The City is spending $8M to $12M a year fixing things. Available project funding for next year: $4.7M. A pandemic-era cushion that papered over the gap is gone and the unfunded backlog has now grown to somewhere between $148 million and $280 million, with the Pier replacement now added to the list.
A $3.2 million structural deficit has been sitting under Hermosa Beach's budget for five years, masked by pandemic relief, vacancy savings, and unspent carryforward. With all three now exhausted, the council inherits a problem its predecessors chose to defer.
The Hermosa Beach Chamber Foundation's annual Hermosa for the Holidays event concludes today (Sunday 23rd) with the community tree lighting ceremony, capping a three-day festival that drew crowds to downtown over the weekend.
The tree lighting ceremony begins at 5:45 p.m. on Pier Plaza, with Santa's arrival and the lighting scheduled for 6 p.m. Musical entertainment runs throughout the afternoon, and there's also live music outside Java Man on Pier Avenue.
The concert stage will feature a range of local artists, right next to the Ferris wheel at the pier
Today's schedule includes a Community Concert from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and the Rock for Tots benefit concert from 5-8 p.m., both on Pier Plaza. A Nonprofit Giving Village runs from 1-6 p.m., featuring local organizations including the Hermosa Beach Sister City Association, The Peter Zippi Foundation, and South Bay Boardriders and the Hermosa Beach Women's Club.
The weekend kicked off Friday evening with a Ferris wheel on Pier Plaza, which continues operating today from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday featured a collection of local vendors at pop-up markets along Pier Avenue and a "Kids Creationz Market" on the upper Pier Avenue sidewalk, where young entrepreneurs from transitional kindergarten through eighth grade sold their own handcrafted items.
Saturday's Kids Creationz Market featured a selection of stalls run by local young entrepreneurs
Today's activities also include photos with Santa from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., a storytime tent near Uncorked, and the final hours of an Elf on the Shelf Scavenger Hunt at 22 participating local businesses, which ends at 5 p.m.
The event is free and open to the public. Chamber President Michelle Crispin said the event has become a "family favorite in the community" and a way to promote "shop local."