So it gets buried on the inside. Move along. Nothing to see here, folks. No front page, above-the-fold information here: Rosemead’s budget for next year will have a surplus of about $500,000. The total reserve is $21 million, which is about one million dollars more than it was before we got a new city council majority.

7pm in the Community Center.

Among many other items, note that noise and the transformer issue at Wal-Mart are on the agenda, listed under "Items from the Mayor and City Council."

A few quick numbers, from last week's city manager's newsletter:

Code enforcement: 286 active cases; 27 cases cleared/abated

69 shopping carts picked up

33 bulky items picked up

1469 square feet of graffiti removed from 27 locations

2 felony  warrant arrests, one felony burglary arrests, 3 other felony arrests.

Just a bit of info to show that there are some tangible measures of improvement around our city.  Next week, I'll try to post a little update on what's been going on in the way of Wal-Mart mitigation.

Monday, June 2, 7pm. Another light meeting. One parcel map, for a subdivision of an R-2 property into two smaller parcels. On one parcel will be a smallish single story house, about 1400 square feet. The other will have a larger house, just under 3,000 square feet.

This may be the first house coming to us under the new anti-mansionization ordinance. It will have a floor area ratio of just under 40% (i.e., the parcel has about 7500 square feet, and the home will have a living area of just under 40% of that. It’s able to reach 40% (instead of 35%)because of various design standards incorporated into the project, including a low front fence, a lower roofline, and the inclusion of mature trees as part of the landscaping.

There’s a guy going around town claiming to be from the Committee for a Clean & Beautiful Rosemead. He knocks on a door, then tells the resident they need to do certain improvements to their property or face a stiff fine from the city of Rosemead.

THIS MAN IS A FRAUD!!! He does not represent the city of Rosemead.

As far as anyone can tell, there is no committee for a Clean and Beautiful Rosemead. If you are contacted by someone and subjected to this sort of treatment, you should consider contacting the Rosemead Public Safety Center to report the incident: 626-569-2272

What is?  Why, frozen yogurt, of course!

Yeah, it's probably an unhealthy obsession, but frozen yogurt outlets seem to be slowly marching down Valley Blvd.  No Pinkberry, yet, but these others will do.

Last year, Peachhouse opened at the corner of Valley and New.  Last month, it was Nubi, in the Great Chinese Mall, just east of Del Mar.  And, now, in the window of what used to be Bagette Express (at the corner of Euclid and Valley, just east of Howard's, just about half way between Del Mar and San Gabriel), there's a sign for "Berryspot," which sounds an awful lot like a future frozen yogurt place.

Rosemead's Memorial Day observance is at 10am on Monday, May 26.  I've mentioned it in other posts, and now I'm making a separate post.  There'll be a wreath laying, a flag raising ceremony, and probably the playing of "Taps."

Also in recognition of Memorial Day, I'm attaching a picture I took a number of years ago, when I made my way to the Marine Corps Memorial.  It was taken on film and scanned, so, unfortunately, I see it's become a little pixilated.

Should be a relatively uncontroversial meeting, although you never can tell.  The city manager and city clerk are up for five percent raises.  Since the city manager and his team have, just in the past few months, managed to finagle our budget to keep us from having to give back (what was it?  Several hundred thousand dollars?) to the state, I think he's earned his five percent.