Featured Articles from the La Canada Valley Sun

John Goddard, the La Cañada Flintridge adventure-seeker who earned the nickname “the real life Indiana Jones,” has died. He was 88. When he was 15 years old, Goddard made a list of 127 goals, from exploring the Nile River to scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro. He completed all but a few of the tasks, some of them death-defying, earning international recognition. After a battle with a rare form of cancer, Goddard passed away on Friday, May 17 at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, said his son, Jeffery Goddard.

It was a normal night in the 91011.The east La Cañada parking lots were full. The Flintridge Proper waiters served flutes of champagne mixed with gin and flowers. At Taylors, bartenders quietly cranked out gin and tonics while servers carried baskets of crusty sourdough bread. The Sakura sushi chefs were busy with nigiri, maki and sake. Min's filled order after order of pad Thai. While the customers at Min's waited, they leafed through stacks of local papers. For example, the Valley Sun. The Valley Sun, which was strangely full of letters to the editor.

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.

Though separated by two divisions in the CIF Southern Section, the La Cañada High and Flintridge Prep baseball teams have run through similar seasons in 2013. Both began 2013 with teams coming off seasons in which they failed to make the playoffs and both were looking to regroup under first-year coaches. And now, both have rattled off surprising runs to respective league titles, as the Spartans won the Rio Hondo League crown and the Rebels claimed a share of the Prep League championships.

Oh my, I've been loving this weather. Coastal eddy can come and stay for the entire summer. These cool mornings are divine, and the air smells so sweet. Speaking of fragrances, the other night I was held hostage in my car for nearly 40 minutes because there was a huge skunk inspecting my front yard and I didn't dare open the door. I sure as heck didn't want to frighten him. While I was thumping my fingers on the steering wheel, he was leisurely sniffing the flowers. He then squeezed himself under the front gate and continued his property inspection in my front courtyard.

While La Cañada Flintridge officials consider a new citywide regulation for recreational vehicles, a hot spot has been on Tondolea Lane. Resident David Hotchkin and his neighbor Amir Hemmati have clashed over the presence of Hemmati's RV at his home, and Hotchkin has a history of raising the RV issue with city officials. In July 2011, Hotchkin appeared at a City Council meeting to appeal the city's approval of a project on Los Amigos Street that included space for RV parking.

With USC's acquisition of Verdugo Hills Hospital finalized last week, doctors on staff at Verdugo Hills are saying the merger's impact likely will be a mixed bag. Dr. Ben Pradhan, an orthopedic surgeon, said USC's acquisition of the hospital will have upsides and downsides for healthcare in the foothills area. “It's win-lose if they improve the facilities, but they'll also send patients down [to Keck Medical Center] and do the cases at USC, as opposed to at a local hospital,” he said.

A somber mood hung over the city this week as students, staff and parents remembered a student who jumped to his death Friday afternoon from a building on the La Cañada High School campus. Campbell Forrest Taylor, 17, was a senior at the school. Friends described him as an ambitious and outspoken young man who channeled his creative energy into theater and the school newspaper, The Spartan. PHOTOS: Memorial at La Cañada High “He was not afraid to take on controversial issues,” said Kevork Kurdoghlian, a former editor of The Spartan and 2012 graduate of La Cañada High.

After neighbors criticized Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy for exceeding its city-mandated enrollment cap, the school will admit a smaller freshman class this fall. A total of 385 students - the maximum number the school can hold under a conditional-use permit granted by the city in 1994 - will attend the school in August. The current enrollment is 410. Last year, members of the group Protect LCF complained to the city that the school's enrollment was over its limit. They objected to the resulting extra traffic to the curvy, narrow streets that lead to the hillside campus.

When Harvey Lee Block was in junior high school, he took an aptitude test to determine what professional paths might hold the most promise. At the time, he excelled at athletics and had his heart set on someday earning a football scholarship, so he wasn’t too excited to learn he could have a bright future as a clergyman or social worker. “I laughed at that,” he said. “I really wanted to be an athlete.” Today, the 70-year-old Block is living proof that the test was right.

School is officially out for the summer, but the doors of the La Cañada Playhouse, La Cañada High School’s theater, are open and filled with youngsters for the Summer Acting Camp, which began Monday. The Summer Acting Camp has been produced by the Theatrical Education Group, based out of Los Angeles, and Justin Eick, LCHS’ theater director and the Theatrical Education Group’s artistic director, for the past 14 years. The Camp originated in Glendale but has been at La Cañada High for the past three years.

Bob Burlison is about to go on the ride of his life. The 60-year-old La Cañada Flintridge lawyer will take off on his motorcycle next month, trekking more than 15,000 miles around the nation. He plans to stop in every state except Hawaii and Alaska - those he will visit via a web camera. When completed, the journey could break a current Guinness World Record for the longest motorcycle ride in the same country. But Burlison also has a stronger, philanthropic reason for leaving his life behind for nearly three months.

Diners looking for a nice sit-down meal in La Cañada Flintridge have a couple of options, but local entrepreneur Brady Caverly is betting that they are ready for one more. Caverly is in the final stages of launching Flintridge Proper, an upscale restaurant in the space formerly occupied by Los Gringos Locos on Foothill Boulevard. The La Cañada resident hopes to open by February. Caverly cleared a final procedural hurdle last week when the city Planning Commission voted 4 to 0 and approved his request to extend alcohol-sales hours, allowing Flintridge Proper to offer drinks as early as 7 a.m. and as late as 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.