Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council Live Blog: Thursday, February 17

update 9:25 p.m. - David Kekone is pitching his motion that the HHPNC allocate $2,500 in Neighborhood Purpose Grant Money to support the Northeast Division's youth boxing program. The program enrolls youth from across NELA, many of who have been involved in gang activity. The motion is unanimously approved by the council, but now needs to pass budget and finane committee muster.

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The next motion also addresses the boxing program. The program currently runs at the Northeast area police station in Atwater Village, and David Kekone has proposed writing a letter on behalf of the Police Action League to the asking if they could conduct the boxing program at that location on York Boulevard.

update 9:19 p.m. - After hearing numerous positive statements regarding the Boys State/Girls State program from community members the HHPNC approves funding for the program. The question still remains, though: Is it appropriate to allocate $1,190 in HHPNC funds for the benefit of three students.

update 9:07 p.m. - Should the HHPNC approve $1,190 to send three Franklin High School students to Boys and Girls State? Council agrees its a great program, but the question is whether the funding would benefit a large enough portion of the community. Representative from the American Legion argues that the students who attend the program come back and serve as leaders. Janet Dodson, though, says the Department of Neighborhood Engagement (DONE) is closely monitoring their allocation of neighborhood council funds, and fears spending the money for the field trip would be deemed innapropriate. DONE has approved the program in the past.

update 8:56 p.m. -  Neighborhood council votes in favor of granting $2,200 to Franklin High School students to attend legislative seminar in Sacremento between March 6 until March 8. There's a catch, though. The students have to come back to the council to give a brief presentation about what they learned on the trip.

update 8:45 p.m. - Motion by Trisha Gosset to look into the idea of live podcasting HHPNC meetings is postponed. Member David Kekone said it wouldn't be difficult to do if they had the proper equipment, but would likely be impossible because there's not wireless connection at the senior center. (We're using our air-card to do our live blog.)

update 8:34 p.m. - Steve Rasmussen Cancian of Living Streets L.A. is giving an update regarding .  He told the community that Living Street's will not be able to complete an like initially planned. Living Streets is still pushing to complete something as soon as possible. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 2 at 6 p.m. There's no location set, yet.

update: 8:25 p.m. - A motion to allocate $10,000 in HHPNC funds toward purchasing a fixed security camera system for the intersection of York Blvd. and N. Figueroa St. was referred to the budget and finance committee. The committee currently has $15,000 earmarked for the project and is hoping to have a total of $25,000 set aside before sending a letter CD1 and CD14 asking for matching funds to purchase the camera system. Council members are in favor of the idea, however, treasurer Mark Reback said there might not be sufficient funding this year. Budget and Finance will review the proposal and measure it against the balance of HHPNC's funds for the remaining fiscal year.

update: 8:15 p.m. - The neighborhood council just approved a letter of support for Cowboy & Company, the developers responsible for refurbishing of the Union Bank property York Blvd. and N. Figueroa St. Cowboy & Co. is currently mired in a legal battle with the property owner, and the letter would be used in an future court proceedings.

update: 8:03 p.m. - According to Aldama PTA member Marlene Olrvarez, Aldama Elementary School will host its first community art fair on Friday from 3:00 p.m. –7:00 p.m. According to Olrvarez, local artists from the Highland Park community will be at Aldama for an evening devoted to the celebration of the community through art.

update: 8:00 p.m. - Neighborhood Council member Janet Dodson reminds the public that the ribbon cutting for the city's first bike corral will take place Friday at 9 a.m. in front of on 5000 York Blvd.

update: 7:55 p.m. - Dora Saurez, head librarian of the Arroyo Seco Library, spoke at public forum, urging voters to go to the polls in favor of Measure L, which would earmark .03 percent of the city's budget for library funding. That money would go toward extending library hours, which were cut during the summer.

update: 7:44 p.m. - Councilman Jose Huizar just finished taking questions from community members. We'll have video up on the site tomorrow afternoon.