SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2014

27TH ANNUAL SMFD FIRE 
PREVENTION FESTIVAL

VOLUME 8 NO. 40

ALBERTSONS CLOSING 

 The 27th Annual Fire Prevention Festival and open house presented 
by the Sierra Madre Fire Department will be held Saturday, October 4, 
2014 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Fire Station located at 242 W. 
Sierra Madre Blvd., in Sierra Madre.

 There will be a variety of exhibits and displays at the festival to 
include; emergency medical and firefighting equipment, Earthquake 
preparedness and home fire safety information.

There will also be representatives from Sierra Madre Police, Sierra 
Madre CERT, Southern California Gas Company, Post Alarm and 
others, to answer any safety questions you might have. 

 There will be hot dogs, popcorn, coloring books and badges for all 
of the children who attend. There will also be a coloring contest with 
prizes and a bounce house. 

 Your Sierra Madre Fire Firefighters look forward to seeing you there!

 Employees at 
the Albertsons 
Supermarket on Sierra 
Madre Blvd., expressed 
their surprise when 
they were informed 
that their store, located 
on the Pasadena/Sierra 
Madre border was 
closing its doors on 
November 6th. While 
most are confident they 
will be reassigned to 
other locations, most 
that were interviewed 
for this story were 
more disturbed at the 
abruptness of the notice.

 At press time we were 
unable to verify with 
Albertson’s corporate 
office the reasons for the 
store closing. Earlier 
this year, the company 
announced the closing 
of 11 stores in Southern 
California but the 
Hastings Ranch location 
was not on that list.

 There is speculation as to why the sudden 
decision to close. Theories range from 
the owner of the property having plans 
for a ‘big box’ store to replace Albertson’s. 
Several people felt that the entire 
shopping center may be converted into 
housing. And at least one person thought 
that perhaps Albertson’s (corporate) was 
going to change the existing store to a 
Pavllion’s or Von’s, supermarkets owned 
by the same parent company.

 The store will be missed in the Sierra 
Madre community. The management 
and staff have been good neighbors 
supporting local charitable activities and 
even providing volunteers to assist with 
the cleanup of Bailey Canyon in years 
past. When the Sierra Madre hillsides 
caught fire a few years ago, the store 
provided nourishment for the various 
fire and police departments who used the 
parking lot as their command center.

 The owners of the property in recent 
months had been working on the 
exterior of the buildings and some in 
the community thought that an effort 
was being made to upgrade the site. 
Neighbors in both Pasadena and Sierra 
Madre have complained for years that the 
shopping center was an eyesore because 
of the lack of attention to the exterior of 
the buildings and the parking lot. Now 
there is concern as to whether or not the 
Albertson’s building will be vacant for a 
prolonged period of time. 

 Owners of the property could not be 
reached at press time. The property, 
which was built in 1954 and had its last 
major facelift in 1974, changed ownership 
in 2010 and 2012, the latter referenced as 
an “inter-family” transfer according to 
public records.

 What the future holds for the location 
remains to be seen. Said one neighbor, 
“I just hope it doesn’t turn into another 
gas station situation”, a reference to 
the abandoned gas station that sat for 
years on Michillinda boarded up and in 
disrepair.

S. Henderson/MVNews


On Friday, the lights on the Albertson’s sign were struggling to stay lit, flickering constantly, 
perhaps a signal that they would soon be off for good. 


THE NOISE THAT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE

Inside this week: 

It was a wonderful experience to 
again witness the activation of the 
old ‘fire horn’ and to remember 
some of the highlights in its long 
history, and its predecessors, 
for warning certain residents to 
respond one way or the other. 

 The volunteer fire fighters were 
notified, by the (Drip and Tinkle 
Phone Company that was composed 
of the telephone company and 
the water department, hence its 
name), telephone operator that 
would activate the phones of fire 
department numbers that had dots 
alongside them to indicate they were 
firefighters, or Search and Rescue 
numbers on her board. She would 
give the address of the emergency. 
In addition the bell in the tower of 
the Old North Church, at the corner 
of Hermosa and Sierra Mare Blvd., 
that was also used to summon 
volunteers of the organizations. 
Then came the sirens until it was noted to be confused with 
the air raid siren so they installed the ‘Giant Frog’, as the horn 
was referred to, in the hose-drying tower of the fire station, 
which at that time was located at the corner of Windsor Lane 
and S.M. Blvd.

The city numbered certain corners that were assigned 
numbers from which you could, supposedly, see the scene 
of the emergency. The horn was blown a certain number of 
times to indicate that intersection, for instance two then three 
for location 23. Almost every household had a chart in their 
kitchen cabinets to refer to when the horn blew.

 The next step was the installation of Plectron radios that 
every fire department member had in his home. The police/
fire dispatcher could turn on these radios with an ‘alerting 
tone’, which activated the radio and she would give the 
location of the emergency and ‘blow’ the horn located in the 
hose-drying tower of the fire station, also located in the city 
hall. Later on small pocket-size radios were issued to each 
firefighter that had the same capabilities. 

 The ISO, the commission that sets fire insurance rates, 
required that the audible system continued to be used as a 
back-up to preserve the new lowered insurance rates. They 
also demanded that the system be tested every week and this 
was usually at 7 P.M. on Fridays. This coincided with the fire 
department’s meeting and drills on the second and fourth 
Fridays.

 A sidelight, when a fireman’s wife had a baby and the 
fireman was returning to his home from the hospital he would 
stop by the fire station and pull the lanyard hooked to the fire 
horn and set off the ‘Giant Frog croaking’ to celebrate. When 
the fire station was moved to its present location, which at that 
time, was opposite the Sierra Made Hospital, it was decided to 
move the ‘horn’ to the corner of Montecito and Baldwin and 
to ‘blow’ it at noon. Following some protests the horn use 
was discontinued until a petition with hundreds of signatures 
was presented to the city council requesting the return of the 
horn. Many prominent citizens were wearing tee shirts with 
drawing of the horn and the saying “let ‘er blow’ and appeared 
at a council meeting asking for the reactivation the horn.

 Not too long ago the horn’ was silenced and was declared 
inoperable. The Sierra Madre Kiwanis club raised money to 
again get it activated and has led the fight to bring about one 
of the most complete warning systems in the state, We have a 
local radio station broadcasting 24/7 and ready to broadcast 
emergency messages as needed. The ex-president of the 
Kiwanis Club was a broadcast engineer and disc jockey with 
the local commercial station in its early stages, and built our 
radio system and got it on the air. The club has been a constant 
backer of the reactivation process and provided some funding 
and manpower for the effort.

 With the present testing, under review, the club has made 
an offer to help continued expanding the system if found 
necessary for complete coverage. They also prepared a 
brochure pointing out the many possible emergencies when 
the horn could prove a life saver, such as a major water main 
break or contamination of the system, major road closure, 
closure of roads because of major brush fire, etc. It can also be 
used to announce non-profit events in the city.

 The only other city that we are aware of, that has such a 
complete system is Santa Barbara. We need to count out 
blessings for so many people and city council willing to 
become involved.

 We are looking forward to the next step, completing the 
link with city hall so that the signal can be operated remotely. 
With the air tanks kept fully charged, the loss of electricity 
will not prevent its use and a remote system that does not 
depend on ‘telephone’ lines will continue to make our system 
almost 100 per cent fail-proof. 

 Let’s hope the system is never needed but it is comforting to 
know it will work when needed..

 -SUBMITTED BY GEORGE MAURER

CALENDAR Pg. 2

SIERRA MADRE NEWS 
Pg. 3

PASADENA/ALTADENA

 Pg. 4

ARCADIA NEWS 

MONROVIA/DUARTE 

 Pg. 5

EDUCATION & YOUTH

 Pg. 6

Waiting patiently left to right: James Carlson, SMFD Chief Steve Heydorff, SMFD Marshal Rich Snyder, Councilman John Capoccia 

and George Maurer.

FOOD & DRINK

 Pg. 7

BEST FRIENDS

 Pg. 8

HEALTHY LIFESTYLES

 Pg. 9

THE GOOD LIFE

 Pg. 10

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

 Pg. 11

SECTION B 

AROUND SGV Pg. B1

THE WORLD AROUND US

 Pg. B2

EVERY DROP COUNTS! Be aware of the new restrictions on watering. 
Even-numbered addresses are limited to landscape irrigation on Mondays and Thursdays. Odd-
numbered addresses and addresses ending in fractions are limited to landscape irrigation on 
Tuesdays and Fridays. 

 If you would like to report water waste you can now do so on the City’s website or by emailing 
water@cityofsierramadre.com. 

 Please describe how water is being wasted, include the location, and a photo if available. We will 
then send a courtesy notice to the property so the issue can be fixed. 

 You can also send an Email to water@cityofsierramadre.com OR use the form on the city’s 
website: www.cityofsierramadre.com 

HOW TO CONSERVE WATER

 BUSINESS NEWS Pg. B3

With all the concern about dealing with California’s drought and the 
Sierra Madre water conservation efforts, the Kiwanis Club of Sierra 
Madre will have a special presentation on the who, what, when and 
how of water conservation. 

The forum will be held on Tuesday, October 7th at 12 noon at The 
Lodge, (formerly the Masonic Temple), 33 E. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra 
Madre. Lunch will be served at noon ($10). The program is free and 
will begin at 12:30. For reservations please call 626-355-0728 

 OPINION Pg. B4

 LEGAL NOTICES Pg. B5