Featured Articles from the La Canada Valley Sun

Home buyers are skipping the traditional holiday hibernation in the residential real estate market, vying for available properties and pushing price increases in cities in and around Pasadena. The average purchase price of homes in Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge rose in November compared to a year earlier, continuing a trend that took hold in the second half of 2012. In La Cañada, the average price of a home sold in November was $1.66 million, according to statistics compiled by agent Keith Sorem at Keller Williams in Glendale.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Farmer's markets are not just for farmers anymore. Many of them, such as the weekly La Cañada Flintridge Farmer's Market, play host to purveyors of artisanal and specialty foods . From canapes to coffee, you can fill your basket with every ingredient for dinner, not just for the salad. Things are buzzing right at opening time of 9 a.m. each Saturday at the LCFFM. The first thing you'll want to do is get a cup of coffee at Forge. They roast the beans in small batches every Friday night close by in the San Fernando Valley so you can be sure you're getting the absolute freshest coffee Saturday morning.

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.

La Cañada Unified School District officials are moving into the final stages of a districtwide survey that could help shape everything from annual goals and school safety policies to curriculum. The district recently wrapped up a parent questionnaire, the third of four surveys being administered this spring. It was preceded by surveys of students and teachers, and will be followed by a survey of classified staff. The parent survey was conducted online, with participants required to log into a secure website using an access code.

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.

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.

On May 18, six local high school seniors, Alexandra Antonoplis, Kevin Hurlbutt, Nicholas Lupica, Megan Nathan, Daniel O’Leary and Mary Young will be presented as the 2010 recipients of the Christopher A. Burrows Memorial Scholarship. Each Burrows Scholar will receive a $2,500 scholarship at the Chris Burrows Memorial dinner. The dinner will be held at the home of Cayce and Don Sheppard at 5:30 p.m.; it is preceded in the morning by a round-robin tennis tournament and lunch at the La Cañada Flintridge Country Club.

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.