Aspel Discusses City Plans at Club Luncheon Sept. 7, 2016

Posted on Sep 12, 2016

(REDONDO BEACH, California - September 7, 2016) Redondo Beach Mayor Steve Aspel was our feature speaker today. Gazing out the window of our second floor meeting room above King Harbor, he discussed plans for harbor development.

Among our visitors and guests today were Anne Shay, a special guest of Alexis Sheehy, Warren Bobrow of the Westchester Rotary Club and District 5280 Youth Exchange Officer, Abel Sanchez, a guest of Nora Girault, and Shogo Osoegawa of Japan.

Walter Campbell and Rick Wendorff handled Meals-on-Wheels today.

Jeff Weigel was on recognized for his three year anniversary in Rotary, and Jean Scully was recognized for having been a Rotarian for 16 years.

As part of her effort to expose club members to music, President Alexis Sheehy told us about Georg Frederick Handel. We heard Handel's Water Music Suite during lunch.

Mayor Aspel, a former president of our club, also spoke about economic development plans for Redondo Beach. "We have a $100 million enterprise and a $60 million budget," he said. "How do we raise money to pay for this? Well, we receive $100,000 investment income, Northrop-Grumman pumps $75 million into our economy in the form of salaries and taxes, the Galleria is our biggest employer and pays $500,000 annually in taxes, and of course our number one income producer is property taxes."

He said planning is underway at one stage or another for the Bristol Farms site, and separately, a 600 unit apartment complex. "We even have a plan to add a boat ramp to the Redondo Beach marina, which was originally designed for small craft only. Plus, the AES power plant is now up for sale and we are meeting with potential buyers," he said.