More than three dozen attendees of the Chamber’s monthly Networking Breakfast on Aug. 15, 2013, learned that the new SoCal Gas Advanced Meters will be installed in the coming months and saw firsthand that entrepreneurs like Frank Perini still have the drive to run a business, even at age 89.
Networking Breakfasts are sponsored year-round by Rose Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary Services and held at 7:30 a.m. on the third Thursday of each month in the Sunset Room of the Santa Anita Golf Course.
Southern California Gas Company‘s Community Education and Outreach Project Manager for the Advanced Meter Project, Daise Cristobal Sanchez, gave a 15-min presentation explaining the process and concept behind the Advanced Meters, which will involve simply adding a small communication device to six million existing natural gas meters at businesses and residences over the next several years through 2017. The devices will be activated for only a fraction of a second each day to update usage data. The result will allow users to track far more accurate recordings of usage daily online and greatly reduce the need for human meter readers to access the meter.
<Story continues below the following 10-min video montage of photos produced by a friend of Perini, and the subsequent gallery of about 70 photos from the Networking Breakfast – click the “i” at top right of gallery for captions…>
A full-scale gas meter showing the new device to be attached was on display along with information provided by Ingrid Hutt of The Hutt Group, which is assisting on the community outreach on the project. The Arcadia Chamber is also providing community outreach support.
SoCalGas supports customer choice and recognizes that some customers may prefer to have their gas meter manually read each month. Those who have questions or would like to decline an advanced meter installation are asked to call the SoCalGas Customer Contact Center at (800) 427-2200 or (800) 342-4545 in Spanish. For more comprehensive information about advanced meters, customers also can visit socalgas.com/advanced. A SoCalGas advanced meter installation video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI04jL12qC4.
Arcadia President Arlynn Robinson reflects with Arcadia Business Icon Frank Perini on Rotary Plaza dedicated in 1965
Perini’s Hair Plus, in business on Foothill Boulevard in Arcadia for more than 40 years, was the recipient of this month’s Arcadia Business Icon tribute, a joint presentation by the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce and the Arcadia Historical Society. A longtime and still-active Arcadia Rotarian, he stopped by the Chamber office a day earlier to see and reminisce with Chamber President Arlynn Robinson of Century 21 Earll about the sunken patio installed by the Rotary Club on the west side of the Chamber building in November 1965 and dubbed the “Rotary Plaza” on a plaque that remains there nearly 50 years later. (Photo at right.)
At the breakfast, Arcadia Historical Society President and Arcadia City Clerk Gene Glasco presented the award to Perini after sharing a story about a prank Perini pulled when Glasco was a child customer, giving him a potato in the bottom of a Christmas gift bag instead of the fun present Glasco was expecting.
Perini, who was joined at the ceremony by his daughter who attends college and works at Westfield Santa Anita mall, said he was so honored by the tribute that he couldn’t sleep the last couple of nights. Glasco and several other attendees recalled decades of getting weekly haircuts at Perini’s.
Society board directors Carol Libby and Karen Hou also saluted Perini and Hou announced that the Society’s Thoroughbred Racing Walk of Champions will debut along Huntington Drive in Downtown Arcadia in 2014 but donations are still needed to finalize necessary funding. The Society will have a booth at the Business Showcase at the Taste Sept. 23 where they will offer souvenirs and information regarding the Society and Walk of Champions.
The breakfast was emcee’d by Dr. Nina Getz of Phillips Eye Center. Among the many raffle prizes won by attendees of the breakfast was a Jan’s Towing coffee mug in decorative wrapping produced by Chamber member Stubbies Promotions and presented by Chamber board member Annette Ousterhout of Jan’s Towing; a back pack presented by Ivan Lai of Cruise Planners; a free ad in the Mountain Views News presented by Networking Breakfast Committee Member Patricia Colonello; candles presented by Chamber board director, Ambassador, and Networking Breakfast Committee member Vicki Knight of Century Rooter Service & Plumbing; and a gift card from Right at Home presented by Becky Happach, who then won the drawing for the three-minute Business Spotlight at next month’s Breakfast.
Next month’s Networking Breakfast at 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 19 will feature a presentation about Santa Anita Park‘s Autumn Meet and the Breeders’ Cup, and a tribute to Arcadia Business Icon Wells Fargo bank on Baldwin Avenue and the bank’s long history of support of Chinese businesses in the region.
Tickets for members who pay at least 48 hours in advance are $15; $20 thereafter and at the door. Non-members are $20 if paid at least 48-hours in advance; $25 at the door.
Thanks to the volunteer efforts of the Networking Breakfast Committee: Patricia Colonello of Mountain Views News; Dr. Nina Getz of Phillips Eye Center; Rod Salazar of Stubbies Promotions; Vicki Knight of Century Rooter Service and Plumbing; Annette Ousterhout of Jan’s Towing.
