SATURDAY OCTOBER 9, 2010

VOLUME 4 NO. 40

Sierra Madre’s Award Winning Book

Southern California Story: A Better Life in Sierra 
Madre Wins 2010 AASLH Award of Merit

Council To Hold Public 
Hearings on Canyon Zone and 
Community Redevelopment 
Agency Five Year Plan 

 
At the next regularly scheduled 
city council meeting to be held on 
Tuesday, October 12, 2010, two 
public hearings will be held on 
matters of great concern to Sierra 
Madre Residents.

 Based upon the agenda circulated 
Thursday and public notices 
that have been distributed, the 
council will receive testimony 
of the proposed changes to the 
Residential Canyon Zone. These 
changes include changing the 
zoning for the canyon area and 
amending the general plan land 
use designation map. The changes 
have already been approved by the 
Planning Commission and not 
await the councils acceptance or 
rejection.

 Also on the agenda will be a 
public hearing on the adoption 
of the Sierra Madre Community 
Redevelopment Agency Five Year 
Implementation Plan.

 On September 30th, there 
was a special meeting of the 
Redevelopment Agency Board, 
which consists of all five council 
members, to discuss the goals 
and objectives of the 5 year 
implementation plan. In addition to 
the council members in attendance 
were City Manager Elaine Aguilar, 
City Attorney Sandra Levin, 
Administrative Services Director, 
Karin Schnaider and City Clerk 
Nancy Shollenberger.

 Every city and county in California 
is authorized by the California 
Community Redevelopment Law to 
establish a Redevelopment Agency 
to pursue the elimination of blight 
in designated Redevelopment 
Project Areas. Even in a town 
the size of Sierra Madre, there are 
issues that fall under the purview 
of the agency and as designated as 
physical blight such as Substandard 
Buildings and Lots, Functional 
Obsolescence, Incompatible 
Uses, Criminal Activities, Capital 
Disinvestment, Depressed 
Valuation, Inadequate Public 
Improvements and Inadequate 
Water or Sewer Facilities.

 According to city staff, the 
purpose of the plan is to identify 
the range of activities that will be 
undertaken, the financial means 
to implement the plan and to 
determine how much time will be 
required to complete the plan.

 In the past, Sierra Madre 
has completed a number of 
Redevelopment Projects including: 
(partial listing)

Offering Facade Improvement 
Loans to businesses to upgrade 
frontages and signage;

Allocated Capital Improvement 
projects to improve the image 
of downtown such as lighting, 
benches, bike stands and Wi-Fi;

Purchased land for affordable 
housing projects and opened 
Senior Housing Projects with land 
purchased.

 The council meeting will begin at 
6:30 pm at City Hall and residents 
are encouraged to attend. For 
additional information please 
contact city hall at 626-355-7135.

 S. Henderson/MVNews

Attending the conference were, left to right, Glenn Putnam, Amy Putnam, Michele Zack, and Jeff Lapides

By Diane Sands

 2010 AASLH Award of Merit winner, Southern 
California Story: A Better Life in Sierra Madre, was 
represented at the annual convention by Amy and 
Glenn Putnam, members of the Sierra Madre Historical 
Preservation Society (who produced the winning 
book), author Michele Zack, and designer Jeff Lapides, 
with wife Diane Sands. During the convention, 
several workshops were presented, covering a wide 
variety of topics from “Small Museums, Big Impact!” 
to “Mummies, Marketing, and Media Madness” and 
“Local History, State History, and Beyond!”

 The Putnams, Zack, and Lapides were able to attend 
several of these workshops, gleaning information and 
ideas to bring back to our local historical group, the 
Sierra Madre Historical Preservation Society. The 
convention, being based in Oklahoma this year, had a 
recurring theme paying homage to the various Native 
American groups, who were well represented and 
whose heritage was included as part of many of the 
workshops.

 Those from other parts of the country and from our 
own state had the chance to view Sierra Madre’s award 
winning book at a showcase on Friday afternoon. The 
response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and those 
representing our town were questioned by many as to 
the methods used by the SMHPS to raise funds and 
encourage participation in the project. It was a great 
opportunity for our local team to tell others how the 
entire community came together with the historical 
society to produce this hometown product.

 The culmination of the convention was the awards 
banquet on Friday night, where the Sierra Madre 
contingency accepted the 2010 Award of Merit for our 
Centennial book, presented for excellence in history 
programs, projects, and people. As the award citation 
stated, “Southern California Story is proof that big 
projects can be accomplished by small volunteer 
organizations, and that they can set the bar higher than 
they ever imagined.” Other winners from California 
included Brian Bibby of Sloughhouse, who won for 
his lifetime of researching and documenting the 
Native people of California, and Rancho Los Alamitos 
Foundation, Long Beach, for their publication O, My 
Ancestor: Recognition and Renewal for the Gabrielino-
Tongva People of the Los Angeles Area.

 The AASLH 2010 Albert B. Corey Award, given as 
recognition of primarily volunteer-operated historical 
organizations that best display the qualities of vigor, 
scholarship, and imagination in their work, went to 
The Levi Coffin House Association of Fountain City, 
Indiana. Levi Coffin had recorded stories of the 
escaped slaves coming to Wayne Country, Indiana, 
looking for freedom, as part of the Underground 
Railroad, and the house is now an interpretive center.

 Two large tables of attendees from various groups 
in California attended the dinner, and the California 
flag was well represented. Besides Sierra Madre there 
were representatives from the California Historical 
Society in San Francisco, the Center for Oral, Public 
History at Cal State Fullerton, California State Parks 
in Sacramento, and the Workman and Temple Family 
Homestead Museum in City of Industry.

The Awards Address speaker was bestselling author 
Jim Loewen, who emphasized in his dinner speech 
that “history is wrong.” He went on to detail that the 
sports coach in college is usually the history teacher, 
and that 20% of college students don’t take a history 
class. In a class that Mr. Loewen taught, he noted that 
most students, when asked, said that the Vietnam War 
was between North and South Korea.

 Mr. Loewen focused on the status of Native 
Americans in history, noting that “two dead white 
people constitute a massacre, but places like Wounded 
Knee (where 150 men, women, and children of the 
Lakota Sioux were killed by the U.S. Calvary) are 
called ‘battles.’ ” He also pointed to the years of 
1890 - 1940 as being the nadir of race relations in this 
country. It is during those years that “the Civil War 
changes names and becomes the War Between the 
States,” and the idea was first floated that states’ rights 
were the reason for the war, not the issue of slavery. 

Jim Loewen went on to say this nadir “distorts our 
past” and “created Sundown towns, which were all 
white on purpose.” There are 3 steps, he said, for all 
towns in this situation to follow: “Admit it, Apologize, 
and say ‘We don’t do it anymore.’ ” He charged all 
those at the banquet to look at and approach their 
local history in this manner. 

Southern 
California Story: 
Seeking the 
Better Life in 
Sierra Madre, 
in addition to 
winning the 
AASLH Award 
of Merit, has also 
won 2 design 
awards; a 3rd 
place award for 
book cover from 
the American 
Design Awards, 
and an overall 
book design 
award from 
Graphic Design 
USA. 

Special Meeting of the Sierra Madre 
City Council On Water

Tuesday, October 19, 2010 @ 6:30 pm

The City Council invites you to a meeting dedicated to water operations and 
water rates. This is another opportunity for you to ask water department 
related questions and share your opinions. 

 Although there will be future opportunities to comment, the October 
19th meeting is being held at an important juncture in the City Council’s 
deliberation process. The City Council wants to hear from you regarding the 
future of our water system.

If you have any questions, please contact the City of Sierra Madre, Department 
of Public Works at 626-355-7135. 

Accident Shuts Down Gold Line

By Dean Lee

The Sierra Madre Villa Station was shut down most of Thursday after a tractor 
trailer jackknifed on the 210 freeway sending it, along with another vehicle, 
through the center divider and onto the Gold Line tracks. Three people were 
treated at the scene and taken to a nearby hospital. 

Pasadena Fire Battalion Chief Brett Gibson said they received a call at 7:59 a.m. 
of an overturned tractor trailer on fire, resting on the Gold line train tracks just 
north of Sierra Madre Blvd. He said the tracks were shutdown between Allen 
and the Sierra Madre Villa Station. 

Los Angeles County Sheriffs at the closed Sierra Madre Villa Station said 
passengers were being transported by buss to the Allen and Lake stations.

Witness told police a green Toyota Camry cut off the big rig, hauling dirt, 
sending both cars out of control. A blue pickup truck was also thrown onto the 
tracks after colliding with the out of control big rig. 

LA Metro officials said the tracks were also damaged and could take up to two or 
three days for repairs. They said trains were running normal on one of the tracks. 
Eastbound traffic was at a standstill until noon with the crash was finally cleared. 


Inside This 

Week...

CALENDAR Page 2 

SIERRA MADRE Page 3

AROUND SGV Page 4

PASADENA/ALTADENA

 Page 5

Commuters can expect delays over the holiday weekend as crews 
continue to work on repairing the Gold Line tracks. 

Photo courtesy Pasadena Fire Department

FEATURES

Public Safety Page 6

Education & Youth Page 7

Good Food & Drink Page 8

Legals Page 9

Opinion Page 10

Left Turn/Right Turn Page 11

The World Around Us Page 12

The Good Life Page 13

SPORTS Page 14

Homes & Property Page 15

fyi Page 16 


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