The Arcadia Historical Society building was recently moved to its permanent location across from the Chamber of Commerce in Arcadia Park. The building was moved from 30 North Santa Anita Avenue to First Avenue just south of Huntington Drive.
Paul A. Jones has been appointed president of the Southland National Bank, scheduled to open this month at 800 South Santa Anita Avenue. The article gives a brief run-down on Mr. Jones' banking career and educational background.
The general plan will be reviewed by the Planning Commission. The "central area" will be the focus of study. This area runs from the 210 Foothill freeway on the north to Duarte Road on the south and from the east city boundary to Santa Anita Avenue. It also includes the commercial section west of Santa Anita Avenue and north of Huntington Drive.
A convenience shopping center has been approved by the Arcadia Redevelopment Agency for the southeast corner of Huntington Drive and Santa Anita Avenue. The businesses now occupying the land (a Texaco station, Burrito Flats restaurant, Miller's Carpet Care and Drive-Through Liquor) will have to be removed.
Thirteen negotiating sessions have been held since March yet the teachers and the Board of Education are still at odds. The Board is reluctant to give up its authority over the disputed matters of transfers, evaluation and grievance arbitration.
Bill Quiggle, who has been Santa Anita Park track superintendent since 1949, retired at the end of the 1977 racing season. The track and all plantings were his domain.
Gary Kovacic, an L.A. attorney specializing in land use was appointed to fill the office of Jack Wells, who recently resigned from the Arcadia Planning Commission.
The Arcadia High School Apache Marching Band will travel to Arcadia's sister city, Newcastle, Australia, in late June. Parents have agreed to make up the difference, if the $37,000 still needed cannot be raised. Besides Newcastle, where they will perform for 5,000 high school students, the band will sight-see and perform in Canberra and Sydney.
The Arcadia Redevelopment Agency (which is also the City Council) is considering whether to take steps toward acquiring several properties in east Arcadia that made up the parcel of land for the now defunct Target Shopping Center. According to Peter Kinnahan, assistant city manager for economic development, the Arcadia Redevelopment Agency is strongly in favor of acquiring property on 3rd Avenue, just north of Huntington Drive.
Arcadia and the Derby Restaurant have come to a tentative agreement on a land swap that would allow a Souplantation Restaurant to be built just east of the Derby in East Arcadia.
The Board of Education has approved a new after-school child care program to be conducted by the Santa Anita Family branch of the YMCA at the Holly Avenue Elementary School Youth Hut. About 20 children have been enrolled in the program, which can accommodate up to 35.
Santa Anita Fashion Park's plan to expand its facilities to include a Nordstrom Department store and additional small retail stores is scheduled to come before the Arcadia Planning Commission at its November 27 meeting. According to Chuck Cline, general manager of the mall, plans are very much in the preliminary stages and no architectural plans have yet been drawn.
Arcadia has allotted $3700 toward the construction of a multi- jurisdictional bikeway along the Rio Hondo Wash from Peck Road to the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area. This would provide approximately 7.5 miles of bike paths linking Arcadia to existing paths leading down to the Long Beach Harbor.
An application to construct a Burger King Restaurant on South Santa Anita Avenue at Alice Street was turned down by the Arcadia Planning Commission on a 4-1 vote. Commission members said they were concerned with noise and traffic problems. Residents also objected to the possibility that students from Arcadia High would congregate and make noise at the restaurant following evening sporting events.
The City Council approved funding for a new guardrail along Santa Anita Canyon Road, where a motorist drove over a mountainside last year. Federal funds will cover 90% of the new guardrail costs, and the new guardrail could be in place as early as spring.
At the urging of Temple City mayor Lou Gilbertson, State Senator Richardson has set aside his bill SB 1287. It would have reduced petition requirements from the present 25% to just 10% of the registered voters. They want Governor Brown to appoint an Ad Hoc committee to study the whole picture.
One of the most comprehensive pictorial presentations of San Gabriel Valley history will be shown at Fashion Park June 24 through July 12. Done by history students from Cal State LA, it has been over two years in the planning.