BUSINESS PROFILE Arcadia Rock Climbing
ENTERTAINMENT Hershey Felder Keeps Irving Berlin’s Legacy Alive
SPORTS La Salle Retires Number 11
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Thursday, July 14, 2016 - July 20, 2016
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Since 1996
The Long and Winding Road for Rusnak
COMPLIMENTARY COPY VOLUME 20, NO. 28
BY TERRY MILLER
Rusnak’s new Arcadia showroom features more than 241,000 square feet of space.
Arcadia Relaxes Watering Restrictions
– Photo by Terry Miller
There have been huge changes in Arcadia’s infrastructure and architecture lately, not to mention the windmill spinning counterclockwise - perhaps indicating that we can, in fact, go back in time. But for Rusnak, the beat of the contractors’ hammers is finally near completion and the dramatic new showroom is now open for those who are able to afford the luxury automobile. Since the statewide dissolution of redevelopment agencies, the City of Arcadia had been contending with new property requirements to help Rusnak Mercedes-Benz with its decade-plus-old plan for expansion. In 2011, Arcadia’s former Redevelopment Agency acquired the last parcel of a two-acre site that it intended to sell to Rusnak as part of a development deal. That plan would help the dealership expand to six acres. But, because of the December 2011 California SEE PAGE 14
Male Shot Outside Extended Stay America in Arcadia
BY KATTA HULES Arcadia’s water restrictions are changing. Though Governor Jerry Brown has extended drought restrictions until January, there has been an increase in precipitation upstate, allowing California to relax some conservation efforts. This has trickled down to the city level. “Arcadia [has] sufficient supplies to meet our demands so we went ahead and relaxed … our outdoor watering prohibition,” says Public Works Services Director Tom Tait. Residents can now water their lawns on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday
from May to October. From November through April, residents will still be limited to Tuesdays and Saturdays. “We have more water allotments in summertime versus the wintertime because you need a little more water to irrigate your landscape,” says Tait. Last year, to combat the drought, California mandated a statewide 36 percent water usage reduction. This has been lifted. Instead, cities are required to stress test and self-certify their water supplies. Arcadia has enough to “meet the projected de-
mands assuming three additional years of drought,” according to a recent city staff report. However, local groundwater levels in the Main San Gabriel Basin are at a “historic low,” according to the city’s water conservation website. To preserve groundwater, the city wants to reduce per capita water usage by 20 percent. Neither staff nor Tait foresee this as a problem. “We cut our overall water usage cumulatively … [last year] over 25 percent,” says Tait. SEE PAGE 15
On Friday, July 8, at approximately 1:13 a.m., the Arcadia Police Department responded to the 400 block of East Santa Clara Street, regarding a report of a man down at the front of the location. Once on scene, officers found a male adult suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The Arcadia Fire Department Paramedics were summoned and administered medical aid. The victim was transported to a local area hospital for further SEE PAGE 15
The Arcadia PD forensics team and detectives were on the scene, Friday morning, July 8. - Photo by Terry Miller