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.
Last year, Foothills Junior High students raised $800 for the Peace Corps to go to Lamotrek Atoll, Micronesia, an island in the South Pacific. The Peace Corps Partnership Program allows American schools, clubs and organizations to fund small projects, typically less than $1500. The money will be used to construct a basketball court.
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 Los Angeles County Commission on School District Organization voted 9-0 to deny Sierra Madre's petition to join the Arcadia School District. The matter will go to the state Board of Education, which may take 3-4 months to make a decision.
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.
An Arcadia undercover police officer, 28, helped a Drug Enforcement Administration team and the LAPD in Sylmar for the biggest drug bust in history, a cache of 20 tons of cocaine valued at $20 billion. Federal agents also confiscated $10 million in cash.
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.
Arthur Farr, 46, the band and orchestra leader at Dana Junior High School, has been named the Arcadia Unified School District's 1990 Teacher of the Year. Farr has been teaching band and orchestra at Dana for 23 years, as well as coaching the basketball team and teaching physical education. (NOTE: This article incorrectly identified him as "Allen", but the error was corrected in the issue of October 1.)
The Arcadia Unified School District has about 130 new elementary school students this year, prompting district officials to hire 4 new teachers, combine classes and add portable classrooms.
Arcadian Gary A. Lorden, professor of mathematics at the California Institute of Technology and a Caltech faculty member for 21 years, has been appointed the Institute's Vice President for Student Affairs.
Arcadia ranks at the top among US cities with the highest-paid employees, yet charges its residents less for municipal services and receives less aid than most California cities of similar size. No other US city outside California with a population between 10,000 and 50,000 pays its employees more; the average city employee earns $32,767 per year.
Amy Nelson and Kathleen Ashenfelter, both 16,toured the Soviet Union for 3 weeks with the People to People Friendship Caravan, a program which takes 1600 American youths to 50 Soviet cities. It is the largest student educational program in the history of the US and USSR.
The Arcadia Redevelopment Agency won a $495,000 settlement for removing toxic waste from 1.6 acres of downtown Arcadia land it bought from Clifford C. Bong and Co. last year. The agency sued Bong in April of 1988 to recover the money it spent to dispose of soil contaminated with high levels of lead, cadmium and hydrocarbon wastes. The agreement was reached two days before the June 27 trial was to begin.
Don Alcorn, a 20-year veteran of the Arcadia Police Department, has been named to the new post of Emergency Services Coordinator by the Arcadia City Council. Alcorn's job is to prepare an emergency plan that will cover any aspect of any possible disaster, from earthquake to fire to nuclear disaster.
The Arcadia Planning Commission approved a request for a variation in the distance between buildings for a proposed 20-unit condominium project at 412-422 California St. and 417-421 Diamond St. The variance would allow a 10-18 foot distance between buildings, instead of the standard 20-foot requirement.
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.