City Council has approved a zone change for the area bounded by the 210 Freeway, Fifth Avenue, the Santa Fe Tracks and Second Avenue. The area is now CPD (Commercial Planned Development).
The newly installed railroad crossing at First Avenue and Santa Clara Street was dedicated. To celebrate the occasion, the Goodyear blimp (Goodyear supplied the rubber crossing pads) hovered overhead. Arcadia is the first city in the Los Angeles area to install rubber crossings. The city is paying $93,000 of the nearly $200,000 cost of the project.
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.
The Arcadia Police Department has stationed three officers in a special trailer outside the Santa Anita Fashion Park mall. They anticipate and increase in shoplifting incidents as Christmas approaches.
Arcadia officials, fearing that Caltrans would squirm out of a promise to fix the earthquake damaged railroad bridge at 2nd Street and Huntington Drive, have asked the state to make that promise in writing.
Beginning on January 25, Tony Bristol, owner of the Texaco station at 529 East Live Oak Ave., will have gasohol for sale. Bristol believes his is the first station in Arcadia to offer gasohol.
Chief wants new fire station built. After a year of study using computer technology, Arcadia Fire Chief Jerry Gardner has recommended to the City Council that a fourth fire station be built in vicinity of Sixth and Live Oak Avenues.
The Arcadia Redevelopment Agency granted Stanley Gribble and Associates a 6-month exclusive right to negotiate with the city to develop a commercial project at the east end of the city between the railroad tracks on the south and west, Huntington on the north and 5th Avenue on the east.
The developer of Monrovia's Huntington Oaks shopping center now has an exclusive right to negotiate with the Arcadia Redevelopment Agency to construct a $17.3 million office and restaurant complex on the south side of Huntington Drive between the railroad tracks and the east boundary of the city.
At a brief ceremony in front of the Arcadia Police Station city officials unveiled a brass plaque dedicating the police building to the late Police Chief, Charles Mitchell.
Plans for a series of office buildings and a high-rise hotel in the Arcadia redevelopment area require general plan and zone changes. The first move is an environmental impact report for the area bounded by the 210 Freeway on the north, the railroad tracks on the south, Fifth Avenue on the east and Second Avenue on the west.
Raymond Brockus, City Council candidate, has been an Arcadia resident for 23 years. He is for streamlining government but would consider a new fire station near Sixth and Live Oak avenues, a pet project.
Residents of Temple City living adjacent to the Arcadia Dial-A-Ride station have complained to City Council about the noise, exhaust fumes and litter. They contend Dial-A-Ride has grown too large and should move.
Arcadia now has two patrol wagons that will be used to transport prisoners from the scene of the arrest to the station. The wagons can pick up several prisoners and book them all at once, allowing officers to spend more time in the field.
A newly released study by H. Wendell Mounce & Associates reports that Arcadia could use a new police station, a new city hall, a recreation center and a theater. Total cost of the project if the city hall is replaced would be $20 million.
Don's Chevron Station at the southwest corner of Duarte Road and Second Avenue was demolished by fire. Owner Don Shepherd was attempting to repair a leaking gas tank on a station wagon when a light broke and ignited the gasoline. Damage was estimated at $200,000.
City Council is considering the purchase of a water well and water rights from Monrovia at a cost of $200,000. An additional $100 thousand will be needed to construct a pumping station.
Arcadia Fire Department will observe Fire Service Day with an open house at each of the city's three fire stations. Photo and caption. See hard copy of newspaper in Box 51.