COMMUNITY NEWS LACCD GETS ENERGY-EFFICIENCY AWARD.

The Los Angeles Community College District received a Savings By Design award at the Southern California Gas Company's first Energy Efficiency Expo earlier this month.

The Gas Co. program offers services and incentives to help raise energy performance.

The district earned the award for implementing sustainable energy principles at its nine colleges.

The district has received more than $870,000 from The Gas Co.'s program for more than 14 building projects. The district expects it will save more than that each year through reduced usage of natural gas and electricity.

``We recognize there are plenty of other benefits from energy efficiency, such as protecting the environment and saving our natural resources,'' district trustee Nancy Pearlman said.

Delores Rhoads has added $20,000 to the scholarship endowment she created more than 10 years ago at California State University, Northridge, as a tribute to her late son, Randy Rhoads, CSUN said.

The endowment, now worth $45,000, is designed to offer financial aid to guitar students.

Delores Rhoads founded and operates Musonia, a North Hollywood music school where her son began taking lessons at age 6. By age 14, Randy was performing with local bands, and at age 20, Randy and friends formed the heavy-metal band Quiet Riot while he taught at his mother's school during the day.

In 1979, Randy became Ozzie Osbourne's lead guitarist on his first two solo albums. But in 1982, Randy died in a plane crash while on tour with Osbourne.

Since then, Delores has contributed a total of $75,000 to CSUN in his honor, creating the scholarship fund in 1993 and making donations to the school's International Guitar Research Archive.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, announced Women of the Year awards for district residents including Beth Marcus, a family physician in La Caada Flintridge, and Seta Simonian, a middle school teacher in Glendale.

The congressman honored all of the women at a luncheon last week.

Marcus has practiced medicine at Verdugo Hills Hospital and Glendale Adventist Medical Center for more than 10 years. She's former secretary/treasurer of the Los Angeles chapter of the California Academy of Family Medicine and a member of the American Medical Women's Association and the Society of Adolescent Medicine.

Simonian, a math teacher, co-founded and chaired the Hamazkayin Educational and Cultural Society of Pasadena and has been chairwoman of the Hamazkayin Music Committee since 1994. She also served as an anchor for Horizon Armenian TV in Glendale for three years, and is a member of several other Armenian-American organizations.