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In the hot September sun, I sit among a grove of oak trees and gaze at wildlife as squirrels and birds clamber around me. In the background, a small brook rolls by and I can barely hear the distant roar of the 14 Freeway. The sun is getting warmer now and I'm beginning to feel a little tired. Maybe I'll just nap for a minute here under the tree.
Why do we spend 18 years raising our children, teaching them to behave, and telling them to do well in school? Because we want the best for them. We tell them that they should study hard for college, but we can sometimes neglect our part, that we may want to help them pay for it. If we don't teach them to save money for themselves by getting a job, applying for scholarships, and saving when young, our part of the bargain will raise its head in the form of the funds for that ever-increasing college tuition.
Numbers don't lie. Every year more bankruptcies are filed and more foreclosures happen and re-happen. The reality is that many of us educate ourselves about money through a process of elimination and it takes us years if not our whole lives to recover. It keeps us out of real homes and our kids out of real schools, and we quiet our very real anger with justifications, denial and desperation. Here's a story about how financial intelligence can improve the quality of life for a family not much different from yours. We'll call them the Joneses, and hopefully you can keep up with them as they reach financial success.
When the opportunity arose to purchase an existing antique shop in downtown Newhall, friends Sue Neiberger and Colleen Henriques jumped at it. While their passion for antiques was obvious, their business experience was limited, so Neiberger and Henriques turned to the Women's Business Center for advice on a variety of issues such as permits, funding and setting up the books. The Center also offered to help them with marketing.
Gangs. Drugs. Graffiti. Not usually words that one would associate with Santa Clarita, but all present in our town none-the-less. Fortunately for us, these plights on our community haven't gone unnoticed. An integral part of the SCV's Antigang Task Force, Cynthia Llerenas, the City of Santa Clarita's 2004 Employee of the Year, talks about the good, the bad and the ugly.
So far, we've featured a council member, the city manager, and the person in charge of city planning. All are very different people with very different jobs, but they do have one thing, or, more specifically, one person, in common: Gail Ortiz, public information officer for the City of Santa Clarita. Since she's so good at explaining things to people, we'll leave the rest of the introduction in her capable hands.
If you live/work/play/drive in or around the City of Santa Clarita, the decisions made by the City's elected officials and staff unavoidably affect you. That being said, don't you think it's kind of important to know a little bit about the folks who have the power to change our surroundings and way of life? Yeah, we thought so, too. With that in mind, here's Inside SCV's third profile in the "Who Are These People?" series.
In our continuing effort to (re-)introduce you to key city staff, Inside SCV would like to present Mr. Ken Pulskamp - the City of Santa Clarita's city manager and, in his lesser-known position, The Voice of the City (When you call city hall and are put on hold, you'll hear Ken, plugging city programs and events!).
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