as a car being there. Each residence on either side of the perpetrator does not get the advantage of having the street swept in front of their house. It's the same people every week. Steve Urbanovich Burbank

Burbank residents in April will be asked to approve a special tax on their trash and sewer service bills that would subsidize the fees for low-income seniors over the age of 62, disabled people and those who require life support in their homes. Burbank residents have actually been supporting this program - which costs each customer about $10 to $15 a year - for more than 20 years. But recent court rulings related to Proposition 218, which states that property-related service fees can't exceed the cost of the service, suggest the city faces legal risks if it continues to offer the programs under the current structure.

A 51-year-old Burbank man was cited and released Saturday after he asked a woman who was taking out her trash for sexual favors, police said. Michael Mayo was cited on suspicion of soliciting lewd acts - a misdemeanor - at about 3:23 p.m. in the 1200 block of Riverside Drive after she notified police about the incident and officers found him in a parking lot, according to Burbank Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn. The 28-year-old Burbank woman was taking out the trash outside her apartment when Mayo allegedly yelled repeatedly to get her attention before asking for sexual favors, according Ryburn.

As the holidays season nears an end, so does the need for a Christmas tree. The City of Burbank has a few options for those of you who want to recycle your tree. Residents can take old trees to the Verdugo Park Parking lot or McCambridge Park on the Andover Drive side. The city will then turn the tree mulch into compost. The city will also be picking up trees near regular curbside trash over the next couple of weeks. -- Ross A. Benson, for Times Community News Photo: Christmas tree recycling drop-off at McCambridge Park in Burbank.

Burbank is considering raising fees for everything from pet registration to trash and sewer service as officials work to close an $8.7-million budget gap. The proposed fee hikes, including a 4.9% water rate increase, come in addition to possible cuts to public services, such as fire operations and community programs. Officials say the proposed increases are due to less revenue coming in at a time when the cost of services has either stayed put or gotten more expensive. Public Works officials are proposing an 8% increase for trash collection, adding between $1.21 and $3.46 to residential bills, depending on the size of their containers.

Last week, the refuse collector for my neighborhood destroyed my trash can while dumping my trash. I called the Public Works Department to get another one. Simple problem, or so I thought. When the can arrived, I realized that it was a new design and actually smaller than the old can. I called Public Works to complain, and they said these are the new replacement cans. They are supposed to hold the same amount of trash, but it is very apparent that they are smaller. While this may seem to be a small issue, it is not. The city has essentially given a fee increase to all of us with smaller cans.

Ah, spring. The days are longer, the air is (somewhat) fresher, campaign signs pop up like mushrooms, and questionable ads fill mailboxes far and wide. Within a four-block radius of one Burbank home, there are 11 signs for the upcoming Assembly election. Two tout Democrat Mike Gatto, one is a fan of party rival Nayiri Nahabedian, and nine champion Republican Sunder Ramani. Ramani’s overwhelming support, at least in that neighborhood, comes as a bit of surprise. The 43rd Assembly district contains nearly twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans, and a member of the GOP has not represented the area since 1996.

I had not parked yet, and already I could see the boarded-up windows. Sunland Neighborhood Church on Oro Vista Avenue was the victim of a break-in and trashing of its sanctuary and facilities about two weekends ago. Pastor Duke Winser graciously gave me a tour of his sanctuary and school last week, just as the first drops of rain began to fall from a winter storm. We began in the church?s lobby, where the vandals smashed through a giant window to get inside. Various things were completely out of place, including a chair that was probably used to smash another window opposite the entrance to the lobby.

CITY HALL — The City Council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday to raise water, electric, trash collection and sewer rates to help meet increased costs, a move that drew the ire of roughly two dozen residents, including one councilman. The plan must still come back for a final vote later this month as part of the city’s overall $755.6-million budget, but it is expected to pass. The rate increases would add between $1 and $8 to an average resident’s monthly bills. The breakdown would pencil out to an additional $6.50 for water, $8 for electric, $2 for trash collection and $1 for sewer services.