Police Stations

The Los Angeles Police Department is inviting the public to the grand opening ceremony on June 3 for its remodeled Foothill Area Community Police Station in Pacoima. A full day of events is planned at the station, beginning with an open house at 9:30 a.m., followed by a ribbon-cutting at 1 p.m. hosted by Chief Willie L. Williams. Foothill Division police officers waited more than two years for the $5-million addition and renovation to be completed.

Officers at the LAPD's North Hollywood Division have been waiting anxiously to move into their new police station at 11640 Burbank Blvd. Unfortunately, they may have to wait a little longer. According to police officials, the opening of the North Hollywood station, originally estimated for October and later announced as Feb. 1, has been delayed until late March. Recent rainy weather, design changes and damaged building supplies were blamed for the latest delay. "Feb.

The Planning Commission has given final approval for a Newton Division police station to be built at 3400 Central Ave. Construction of the 26,000-square-foot, $13-million station is to begin in April, 1994, said Lynell Washington, a planner for CRSS Construction Inc. Six single-family homes must be demolished to make way for the station and the homeowners agreed in August to sell their property to the city.

Long Beach will use about $15,000 in federal funds to open the city's first two storefront police stations early next year. The storefront stations, modeled after those in Philadelphia, will serve as places for police officers to gather, where residents may get information and where volunteers will run such programs as neighborhood watch. Officers will not be deployed and criminals will not be booked at the centers.

The Los Angeles Public Works Board decided Friday not to levy $519,000 in possible fines against the firm that built the North Valley and West Valley police stations despite concluding that the company improperly replaced and reduced minority and other subcontractors' work. The fines were reduced to $24,890 after KPRS Construction Services agreed not to bid on city construction jobs for five years.

Security forces took the offensive Friday and recaptured five of 20 Sri Lankan police stations overrun by Tamil guerrillas in a series of attacks this week, military sources said. They said the drive by troops began as Justice Minister Shahul Hameed was holding peace talks with leaders of the rebels in their stronghold in Jaffna in the north. Hameed will return to Jaffna to resume talks today.

A group linked to Al Qaeda detonated seven bombs Tuesday, targeting police in several towns east of Algiers and killing six people, officials said. Al Qaeda in Islamic North Africa -- the new name for the Salafist Group for Call and Combat -- claimed responsibility for the attacks in a telephone call to the Qatar-based television network Al Jazeera and in a statement on the Internet. The group allied itself with Al Qaeda last year. "I was woken by a huge blast.

Responding to growing fears about the use of automated teller machines at night, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to install ATMs at police stations in Northridge and the Wilshire area. The plan, proposed by Councilman Hal Bernson, calls for ATMs at the Devonshire and Wilshire police stations on a trial basis, with the possibility of the machines eventually being installed at all 18 police bureaus citywide.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon's proposal to issue bonds to build two new police stations is among the subjects to be discussed at an upcoming meeting of the Sylmar Community Coordinating Council. Alarcon's field deputy in Sylmar, Rommel Hilario, will be the featured speaker at the noon meeting Feb. 15 at Mission College, Room 1, 13356 Eldridge Ave., Sylmar.

Prompted by a rash of violent robberies at automated teller machines, City Councilman Hal Bernson asked city officials Tuesday to study a plan to put ATMs in police stations. Under the Bernson proposal made at a City Council meeting, ATMs would be installed on a trial basis at the Los Angeles Police Department's Devonshire Division in Chatsworth and one at an intercity station to be determined later.