A 2-year-old legal battle between the city of Arcadia and Taboo Gentlemen's Club, a strip club, will most likely result in the club being closed or sold off by April, 2009. The federal court case started when the city revoked Taboo Gentlemen's Club's business license for breaking the city's adult business codes. The club's owners Bill Badi Gammoh and Chawkat Jajieh sued in response, claiming city and police had obstructed business and violated their civil rights. The city's adult business ordinance prohibits lap dances, sexual contact, private dance booths and direct tipping. It requires licensed dancers to perform on an elevated stage.
15 Arcadia High School students beat out 19 other schools to win the county competition of the Science Olympiad. The state competition is set for April 9, followed by the national competition in Arizona.
The 25-year-old City Council chambers will undergo its first major renovation, a project that will relocate meetings for the next few months to the Arcadia Public Library. Renovations will be completed in February.
A 38-year-old Los Angeles man, accused of setting four arson fires in Arcadia and of carjacking a woman trying to move her car away from one of the fires, is arrested. The first fire was in a rear corridor on the second floor of The Shops at Santa Anita mall, at 400 South Baldwin Avenue at 11:40 A.M. on Friday. The other three fires were in the vicinity of the 900 block of Arcadia Avenue.
The 49-year-old Anoakia School, facing a June deadline for relocation, has opted for local print advertising. Owner Lowry McCaslin apparently wants to develop the property at Foothill Blvd. and Baldwin Ave. However, the school also has numerous city fire code violations and a building that is not up to seismic standards. The school currently has 279 students from K-8th grade.
A 61-year-old construction worker who died after being run over by a bulldozer while working to level a vacant residential lot in Arcadia last month was identified as Sirpriano Dorame-Martinez of South Gate. The accident took place April 15 in the 900 block of Monte Verde Drive.
The 65 year old statue of Hugo Reid created by Preston Prescott may be moved from Arcadia County Park to a spot between the Ruth and Charles Gilb Arcadia Historical Museum and the Arcadia Community Center. The City Council will have to approve $57,362 contract for its removal.
111 City Hall employees may earn an extra $50-110 a month by walking, bicycling, carpooling, or using public transportation to work. The City Council approved the plan to satisfy South Coast Air Quality Management District regulations requiring worksites to provide incentives to employees who reduce vehicle trips to work.
The 121-unit Marriott Residence Inn is scheduled to open for business on January 23. An "all-suites" hotel, the inn offers kitchens in every unit to entice "extended-stay" travellers.
127 city employees have agreed to postpone their salary increases for 6 months to help close the city's projected $2.2 million shortfall. This action would save the city $466,000.
A 150-pound bear, about half the size of the adult bear seen earlier in the week, was caught in the northeast corner of Wilderness Park as it rummaged through a trash dumpster. It was tranquilized and released deep in the Angeles National Forest.
210 Freeway sound wall is finished. The Metro project, which started in 2009, consists of 2 miles of sound walls along westbound and eastbound lanes of the 210 Freeway between Santa Anita Avenue and California Avenue in Arcadia and Monrovia, paid with Measure R funds. The sound walls provide at least 5 decibels of noise reduction. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held. Several Arcadia residents near Victory Chapel on N. First Avenue, where the sound wall ends, are disappointed the barrier doesn't extend farther west.
About 40 Arcadia High School students showed up outside City Hall at 3:15 to demonstrate against the city's 50 year old curfew, which subjects those under 18 to a misdemeanor citation if they loiter in public after 10 PM.
About 95% of the more than 2,700 security alarms the Arcadia Police Department responded to last year turned out to be false alarms. Arcadia police Chief Bob Sanderson is asking the City Council to implement a $100 fine for a third false alarm issued in a 365-day period. A $200 fine for the fourth false alarm and $300 for the fifth and all subsequent false alarms would be part of the new ordinance that City Council will consider next month.