GLENDALE : ‘Team Spirit’ Float Proposed for Parade

Nine residents will brave fierce rapids on a white-water river-rafting trip through a local rock-studded gorge on the city’s proposed 1995 Rose Parade float entry.

The city’s proposed entry was chosen from among 15 designs, said Nello Iacono, director of parks, recreation and community services.

The entry, titled “Team Spirit” to coincide with the parade’s 1995 theme of “Sports--Quest for Excellence,” features residents holding floral-covered paddles riding a raft perched atop rocks lining a narrow gorge.

The white-water raft on the 35-foot long, 17-foot high and 18-foot wide float will cascade down a floral waterfall of roses and daisies that parade-goers will be able to see through, said Bill Lofthouse, president of C. E. Bent & Son.

Based in Pasadena, C. E. Bent & Son is a private contractor that has worked with Glendale through the last 25 years to design and build the city’s Rose Parade float entries.

Glendale’s 1994 float entry “A Whale’s Tail,” featured a California humpback whale breaking through the ocean’s surface. It received the Mayor’s Trophy for the best entry by a city.

Both the 1994 and 1995 float designs were also created to promote an awareness of environmental issues and of the state’s fragile ecology, Lofthouse said.

The council is scheduled to review the proposed 1995 float design at today’s meeting.

Once the council approves the design, it must vote to fund the $60,000 float during budget deliberations for the 1994-95 fiscal year.

Construction will begin on the 1995 float when the council approves funding for the design. It takes about three months to build a float.