$100,000 for Centennial Pageant

The Redondo Beach City Council on Tuesday decided to appropriate $100,000 to help fund the gala pageant that has been scheduled for next year to celebrate its centennial.

The 100-year anniversary celebration--which will be kicked off with fireworks and a carnival and capped with the pageant in April at Redondo Union High School--had been in jeopardy because the council was unwilling to spare money from its general operations fund in a tight budget year.

But a separate fund, earmarked for the city’s Visitor’s Bureau and fed by revenue from a 1% bed tax increase, was tapped after the Chamber of Commerce agreed that the centennial is an event that should help spur tourism. The chamber had wanted the bed tax money used in ways that would more directly advertise and promote Redondo Beach as a tourist spot.