Welcoming New Businesses to Brea!
Over the past few months, Brea has welcomed new businesses to the City. Highlighted below are a few businesses that have recently opened or are coming soon:
Residence Inn by Marriott Brea – Northeast corner of State College Blvd. and Birch St.
The Residence Inn by Marriott offers those visiting Brea upscale accommodations and diverse amenities. The hotel is conveniently located in Brea’s core and within walking distance to the Brea Mall and numerous restaurant offerings. The hotel features robust amenities, including, but not limited to, a relaxing outdoor pool positioned to maximize the North Orange County sunshine, a 24/7 business center, restaurant, and a state-of-the-art fitness center.
Holy Ground Brea – Brea Imperial Center
Holy Ground Brea makes it easier than ever to find the most sought-after shoe and urban apparel merchandise right here in town. Featuring popular brands, such as Air Jordans, Nikes, and New Balance, Holy Ground provides an array of sneaker options, allowing customers to keep up with today’s latest shoe trends.
Julep Cast Iron Kitchen + Drink – The Village at La Floresta
From slow-braised ribs to hand-crafted cocktails, Julep Cast Iron Kitchen + Drink delivers a trendy take on southern comfort cuisine. With an upscale, modern ambiance, Julep provides a variety of savory options for lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch.
COMING SOON! Teaspoon – Downtown Brea
Coming soon to Downtown Brea, Teaspoon will offer an array of boba teas and coffees, sure to provide a refreshing treat during the upcoming warm summer months. With their seasonal, signature, and classic boba options, Teaspoon will feature a fresh and vibrant menu of creative beverages and bakery items.
Brea Fitness WELL-FIT DAY
On Saturday, March 25, Brea Fitness hosted WELL-FIT DAY, a member appreciation event that brought various vendors, highlighted different fitness formats, and created a social opportunity for members to interact with each other. The event featured guest vendors such as Protein Labs, H-Bling Wellness, and Reborn Coffee in Brea.
WELL-FIT DAY highlighted Brea Fitness's BODYPUMP, TRX, and Zumba formats, giving attendees the opportunity to try these popular classes. In addition to trying out new classes, attendees also had the opportunity to purchase merchandise, personal training packages, and memberships at a special event price.
The event added value to the Brea Fitness membership and demonstrated the fitness center's commitment to creating a supportive and engaging fitness community.
Fire Department Graduates from Paramedic School
After studying for seven months, four of our Brea firefighters have graduated from paramedic school. The paramedic program, sponsored through Saddleback College, is an intense, full-time program consisting of lectures, skills lab, clinical practice, and field internship.
Our very own Engineer Kyle Smith finished at the top of the class, with a 98% overall in the program, and Firefighter Andrew Lindsey with a 97% overall. We are very proud of our graduates. Join us in congratulating Andrew Lindsey, Dillon Fetty, Neil Baltes, and Kyle Smith.
Bark Madness Increased Social Media Presence
To increase the City’s social media viewership, gain followers, and interact with current followers, the Communications and Marketing team created a marketing social media campaign to coincide with the college basketball March Madness Tournament. Brea staff were asked to submit images of their dogs to compete, bracket style, on Instagram. The first 32 entries were selected to compete. For three weeks, City of Brea followers voted on who they thought should be Brea’s Bark Madness winner.
This social media campaign was a fun and interactive way to get our followers and staff engaged with our Instagram page. Based on research and analytics, the more interaction our social media accounts receive, the more our content is seen by our followers. The objective is for Brea information to be at the top of our followers’ feeds when they open and interact with social media apps.
The Bark Madness campaign contributed to gaining over 50 new followers on Instagram, over 500 story shares, and an overall increase in our daily interaction with our content.
The winner of the Bark Madness competition was Oliver, whose owner is Alex Sung in the City Clerk’s Office. Congrats to Alex and Oliver!
Spring Craft Boutique
The 23rd annual Spring Craft Boutique took place on March 17 and 18 at the Brea Community Center. There were over 2,500 customers and community members who supported and shopped at the event. The boutique featured 223 vendors, selling unique gifts and décor, wearable art, jewelry, delicious treats and more. The attendance number at this year’s event reflected pre-pandemic numbers and we’re happy to see that number grow. The Spring Craft Boutique helps the community grow by shopping local, and supporting small business owners.
Fourth Annual Pet Expo
Community Services held its fourth Annual Pet Expo on Saturday, April 1 at the Brea Community Center. The Pet Expo featured over 85 vendors, highlighting pet products, learning opportunities and pet adoptions. There were 45 animals adopted that day.
Brea Police Department and Anaheim Police Department provided K-9 demonstrations to the community. Both agencies were able to walk the community through a variety of K-9 techniques, including a drug sniffing drill, dog obedience and simulation bite.
The event was a success!
Ficus Trees Trimmed
In January, Public Works staff received several calls regarding the large overhanging Ficus trees on the north side of Birch Street, east of N. Associated Road, obstructing the westbound traffic signal lights. Further inspection of the area found the trees had grown around two of the City’s street lights, obstructing the light at night. City staff reached out to the HOA’s property management company informing them of the issue. Public Works coordinated with their landscaping company to obtain the encroachment permit and approved traffic control so they could clear the view of the traffic signals and lace out the trees for the street lights.
Carbon Canyon Fire Safe Council
In November 2003, the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) was signed into Federal Law. The Act emphasizes the need for federal agencies to work collaboratively with communities in developing fuel reduction projects and places priority on values identified through a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). The Carbon Canyon Fire Safe Council has developed a Community Wildfire Protection Plan for Carbon Canyon. The plan was collaboratively developed and shared with all involved stakeholders. This plan is an update to the plan they previously developed in 2017.
Community Shredding Event
On Saturday, March 25, Caltrans partnered with the City of Brea to provide free, on-site paper shredding services to Orange County residents. This event was organized to further Caltrans’ goal of keeping the highways litter free, as part of the Clean California Initiative. Residents from Brea and surrounding cities attended the shredding event, which took place at Wildcatters Park. A total of 130 participants attended the event, and over 3,000 pounds of paper was shredded.
Community Development’s Newest Team Member
Darron Usher recently joined the Community Development Department as a Senior Management Analyst. Darron has been in local government for 11 years, with five years of analytical experience. In his local government career he has experience in various departments, such as Finance, Law Enforcement, Human Resources, and the City Manager’s Office.
Darron enjoys watching movies, going to Disneyland with his fiancée, and playing basketball. He graduated from the University of Redlands with a Bachelors in Government and Public Policy and a Master’s in Business Administration and Finance. Darron is currently working on his Doctorate Degree in Public Administration at Cal Baptist University. Welcome to the team Darron!
HOPEFUL Award
Community Development Director Jason Killebrew created the HOPEFUL award in his department to recognize and celebrate outstanding employees within the department who exhibit the qualities of the HOPEFUL acronym. Hardworking, outstanding, passionate, excellent, fun, understanding and loyal. Lex Mendicino was the first recipient of this quarterly award. Staff provide a brief summary of the employee they suggest on the nomination form. A manager, outside of the Community Development Department, assisted Jason in the selection process. We are very proud to congratulate Lex for her excellence!