Cable TV Firm Gives $30,000 to 5 Agencies

In an effort to show that Paragon Communications is a good “community citizen,” officials at the cable television company today will donate $30,000 to nonprofit groups based in five South Bay cities.

Paragon is establishing a gift program, which it hopes to continue annually, because “we’re a brand new company in the South Bay,” said Paragon President John Bickham. “It’s simply our way of saying we’re a good community citizen.”

Checks of $6,000

The action comes as one of the cities--Gardena--is threatening legal action against the company to prevent the firm from shutting down a small local-access studio there. The company prefers that Gardena residents use a larger facility it has built in Torrance.

To kick off its charity program, Bickham will present checks of $6,000 to representatives of the private, nonprofit groups that are based in Torrance, Hawthorne, Gardena, Lawndale and El Segundo.

The groups sharing the award are the Torrance-based Switzer Center, Hawthorne’s Richstone Center, the Senior Day Care Center of Gardena, Lawndale’s Youth and Family Center and the Educational Foundation in El Segundo.

Open House

Bickham will present the checks during an open house at the company’s South Bay headquarters at 1511 Cravens Ave. in Torrance. Mayors and council members from the cities were to attend presentations, which will be made separately over the course of the afternoon.

As part of its effort to aid the groups, Paragon is producing a half-hour program with five minutes devoted to each nonprofit organization, as well as one-minute public service commercials that will air over the summer, Bickham said.

“The timing of this award was fortuitous because we just started a program for kids with mild or severe speech disorders,” said M. Carmela Welte, director of development for the Switzer Center.

Paragon officials said they hoped the award is an indication of improving relationships between the company, its 50,000 South Bay customers and officials of the cities it serves.

Officials in all five cities said this week that residents’ complaints have dwindled since Paragon completed installation of new transmission equipment in Gardena in March that improved picture quality.

In Gardena, however, there remains a dispute about the location of the local studio where residents can produce cable programs.

Gardena officials are negotiating with Paragon to retain a studio within the city. City Manager Kenneth Landau and City Atty. Michael Karger said that Gardena’s contract with Paragon provides for a public access studio in the city, but Paragon officials disagree.

“Right now we’re taking the stand that we want a studio in Gardena,” Landau said. “We’re still working out some options with Paragon, but I see it as a potentially major issue.”

Litigation against Paragon is one of the options the city is considering, he said.

Paragon officials said they will urge Gardena officials to give up their fight to keep the 300-square-foot Gardena studio and share the new 1,600-square-foot, $1.25-million Stanley Remelmeyer Telecommunications Center in Torrance with its South Bay neighbors.

“The franchise documents do not require Paragon to have an access studio in Gardena,” Bickham said, adding that the new Torrance facility is only 4 miles from Gardena.

“We’re providing a far superior facility, and eventually people will realize that and take advantage of it,” he said.

Members of Gardena’s Access Producers Guild, who have held fast to their demand for a studio in Gardena in recent testimony before the City Council, are to tour the new Torrance studios next week Bickham said.