Featured Articles from the La Canada Valley Sun

Dancing is her passion. Kelly Phelan has been taking dance instruction classes ? from ballet and tap to jazz, Broadway and lyrical ? for just about half of her 8-year-old life. The youth said there?s nothing she?d rather do than tap her toes and move her feet. But, there?s more to this week?s Valley Sun All-Star than rhythm, tempo and talent. The Palm Crest Elementary School third-grader also has a passion for people and making life a little brighter for those less fortunate. Kelly?

Each year the La Cañada Summer Smash - the sixth annual weekend-long baseball tournament - has grown, but tournament director Jack Johnson said this is the last year that's the case. Johnson has seen the tournament, which included just five teams when it began in 2006, grow again this year by an estimated 25%. There were around 50 teams, which was 10 more than 2011, and 600 kids that competed across five different age divisions (7, 9, 10, 11 and 12) from Friday to today in La Cañada.

Sept. 22 Burglary: 4400 block of Oak Grove Drive, before 2:57 p.m. Window smashed, two Coach purses and wallets, $100 in cash, gold-rimmed Dolce & Gabbana glasses and an iPod taken from a Lincoln Navigator. Sept. 23 Theft: 2100 block of Tondolea Lane, before 9:45 a.m. Apple iPod taken from a Honda Accord. La Crescenta/ Montrose Sept. 21 Burglary: 2564 Foothill Boulevard, 1:13 p.m. A man was arrested for placing a credit card “skimming” device and a small camera on the ATM at the U.S. Bank after a customer told employees he was loitering suspiciously.

Pierre Morillo will pay a $25,000 price for removing three protected Chinese elm trees from his La Cañada Flintridge property without permission, the Planning Commission decided Tuesday night. The commission voted 4-0 to require Morillo to place at least three new protected trees on his St. Katherine Drive property, with the remaining money used to plant trees throughout the city. Commissioner Arun Jain was absent from the meeting. The commission reduced the proposed restitution from $45,000, which a city arborist said is the value of the removed trees.

After postponing talks for several months, the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board is ready to again consider the possibility of putting another parcel tax before voters in 2014 and could conduct a survey to gauge public interest as early as May. Board members on Tuesday discussed a timetable for a survey to gauge voter support. A decision on whether to officially move forward with the $20,000 survey is expected to be made at the next regular meeting on April 16. A new parcel tax would help the district avoid the fiscal vacuum that would occur when Measure LC, the $150 parcel tax passed by voters in 2009, expires in June 2014.

For decades, artist Arthur Pinajian created vivid, abstract canvases under the cover of anonymity, painting thousands of landscapes and figure studies in varying abstract Expressionist styles. He worked out of a small cottage in Bellport, N.Y. that belonged to his sister Armen - it was here Pinajian would create and store his vast collection until his death in 1999 at age 85. Much like Vincent Van Gogh, the Armenian American painter, who began his career as a self-taught cartoonist in the 1930s, received little recognition or money in his lifetime.

You would think the recent succession of gray mornings would be a signal for the few hikers who go out early into the local mountains to pull the bedclothes over their heads. Instead, they are an eye-opener. And with more June glooming looming, there should be more to come. It's true that when, at six o'clock, you drive up Angeles Crest Highway, your mood often reflects the thickening drabness. For most of the time you are on your own but, peering through the mist, from time to time you see, coming toward you, strings of cars, headlights on - five, 10 at a time - bumper-to-bumper.

The "tween" social season (between spring and summer) has been so busy it would make most people's heads spin. It certainly has my brain buzzing. Where do I begin? I'll just jump in with talking about Las Candelas, an amazing organization that raised $90,000 for emotionally disturbed children under the direction of Monica Sierra , who was president for the past two years. The group volunteered nearly 400 hours to organizations Hathaway-Sycamores, Hillsides, Glendale Healthy Kids, Glendale YWCA and the Didi Hirsch Center.

The deodar cedar is not native to La Cañada Flintridge, but the tree's deep roots in the city might save it. City Council members on Monday decided to hold off on approving a simplified tree ordinance, which would have removed deodar cedars, California peppers and Chinese elms from the city's protection. But after one resident argued that the deodar was historically significant to the city, especially in the Alta Canyada neighborhood, officials reconsidered their decision. Bob Craven said he wasn't aware that officials had voted to remove the deodar from the protected tree list until he read an article in the Valley Sun. “By removing that deodar from protection, the council will be taking an action that goes against the history and the visual beauty of our particular residential area,” he told council members.

Deodar cedars, California peppers and Chinese elms all currently appear on the city's list of protected trees, but officials are expected to ax them in a simplified ordinance next week. Protected trees under the proposed ordinance include the California sycamore and a variety of oaks that have a diameter of 12 inches or more at 54 inches above grade. Officials say the revised ordinance, expected to be given the green light by the City Council at its March 18 meeting, is less complicated than the previous version.

On a recent Saturday night at Flintridge Proper, well-dressed couples and multi-generational families occasionally left their tables or bar stools to talk to people they knew across the room. The 3,000-square-foot La Cañada Flintridge bar and restaurant feels more like the inside of a neighbor's living room than a place that serves oysters and champagne cocktails. Two separate rooms evoke two different atmospheres - one a library with historic memorabilia and photos, the other a chic lounge with tall, custom-made chairs and bartenders in suspenders mixing up vintage cocktails.

With Verdugo Hills Hospital executives considering a merger with a larger healthcare provider, some physicians at the facility say the hospital would serve area residents best by staying independent. Michael Klein, an internist at Verdugo Hills, said more than 120 physicians attended a March 20 meeting to hear Verdugo Hills President and Chief Executive Leonard Labella address a possible merger or sale. Klein, who said he has been affiliated with the hospital for 40 years, said it was the largest crowd of doctors he had seen at the quarterly meetings hosted by administrators.

Veteran Washington state elementary school administrator Christine Castillo has been chosen as principal of La Cañada Elementary School, La Cañada Unified School District officials announced Thursday. Castillo is a former principal at Park Orchard Elementary School  in Kent, Wash., outside of Seattle. She served as vice-principal at Park Orchard before becoming principal in 2008, according to the Kent Reporter. Prior to that she served an internship in the Los Angeles Unified School District, earned her bachelor's degree at Pomona College and her master's in teaching at the University of Washington.