An earthquake registering 5.5 on the Richter scale hit Australia's southeast coast at 3:28 PST on Wednesday, December 27, 1989. Newcastle, Australia's fifth largest city, suffered the majority of damage as 11 were known to have died. A city of 500,000, Newcastle has the largest concentration of heavy industry in the country.
Long-time resident J. Lyle Cunningham, Arcadia Citizen of the Year in 1983 and former president of the Arcadia Rotary Club, died on December 15th at Methodist Hospital of natural causes. He was 82. Mr. Cunningham was actively involved in the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, the Arcadia Red Cross, the Church of the Good Shepherd and Arcadians for Arcadia.
Theresa Eskola, 63, head housekeeper at the 87-room Motel 6 across from the Santa Anita Park race track, is the first employee to work 25 years for the hotel chain. Her gifts included $2500 in $100 bills, a limousine ride and the day off. Photo.
Susan Clavey, the mother of Tanya Clavey (the 16-year old girl who died following a 400-foot plunge off the Santa Anita Canyon Road) asked the Arcadia City Council to close the road's gate at dusk to prevent further fatalities. The gate, normally locked at 10 PM, was unlocked when the accident occurred at 10:15 PM.
The Arcadia Police Department's non-emergency business telephone numbers have been changed to the following: Front desk, 570-5150; Administrative offices, 574-5178; Investigation division, 574-5160. The change is due to the switch to Pacific Bell Centrex System which gives priority to emergency services in the event of an emergency.
The Arcadia City Council approved a 6% hike in building fees, such as building permits, conditional use permits, and request for modifications. The increase, set for November 17, will be used to offset the 6% salary hike that city employees received in the 1989-90 budget.
Robert Shortell, 80, attended the World of Poetry's fifth annual convention in Washington, D.C., where he was honored with a Golden Poet Award. Shortell was a history and social studies teacher and sometime coach at Arcadia High School for 21 years.
County supervisors approved a $4.7 million infusion of funds to aid mental health programs in the Children's Home Society in Arcadia. The Children's Home Society, a non-profit organization that places mentally disturbed children in foster homes, will now lose $16,000, instead of the anticipated loss of staff and $32,000.
The Arcadia City Council has grounded a proposal that would have allowed hang glider pilots to land their grafts on an unused LA County floodplain in the north end of the city. The 30 pilots of the Mr. Wilson Soaring Society need a landing site because the one used for the last 8 years in Pasadena has been developed with the new Pasadena Rose Court homes.
The Arcadia Board of Education is considering a new policy that gives students the right to refuse to dissect animals on moral grounds. Such students will have their teachers assign alternative educational projects.
Qualified low and moderate-income homeowners may receive up to $7500 for the rehabilitation of single-family owner-occupied homes through the Arcadia Planning Dept.'s Housing Rehabilitation Program. This program is financed with Community Development Block Grant Funds, and monies are available on a first-come first-served basis through June 30, 1990.
An application for state funds to make $8.5 million worth of repairs in 6 Arcadia schools is moving ahead. Funds for the repairs, from the Leroy F. Greene State School Building Lease-Purchase Program, a bond measure, have been exhausted. However, another bond issue, coming up in the June 1990 election, is expected to pass and provide money to continue the program.
Dr. Stephen Goldstone, Arcadia Unified School District Superintendent, is leaving his post here for a similar position in Chino. He says it is an advancement for him since Chino has about 23,000 students, compared to Arcadia's 7500.
Susan Robertson, 48, a 4th grade teacher at Hugo Reid School for 26 years, died on July 4 after an 11-year battle with cancer. Mrs. Robertson graduated from USC in 1963 and worked for the Arcadia Unified School District, teaching at Hugo Reid School for her entire career.
An international businessman was abducted from his Arcadia home and later released the same evening after his abductors demanded he pay them $1 million. He was told that he would be contacted the next day with instructions about where to put the money, but no money has been paid. This is the first kidnapping of this type in Arcadia, although there have been four other kidnappings in the San Gabriel Valley since last October.