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COMPLIMENTARY COPY VOLUME 20, NO. 15
Verlato, Amundson Win in a ‘Three-Horse Race’; Measure A Gets Voted Down
April Verlato and Peter Amundson are about to change the way council will operate in Arcadia. – Photos by Terry Miller
BY KATTA HULES The votes are in and Arcadia has elected two new members of the city council. Peter Amundson and April Verlato are all set to fill in the two empty council seats with over 3,600 votes each. The race between the two was neck and neck. At the end they were only 25 votes apart, with Amundson edging out Verlato for the lead. Amundson described the election as “nail-biting,” as he watched the scores for each precinct being posted in the council chambers.
“Most people thought it was a three-horse race and they were right,” he said, including the runner-up Bob Harbicht in his statement. Amundson is a former councilmember and mayor of Arcadia. Verlato called it a “very competitive campaign” in a phone interview after the results were in, going on to say, “I credit all the candidates for a good fight.” She is “excited about serving my community” although, she says she will have a lot to learn and warns she will not “be able to change that much at
first.” Verlato is the former president of the Save the Highlands group and current president of the Downtown Arcadia Improvement Association. The other candidates did not garner so many votes. Harbicht, a 20-year veteran of the city council and former mayor was the next runner up. “I'm proud that I ran a clean campaign, never mentioning another candidate in any of my literatures or comments,” said Harbicht in an email from SEE PAGE 17
Local Iconic Track Photographer Bill Mochon Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from PPAGLA BY TERRY MILLER On April 2, the Press Photographers’ Association of Greater Los Angeles (PPAGLA) bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award upon eminent photographer Bill Mochon during its annual awards luncheon in Alhambra.
A virtual fixture at Santa Anita Race Track in Arcadia, Mochon for years has been mentoring young and green photographers and helping us all understand horse racing photography’s “dos and don’ts” (i.e. like the first time I met Bill in the late 1990’s he advised me it was not good protocol to stand in
front of the automatic camera at the finish line … true story). After a few more sessions at the track I got to know not only Mochon’s immeasurable sense of history and knowledge of the horse racing business, but
SEE PAGE 16
THE BALLOTS ARE HERE! VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE LOCAL BUSINESS ON PG.4