Long Beach's Westside Industrial Area

Focus On The WestsideIndustrial Area

1_LBBJ_Aug13_SectionB_LBBJ MASTER LAYOUT 8/11/13 7:25 PM

� By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER

Staff Writer

Long Beach is a city known for its

neighborhoods, each with a sig-

nature personality, from

Cambodia Town to Retro Row. In this

quilt-like network of neighborhoods,

the Westside has been regarded by

some as a stepchild overlooked by the

City of Long Beach. Even so, the rich

history of the Westside is rooted in the

origins of the International City, and its

industries have supported the local

economy for more than 100 years.

When the Port of Long Beach was

founded in 1911, it didn’t take long for

businesses to crop up alongside it. The

oil rush of greater Long Beach, immor-

talized in Upton Sinclair’s novel, Oil!,

also contributed to the influx of indus-

try to the area. Some of the original

businesses are still there today –

Phillips Steel, for example, was

founded in 1915 and is still fully oper-

ational under the Phillips family.

In the throes of World War II, the

United States Navy purchased 100

acres of land on Terminal Island and

founded a naval shipyard for the

upkeep and repair of its war-worn fleet.

Pat Cullen, owner of Westside business

Dion & Sons, Inc., grew up on Caspian

Avenue, just north of Pacific Coast

Highway (PCH) and recalled the pres-

ence of the Navy as having defined the

area for decades.

Nancy McCrabb’s father founded

Cowelco Steel Contractors in the

Westside in 1947, shortly after World

War II’s end. Apart from the metal

work, machinery and oil-related busi-

nesses generated by the port, much of

what she remembers from that time

are barefooted children running

through the dirt roads to and from

their homes and “shanties” nestled

among naval housing.

By the 1970s, the Westside remained

largely unchanged in appearance.

Although the area running from

Anaheim Street to PCH was full to the

brim with industry, it was lacking the

basic infrastructure needs that were at

that point complete in most other parts

of the city – features like street lights,

pavement, sidewalks and gutters.

The dusty roads McCrabb and

Cullen remembered from childhood

were still dusty. Septic tanks could be

found throughout the alleyways, Cullen

recalled, because of a lack of sewer

service. Tony Rivera, chair of the

Westside Project Area Council (for-

merly the Project Area Committee),

expressed a sentiment felt among the

Westside business community at that

time: “It was like a little piece of land

forgotten to everybody.”

In July 1975, the Westside

Redevelopment Area and its community

advisory committee, the Westside

Project Area Committee (PAC) were

formed to utilize state Redevelopment

Agency funds to improve the area. The

THE WESTSIDE INDUSTRIAL AREA2 Long Beach Business Journal August 13-26, 2013

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Special ThanksA special thank you to the followingcompanies whose advertisementsmade this section possible:

A.D.S. PaperThe Berns CompanyCity Foods WholesaleColdwell Banker Commercial BlairWestmac/Jack Warshauer

Crosby & Overton, Inc Hi-Standard ManufacturingINCO CommercialLee & AssociatesLiNKS Sign Language & Interpreting Services

Long Beach Rescue MissionPhillips Steel CompanySav-On-SignsSnugtopSpot Lighting SuppliesTell SteelPhotographsAll photographs by the Business Journal’sThomas McConville.

CoverThe water tower at the Snug Top facilitiesstands out as a landmark for the city’sWestside industrial area.

A Westside Story: Community Involvement Shapes The Westside Industrial Area And Business Community


PAC was made up of community mem-

bers eager to see the use of these funds

to ensure the well-being of the Westside.

According to Jane Kelleher, vice

chair of the Westside Project Area

Council, the Long Beach

Redevelopment Agency (RDA)

decided to take the Westside through

eminent domain and redevelop the

land, thereby forcing out existing busi-

nesses. About a month after the RDA

was founded, Westside businesses sued

over the issue.

“Westsiders believed the city

intended to raze the Westside through

the use of eminent domain,” Kelleher

told the Business Journal. Cullen said

the plan was to use the land for large

developments.

Ultimately, the Westside won the bat-

tle in 1981. “It was the California

Supreme Court that ruled that the city

was wrong,” Cullen said. The court also

ruled that the Westside PAC, which had

been defunded by this time, must

“remain intact through the entire life of

the project area,” Kelleher explained.

The RDA Westside Project Area was

bounded by the Terminal Island

Freeway, the 710 Freeway, PCH and

Anaheim Street – the industrial hub of

the city. A Westside tax increment, a

method of funding that uses tax gains

to subsidize private or public projects,

was also established to help fund area

improvements.

Cullen and Kelleher said that rela-

tions remained contentious through the

’80s and ’90s when the city and RDA

“borrowed against” the Westside’s tax

increment funds to spend in other areas

of the city.

THE WESTSIDE INDUSTRIAL AREAAugust 13-26, 2013 Long Beach Business Journal 3

Daryl Phillips, president of Phillips Steel Co., is a third generation operator of his family business, which was founded in 1915. Phillips poses in front of thePhillips Steel Co. location at 1368 W. Anaheim St. For more information, call 562/435-7571 or email [email protected].

(Please continue to next page)


According to Kelleher, Westside tax

increment funds were spent on Long

Beach Convention Center improve-

ments and used to fund the Los Altos

Market Center on Bellflower

Boulevard. “We started our own law-

suit against the city for not spending

the money here,” Cullen explained.

Again, the Westside won.

According to Kelleher, however, to

this date about 99 percent of the tax

increment funds taken from the

Westside have yet to be repaid.

Despite these legal roadblocks, the

Westside PAC successfully advocated

for paved streets, sidewalks, gutters

and street lighting. According to

Cullen, much of these infrastructure

needs were not in place when he took

over Dion & Sons in 1986. By 1989,

they were mostly complete.

Rivera, who has been involved in the

PAC for 10 years, said the visible trans-

formation of the area was readily

apparent. Gone were the dusty roads

and seaside shanties of the ’40s. While

many businesses now say the area still

has many infrastructure needs, the

Westside PAC is frequently referenced

for its contributions to modernizing the

area and providing basic needs.

Much to the dismay of nearly every

company the Business Journal reached

out to, the Westside PAC was defunded

with the dissolution of the state rede-

velopment program. It now functions

as non-profit Westside Project Area

Council rather than a committee, and

relies upon donations to continue its

efforts. Although it is perhaps less


Current boardmembers of the Westside Project Area Council (PAC) visit a mural in the Westside industrial area on the corner of Cowles Street and CaspianAvenue. The Westside PAC was founded in 1975 as a community advisory committee to the Westside redevelopment area and now operates as a nonprofitorganization. Pictured from left are: Paul Collins, Westside PAC treasurer and owner of architecture company PAC Design; Jane Kelleher, vice chair ofWestside PAC and president of Sav-On Signs; and Tony Rivera, chair of the Westside PAC and owner of Easy Roll Off Services.


active than it once was, its efforts are

apparent all across the Westside,

including in the Snugtop water tower it

helped put in place, which now serves

as a landmark for the area.

Magnolia Industrial GroupThe Westside industrial area (refer to

accompanying map) extends east of the

Long Beach Freeway to an area now

referred to as the Magnolia Industrial

Group (MIG), which is a Property and

Business Improvement District (PBID).

The PBID is the area bounded by the

710 Freeway to the west, San Francisco

Avenue to the east, PCH to the north

and Anaheim Street to the south. (A

PBID is formed through consent of

more than 50 percent of the area’s prop-

erty owners to submit to a fee based

upon the size of their property. That fee

is used to fund PBID activities.)

Although the business activity is sim-

ilar, the MIG is separate from the

Westside Project Area Council. The two

areas combined represent about 700

businesses and thousands of direct jobs.

By the late 1990s, crime was a major

concern within the MIG, according to

Bill Townsend, president of the group

and a principal and boardmember with

INCO Company. Among the issues

were prostitution, theft, littering and

graffiti. Part of the concern of MIG

businesses was that the police were

stretched thin and unable to provide the

security the area needed.

“There was a recycling center in the

center of the MIG, and people were liter-

ally stealing metal off buildings and tak-

ing it to the recycling center,” Townsend

told the Business Journal. “It was terri-

ble.” In 1996, after many of the property

owners decided they needed to take con-

trol of the crime situation before it got

out of hand, Townsend helped form the

PBID. The intention was for property

owners to pay to provide private security

to help reduce crime.

Michael Zupanovich, president of

Harbor Diesel and Equipment (d.b.a.

HD Industries) and treasurer of the

PBID, said having private security is

“the No. 1 thing” that has helped

improve the MIG area.

“The proof is that it’s working,”

Townsend said. “The crime rate is low.”

After MIG was formed, the Long

Beach Police Department’s West

Division opened on Santa Fe Avenue,

contributing to the decrease in crime.

The PBID has been reestablished a

few times over the past decade and a

half. Last month, it was reestablished

for another 10-year period with 77.36

percent of property owners in favor. The

majority approval, according to

Townsend, is more proof that local busi-

ness owners feel the PBID is working.

The industries and businesses making

up Westside Long Beach have, as Cullen

said, fought “tooth and nail” to ensure

the Westside’s prosperity and well-

being, so that it may continue to serve as

an economic engine for the city. �


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WESTSIDE INDUSTRIALLONG BEACH EXPERTS

Members of the Magnolia Industrial Group (MIG) Property and Business Improvement District (PBID)pose for a photo in the MIG area. From left are: Bill Townsend, president of the PBID andprincipal/boardmember of INCO Commercial; Mike Zupanovich, treasurer of the PBID and presidentof HD Industries; and Mike’s father, Jim Zupanovich, boardmember of the PBID and CEO of HDIndustries. MIG was formed in 1997 to provide private security to businesses within its borders.



Staff Writer

Since the Port of Long Beach was

founded in 1911, industries

including metal fabrication,

manufacturing and oil have dominated

the Westside industrial area. Many

Westside companies are family owned

and date back more than 50 years.

Proximity to the port and two major

freeways makes the area an ideal loca-

tion for businesses in these industries.

Jane Kelleher, vice chair of the

Westside Project Area Council (PAC),

said the Westside industrial area is a

“huge” asset to the city for its tax rev-

enues and high-paying jobs. Tony

Rivera, chair of the Westside PAC,

said much of the same and estimated

that Westside workers earn as much as

$40 an hour.

Almost any company located within

the Westside industrial area and the

property and business improvement

district, Magnolia Industrial Group

(MIG), can discuss how the recession

hit Westside businesses hard. Those that

have made it through, many of which

are owned and operated by second- or

third-generation family members,

attribute their survival and successes to

diversification and perseverance.

Steel And Metal WorkMany Westside companies in the

metalworking industry have had to

diversify their services and service

areas to sustain and build their busi-

nesses through the decades.

Phillips Steel Co. is one of the oldest

metalwork companies in the Westside

and the city. It was founded in 1915 by

Paul Phillips, grandfather of current

third-generation owner, Daryl Phillips.

According to Phillips, the business

operates quite differently than it did in

the days of his grandfather.

“In effect, we were the first recycling

center in the City of Long Beach,

although it wasn’t called recycling

then. It was scrap metal, in those days,”

Phillips explained. Over the years, the

Phillips family noticed their cus-

tomers’ needs changing.

“We had people coming in selling us

their scrap metals, asking where they


Historic AndFamily OperatedBusinessesSurvive AndThrive In WestsideIndustrial Area


can buy materials for their own manu-

facturing needs,” Phillips said. Phillips

Steel began a division to meet those

needs in 1970. The company now deals

in steel, stainless steel, aluminum and

galvanized metal, and also sells related

tools and parts.

Another way long-standing compa-

nies have survived economic ups and

downs has been by expanding physical

service areas. Tell Steel, which sold its

first piece of steel in 1959, is one such

company. “The biggest change is the

diversity of area we cover now,” Greg

Moore, president of Tell Steel, told the

Business Journal.

Thirty years ago, Moore said Tell Steel

was “more entrenched” in local business

because of the plethora of machine

shops and shipyards in the area, many of

which have gone by the wayside. “We

had to diversify. Now we’ve got about a

60-mile radius we hit.”

Cowelco Steel Contractors, a

women-owned and third-generation

family business, is one such company.

According to Nancy McCrabb, former

president and daughter of the com-

pany’s founder, Cowelco was down to

10 employees during the most recent

recession. “We are up to 50 now. Most

every one is full time,” she noted,

adding that about 30 percent of them

live in Long Beach.

Founded in 1947, Cowelco blos-

somed through its work building por-

tions of Disneyland in the 1960s.

Tamery McCrabb, current Cowelco

president and Nancy McCrabb’s

daughter, said she has memories of

her grandfather talking about walking

through the amusement park with

Walt Disney, himself.

The younger McCrabb explained

that, while she has experienced “a slow

rebound” from the recession, the com-

pany “is moving in the right direction.”

Moore said his business is improving

as well. “This year we’re talking about

booking orders going forward,” while in

the recession sales had been flat, he said.

Tell Steel employs 48 people full time.

Now that the recession is ebbing,

Phillips is optimistic too. “We see a lot

of opportunity on the horizon,” he said.

Machinery, Parts And PetroleumWestside companies in the machinery

and parts industries also diversified to

beat the recession and adapt to changing

times, including Cavanaugh Machine

Works (CMW). CMW was founded in

1948 and moved to Long Beach around

1997. According to CMW President

John Wells, the business originally

focused on ship repair but changed

course to keep up with the times.

“[Today] we have a really large heavy

machine shop and fabricating com-

pany, and we manufacture parts for

container cranes and container han-

dling equipment,” Wells said. He attrib-

utes the company’s “booming” busi-

ness to its diversification.

CMW currently employs 30 people,

and has been hiring more. “One of the

interesting things we did in the last year

or so was to fabricate all the support

steel to move the [Endeavour] space

shuttle,” Wells said.


The Berns Co., a family ownedbusiness operating in theWestside since 1956, and serv-ing the material handling,heavy equipment, forestry, min-ing and railway industries islocated at 1250 W. 17th St.Steven Berns, second genera-tion owner of The Berns Co.,poses with many of his employ-ees, including a few of his fam-ily members. Pictured, backrow, from left are: ChristinaWinn, Silvia Quezada, HelenWarren, Steven Berns, BrettBerns, Lewis Mangold, GaryKirpluk, Jaime Guia, DanSeymour and Jose Nepita.Front row from left are: SergioGuia, Jaime Jr Guerrero, KamKhuzaie, Trevor Jackson, JohnVongsaham, Dale Seymourand Frank Nunez. For moreinformation, call 562/437-0471 or visit www.thebern-scompany.com.



Steven Berns, a second-generation

president of The Berns Co., has also

gotten more creative. The business,

which opened in 1955 and employs 40

people, manufactures machinery

replacement parts and specializes in

surplus material handling items.

To expand business, Berns said he

has started looking to overseas adver-

tising, specifically in Dubai.

Additionally, the company recently

began selling on eBay, which he said

has drawn interest from countries like

Portugal. Overall, he is quite “pleased”

with how business is growing.

Mike Zupanovich, president of

Harbor Diesel & Equipment, Inc. (HD

Industries), said the company, which

was founded by his father and current

CEO Jim Zupanovich in 1971, has

been “very fortunate.” HD Industries,

located within MIG, is a factory-autho-

rized sales, parts and service facility

for a number of major manufacturers.

The company has expanded the

number of brand names it works with,

which include Caterpillar and John

Deere. According to Zupanovich,

being conservative and cautious about

growth has been one of their tried-

and-true policies.

Dion & Sons, Inc., a petroleum dis-

tributor, has operated in the Westside

since 1930. According to Pat Cullen,

who has operated the business since

1986, the company has survived many

obstacles, including being forced to

move due to eminent domain in 1952.

Since taking the reigns of Dion &

Sons, Cullen has been able to form

other petroleum corporations, such as

Amber Resources, and currently oper-

ates seven locations. “We have grown

very well,” Cullen said. Rivera of the

Westside PAC estimates Dion & Sons

is one of the highest producers of tax

revenue in the city.

Manufacturing And FabricationSome of Long Beach’s largest con-

tributors to tax revenue are located in

the Westside industrial area, including

those who manufacture specialized

materials. Perhaps the most visible of

these is Snugtop, with its name embla-

zoned across the Westside skyline on

the Snugtop water tower.

Bob Kyle founded the company in

1959, creating customized hard top

shells for pickup truck beds. Snugtop is

now owned by Hartmut Schroeder, who

took over as president and CEO in 1989.

“We are quite an exporter for the

Port of Long Beach and Port of Los

Angeles,” Schroeder said. Overseas,

Schroeder said Snugtop’s biggest mar-

kets are Europe, Australia and China.

Snugtop sells directly to companies

like Toyota and Nissan. Schroeder

estimates the company currently

employs about 200 people.

Another big employer in the

Westside is Superior Electrical

Advertising, a custom electrical sign

fabricator. Stan Janocha, chief opera-

tions officer (COO), who purchased

the company in 1998 with CEO Jim

Sterk, said the company employs 118

people, 40 percent of whom are Long

Beach residents. Patti Skoglund

serves as president.

“We are probably the second

biggest business on the Westside,”

Janocha said, naming Snugtop as the

first. Superior Electrical’s clientele

includes big brands like Starbucks

and McDonald’s. Their work illumi-

nates nights at Disneyland, for which

Janocha said Superior is the “pre-

ferred supplier.”

Snugtop and Superior Electrical had

their own share of difficulties in the

recession. “It’s been a bit of a roller

coaster,” Schroeder said. “We suffered

like everybody else and we had to

reduce our employment. But for the

last two years, we’re hiring, and we’re

hiring as we speak.”

Janocha expressed a similar experi-

ence. “Before the recession, we had

175 employees,” he said. But things

are picking up again. Of the com-

pany’s recovery, Janocha said, “We

sometimes call it ‘the miracle on

Anaheim Street.’” �


Hartmut Schroeder, president and CEO of Snugtop, which manufactures hard top enclosures for truckbeds, is seen at the company’s Westside headquarters at 1711 Harbor Ave. Snugtop was founded in1959. Call 562/432-5454 or visit www.snugtop.com for more information.

Greg Moore, presidentof Tell Steel, is picturedat the firm’s Westsideheadquarters at 2345W. 17th St. The com-pany, founded in 1959by Tell D. Tuffli and hisson, Don, has beenemployee owned andoperated since 2006.For more information,call 800/724-8366 orvisit www.tellsteel.com.



Staff Writer

Unlike newer, pre-planned cities,

the industries of the Westside

sprouted out of the dust with

economic urgency over 100 years ago.

Much of the area remained unchanged

until about the 1970s, when the Long

Beach Redevelopment Agency (RDA)

and its community advisory board, the

Westside Project Area Committee

(PAC), were formed based on the needs

of the business community.

Since then, the RDA, Westside PAC

and city have worked to improve the

area’s infrastructure. In the late 1980s,

the Westside industrial area finally

received streetlights, gutters, paved

roads and sidewalks. While redevelop-

ment funds have dried up, the city and

Westside PAC continue to work for

infrastructure improvements.


Infrastructure Needs Persist In The Greater Westside Industrial Area Despite Developmental Progress

Mike Zupanovich,right, president of HDIndustries, a divisionof Harbor Diesel &Equipment, Inc.,poses with his servicemanager, Art Havens,at the company’s loca-tion within theMagnolia IndustrialGroup area at 537W. Anaheim St.Zupanovich’s father,Jim, founded the com-pany as in 1971 inSan Pedro and movedthe firm to Long Beachin 1974. The sales,parts and servicecompany employs 50people. For moreinformation, call562/591-2941 orvisit www.harbor-diesel.com.



Vice Mayor Robert Garcia,

representing the 1st District that

includes the area, said the

Anaheim Street Improvement

Project benefitting much of the

area will soon be underway.

Funded by the Port of Long

Beach (POLB), the project

includes repaving Anaheim Street

from the Los Angeles River to 9th

Street. “It will be an entirely new

street,” Garcia told the Business

Journal, adding that sidewalk and

curb improvements are included.

“Some landscaping and beautifica-

tion will happen as well,” he said.

Other city operations are also bene-

fitting the area. Stan Janocha, chief

operations officer at Superior

Electrical Advertising, said he is

pleased with the city’s graffiti

removal services. “We used to have to

repaint the front of our building all

the time, but they have stepped up

patrols,” he said.

Daryl Phillips of Phillips Steel told

the Business Journal that the city and

port are positive forces in the area.

“The Port of Long Beach and city

have been supportive,” he said.

“Mayor Bob Foster has been very

pro-business, as has our city man-

ager, Pat West.”

While Westside businesses’ most

basic infrastructure needs have been

met, industry leaders in the area

indicated that they still face obsta-

cles to growing and maintaining

their business.

Perhaps the most straightforward of

these issues is that there simply isn’t

any room to grow. Mike Zupanovich,

treasurer of the property and business

improvement district Magnolia

Industrial Group (MIG) and president

of Westside-based business HD

Industries, summed up the problem:

“We are landlocked. We could grow

the business, but we would need

more property, which would mean

relocating.”

Tony Rivera, chair of the Westside

PAC, told the Business Journal that he

has been working with several compa-

nies looking to relocate from other

cities to the Westside industrial area in

Long Beach. “Some of the people

want five or 10 acres, and we don’t

have it,” Rivera said.

Another issue impacting a portion

of the area, particularly along

Anaheim Street, is lack of access to

high speed Internet. “A number of

Internet providers have not pulled

cable to this area, leaving us with

fewer options,” Janocha explained.

Phillips noted the same issue, as did

Greg Moore of Tell Steel.

Other infrastructure issues, though

not as rampant as they once were, con-

tinue. According to Pat Cullen, presi-

dent of Dion & Sons, a project that

began in the 1980s to install storm

drains and pumps to prevent flooding

was never completed. Rivera

explained that the project had three


According to Bill Townsend, president of the Magnolia Industrial Group (MIG) Property and Business Improvement District, the trailer homes pictured here area nuisance within the MIG area. People living within the trailers park them overnight in the area. “The police department is on it,” he said, adding that hebelieves Vice Mayor Robert Garcia’s 1st District office is working on resolving the problem through parking restrictions.


phases and was paid for with redevel-

opment funds. Phase three was never

completed, he said, due to the loss of

that funding.

Crime and issues of vagrancy con-

tinue to be problematic to the greater

Westside industrial area. Despite

MIG’s private security efforts pro-

vided by Platt Security, Zupanovich

still sees issues. “The big problem we

have being next to the L.A. River is

with transients in the neighborhood,”

he said, noting that many homeless

people sleep in the brush that has

grown wild in the riverbed.

“I have been a victim in this neigh-

borhood before,” Zupanovich contin-

ued. “I have had a knife pulled on me.

We have had things stolen. It all

comes back to these transients that

were in the area.” While crime rates

have gotten better, Zupanovich said he

worries that, if the brush continues to

thicken in the riverbed, crime rates

will worsen.

From an economic standpoint, busi-

nesses cited the loss of the state enter-

prise zone (EZ) program last month as

a big blow. The EZ program enabled

businesses that hired residents within

that zone to receive tax credits.

Hartmut Schroeder, president and

CEO of Snugtop, which employs 200

people, said he regrets the loss of the

EZ. “We have taken advantage of that,

as you can imagine, by hiring local

people,” he said.

Moore also utilized the EZ program.

“We get large enterprise zone credits.

We have hired a lot of people from the

EZ,” he said. The program also made

his business eligible for tax breaks on

certain equipment purchases.

If the resiliency of so many family-

owned, historic businesses from the

early 1900s to date is any indication,

the Westside will continue to survive

and thrive as community groups like

MIG and Westside PAC continue

advocating for the needs of local busi-

ness. As Phillips put it: “We are a

strong community, a tightknit commu-

nity, and we support each other.” �


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More Westside Industrial Area

photographs on the back cover


According to Janet McCarthy, president and CEO ofGoodwill Serving the People of Southern Los Angeles County(SOLAC), 61 percent of individuals served by GoodwillSOLAC’s job placement and training programs are based inthe Long Beach area. The nonprofit organization offersindustry-specific training at its Westside Long Beach head-quarters with programs for home healthcare, certified nurs-ing assistance and loss prevention training. “All of our cur-riculum is developed based on the needs of the businesscommunity and the requirements of the state,” she said of theprograms. In addition to its work placement services andretail shops, Goodwill SOLAC also offers interpreting serv-ices in American Sign Language and 26 spoken languagesthrough its division called LiNKS Sign Language &Interpreting Services. “The fact that we here in Long Beach,one of the most diverse cities in the nation, we have a lot oflanguages and a lot of people that need assistance.” Whenfunding is available, Goodwill also provides classes in gen-eral educational development (GED), financial literacy andwork skills training. By providing the community with accessto these services, McCarthy said, “Our ultimate goal is tomove people out of poverty.” McCarthy is pictured beside aportrait of Goodwill Industries founder, Edgar J. Helms.Goodwill SOLAC’s headquarters are located at 800 W.Pacific Coast Hwy. For more information, call 562/435-7741 or visit www.goodwillsolac.org.

Nancy McCrabb (center), former president of Cowelco Steel Contractors, is pictured with her daughters Tracy McCrabb (right)and Tamery McCrabb, current president. Nancy McCrabb’s father founded Cowelco in 1947. The Westside business is locatedat 1634 W. 14th St. For more information, call 562/432-5766 or visit www.cowelco.com.

John Wells, president of Cavanaugh Machine Works (CMW), Inc., visits the heavy machining and fabricating area at CMW. The companywas founded in 1948 in Wilmington, and moved to the Westside industrial area in 1997. CMW’s primary location is at 1540 Santa Fe Ave.,with a fabrication/welding division at 1500 W. 16th St. Call 562/437-1126 or visit www.cavmachine.com for more information.

TDI Signs fabricates signs for many retail, restaurant and hospitality businesses. Above, owner Art Rivas (right) with his son,Andrew Rivas, showing a sign for Tilly’s, a large chain retailer. The company is located 1419 Seabright Ave. For more information,visit www.tdisigns.com or call 562/436-5188.

Superior ElectricalAdvertising, a cus-tom electrical signfabricator, wasfounded more than40 years ago. Thecompany is the pre-ferred supplier forDisneyland’s electri-cal signage. At leftis CEO Jim Sterk(left) and ChiefOperations OfficerStan Janocha, asthey pose with asign for one of their most recognizable customers, Starbucks. McDonald’s is anothermajor client. Pictured above is Patti Skoglund, president of Superior ElectricalAdvertising, which employs more than 100 workers. The company is located at1700 W. Anaheim St. For more information, call 562/495-3808 or visitwww.superiorsigns.com.

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Long Beach's Westside Industrial Area

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