AROUND THE VALLEYS

News and notes from around the greater San Fernando Valley area SANTA CLARITA VALLEY Santa Clarita Honor: Two City of Santa Clarita employees have been nominated in the 16th annual California On Location Awards. Toi Chisom and Gus Pivetti were nominated in the Public Employee of the Year – City category. Chisom is the recreation superintendent for the city and oversees the sports complex, a popular filming location. She has had to juggle filming requests and keeping the facility open to the public. Pivetti is a senior traffic engineer who works to keep traffic flowing and handles the many production requests to use city streets and roads. The California On Location Awards recognize and honor the work of location professionals throughout the state. The awards were presented Oct. 24 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. ANTELOPE VALLEY Palmdale Jobs: The City of Palmdale has launched the Palmdale Prospector, an Internet-based tool to speed up and simplify the process of business attraction and site location for expanding and relocating businesses. The site combines property information, demographic information and Geographic Information System layers to allow users to search, select and compare properties meeting their specific criteria. Real estate professionals can use the site to list available properties businesses might be interested in. “The Palmdale Prospector allows users to easily gather the critical information they need to make informed business relocation and expansion decisions, free of charge,” said Senior Economic Development Project Manager Kari Blackburn. SAN FERNANDO VALLEY Burbank Visit: Students from the Academy of Art and Technology at Grover Cleveland High School in Reseda spent a day at LAGraphico and Midnight Oil Creative. The students heard from the teams of graphic and web designers, structural engineers and print production employees about creating marketing materials for feature films, television, home entertainment, video games, and retail stores The tour of the companies will help the students understand the connection between what they learn in school and what is expected in the workplace. The art and technology academy educates and trains students in graphic design, web design and illustration. San Fernando Honored: Fresenius Medical Care North America, a network of dialysis facilities, named several of its Valley-region clinics as Centers of Excellence for achieving the highest standards in patient care in 2009. It selecting its Centers of Excellence each year, the company considers outcome measures such as dialysis adequacy, control of anemia, nutritional status, vascular access, patient satisfaction and transplant education. The Fresenius Medical Care clinics that earned the designation included those in San Fernando, Mission Hills, Thousand Oaks, Woodland Hills, Burbank, Camarillo, Channel Islands and Lancaster. Other Fresenius clinics in Los Angeles and Ventura counties were also recognized. Encino Learn: Independent producer Bill Mechanic was the keynote speaker at the second annual VES Production Summit put on by the Visual Effects Society on Oct. 23. Entertainment industry professionals gathered for the day to attend sessions on post production / virtual production, evolving and changing roles in the film and visual effects industries, and the globalization of the overall industry with the only constant being change. A featured speaker at the summit was Jeff Miller, president of Worldwide Post Production and Operations for The Walt Disney Studios. Van Nuys Tidy: The Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce has chosen to clean up the Metro Orange Line between Hazeltine Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard as its major project for the 27th annual Clean Up Day. All groups are welcome to join the chamber on Clean-Up Day on Nov. 6, and students will receive community services credits for attending. Each year, the Chamber will choose a single project to focus its efforts on to make the Valley a better place to live, eat, shop and play. The event begins at 8 a.m. and the staging area is located at 6060 Van Nuys Blvd. Woodland Hills Agency: JMPR Public Relations has been hired by Vogue Tyre and Rubber Co., manufacturer of whitewall tires. The firm is tasked with a host of media relations responsibilities including launching new lines of Vogue branded products, raising awareness of the brand within the auto industry and consumers, and assisting with company representation by coordinating and directing media related events. Vogue has been in business for nearly 100 years and has served generations of luxury car and SUV owners. “We trust the expertise JMPR built over the last three decades working in both the automotive and aftermarket industries will help us spread the Vogue message to a broader message,” said company President Greg Hathcock. – Compiled by Mark R. Madler CONEJO VALLEY Agoura Hills Spiritual: THQ Inc. will turn the popular teachings of author Deepak Chopra into a series of video games following the signing of a licensing agreement. The games will be made for consoles, handheld devices, and wireless devices. Teaming with Chopra, an author and public speaker on spirituality and mind-body medicine, expands the THQ casual game portfolio and invigorates the lifestyle category, said Martin Good, Executive Vice President, THQ Kids, Family, Casual Games, and Global Online Services. – Compiled by Mark R. Madler Van Nuys Flight: Clay Lacy was honored with a Pathfinder Award at the Seattle Museum of Flight for his contributions to the aerospace industry. Lacy’s eponymous jet charter and management firm has a base of operations in Seattle. The museum is where Lacy started and ended his around the world speed record flight that collected more than $500,000 for children’s charities. An airline captain, experimental test pilot, air race champion, aviation record-setter, aerial cinematographer and entrepreneur, Lacy has touched upon more aspects of aviation than any other pilot.