CITY HALL ROUNDUP : Carson will hit the quarter-century mark in grand style.

SILVER BELLS: Carson turns 25 in February, and officials already are planning a birthday bash.

The City Council recently adopted the recommendations of a 25-member citizens committee planning the fete, which will include a January kickoff ceremony honoring city founders and dignitaries and a citizens ball on Feb. 20, the anniversary date.

The city plans to spend about $28,000 on the festivities, but officials will seek corporate and individual sponsorships to defray the costs.

A parade is being considered, but it might be too expensive, said Scot Yotsuya, deputy city administrator and chief adviser to the committee.

No matter. Residents can savor the memory of the anniversary with the 25th birthday T-shirts, glasses, key chains and posters that officials plan to sell.

“We want to provide the community with souvenirs of this milestone event,” Yotsuya said.

SPACE NEEDLE: Need a 357-foot-high tower, complete with a 50-passenger elevator, that offers spectacular 360-degree views of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Catalina Island on a clear day? The old Marineland sky tower in Rancho Palos Verdes is for sale.

Built in 1965 by a German company, the spire belongs to Phoenix developer James Monaghan, who bought the Marineland amusement park in 1987. Monaghan wants to build a 450-room luxury resort hotel on the site and the needle is in the way, a spokesperson for the developer said.

The double-decked, doughnut-shaped elevator zips up and down the tower at 350 feet a minute, and the rotating cabin carries 25 passengers on each of the two decks.

Prospective buyers do face a big drawback, however. Just disassembling the needle will cost $209,000 and it’ll take another $900,000 to put it back together again, according to estimates. From time to time, amusement parks from New Zealand, Germany and Australia have hinted they’d like to buy the tower, but then backed away because of the costs and the difficulty in finding a location for such a structure.

IN THE CARDS--Inglewood’s top education officials put their cards on the City Council’s table Tuesday night. Superintendent George J. McKenna and School Board President Thomasina Reed asked the council to ante up one-third of the pot created by the city’s proposed new card club.

“We haven’t yet begun to scratch the surface for what our children need,” McKenna said, asking for a share of the profits. “It behooves a civilized society to invest in its most valuable asset.”

The school’s request came just one week after voters narrowly passed Proposition E, which will permit the establishment of a card club. The financially strapped city, which faced a $6-million deficit this year, is expected to rake in between $10 million and $14 million a year in gambling revenues from the card club. But the club at Hollywood Park won’t open until late next year.

The council maintained a poker face while the educators played their hand. But later, after a long hearing about a potential windfall from a local oil well, Mayor Ed Vincent remarked: “It’s amazing that revenues that we don’t even have yet, people are already asking for.”

LAST WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

Los Angeles: Recreation and Parks Commission unanimously approved an environmental report for the International Korean Veterans Memorial proposed for Angels Gate Park in San Pedro. The action pushes the long-debated project closer to final city approval. The project now calls for two bronze sculptures: one of 11 soldiers during a break in combat, the other a field nurse with arms outstretched to the soldiers.

Manhattan Beach: The City Council agreed 4-0 Thursday to provide $26,000 a month for the next several months to keep the Manhattan Heights Library open for business. County officials had planned to close the facility this week to help ease a $10.2-million budget crunch. Manhattan Heights was one of 10 libraries scheduled for closure.

Redondo Beach: Chickens were declared personas non gratis in Redondo Beach Tuesday when the City Council voted 5-0 to deny resident Edmund Smith a permit to keep 28 of his daughter Roseanne’s feathered friends at their home on South Irena Avenue. The council previously gave Smith permission to keep six chickens, with the provision that she not replace them as they die off.

NEXT WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

Inglewood: To celebrate Children’s Book Week, which begins on Monday, the Inglewood public library will give out free book bags and lollipops to children who either register for a library card or check out five or more books. Youngsters in kindergarten through junior high school may participate.

MEETINGS THIS WEEK

Avalon: 7 p.m. Tuesday, 209 Metropole. (310) 510-0220. Televised live on Channel 3 (Catalina Cable) and repeated Saturday morning. Carson: 6 p.m. Tuesday, 701 E. Carson St. (310) 830-7600. Televised at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday on Channel 26 (Continental Cablevision) and repeated the following Wednesday. El Segundo: 7 p.m. Tuesday, 350 Main St. (310) 322-4670. Televised live on Channel 22 (Paragon) and repeated at noon Wednesday. Inglewood: 7 p.m. Tuesday, 1 Manchester Blvd. (310) 412-5280. No cable telecast. Lawndale: 7 p.m. Thursday, 14717 Burin Ave. (310) 973-4321. Televised live on Channel 60 and repeated several times during the week. Lomita: 7 p.m. Monday, 24300 Narbonne Ave. (310) 325-7110. No cable telecasts. Los Angeles: 10 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles. In San Pedro, (310) 548-7637; in Wilmington, (310) 548-7586; in Harbor City/Harbor Gateway, (310) 548-7664; in Westchester, (310) 641-4717. Televised live on Channel 35; meetings repeated individually at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and collectively on Sunday starting at 10 a.m. Manhattan Beach: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 1400 Highland Ave. (310) 545-5621. Televised on Channel 3 (MultiVision) at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Rancho Palos Verdes: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Hesse Park, 29201 Hawthorne Blvd. (310) 377-0360. Televised live on Channel 3; repeated at 7:30 p.m. the following Thursday. Redondo Beach: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, 415 Diamond St. (310) 372-1171. Televised live on Channel 8 (Century); repeated at 3 p.m. Wednesday and 6 p.m. Sunday. Torrance: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, 3031 Torrance Blvd. (310) 618-5880. Televised live on Channel 22 (Paragon), and replayed at 10 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, and at 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.