Extra! Extra! Read all about it: Huge tree stump found on M Street.

NEW NEWS: Here it is, folks, hot off the presses, the first edition of Wilmington’s own community paper, “Harbor Journal.”

About 10,000 copies of the 12-page August issue, published by longtime resident John Roberts, have hit the streets.

“I don’t (print) anything controversial unless it’s in our community,” Roberts said. “There’s enough O.J. Simpson and Menendez brothers. . . . I’ll pick up all the little stories that fall between the cracks.”

So, what’s the lead story of the first edition?

Under the headline “Dump Skunks Beware!” writer Richard Tracey doses out some heavy criticism to the people who dumped a tree stump in front of the Wilmington Library.

“An enormous tree stump was dumped on M Street by some idiot without any concern for this community’s welfare,” the article states.

The next edition will be out Sept. 10.

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SOAP UP, PAY UP: The Avalon City Council has a remedy to what seems to be an infuriating problem for tourists: corroded coin boxes in the public showers by the sea on Casino Way.

“They get soaped up and the coin box jams up, and then there’s no water to rinse the soap off,” City Clerk Shirley Davy said. “They can get pretty mad, and they start beating on the coin boxes to try to make them work.”

The city will spend more than $14,000 for 12 new stainless-steel coin boxes, specially designed to withstand the corrosive elements of water, and any other kind of abuse, said Finance Director David Batt.

Tourists pay 50 cents for a two-minute shower. The city collected $24,401 from the coin boxes last year.

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WATCH THE WALLS: After running an item that the San Pedro Municipal Building might crumble in a major earthquake, Around the South Bay contacted Los Angeles City Hall officials to determine the risk to people still working in the structure.

The building, constructed in the 1920s, probably wouldn’t fall down in an earthquake, but some interior walls could crumble, said city architect Bill Holland.

“If it was an earthquake like the Northridge earthquake, I’d say there would be some injuries,” Holland said. “But anything (below that), no.”

The city will spend $5 million on seismic and safety improvements, and the work is expected to take a year, he said. Work should start in January, but a decision on whether to relocate workers or move them to other parts of the building has not been made, he said.

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CHANGING COLORS: Los Angeles City Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. is getting out of the paint business.

Svorinich said marine paint distributor Don Crouthamel, who owns C-Worthy Specialties in San Pedro, is buying Svorinich’s Industrial Paint Co. store on Avalon Boulevard in Wilmington for an undisclosed sum.

Svorinich has spent much of his life in the paint business, starting out as an employee at the paint store as a youth and eight years later buying the store. So he says he has mixed feelings about leaving it behind.

He said Crouthamel had hinted he was interested in the business before the City Council election.

“Now, with me devoting all my time to City Council, we came up with a mutually beneficial arrangement,” Svorinich said.

It’s not the only change the councilman has made recently. Last week he also moved, but only four blocks from his previous residence in San Pedro.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“When you do things with your hand, then you remember the words, like frosting or sifter .”

--Karla Abogabir, 14, from Honduras, on learning English in a Gardena class by cooking and going on field trips. J8