First Avenue Junior High has been nominated as a 1990 California Distinguished School by the State Department of Education. First Avenue will be one of six schools in Los Angeles County to be so nominated.
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 Unified School District again ranked among the top 10% of statewide districts in the latest California Assessment Program (CAP) results. CAP scores were based on tests given to 3rd and 6th grade students last May in math, reading, and writing as well as tests given to 8th-graders in reading, math, history and science.
The 76 members of the Arcadia Fire Department raised $14,521 for victims of the Bay Area earthquake by giving up one shift of paid vacation time each. The money will be donated to Santa Cruz County through the Arcadia chapter of the American Red Cross.
About 1500 people went to a hearing before the county Commission on School District Organization to discuss the possible transfer of Sierra Madre schools from the Pasadena Unified School District to the Arcadia Unified School District. The hearing is the first step in a long process that involves approval by the state Board of Education and local voters before an area can transfer to another school district.
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.
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.
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.
The Arcadia City Council has authorized a project to build concrete sidewalks adjacent to Camino Grove, First Avenue, Hugo Reid Primary, Dana and Holly Avenue schools.
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.
New zip codes go into effect today. These include: 91006 - for all post office boxes in the main post office on Wheeler Street; 91077 - for all post office boxes in the West Arcadia Post Office; 91007 - for the area south of the 210 Freeway and west of Santa Anita Avenue.
More than 400 rosebushes from the Arcadia Rose Garden were moved to the Arcadia High School campus. The city is planning to build a senior citizen center on the rose garden's former site.
John Gottuso, an Arcadia minister, psychologist and family counselor, has been accused by two state licensing boards of sexually abusing 10 female clients. The trial is set for February 1990.