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JUNE 20, 2014

SIGNALING THE WAY

JUNE 20, 2014

Message from the mayor

By Ed Wilson

Hello, all. I just want to say I love the great little city of Signal Hill! I am honored to serve as mayor this year as we celebrate our 90th anniversary.

From a regional communications venue by the Tongva tribe, to farming, to the largest oil field per capita, to being voted one of the most exciting sub-

urbs in the United States, Signal Hill’s varied history encompasses all this and more!

Signal Hill was incorporated on April 14, 1924.

Signal Hill is now considered one of the most desirable cities in which to live, work and play.

Due to the efforts of prior and current city councils and city staff, Signal Hill is a well balanced community highlighting award-winning parks, a highly rated trail system, low insurance rates, affordable as well as affluent homes and a thriving business community.

Surrounded by Long Beach, centrally located between Los Angeles and Orange County, freeway-accessible, minutes from the Ports of LA and Long Beach, Long Beach Airport, LAX and John Wayne Airport, you can easily travel to anywhere in Southern California or the world, or simply stay at home and enjoy the community.

Our 90th anniversary is a major milestone that we share along with Long Beach Community Hospital and St. Mary Medical Center. Throughout the year we have scheduled a number of events to celebrate and recognize our wonderful and exciting history.

We started the year-long celebrations on April 1 in the Council Chamber with the recognition of our

nonagenarians (aged 90-plus) Clemencia Arroyo, Barbara Camody, Marjorie Grommé, Keaton King, Millicent Petrich and Al Sirignano.

Our second event was the City’s birthday open house held on April 21 at the community center.

The large crowd in attendance enjoyed live music, cake, Champagne and a fascinating display of historic memorabilia.

Upcoming events include the community picnic on June 21 starting at 2pm. Pack a picnic basket or bring a little money for food, come out with friends and family to enjoy this wholesome, fun event featuring games, music, live entertainment, classic cars, silent movies, and historic characters.

The day will end with the evening screening of Signal Hill Speed Run at 6pm– a documentary about the world’s first downhill skateboard race down Hill Street. Many claim this to be the precursor to today’s X Games.

On Wednesday, July 23 the ‘20s take over the Concerts in the Park. Preconcert events start at 5:30pm, utilizing a 1920s theme. There will be entertainment, children’s activities, and a historic display. In addition, the regularly scheduled summer concert will begin at 6:30pm featuring Boxcar 7, a local seven-piece showcase band playing blues,

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soul, old-school R&B, classic rock and swing!

The business community gets in the swing of things on Sept. 11 at 6pm. The City will host the Chamber mixer at City Hall. City staff will be on hand to provide tours.

Finally, we culminate the year with a good, old-fashioned tree-lighting on Dec. 3 at Discovery Well Park at 5:30pm. We will kick off the holiday season with the holiday tree-lighting, classic carolers, cookies, cocoa and coffee and, of course, a visit from Santa! This is always a fun event to get you in the holiday spirit.

To commemorate this year of celebration, the City is putting together a 90th historic photo album that will remain on display in City facilities. The album display will feature photos from each decade starting in the 1920s to current day 2014. I can hardly wait to see what the next 10 years will bring and how the City will celebrate its 100th anniversary. To that end, the City wants your input and is accepting suggestions for how to celebrate in 2024.

Congratulations to all of Signal Hill. I am proud to call this city my home, and I am honored to be your mayor!

City Hall inCorporatEd

Sean Belk Staff Writer

City leaders have faced many challenges throughout Signal Hill’s storied past, but it was oil that started it all.

At the turn of the 20th century, Signal Hill was an unincorporated territory of Los Angeles County. A few mansions on the hilltop touted picturesque views as early Spanish settlers had established farms and ranches below.

With street names in place, wealthy developers had a plan to create “The most beautiful home site in Southern California,” according to a brochure from G.W. Hughes, president of the Signal Hill Improvement, Co., which had built some of the first homes on the hill.

The discovery of “black gold” in 1921, however, changed everything.

People came from far and wide to buy up property in hopes of striking it rich. And as the oil rush took precedence, the idea to build more homes went by the wayside.

Nicknamed “Porcupine Hill,” the mound was speckled with more than 1,700 wooden oil derricks by 1923, the year that the Signal Hill/Long Beach oil field hit its peak production of 69 million barrels of black crude.

“As soon as oil was discovered, it was a big race to see who could acquire the most amount of real estate to be able to build the most amount of wells,” said Signal Hill historian Ken Davis.

The oil boom also caught the attention of the City of Long Beach, which began eyeing the hill as a money-making prospect, seeking to annex the land and impose its own oil-barrel tax in addition to other taxes on real estate.

Just three years after the first major “gusher” burst into the sky at Shell Oil Company’s Alamitos No. 1 well, the hill’s residents, who had suddenly become partial owners of oil interests, worked on a deal with oil speculators to form a city and thus avoid the tax and prevent the land from being annexed by Long Beach. “[Oil speculators] started getting consolidated ownership, and a lot of people got involved,” Davis said. “They loosely decided to incorporate in order to circumvent the City of Long Beach [annexation]. Once they were incorporated, since this was people who had financial interests going on, they wanted

to set up a city government.”

The City of Signal Hill incorporated in April of 1924 with a vote of 334 residents in favor and 211 against.

In those days, Signal Hill was considered the richest city, per capita, in the United States and possibly the world, with an assessed valuation of $34 million for a city that spans only 2.2 square miles. City limits, by design, encompassed most of the oil field.

Founding a city on a hill One of the city’s most notable founders was Jessie Elwin Nelson, an Illinois native who moved to Signal Hill with her husband Z.T. Nelson, purchasing more than 17 acres of land, including a house at Cherry Avenue and Hill Street that today serves as City Hall.

An active member of the community who helped establish local libraries, Jessie Nelson contributed to the local newspaper, writing about activities on the hill. She also became heavily involved in the movement against Long Beach’s annexation of Signal Hill.

Nelson was elected Signal Hill’s first mayor, becoming the first woman to be elected mayor of a “newly incorporated city” in California.

Back then, her title was “chair” of the five-member board of directors, which would later become the City Council. The first board of directors consisted of Nelson, Arthur E. Pike, Vernon W. Vore, Lloyd Williamson and Ray J. Miller. The mayoral position eventually became a title rotated among councilmembers.

Signal Hill’s early city government also included a city clerk, a city treasurer and heads of departments. A city administrator (now called the city manager) was added.

The City had created its own police, water and planning departments.

Given the constant threat from oilwell fires, the City also formed its own fire department. The first fire station in Signal Hill was set up on Cherry Avenue, just north of 19th Street. The fire department then took over a building on Hill Street that today serves as the municipal library. Fire services were later contracted out to Long Beach and then to Los Angeles County.

City Hall was first established in three five-room houses at Catalina Street

The first fire station in Signal Hill was set up on Cherry Avenue, just north of 19th Street. Pictured is Capt. Adolph Feil (far left) in front of his new station. Fire services were later contracted out to Long Beach and eventually the County of Los Angeles.

(now 21st Street) and Cherry Avenue that were owned by William E. Hinshaw, a well-known property owner who became the City’s second mayor.

Nelson fell ill and died just a year after the City’s incorporation, unable to fulfill her term.

In 1934, City Hall was moved to its current location, the site of Nelson’s former house, which the City purchased for $29,000. The street in front of City Hall was aptly named Jessie Nelson Circle.

City government vs. oil interests In those early days, the first order of business was paving city streets for a town of only about 1,800 residents.

The challenge, however, was weighing the demands of oil interests versus the needs of the community and, ultimately, the future of the city.

Since oil production was the main business on the hill, the City had imposed its own oil-barrel tax, starting a long-held “love/hate” relationship with oil companies. But, for oil speculators, a small city was easier to deal with than a larger one.

“The oil companies, like they did in many historical areas in that time, had a tremendous amount of control over politics,” Davis said.

Since the newly formed City was able to protect its rich bounty of oil-tax revenue, Los Angeles County insisted that Signal Hill become a “no/low property tax” city, meaning most propertytax revenue would go to the County.

To this day, Signal Hill only receives .6 percent of property-tax revenue compared to Long Beach, which receives about 21 percent, notes current City Manager Ken Farfsing, who has been with the City for 18 years.

“Because we had oil-barrel taxes at the time, the County said, ‘if you want to become a City, you’ve got to pass through some of your property taxes to us and don’t take a local portion,’” Farfsing said. “So it’s a very small percentage of property taxes we get here. It’s less than a penny.”

Signal Hill survived on oil revenue for decades. However, the City was still marred by heavy oil operations, which made it nearly impossible to grow agriculture, industry or any new residential development. In many cases, residents were forced out of their homes because oil would rain down onto rooftops, making houses ripe for the wrecking crew.

Signal Hill also had a public image of being a “rough and tumble” town as the oil boom attracted all sorts of criminal activity, including gambling, prostitution and illegal alcohol sales during the Prohibition years.

The big oil cleanup It wasn’t until the late 1950s and early 1960s that oil production clearly started to subside and, thus, city coffers began drying up.

This created a major problem for the city, considering that Signal Hill had little means to generate revenue other than from oil extraction. City leaders knew that, in order to be sustainable as a city, they needed to find another revenue source.

Signal Hill’s first City Hall was established after the City incorporated in 1924 in three five-room houses at Catalina Street (now 21st Street) and Cherry Avenue that were owned by William E. Hinshaw, a well-known property owner who became the City’s second mayor. Pictured are the city facilities with fire, police, water and planning departments.

And so began the initial stages to clean up the city’s tainted past with a new vision for a business district, office high-rises and single-family homes.

An article in Westways magazine quoted then city administrator Fred W. Baxter as saying that 1966 was “the year of the renaissance” for Signal Hill. That year, the City got a park on the hilltop, and developers began constructing luxurious homes again.

The city’s population also began to rapidly grow, jumping from 4,627 residents to 6,025 residents in just half a decade. Signal Hill’s city leaders foresaw even more population growth on the horizon, a prediction that eventually came true as today the city has a population of more 11,000 residents.

“Signal Hill has been a civic curiosity long enough,” Baxter said in the article. “Now it’s going to become a city of its own right, developed according to a comprehensive plan intact by zoning ordinances. We’ve got a long way to go, but we’re making a real start.”

In 1974, the City Council created the Signal Hill Redevelopment Agency (RDA), which would become the cornerstone for new development in the city.

Under the redevelopment model, the City would be able to use a much larger portion of property-tax revenue than in the past. Redevelopment gave Signal Hill the funds it needed to clean up contamination from abandoned oil wells.

Redevelopment funds paid for millions of dollars worth of oil-well cleanups, spurring the construction of city facilities, commercial development and residential homes.

The first major development was a Price Club (now Costco) in the 1980s that helped form a shopping center at Willow Street and Cherry Avenue. The new retail opportunity also attracted local car dealerships, eventually forming the Signal Hill Auto Center.

Today the big-box retailer and car dealerships alone remain Signal Hill’s biggest sales-tax producers, generating about one third of the City’s sales-tax revenue, Farfsing said.

“At that time, [the shopping center] was an industrial area,” Farfsing said. “[The property owners], the community and the City hadn’t even thought of making it a retail area, but the City,

Signal Hill’s first mayor, Jessie Elwin Nelson, (right) and her husband, Z.T. Nelson

through redevelopment, was able to clean up the property and close the oil wells … I think people started to realize that there was a potential to develop retail sales within Signal Hill, serving not only Signal Hill but also the greater Long Beach area.”

Overcoming a tarnished reputation A major challenge for Signal Hill city leaders during that time, however, was when a controversy involving the police department thrust the City into the national spotlight, recalls current City Attorney David Aleshire, who has represented the City for 36 years.

In 1981, Ron Settles, a 21-year-old Cal State Long Beach football player, was stopped and arrested in Signal Hill for speeding. He was found the morning after his arrest severely beaten and hanging in a jail cell.

Signal Hill police said the college athlete committed suicide, but the incident spurred a national public outcry over the nature of the man’s death.

The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office filed charges against four Signal Hill police officers involved in the case.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) organized a rally against the City and marched on City Hall.

After a coroner’s inquest, a jury found that Settles had died in the hands see GOVERNMENT page 8

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THE BLACK-GOLD RUSH

JUNE 20, 2014

a priCkly ‘porCupinE Hill’

Sean Belk Staff Writer

There was a time when oil was king of the hill.

It started in 1921 at a well famously known as Alamitos No. 1, located at the corner of Temple Avenue and Hill Street in Signal Hill.

An oil-drilling crew in Signal Hill is seen in this photo taken in Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company had broken 1923. Pictured (from left) are Fred Spreen, Otto Kinney, John through the ground, producing the first “gusher” Augsberger, Roy Blodgett and an unidentified person. that made way for one of the most productive oil fields in the world.

The well, which today is memorialized by a plaque, a bronze statue and the name of a nearby park, is recognized as the first major discovery of oil in Southern California that triggered a drilling frenzy that lasted for decades.

At 9:30pm on June 23, black crude erupted 114 feet into the air from the site, an event that took the oil industry by surprise, according to historical records. Two days later, on June 25 the well was completed at a depth of more than 3,000 feet. The well flowed with 590 barrels of oil per day, eventually producing 700,000 barrels of oil.

Before the well was found, oil companies had Crowds gather to watch a crew from Shell Oil Company cap a gusher at a new Signal Hill oil well, named Andrews No. 3. In those days it could have taken been skeptical about the hill’s potential. days to cap a well and people would often stop by to see what was going on.

Union Oil Company began drilling in Signal Hill as early as 1916 at the corner of Wardlow Road square-mile city nearly mirrored the limits of the oil fallen on an entire city block, bounded by Willow closing down oil wells in Orange County, was in a real and Atlantic Avenue but stopped after the well failed field. The City of Signal Hill’s own oil-barrel tax Street, Cherry Avenue, Burnett Street and Walnut estate-development mode, but that changed when the to produce any oil. company realized there was still life left in the oil field. produced just enough revenue for the City to build Street, according to historical records.

The persistence of Shell Oil Company led to the roads, utilities and city buildings.

Shell, which at the time was repositioning itself in The City, however, was able to survive on oilinflux of oil speculators, who came from far and Southern California and focused more on a major And it was then that a long-held relationship barrel taxes for decades. wide in search of “black gold.”

At the time, Signal Hill was considered the richest acquisition of oil interests in the San Joaquin Valley, between the City and oil companies began.

The oil boom, which was documented in a novel “Signal Hill the oil field and Signal Hill the city city per capita in the country, valued at about $34 mil- had deep-tested a well in Signal Hill’s central unit but titled Oil! written by award-winning writer Upton have grown up together,” said Dave Slater, chief lion. Besides oil operations, however, the only estab- was not successful.

Sinclair, attracted all sorts of people to town.

Signal Hill Petroleum, on the other hand, was able operating officer and executive vice president of Sig- lishments that existed in town were a few gas stations, Shell had acquired about 25 percent of the field nal Hill Petroleum, which later took over most oil a nightclub and restaurants. Also, the oil crowd to utilize new technology to analyze the reservoir before the hill’s acreage became flooded with spec- operations on the hill. “It’s a unique circumstance, brought with it illegal activites such as gambling and more closely, using 3D seismic-imaging technology. ulators, and the hill was soon split up among about and it’s the foundation of a unique relationship that prostitution.

“To the good fortune of Signal Hill Petroleum, 130 owners, according to historical records. Those our company has with the community.”

Major oil fires were also a problem. The largest [Shell] just didn’t drill in the right spot,” said Slater, who had owned land before oil was discovered In the early days, however, oil operations were one was a fire that erupted at the Hancock Oil Refin- who has worked for Signal Hill Petroleum for 15 ditched plans for more homes and instead signed much different from what they are today. ery in 1958. The fire was so large that it required years. contracts for 25 to 30 percent of the mineral rights.

The oil operator, however, also continued as an Homeowners, who also owned the mineral rights resources from multiple jurisdictions, including the Signal Hill reached its peak production in 1923 in and around their properties, were the beneficiaries United States Air Force, to put it out. active real-estate company in Signal Hill and was with 69 million barrels of oil.

The fire prompted the City to join the Los Ange- involved in most of the commercial and residential of the first wells, but the messy operations drove The following year, the City of Signal Hill was them from their houses. les County Fire Protection District, contracting out development in the city. born with a population of about 1,800 residents, just “I like to say ‘oil is our major, and real estate is our Black crude, which sprouted up from gusher fire services to the County, according to city officials. surpassing the number of wooden oil derricks that wells, was caught and collected in dirt berms on the A new fire station was built and transitioned from its minor,’” Slater said. dotted the land at the time.

The first project was a Price Club (now a Costco) surface of the ground. Oil and large stones often previous fire-engine house at the Civic Center on Hill Residents agreed in 1924 to incorporate as a city, rained down onto homes, making them uninhabit- Street that today serves as the municipal library, city on property that was formerly owned by Signal Hill mainly as a way to avoid a per-barrel oil tax sought able. In many cases, an insurance company would officials said.

Petroleum, which sold the land to the City, that then by the surrounding City of Long Beach, which had pay to knock down a house, only to buy the land and By the 1960s, however, Signal Hill’s forest of oil used funds from the Signal Hill Redevelopment a plan to annex the Los Angeles County territory for put in more oil wells. derricks began thinning as the oil field began to play Agency (RDA) to close down oil wells and help subits revenue potential.

For instance, just one year after oil was discov- out. A headline in a 1965 article in the then Long sidize the construction of a shopping center.

It was no surprise that the footprint of the 2.2- ered in Signal Hill, about 7,500 barrels of oil had Beach Independent-Press Telegram read “Signal Hill Signal Hill Petroleum was involved in the develis losing its ‘5 o’clock opment of several other shopping centers in Signal Hill that have attracted retailers, from grocery stores shadow.”

In the 1970s, however, and fast-food chains to two Home Depots, generating the price of oil skyrocketed, major retail sales-tax revenue for the City.

The City now relies mostly on retail-sales tax and the three major oil operators on the hill– Shell, Tex- rather than oil-barrel taxes like in the past.

With a tax of about 99 cents per barrel, Signal Hill aco and Arco– banded together and made a corpo- to this day collects just under $1 million a year in oilrate decision to reinvest in barrel taxes, considered one of the highest oil-extracthe oil field to create a water tion taxes for a city in California, said current City Manager Ken Farfsing. flood system.

As oil production has subsided while the size of The system, which became a multi-million dol- the City’s government has grown to meet the needs of lar investment, involves a rising population, oil taxes cover a much smaller injecting water into the portion of the City budget than it first did, he ground and pumping it back explained.

Today, out of the City’s budget, oil-barrel taxes up to skim oil off the top.

The field was also divided account for just 5 percent of city revenue. “That into three operating units. wouldn’t be enough to fund one of our smallest New technologies made oil departments,” Farfsing said.

While Signal Hill Petroleum continued oil operadrilling a much cleaner and safer process, and old oil der- tions by re-drilling wells and searching for new ones, Signal Hill was given the nickname “Porcupine Hill” because nearly 1,700 wooden oil derricks stuck out of the ground during the ricks were replaced with the company has proven how a community and oil operators can coexist in harmony, Slater said. oil boom in the 1920s and 1930s. In this photo, St. Louis Street is pictured connected to 19th Street and dead-ends above at 21st more advanced rigs.

“We built into the design the criteria for all of the After oil prices dropped Street. Homes have filled in and the hill has grown with oil derricks. back down again, the oil development projects that we were involved in, and companies took steps to that’s one thing we were very successful at,” Slater divest themselves from the said. “People believe the only option is that you’ve got to get rid of all the oil wells before you can do anyfield.

By 1984, the Long thing else, but we blew that paradigm up a long time Beach/Signal Hill oil field ago.”

Meeting strict regional and state requirements for had produced more than 1 billion barrels of oil, making oil-well remediation, the company helped to develop it a “super giant” oil field. retail storefronts that today can be seen strategically That same year, a new oil placed around oil rigs. Also, oil drilling near residential operator came into exis- neighborhoods is limited between the hours of 7am tence– Signal Hill Petroleum. and 7pm, he said.

Slater said the company has partnered with the Jerry Barto and his son Craig Barto, who both had City over the years to work together on a “community started a previous oil-opera- vision,” which is a far cry from the early days of the tion enterprise after dealing oil boom.

“We’re really proud of our relationship with the in commercial and residential real estate, founded the com- City, city management and the community,” Slater pany, which went on to pur- said. “Everybody has worked really hard to build chase all oil holdings from a successful partnership over the last decades, and we’re looking forward to good things for our comShell, Texaco and Arco.

At first, Signal Hill Petro- pany and the City of Signal Hill for decades to leum, which had experience come.”

FIELD OF LOST DREAMS

JUNE 20, 2014

SIGNAL TRIBUNE

HoW Spud FiEld Got itS naME

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CJ Dablo/Signal Tribune

Spud Field is dedicated to Stephen Shoup, a boy who went by the nickname “Spud.” At age 11, Shoup was one of several victims who died in the 1954 jet crash in Signal Hill.

CJ Dablo

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Staff Writer

t rained on Jan. 12, 1954. Perhaps the lack of visibility from the storm clouds could have at least partially explained away the horrific accident that day when an Air Force pilot commandeering a jet made a fateful left turn on his approach toward Long Beach Airport and then crashed into a number of Signal Hill homes. At least eight individuals ultimately died, and families who lived near 19th Street and Raymond Avenue were devastated.

According to historical newspaper accounts published in the PressTelegram, the F-86 Sabre jet was en route from Williams Air Force Base in Arizona. The jet approached a tower at the Long Beach Airport, and then the pilot inexplicably turned left towards Signal Hill. According to the newspaper, his plane was expected to turn right. The Sabre crashed to the ground, clipping through trees and tearing through homes along Raymond Avenue. It skidded about 400 feet before it smashed into a duplex.

“The plane exploded with this impact and disintegrated into a roaring path of flame,” wrote one PressTelegram reporter.

The news reports from that era listed the victims. The pilot, among several other individuals, was killed.

Others later died as a result of their injuries. One man suffered from a heart attack and passed away. At least one victim was decapitated in the crash. A four-month-old toddler died days later from burns to his body.

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lfred and Jeannette Sirignano are among those who remember the aftermath of the accident. Former Signal Hill residents, the couple witnessed the destruction up-close.

Alfred and Jeannette were only dating at that time, but Alfred, who lived nearby, had been taking his then-girlfriend Jeannette to work and sharing his car with her. That Tuesday, he was late, and Jeannette had to end her work day a little later to make up for lost time. It was a good day to return home a little late.

Speaking from their home in Apple Valley, Alfred and Jeannette recalled in a telephone interview the events of that day when Jeannette tried to make it back to her home in Signal Hill.

She had to park a block away from her home that afternoon, and she saw the smoke and fire on her street. A policeman told her that they were trying to find the blonde woman who lived in one particular house. He pointed out the home behind the duplex that had been struck by the plane. It took a little while for Jeannette, who had just dyed her hair black, to convince the officer that she was the same woman for whom they were searching. They didn’t recognize her. Jeannette said that the motor of the plane landed on her driveway and caught fire. Her home was burned. She lost everything.

“I was so stunned,” Jeannette said, thinking of her friends who lived in the duplex and another girl who might have also been among the victims of the crash.

Alfred acknowledged that his wife was lucky that day. Had she arrived home 15 to 20 minutes earlier, she

Cory Bilicko/Signal Tribune

Bronze plaque at Raymond Arbor Park, located near 19th Street and Raymond Avenue, where the plane crash occurred

File photo

could have been The fiery aftermath of the plane crash another victim killed in the fire. He was still at work at the time of the accident, and he didn’t know until later that Jeannette’s home was in the path of the crash. He was grateful that Jeannette wasn’t hurt, but he also realized how the neighborhood had been deeply shattered by the wreck.

“We were really upset because our friends and neighbors were killed… everybody was young, relatively young, in their 20s,” he said, adding that a whole family, including a mother, father, and a daughter were also killed.

“It was devastating…because we knew them personally.”

The crash also killed a young boy.

The Sirignanos believe that 11-year-old File photo Stephen Louis Shoup, known by his nickname Spud, was on his bike, either Vintage photo depicting city staff with Mayor Morris Shoup (front row, far left), on his way home or making his way to who was Stephen “Spud” Shoup’s father the grocery store, when the plane pay for Jeannette to move into a motel crashed. His father, Morris Shoup, room. Neighbors gave her clothes. Jeanpud Field is an open grassy area served as a Signal Hill councilmember nette carried on. The day after the crash, and mayor. Spud Field in Signal Hill she returned to her job as a cosmetolo- in the center of town, close to the civic Park is named after Stephen. gist. Eventually, she moved into another center. On a hot afternoon in May on Jeannette, now 86, said she doesn’t home. the field, a soccer coach gathered his really want to remember that day. She The crash was a moment in time teen players together for announceand Alfred, who is now 88, were in their that is slowly being forgotten as resi- ments as more parents with their kids mid 20s at the time of the crash. dents age or move away from the area. joined the crowd. For those kids, it wasHowever, Jeannette remembers that, Young residents in Signal Hill may only in the days following the crash, there think of Spud Field as the place to play n’t a day to think of rain, fire, wrong were acts of kindness from friends, a soccer game, not as a place which turns, or loss. It’s a place for the young neighbors and Alfred’s mother as Jean- memorializes the kid on his bike who and young-at-heart to enjoy the sunnette tried hard to move on with her life. didn’t get a chance to live a full, happy shine, the kind of place Spud might have liked.

Alfred’s mother loaned money to help life in the city.

S

6 SIGNAL TRIBUNE

TRAGEDY STRIKES AGAIN

JUNE 20, 2014

oil BooMS!

File photo

Huge plumes of thick, dark smoke fill the sky after an explosion at Hancock Oil Refinery in 1958.

On May 22, 1958, a series of explosions rocked Signal Hill and the surrounding area, leaving giant plumes of thick, dark smoke rising ominously into the sky. The 35-acre Hancock Oil Refinery had suddenly burst into flames.

One eyewitness, who was featured in a documentary about the event, described the smoke as half a mile in diameter and rising for thousands of feet into the sky.

“Within this smoke I observed red flames, and I knew instantly that we had a tremendous fire on our hands,” he said.

The fire was caused by overheated petroleum product that blew the lid off of a giant storage tank. Moments later, the hot liquid exploded into flames, blanketing 15 acres of the refinery with burning crude oil that ignited the contents of other storage tanks, beginning what would be a three-day saga.

Teams of firefighters from county fire stations and surrounding cities rushed to the scene with a strategy that was simple but extremely dangerous: while some of the men struggled to keep the remaining tanks cool with a constant stream of water, others advanced into the flames to shut off the valves that were allowing more oil to flow through pipelines into the fire.

“It was multiple efforts,” said one of the firemen. “We had teams of men with water lines to create a fog pattern of water to hold the heat factor down.”

Another firefighter noted, “We all had 12-pound mauls in our hands and were driving the valve stems to close the pipe.”

The problem was that storage tanks uphill from the refinery were connected by pipes to the tanks below and the only valves controlling the flow of oil were engulfed in flames, making them impossible to close. The only way to stop the flow of oil feeding the fire was to drive the valve stems into the pipes with a maul. While some men swung their mauls, others sprayed the valves with water while flames licked at everyone’s heels.

“Those guys did the greatest job under very dangerous conditions,” said an observer. “I can still remember the heroism they displayed.”

Firefighters from a total of seven fire departments from the region battled the flames for three days before the fire was extinguished. During the battle, storage tanks kept blowing their roofs up to 100 feet in the air, but the metal lids never landed on the firefighters, who also endured toxic fumes and flaming sprays of oil that seemed to come from every direction.

Two Hancock employees were burned to death in the flames, and the refinery sustained more than $3.5 million in damage during the three-day fire. No firefighters lost their lives.

Based on a story originally written by Nick Diamantides

a BlaZE of StoriES

File photo

The Hancock oil fire was caused by overheated petroleum product that blew the lid off a large storage tank.

Herb Bramley In 1958, Herb Bramley was a firefighter with the Long Beach Fire Department.

“I was sent to Hancock at about 5pm and by then they had pretty well knocked down the fire in the parking lot,” he said. “But fires and explosions were taking place all over the refinery, and I was given various assignments.”

When night fell, he was put in charge of a ladder truck protecting one of the tanks. “I was down on the truck operating the turntable on which the ladder was mounted,” he said. “A nozzle was attached to the top of the ladder, and, by controlling the turntable, I could control the direction of the water.”

He operated that unit for several hours until officials knew that tank was no longer in danger. When he got relieved, he went back to his fire station and discovered all the beds were taken by firefighters who had come from all over the region. “I ended up having to sleep on one of the hose beds of one of the trucks,” he said. “After that, we worked in four- to six-hour shifts, just going back and forth between the station and the refinery until the fire was out.”

(Bramley retired from the LBFD as an engineer in 1976.)

Justin Bartlow Firefighter Justin Bartlow was sent from LBFD headquarters to the Hancock Refinery about two hours after

the fire broke out.

“Coming up over the top of Signal Hill and looking down at the refinery and seeing how vast the fire was overwhelmed me,” he said. “That’s one time I thought I had made a mistake joining the fire department. It was acres of fire, and it was spreading.”

Once inside the refinery, Bartlow could no longer see the entire magnitude of the conflagration. “There was such a huge plume of black, heavy smoke that you didn’t really have a good view of how much fire you had surrounding you,” he explained. “We just went to work.”

A few hours later, he found out that fire officials were very concerned about a tetraethyl lead tank that could explode and level the refinery. “There were efforts to keep hose lines on that tank to keep it cool,” he said. “There was even talk of it leveling east Long Beach.”

Bartlow’s brother worked for the City of Long Beach’s automotive yard, not far from the refinery. “He heard a loud whistling noise, and, when he looked up, he saw a huge lid that had just been blown off one of the tanks sailing through the air looking like a flying saucer had just arrived from outer space,” he said.

(Bartlow retired from the LBFD as a battalion chief in 1997.)

Milo Brown “I came in on the second day and was assigned to protect the Long Beach Gas Department’s natural gas holding tanks, which were right next to the refinery,” said former Long Beach Fire Department firefighter Milo Brown. “By the time we got there, the flames were actually covering the tanks, and one of them was already badly scorched.”

Brown and his comrades spent hours pushing the fire back and spraying water onto the tanks to cool them down.

“Because one of the tanks had super-heated, the metal had expanded greatly,” he noted. The men successfully cooled it down, but as they turned their backs on it, the metal contracted and made a very loud booming noise. “We thought it had exploded, and I thought we were all goners,” Brown said. “Man, I chewed on my heart for 10 minutes after that.”

(Brown retired from LBFD as a captain in 1984.)

JUNE 20, 2014

THE CITY OF SIGNAL HILL’S 90TH ANNIVERSARY

SIGNAL TRIBUNE

7

Anniv ersary Greetings

8 SIGNAL TRIBUNE

SIGNALING THE WAY (CONTINUED)

Government

JUNE 20, 2014

continued from page 3

Sean Belk/Signal Tribune

The current Signal Hill City Council conducts a meeting on Tuesday, May 5 at the Council Chamber. Pictured (from left) are Councilmember Lori Woods, Councilmember Michael Noll, Mayor Ed Wilson, Vice Mayor Larry Forester and Councilmember Tina Hansen.

of another, instead of it being a suicide, Aleshire said. Represented by the late high-profile attorney Johnnie Cochran, the Settles family subsequently sued the City. The family won the lawsuit, and the City eventually paid more than $1 million to settle the case.

About a year after the incident, the City Council fired then police chief Gaylord Wert, who was arrested a year later in Ventura for shoplifting.

In an effort to restore the City’s beleaguered reputation, city leaders took steps to reform the police department, first hiring a new police chief from outside the area.

“The new chief came in and cleaned up the police department,” Aleshire said. “With the department

cleaned up, it reformed itself because it was less political and more devoted to good policing … The Ron Settles [case] led to cleaning up the police department and the politics of Signal Hill. That, I think, was the second huge change in the city [after redevelopment].”

Taking control of city finances As the City continued along its new trajectory, Signal Hill’s city government faced yet another hurdle. By the 1990s, the State of California began taking funds away from local city governments through legislation and other means, according to city officials. This hit small, no/low- property tax cities, such as Signal Hill, particularly hard because they didn’t have much property-tax revenue to fall back on.

In 2000, voters overwhelmingly passed a measure (with 86 percent in favor) to turn Signal Hill into a charter city, giving the City its own powers to pass laws that overreached state restrictions rather than being required to follow state procedures as a general-law city.

“At the time, we were anticipating that the State would be doing more revenue raiding from the City, so we wanted to be in a better position to basically have control over our city finances,” Farfsing said.

Charter cities have full authority over their own municipal affairs but remain subject to State law on matters of statewide importance. As a charter city, Signal Hill formed its own laws concerning: municipal utilities; procedures for bidding and contracting; regulations for parks, libraries and other facilities; salaries of officers and employees; parking regulations; franchise and other fees; taxation; zoning; and election procedures.

A new era: post-redevelopment In the years after Signal Hill became a charter city, however, the State continued to siphon revenue from local municipalities, according to city officials.

In 2011, amid a major economic recession, the California Legislature voted to eliminate redevelopment agencies in order to fix a billion-dollar budget deficit, ultimately taking away Signal Hill’s main economicdevelopment tool, Farfsing said.

Though retail sales have grown substantially in Signal Hill over the decades, the City’s reliance on such revenue has made the City vulnerable to economic downturn. The goal now, according to Farfsing, is to create a “diverse” tax-revenue base.

“The City has to work hard to really diversify its revenue base,” Farfsing said. “We try to do that without passing new taxes on to the residents and businesses that live here. So part of the economic development strategy is to bring in new businesses that generate revenue.”

Aleshire pointed out that Signal Hill is an example of how a City can be transformed by never giving up on a vision for prosperity.

“To have a community that has a vision and sticks with that vision is really a great thing,” he said. “It shows what local government can do for its citizens.”

JUNE 20, 2014

DEVELOPED AND REDEVELOPED

Movin’ on up

Sean Belk Staff Writer

For nearly a generation, oil production was the mainstay in Signal Hill.

But, when oil extraction and the tax revenue associated with it started drying up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the City took efforts to recapture a past vision for hilltop homes and a thriving business district.

Long before Signal Hill became famous for the discovery of oil in 1921, the hill was best known for its sweeping views of the Southland.

According to historians, Native Americans used the hill’s 365-foot height to signal to other tribes on Santa Catalina Island and elsewhere. Spanish settlers were the first to give the hill its name, “Loma Sental,” which translates to “Signal Hill.”

Others believe that early smugglers used the hill as a natural lookout.

The hill’s first owner of record was Don Manuel Nieto, who acquired the land in 1784 as part of a 300,000-acre grant from King Carlos III of Spain. Nieto later split the acreage into six cattle and horse ranches, two of which covered Signal Hill: Rancho Los Alamitos and Rancho Los Cerritos. In the 1800s, members of the Bixby family purchased the land to raise sheep.

At the turn of the 20th century, a few mansions had taken root on the hilltop.

G. W. Hughes, president of the Signal Hill Improvement Co., saw value in building luxurious homes, given the hill’s panoramic view of the Los Angeles basin.

Lewis Denni, who founded a cheese factory, purchased a home from Hughes that was built in 1915.

Hughes described Signal Hill in a brochure as “the most beautiful home site in Southern California,” depicting the hill as a place “swept by alternating breezes from both the ocean and the mountains, where peace, plenty and prosperity reign undisturbed, and nature is always at her best.”

But, when oil was discovered in 1921, the plan for hillside dwellings came to a halt.

The oil boom made property owners rich. Andres Pala, who owned a three-story pink mansion on the hill, leased his property to an oil company. It was estimated that the value of his property jumped from $15,000 to $150,000 after oil was discovered. The Denni property was torn down and sold for a 50-percent royalty. Oil operations also pushed residents out of their homes as oil and rocks rained down onto properties.

Signal Hill incorporated as a city in 1924 (with a population of just about 1,800 residents) as a way for property owners to avoid a higher per-barrel tax on oil proposed by Long Beach, which had plans to annex the land.

However, many decades later, as oil production began to diminish, a new era began.

In the early 1970s, a Shell Oil Company representative brought up the prospect of forming a redevelopment agency, which would allow the City to bond against development projects with the chance to clean up oilcontaminated land and boost property-tax revenue. The City would be able to use a portion of the increase in property taxes to then provide developers with incentives to fund more projects.

Keaton King, a longtime Signal Hill resident who was born the same year the City incorporated and served on the Council for two terms, recalls those early discussions about forming the redevelopment agency.

“[The Shell Oil representative] talked to me and said, ‘You got to get this thing because the tax [revenue] from oil is going to end pretty quickly,’” King said.

“He said, ‘if you get this tax, you automatically get a lot of money from the redevelopment agency.’ So I said, ‘fine.’”

With Signal Hill being a “no/low property tax” city (only receiving .6 percent of property-tax revenue), the thought was that redevelopment would be a boon for the City.

King and a few other councilmembers pushed for the City to form a redevelopment agency, but not everyone on the Council was on board. The idea of having the City condemn run-down properties through eminent domain to build tax revenue-generating development wasn’t appealing to some councilmembers and property owners, he said.

“The redevelopment agency kind of had a bad name,” King said.

After a turnover on the Council and two years of debate, the Council, in 1974, voted unanimously to form the Signal Hill Redevelopment Agency (RDA) under the condition that homes couldn’t be condemned. One councilmember, Bill Mendenhall, originally voted no but eventually changed his vote after the Council got the three votes required for approval, King said.

The first check the City received from redevelopment was $76,000, and the City’s full share of extra property-tax income at the time was about $200,000 a year, King recalls.

“We had a lot of new development going on in those days,” King said. “Of course, as soon as we got the money and started cleaning up the property, we got a lot more income. We never got that kind of money from the oil tax.”

Since then, the City’s redevelopment agency has spent a total of $17 million in acquiring properties and $15 million in environmental cleanups, according to city records.

With incentives from redevelopment funds, developers began building residential homes on the hill again as the City’s population continued to grow.

In the 1980s, however, some residents, including Councilmember Michael Noll, fought a plan for high-density condominiums that didn’t include any parks or trails.

“They were building condos everywhere,” said Noll, who has been on the Council for 28 years. “It was high-density without the parks, and I thought, ‘This is a diamond in the rough. If I don’t get involved and work on making it better, then I have myself to blame.’”

The development proposal was eventually changed with a lower-density residential community integrated with nearby parks and trails for the public to enjoy.

Redevelopment also grew the City’s sales-tax revenue by attracting larger retailers, such as Home Depot, to town.

The first major effort was drawing Price Club (now Costco) to a shopping center at Willow Street and Cherry Avenue that was formerly an industrial area.

At the same time, oil companies had developed new technologies through a water-injection system to consolidate operations and shrink their oil-well footprint.

Signal Hill Petroleum, which acquired most of the oil holdings and property on the hill, began working with the City and the RDA through a partnership to build more retail shopping centers and residential developments during the last three decades.

SIGNAL TRIBUNE

9

Courtesy City of SH

A 2002 photo shows construction of new homes on the hilltop. A plan to build luxurious hillside homes was halted during the 1920s after the discovery of oil, however houses eventually returned after oil production subsided in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

This partnership made it possible for much of the commercial development that exists in the city today, including the Signal Hill Auto Center, Town Center East and the Signal Hill Gateway Center, and many others.

Redevelopment has enabled the City to acquire and clean up land that otherwise would have remained empty since much of the property was owned by individual shareholders from the oil-speculating days. Also, much of the former oil land is assessed at a low or even negative Courtesy City of SH value because of the requirements for cleaning up oil wells that can cost any- New hillside homes near Stanley Avenue are pictured in this photo taken in 2002. where from $120,000 to $800,000 for Before becoming famous for the discovery of oil in the early 1920s, Signal Hill was each well. best known for its sweeping, panoramic views of the Southland.

“If it hadn’t been for redevelopment, we’d still be looking almost like we did back then, with metal buildings and a lot of storage yards,” Noll said. “We wouldn’t have all those developments because we would run into old oil pipes and wells that hadn’t been abandoned. It was just a mess. Our early forefathers really helped to spur it on with redevelopment, and we played within the rules.”

Since the State abolished redevelopment nearly three years ago to fix a budget deficit, the City of Signal Hill is Courtesy SHHS now working to dismantle the agency’s The top half of a two-story home is being relocated into a new historic district in Signal Hill. The home was previously located on Long Beach’s ocean edge and was moved to make way for a high-rise condominium project. assets.

As the Successor Agency to the former Signal Hill RDA, for sale. It’s still very (below) A historic two-story home (back center) on the City, which now has a population of valuable but it’s going to Burnett Street in Crescent Heights still exists today, more than 11,000 residents, hopes to take someone who has however the homes above it (back right) and the homes eventually sell four city blocks of some knowledge on oil (front center) on Creston Avenue were lost after being vacant land along Spring Street because there are still a pushed out by oil production. between Atlantic and California lot of active oil avenues to Signal Hill Petroleum, wells on it … which owns the mineral rights to the there’s a lot property. The City plans for the devel- going on, but we opment to include a hotel, office build- have to look at ings and retail establishments on the new ways for land near Memorial Hospital. How- developing propever, without redevelopment incentives erty because we to pay for oil-well cleanups, the process don’t have redefor moving the project forward will velopment to do it.” likely be slow, Noll said.

“We’re moving along, not as quickly as we’d like to, but there’s progress being made,” Noll said. “As soon as Courtesy SHHS [the State] releases that property, we can put it up

Courtesy SHHS

Courtesy SHHS Andres Pala estimated that the value of his pink, three-story mansion (left) near the crest of the hill jumped from $15,000 to $150,000 after oil was discovered in 1921. A home (right) owned by Lewis Denni next door was A home purchased by Lewis Denni, the founder of a cheese factory, was built on the hill in 1915. torn down and sold for a 50-percent royalty. An oil company later purchased the Pala mansion, and it served However, the home was eventually pushed out by oil operations. The site is where the current Promontory Homes exist today. as an office for several years.

10 SIGNAL TRIBUNE THE CITY OF SIGNAL HILL’S 90TH ANNIVERSARY

Happy Birthday, Signal Hill!

JUNE 20, 2014

Congratulations on your 90th anniversary, from the Strichart/Grommé family. We love our city!

Neena Strichart

• Publisher— Signal Tribune

Steve Strichart

• Associate Publisher— Signal Tribune • Signal Hill Civil Service Commissioner

Marjorie (Posner) Grommé

• Treasurer—City of Signal Hill, 1975

SpECial SECtion puBliSHEr/Editor-in-CHiEF

neena r. Strichart aSSoCiatE puBliSHEr

Stephen M. Strichart ManaGinG Editor

Cory Bilicko produCtion ManaGEr/GrapHiC artiSt

leighanna nierle StaFF WritErS

Sean Belk CJ dablo ashley Fowler ContriButinG WritErS

nick diamantides Stephanie raygoza Joseph Serna advErtiSinG ConSultantS

Jane Fallon neena Strichart adMiniStrativE aSSiStant

tanya paz Special thanks to Ken Davis for providing historic photos

939 E. 27tH St. SiGnal Hill, Ca 90755 (562) 595-7900 WWW.SiGnaltriBunE.CoM nEWSpapEr@SiGnaltriBunE.CoM

JUNE 20, 2014

larGEr tHan liFE

BOXING-BINGO BARON

SIGNAL TRIBUNE

11

Ashley Fowler Staff Writer

Signal Hill has produced a number of colorful characters over the years. Among them, the memory of the multifaceted “Kid Mexico” lives on.

Tod “Kid Mexico” Faulkner was born on Nov. 22, 1900 in Hope, New Mexico. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Taft, California, near Bakersfield.

As a child, Faulkner was already a boxing enthusiast and by 14, he was the state’s bantam-weight champ. He became welter-weight champ at 17 and by 25 held the middle-weight title.

File photo One night in the ring an announcer flubbed “the kid from New Postcard advertising Faulkner’s “Miracle Block” on 23rd Street Mexico,” launching the snappy moniker “Kid Mexico.” Promoters and Orange Avenue gobbled up the name and accompanying persona. It was one to be remembered.

Out of 387 fights, Faulkner lost only 11. Bert Colima, a well-known fighter from Whittier, beat him three of those times. The rivals boxed before sellout crowds in 1921, 1922 and 1925.

After the last defeat, the Los Angeles Times called him “poor old Kid Mexico.”

But he didn’t stop. He wouldn’t retire from the ring until 1936, when he decided to become a fight promoter. During that time, there were various disputes with the boxing commission over his organizing fights without a license. He continued promoting into the 1940s.

In 1932, he met his future wife Edna at the Majestic Ballroom, located at the Pike amusement area in downtown Long Beach. She was just 16 years old at the time– half his age. Within a year they were married.

Faulkner worked in the oil fields after that, until he decided he could make more money in the entertainment business.

He opened up a café, a bar, a bowling alley, a taxi-dancing hall and a bingo parlor.

On Sunday nights, he would call the glitziest of his star-studded little black book to entertain Signal Hill residents as they patronized his joints.

“His personality certainly warranted hanging out with celebrities,” former neighbor Raymond Tropeano said. “He was that kind of guy. He wanted to always be in the thick of things, and I think that was just the way he was.”

Faulkner lived across the street from his entertainment emporium at 23rd Street and Orange Avenue in the 14-room house he’d built for his wife. They had two sons, Tod Jr. and Harley. His home was filled with pictures and memorabilia from his boxing heyday– photos of him with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in front of his Signal Hill home, for example.

“He had all kinds of really neat stuff that, as a kid, we used to love to mess around on– old slot machines and jukeboxes,” Tropeano said. “We also loved looking at his old pictures of him with his celebrity buddies.”

Faulkner knew everyone. He had friends in Hollywood, in City Hall and lawenforcement.

He campaigned vigorously for his favorite officials; he was even reported to mow a woman’s lawn to convince her to support his candidate.

He made a substantial amount of money during that time. Operating outside of the law, according to some, Faulkner brought the people of Signal Hill the entertainment they were craving.

“There was a lot of underground stuff that he was involved with. I remember the slot machines in his house, which were illegal at the time, and I remember that so distinctly,” Tropeano said. “He even had his own ‘Kid Mexico’ casino tokens. There were certainly things he was doing that weren’t quite so legal.”

Despite his shady dealings, or perhaps because of them, Faulkner was generous to folks in his community “At Christmas time his most local charitable activity was a party for the kids of Signal Hill,” longtime Signal Hill resident Marjorie Grommé remembered. “He collected loads of gifts throughout the years, including bicycles, dolls, games– just anyLions Lighthouse for Sight thing that would appeal to kids.”

Shoreline Village, Long Beach For 38 years, from 1941 to 1979, his Christmas parties brought joy to the area’s children. He would give away more than 10,000 toys every year. Celebrities like Hopalong Cassidy and Jack Dempsey helped him officiate his big giveaway.

“You felt really comfortable with the guy,” Tropeano said. “He was very warm and welcoming and generous. He was nice to every kid.”

The press also came in droves. They would follow his goings-on, run-ins with lawenforcement, or his large charitable donations.

In 1951, he was accused of registering voters who didn’t live in Signal Hill to defeat an anti-gambling initiative that would put an end to his bingo parlor. He pled guilty to the charges, was fined $500 and given three years’ probation. The initiative passed and, without the gambling, his business quickly dried up.

Faulkner and his wife then moved to Laguna Beach in 1952, just three years before she died of cancer in their living room. She was 36.

Faulkner married again, shortly thereafter. But in 1970, he moved back to Signal Hill and opened a “Kid Mexico” museum in his home on Cerritos Avenue, charging locals $2 to view his collection of photos and memorabilia. Among the artifacts displayed hung a painting by silentfilm star William S. Hart and a chair that had belonged to Western-film actor Tom Mix. In 1979, a reporter from the Press-Telegram attended Faulkner’s final Christmas party.

He was asked how he spent his time, and he answered, “I think of women during the day, eat out most of the time, and go dancing at night.”

Faulkner was 85 and living in Hemet when he died from a heart attack. His obituary in the local newspaper in 1985 read, “According to whom you chose to believe, he was a hero or a bum. A colorful character or a shady figure.”

The people of Signal Hill who still remember him, mostly children who grew up receiving his Christmas gifts, say he was warm and generous, and his larger-thanlife personality is etched into some of their favorite childhood memories. They remember him best as the life of the party.

1967 photo of Faulkner’s Christmas-party toy giveaways

File photo

e downtown lions Club of long Beach (Serving the long Beach area Since 1921) Congratulates the City of Signal Hill on its 90th anniversary!

Our Motto: "We Serve" Our Mission • to Give Sight • to Serve youth • to address Community needs

Our Activities

• providing Eye Exams & Glasses • offering diabetes testing • providing Hearing testing & Hearing aids • Supporting Boys & Girls Clubs • Serving Holiday Meals to the Hungry • Beautifying Schools & parks • Funding & Working on Habitat Builds • Supporting ronald Mcdonald House ...and much more

let's revive lionism in Signal Hill!

Information from this story was provided by the Historical Society of Long Beach, based on a script used during the organization’s annual cemetery tour.

File photo

Tod “Kid Mexico” Faulkner flanked by stars Bob Hope and Bing Crosby

For information: kpow@charter.net/562-433-7271

12 SIGNAL TRIBUNE

PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORIES

File photo

Dedication of Signal Hill Elementary School on Walnut Avenue

tHat WaS tHEn

tHiS iS noW

File photo

Photo from Feb. 12, 1974 showing southeast corner of 19th Street and Stanley Avenue

File photo

Photo from April of 1974, looking south on Cherry Avenue from Hill Street

File photo

Signal Hill Grammar School, 2285 Walnut Ave., opened in September of 1926.

Signal Hill Elementary School

JUNE 20, 2014

JUNE 20, 2014

PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORIES

tHat WaS tHEn

SIGNAL TRIBUNE

tHiS iS noW

File photo

Vintage photo of building named Brayton Block at the northwest corner of Orange Avenue and Burnett Street, one block west of Brayton Avenue

File photo

1964 photo showing empty field located on Pacific Coast Highway between Obispo and Redondo Avenues

File photo

Photo from May 8, 1922 looking south on Cherry Avenue at Hill Street

Recent photos by Cory Bilicko/Signal Tribune

13

14 SIGNAL TRIBUNE

TRANSFORMING AN ‘OLD-TIMER’ OIL TOWN

a ‘rivEtinG’ liFE Story

Cory Bilicko

R

Managing Editor

edevelopment has not only helped Signal Hill grow through residential development and increased the city’s population, it has also substantially boosted sales-tax revenue through construction of major retail centers that are now anchored by Costco, Home Depot and numerous car dealerships. Without redevelopment, the small city on the hill might have remained a ghost town of oil derricks.

Marjorie Grommé was there at the beginning, as city treasurer, when Signal Hill received its first redevelopment check in 1975.

Born Marjorie England, she grew up on an Ohio farm with two brothers and two sisters.

Having been a “Rosie the Riveter” during World War II, she was subsequently employed by Westinghouse and, in 1946, traveled to Arizona, where she worked on B-29 and B-47 modifications.

In 1955, she and her husband, Al Posner, moved to California and settled in Signal Hill. They moved to 1996 Dawson Ave. on April 1, 1955, just in time for their daughter Neena to be born the following month. (Neena is now the publisher of the Signal Tribune.)

Not only has Grommé been active in city government and community activities, she was living in Signal Hill during a number of significant events, such as a plane crash in the city and the Hancock Oil Fire, both in the late 1950s.

Grommé has also been active in the Daughers of the American Revolution since 1965. In 1970, she and Posner helped establish an American-Indian Day in Signal Hill.

They also founded the AmericanIndian Volunteers, a nonprofit that worked with local native-American groups, as well as Navajo and Hopi families in Arizona. In 1994, she was selected as Signal Hill Outstanding Older American. To this day, she can be seen at numerous Signal Hill functions, where various City staff, including Council members and mayors, greet her with hugs, kisses and royal treatment.

Grommé spent an hour with the Signal Tribune for an interview about her time as city treasurer, the resistance to redevelopment in its early days, the Hancock oil fire and what she thinks makes Signal Hill an interesting place.

Alfred Posner and Marjorie Grommé attending a party at the Santa Rita Hotel in Tuscon, Arizona, before they were married

Tell me about when you became Signal Hill’s city treasurer.

I became city treasurer when Neena’s father, Al Posner, died. He was in his second four-year term as the elected treasurer, and somebody suggested to me that I apply. So I picked up the phone, and I called Bill Mendenhall, who was on the Council and was influential.

He said, “Well, why not?” So, he took it to

JUNE 20, 2014

the other council members, and I got the call and [they] said, “Come in.

We’d like to talk to you.” And I was appointed. Just as simple as that.

You mentioned in your book that there was an application process you had to go through.

Yes.

Tell me about that.

I don’t remember details. I really do not. They made it very pleasant for me.

How long was it after Al passed that you applied for the position?

Very shortly. Very shortly after.

And why did you apply for the position?

Well, I guess because it was suggested to me that I might qualify. I had just retired from Los Angeles County... working in the Department of Public Social Services, known as DPSS, and I wasn’t ready to quit working. The recompense– is that the proper word?– was very little, but that had nothing to do with it. I was very proud to be accepted and to be working with the Council and the City and the treasurer’s department, which was very well staffed and taken care of.

How long did you hold the position?

Well, to this day, I’m somewhat embarrassed, but I had good cause. I held the position for a couple of years, and I don’t remember precisely [how long], because I remarried. And I married a man [who had been] a long-time friend. He and his deceased wife and I and Al Posner had been good friends and had done a number of things together as couples. [After his wife’s passing], he was lonely, up in Yucca Valley, where they had only lived a short time, and so he was coming back to Signal Hill to participate with some activities that he had been a part of down here. And so we did some things together, and went to a couple of my family’s activities, and he was made so welcome, we just gradually became a couple. It was just a nice thing to do, and we liked each other. As it happened, although he seemed in good shape at the time we married, it soon came out that he had cancer, and it was far advanced, and he didn’t survive. So, we had 15

Photos courtesy Marjorie Grommé

Marjorie Grommé in 1975 with the City of Signal Hill’s first redevelopment check, which was worth $2,477,627.98 months together married. We enjoyed the companionship. When he got sick, I had no choice but to resign.

In your book you say that some of the “old-timers” were against redevelopment. Why did they put up such a resistance to it?

They didn’t understand what it was all about. Whether I was sitting up at the front or sitting in the audience, I attended Council meetings. Period.

And the big story was they said, near as I can quote, “We want our money to stay in Signal Hill.” They didn’t want anybody else, outside, telling them how to spend their money.

And that was exactly the thing.

Did they eventually come around and change their point of view about it?

It was just a few people, and they were outnumbered when it came to the vote.

Where were you and your family, and what were you doing, during the Hancock Oil Fire in 1958?

We were at 1918 Raymond. I don’t remember the hour, but I remember having heard some noises that were not correct, and, because we were on the southwest side of the hill, and the fire was on the north side of the hill, it wasn’t really until the flames– the smoke started coming up that we could see from in front of our house.

And of course that was frightening because we had no idea what it was at that time. So we didn’t know whether we were going to have to evacuate or what. In the meantime, it was, I believe, the latter part of the work week, and we were getting ready to leave that Friday night for a weekend trip to Tucson, Arizona, and we didn’t know whether we were going to have to cancel our trip or not, because [we wondered,] “Were our houses going to be caught on fire? Might it be coming over the hill?” Of course, we soon found that it was being handled.

How did you find that out?

Well, I don’t recall. I know, of course, like everybody else, we had to drive over the hill to see where it was actually coming from, but we saw that there was nothing around at that time to catch fire that would make it spread over the hill. We were satisfied that it was okay for us to leave. But the devastation was pretty bad.

Very frightening for those that were having to work with it, because, how long was an oil fire going to take to extinguish?

Tell me about the plane crash you heard shortly after moving into the Raymond Avenue house.

It was early morning, about the time you think about getting up to go to work, and we heard this plane go over, and it was very, very low. I’d been around aircraft enough to be familiar with it. It sounded as though it was a small plane. As it turned out, it was. But it crash-landed across Cherry Avenue in what was then pretty much open area and used by the telephone company for some of their rig storage and so forth. I think there were some deaths involved.

What do you think makes Signal Hill an interesting city?

The location– the fact that back there in 1924, ‘25, that some of the residents had the foresight to make it into a city because the oil had been discovered on the hill. Otherwise, it would have eventually been swallowed up by Long Beach. And the citizens that lived there (in Signal Hill) had enough cohesion among themselves to keep it separate. That’s the way that I have gotten the story. And they had some people who had foresight. When Al and I moved there, the people were “old-timers.” There were a lot of the “old-timers” left, people that had lived there a long time. And I can’t rattle off names anymore. I can pick out a few if I stop and think about it.

But we liked the small-community part of it. We had lived in Tucson, Arizona, before coming to Long Beach-Signal Hill area, [where] Al, my husband, had been very active.

They used to accuse us of working for the chamber of commerce because I worked downtown, and my husband did too. Me, doing secretarial work, such as it was, got the ranchers and the big hotel owners together and started the Pima County Sheriffs Posse. So, I was already involved in doing civic things when we came to Signal Hill, and it just seemed the right thing to do– to get involved.

Rachael Rifkin helped Grommé write her memoir in 2009 and assisted with the research of this article. To read more about Grommé, go to lifestoriestoday.com/stories, and scroll down to find her book.

Do you remember how long it took to put it out?

No, I don’t.

Do you remember a certain smell in the air?

Oh, there was a certain amount of smell of oily substance.

However, the winds tend to come in that area, because of the hill, from the northwest, and kind of blew it away from our area.

Grommé now lives in Bixby Towers in Bixby Knolls.

GROWING UP IN SIGNAL HILL

JUNE 20, 2014

SIGNAL TRIBUNE

Memories of the publisher

15

by neena Strichart

Me (above) at the corner of 21st Street and Dawson Avenue in front of my first home

1967 photo of “Queen” Neena and Tod Faulkner hugging while Santa waves and “Princess” Charlene Hopkins stands in front next to the “king” and “prince”

Mom and me in our matching “squaw” dresses, sitting in the back yard of our home on Dawson Avenue (We moved to Raymond Avenue in 1965.)

Framed photo of my dad, Alfred E. Posner, along with his Signal Hill city treasurer badge and business card Signal Hill is my hometown, and most of my milestones took place in this little 2.2-square-mile city.

I learned to walk, talk, skate, bike and make friends here. I attended Signal Hill Elementary School from kindergarten through grade six. As an only child whose parents both worked, I relied on my classmates and the neighborhood kids to take on the role of surrogate siblings. I am still in touch with some of those kids and/or their families: Becky Silva Burleson, Desi Dold, Susie Gomm Manning, Brandt Authier, Eddie Sandsteadt, Keith Larsen, Kris Kemner-Cranton, Mike Eselen, Gary Wilson, Sandy Badgett and Ralph Sirignano, just to name a few. I find it quite heart-warming that so many of us still want to keep in contact and reminisce about our childhoods.

These are the young people who taught me to share, laugh and do some of the things of which my parents would not have approved– although I was usually the instigator. I never was much of one to fall for peer pressure.

I attended a little Baptist church near the corner of 20th and Cherry with neighbor girl Tina Wilson (her mother was later my junior-high Spanish teacher). Although I loved spending time with my friends, I was very independent and also enjoyed my alone time. After school or on weekends, I walked down to the corner to Surlow’s Market (later

named Jackpot) for gum, red licorice or comic books. It was a different time back then. Our parents didn’t worry about us biking or walking around the neighborhood.

From about age 8 to 10 on Saturday mornings, I often hiked up Pacific Coast Highway a few blocks to Lapin Brothers School of Beauty and had my hair done. Yep, for a quarter tip I could get my hair washed and curled. I also loved playing in Mom’s makeup. My dad said I was a glamour-puss, but I also did my share of playing basketball and catch with the neighborhood boys. My friend, and still neighbor, Becky and I often took the bus downtown Long Beach to go to a movie, shop at Sears or go to the Pike– don’t tell our parents! We also walked up to the Signal Hill Library on a regular basis to check out books from our librarian, Mrs. Brady, who, by the way, kept a strict eye on all of us kids. If she didn’t approve of a book we chose to borrow, she’d call our parents to get their permission. She was tough but fair, and we all loved and respected her.

Things changed when the neighborhood group of us entered junior high school. With no middle schools within city limits, we had to attend Jefferson Junior High in Long Beach. I felt disconnected from my city because the short bus ride I experienced going to elementary school had become a junior-high

Miss McGinn’s kindergarten class, June of 1961 (I am in the second row, far right and Keith Larsen is in the first row, second from left.)

ordeal. Most of the time my mom drove a carload of us to Jefferson, and we had to either walk home or take two busses to get back to our houses. Nevertheless, we all survived. When we completed junior high school, we Signal Hill kids transferred to the halls of Woodrow Wilson High School, also in Long Beach. It was even farther away than was our junior high school.

My family always enjoyed attending and participating in local activities. We loved going to Tod “Kid Mexico” Faulkner’s yearly Christmas party where he handed out toys to every child in attendance. One year I had the honor of serving as his “Princess of Signal Hill”– tiara and all! The next year I was crowned Queen, and my best friend Charlene Hopkins was the princess. We also never missed the annual Model-T Climb up Hill Street or the happenings at the oncea-year Fiesta de Oro Negro (later dubbed the Roughneck Roundup) that took place every summer at Signal Hill Park. I loved the games, music, raffles and watching the folks trying to scramble up the greased pole to grab the $100 bill at the top!

Our family’s involvement with the city of Signal Hill became more

pronounced when my father, Al Posner, ran for, and was elected city treasurer in early 1970. I was so proud to see him sitting in his seat at the council meetings. I guess that early exposure to politics has really stayed with me. I still attend most Signal Hill council meetings and get pretty pumped up on election nights! A year or so after being re-elected for a second term, my father, suffering from extreme depression, took his own life. A very short while later, the City decided to appoint my mother, Marjorie Posner (now Grommé) to fill out what was left of Daddy’s term. She loved her City Hall family, and at 94 years of age, she Photos from Neena Strichart’s personal collection still comes to council meet- Steve and me on our wedding day in 1990 ings when she can. They treat her royally to this day. and Steve has served as a city civil Decades later, I own the home I service commissioner for nearly 16 grew up in and just celebrated my years. We love our city and are proud 24th wedding anniversary with my and happy to be residents as well as wonderful spouse Steve. We were business owners. married in our driveway– the same I want to thank the City of Signal one where, as a child, I played tag, Hill for giving me such deep roots tetherball and basketball with my dad. and a sense of belonging as well as We have now owned the local news- purpose. Happy birthday, old girl– paper for a little more than 14 years, you look great for 90!

16 SIGNAL TRIBUNE

WHAT GOES UP...

FaSt-ForWard

JUNE 20, 2014

documenting the ‘birth of extreme sports’

About five years ago, co-directors Jon Carnoy and Mike Horelick set out on

a journey to bring light to a relatively unnoticed subject– a downhill skateboarding competition in Signal Hill that has been called “the first X Game.” Their mission led them to produce a Citysponsored documentary that debuted in 2013 and has been featured in several film festivals.

The near 90-minute film, narrated by singer and musician Ben Harper, chronicles the Signal Hill Speed Run, a downhill skateboarding competition that ran from 1975 to 1978. Today, skateboarding

idea where they came from… and this is it,” said John Hughes, who, in his early 20s, placed second in the speed run for riding a kneeboard in 1976. Hughes, who said he thought the film was “outrageous,” said he held back tears while watching the old footage.

Thrill-seeking skateboarders, brave enough to take on the more than 30-degree-angle slope of Hill Street in Signal Hill, broke world records, as the first to reach speeds Photo by Leo Hetzel of more than 50 miles per Guy “Grundy” Spagnoli speeds down the hill during the Signal Hill Speed Run in the 1970s. hour. Whether standing up, lying down or on hard to steer. Some racers wiped out in crews and Sports Illustrated. their knees, competitors, who wore dazGuy “Grundy” Spagnoli, who later injurious falls and near-death accidents, zling leather suits and helmets, barreled became a professional surfer, completed which caused the City to eventually stop down the hill for the fastest times. The the first attempt down the hill without the contest. hill, which the speed run’s founders any practice runs, clocking in at 50.2 “Basically, the accidents started described as a “roller-coaster,” was also miles an hour. One year later, Sam Puc- adding up, and the City of Signal Hill famous for the Model T Hill Climb in the cio Jr. rode down on his back on a home- decided in 1979…to not give out a per1920s. made skateboard, passing the finish line mit again for another speed run,” HoreDespite the danger, the City of Signal at 54 miles per hour. That skateboard lick said. “That was sort of the death of Hill permitted the skateboarding compe- would become the unofficial prototype the speed run there, but skateboard ractition that was first staged and promoted for what is used today in “street luge” ing still continues and did move on to

by Skateboard and Hang-Glider maga- races. other places.” zine publisher Jim O’Mahoney, now For some racers, injuries were lifeThe speedsters eventually started owner of the Santa Barbara Surf bombing down the hill in “skate cars”– changing. Tina Trefethen, a champion Museum. The run was started as part of metal, enclosed, aerodynamic skateboard hang-glider, was 21 years old in 1978 the Guinness World Records TV show, contraptions that required parachutes for when she crashed into a pole coming and the contest went on to become an stopping. down the hill at approximately 58 miles annual event with dozens of competitors, Some of the risk-takers, however, an hour. The major accident landed her drawing crowds of 5,000 people and ended up careening into the crowd and in the hospital after breaking her wrists receiving coverage by television news open traffic, since the skate cars were and several ribs, and she had to have a lung removed.

Watching the series of events unfold on the big screen was “very emotional,” she said in a phone interview. “It was pretty hard for me to watch some of that,” said Trefethen, who said she stays busy today fabricating and engineering ultralight airplanes and racecars. “It‘s very amazing I’m alive… I appreciate every day… I wonder, ‘What if that never would have happened to me?’”

Filmmakers Horelick and Carnoy first came across vintage skateboard photos of the run after purchasing a skateboard shop and the Tunnel Skateboard brand in 2005. Horelick, an author who graduated with a master’s degree in screenwriting from USC, and Carnoy, who has worked as director for the reality-TV series The Real World after graduating from New York University, then both approached the City of Signal Hill File photo and the Signal Hill Historical Society to Original participants and founders of the Signal Hill Speed Run, the world’s first downhill skateboard- be involved in the research and making of ing championship that lasted from 1975 to 1978, gather at the base of Hill Street, just hours before a the documentary. new documentary about the competition was to be screened at Cal State Long Beach in January 2013.

For years, that part of the city’s hisOriginal skateboarding members also signed their names and speed times on a nearby “No Skate- tory has gone relatively overlooked, boarding” sign. Pictured front row, from left, are: Roberto “Chuy” Madrigal, Guy “Grundy” Spagnoli, except for artwork in Cherry Park in Tommy Ryan, Bob Skoldberg and John Hughes. Pictured back row, from left, are: Henry Hester, Herb Long Beach and a tile mural in Discovery Well Park in Signal Hill that comSpitzer, Jim O’Mahoney (the founder of race), Jamie Hart and Cliff Coleman. memorate the skate cars.

Signal Hill City Manager Ken Farfsing said that an article in the L.A. Times written by Horelick in 2009 noted that the City had not properly honored the race. Farfsing said he wanted to make sure the City collaborated with the directors on the documentary. In 2010, the City’s redevelopment agency awarded the directors a contract to produce the film, and the rest was “history,” he said during the screening.

“They didn’t realize in the late 1970s that they were really giving birth to a brand-new sport,” said Farfsing, who added that “street luge,” although not yet an Olympic sport, was added to the X Games in 1995. He said the speed run is also considered the launching pad for downhill skateboarding and other extreme sports, such as big-wave riding and snowboarding. “You really are pioneers,” Farfsing said.

The documentary is the fourth film about Signal Hill’s history sponsored by the City. Other documentary films include: Signal Hill, a Diamond in the Rough (2006); History of the Hancock Refinery Fire (2008); and Successes of the Redevelopment Agency (2009).

anywhere in Signal Hill’s rolling streets is illegal, and only pedestrians use the hill’s steep incline for recreational activity.

After a world premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, about 300 people, including City officials and original skateboarders of the run, were able to watch the film for the first time during a private screening at the University Theatre at California State University, Long Beach on Jan. 26, 2013.

The documentary became even more meaningful to locals and the skateboarding community after Don “Waldo” Autry, a Long Beach native considered a skateboarding “legend” by friends and family, passed away just days before the debut event.

Although virtually unknown today, the contest, which attracted daredevils of all types, including women, achieved legendary status in its heyday and is credited with paving the way for extreme sports.

“To me, the skaters of today really have no

Photo by Chuck Saccio

Mike McCreary participating in the 1977 Signal Hill Speed Run

Chief of police Michael langston & the Signal Hill police department Command Staff congratulate the City on the occasion of the 90th anniversary.

Committed to Excellence in Service MiCHaEl S. lanGSton, CHiEF oF poliCE SiGnal Hill poliCE dEpartMEnt 2745 Walnut avEnuE, SiGnal Hill, Ca 90755 (562) 989-7205

*Based on a story written by Sean Belk and originally published in the Signal Tribune on Feb. 1, 2013

A NEW HOME FOR THOSE IN BLUE

JUNE 20, 2014

A

SIGNAL TRIBUNE

Station CrEation

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new headquarters for Signal Hill police department

new, 21,500-square-foot station, encompassing two buildings equipped with state-of-the-art technology and environmentally friendly design components became the new headquarters of the Signal Hill Police Department in January 2013. The City of Signal Hill marked the occasion with a dedication and open house on Saturday, Jan. 26 at the new station, located at 2745 Walnut Ave.

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he new station was part of the Signal Hill Civic Center Project, which also encompasses a new library. Initial planning for the new library began in 1998, and the planning of the new police station started in 2002. The projects involved multiple citizen committees, three rounds of applications for State grants, a failed local ballot measure to finance the improvements, and the active involvement of the Signal Hill Redevelopment Agency (SHRDA).

The planning for the two projects was eventually combined and coordinated, with the police station being the first phase since it was to be relocated away from the Civic Center complex. The new police station is located on property the SHRDA acquired approximately three-quarters of a mile from the Civic Center.

The relocation of the new police station created an opportunity to construct the new library on the site of the existing station, as well as preserving public open space. It also created a series of construction and environmental challenges, including soil remediation and the testing of an on-site abandoned oil well. The construction challenges include the removal of the full basement from the old police station, stabilization of the library building, and re-grading the northern portion of Signal Hill Park.

ccording to the City’s Civic Center Project Plan, the need for both a new police station and library had become evident in the late 1990s. The city’s population had grown from 5,588 in 1970 to 9,300 in the year 2000. The current population of Signal Hill is more than 11,000 residents.

A Citizens Blue-Ribbon Committee studied the existing station in 2002 and recommended its demolition and replacement.

In November of 2009, the SHRDA issued a $20.6 million bond to build the new station. In March of 2011, the SHRDA issued an $8.8 million bond to construct a new library.

Construction on the new police station, which occupies a block starting at the corner of 27th Street and Walnut Avenue, began in November of 2010.

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he new station boasts solar panels that provide shade for the department’s patrol cars and the mobile command center.

Windows have been designed to let in natural light throughout the building, and the automatic lighting system adjusts its electrical lights to maximize use of natural light.

A drip-irrigation system provides water to the drought-tolerant plants that have been placed all over the grounds. Water runoff on the property streams through vegetative bioswales that filter waste in the water before it drains into the street.

The building has instant water heaters instead of water boilers. Each room will have its own energyefficient air-conditioning system.

opportunity for the community

When the new Signal Hill police station was finished in early

2013, it had been nearly 10 years since Signal Hill city officials had first proposed the idea of building a new one. Throughout that time, a wide variety of community members, from residents to business owners, to City and police officials, had been involved almost every step of the way.

In August 2004, a Signal Hill Police Department Blue-Ribbon Committee was appointed by the City Council to evaluate the police department’s staffing and facility needs after an assessment commissioned by WMM and Associates two years prior determined that the department had “outgrown” its police station.

The 22-member committee met over an 11-month period through various meetings to evaluate needs identified by then Police Chief Don Pedersen. Those needs included whether to add six police officers to the department’s police force to meet increasing demands of a growing community and whether to upgrade the police station.

The committee ultimately recommended adding the new police officers after determining that the department was “understaffed.” The committee also recommended building a new police facility after concluding that the station on Hill Street was “old, undersized and inefficient,” according to a report from the committee.

A major responsibility of the committee, however, was to come to a “consensus” on a way to finance the new police station. After looking over several different fee options, the committee ended up recommending a three-percent utility tax to fund the construction of the new building. The City Council scheduled a vote on the utility tax measure, known as Meas-

ure H, for the November 8, 2005 election. However, Signal Hill voters overwhelmingly rejected the tax measure.

After regrouping, City staff determined that the best option to finance the police facility, in addition to a new library, would be to issue bonds through the former Signal Hill Redevelopment Agency (SHRDA).

The original Civic Center Concept Plan included constructing the new police station on Spud Field, which received considerable input from the community. After a series of community workshops, it was then determined that the most suitable location would be a four-acre site located on Walnut Avenue.

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n January of 2013, nearly two years after the original contractor had first broken ground on the project, the Signal Hill Police Department relocated to a new 21,500-squarefoot, modern facility.

Although the committee’s recommendation for a utility-tax measure was ultimately voted down, Rose Richard, a Signal Hill planning commissioner and former longtime police volunteer who served on the committee, said the community was heavily involved throughout the process. She said the project was an example of the community coming together to work on a common cause.

“The committee was comprised of a really good cross section of Signal Hill residents, business people, City officials and police personnel,” Richard said. “It was a roundtable of ideas, and nobody’s ideas were dismissed. They were all discussed in an open forum, and everybody had an opportunity to voice their opinions… believe it or not, it was reasonably diplomatic.”

Former Signal Hill Mayor Keaton King, who also served as a committee member, said one of the main reasons for recommending a

new police facility was that the old building wasn’t fit to handle the police department’s new equipment.

He said the new station is now “first class” and capable of operating such up-to-date technology.

Signal Hill Parks & Recreation Commissioner Gary Dudley, who

Photo by Matt Sun

The 21,500-square-foot station encompasses two buildings equipped with state-of-the-art technology and environmentally friendly design components.

served on the committee as well, said he was looking forward to touring the new building and that he was pleased the City settled on a “good location” of which police can get in and out. “It looks like a beautiful facility, and it’s right on the cutting edge,” he said. “It’s very efficient as

far as the environment is concerned and for the size of our police department and any prisoners we might have… it’s a very forward and modern concept.”

* Based on a story originally written by Sean Belk and published in a special issue of the Signal Tribune in January 2013

18 SIGNAL TRIBUNE

SIGHTS & SOUNDS OF THE CITY

SEalS of approval City staff presented a visual history of Signal Hill’s seals during a city council meeting on Jan. 4, 2011. The seals date as far back as 1924. Unfortunately, many of the names of the original artists who designed the seals have been lost. City staff announced that they hoped to use these historical images on tiles displayed in city facilities. Then Vice Mayor Larry Forester noted that each design manages to depict Signal Hill’s history of co-existence with oil.

JUNE 20, 2014

a HyMn for the Hill

John Malcolm Penn has several memories of “the Hills,” as he likes to refer to the city where he spent his childhood. He’s written about numerous landmarks in Los Angeles County, however the nature of Signal Hill always intrigued him as a kid. He remembers taking rides on his bike, trying to survive the trip downhill, and in later years would find solace in playing his guitar atop the hill.

In the ‘80s, Penn decided to collect these memories and incorporate them into a song about the city, but the original version sat for a long time before being rewritten in 2009. Lyrics were changed, and so was the melody, giving the song its proper place in a compilation album about Los Angeles County.

Through the help of his longtime pal Tim Grobaty, the City of Signal Hill got wind of the song through Penn’s blog and emblazoned it in a plaque, and it now lies in the City’s council chamber.

“I thought, the…hill is a Signal Hill landmark, and I got this great, old 1954 photograph that my dad took of the landmark back when it was very different-looking then,” Penn said. “We used to take cars up there in the dirt and hit those roads at amazing speeds. So, with that it mind, I rewrote it two summers ago.”

Penn’s song is a way of reliving the discovery of oil and Signal Hill’s oil boom. With lyrics that read, “Many feet it rises, three hundred sixty-five and see the land for miles around when the oil men arrived,” the song has historical significance, as no other song of its kind exists. In writing the song, Penn made sure to include educational history much like his other history-minded works.

“Most of the songs I’d written had been about something anyway, so I figured that’s a strength, and I would just write about these historical places,” Penn said. “They’re really fun to write up.”

The song will be a part of the County of Angels album, which is a 14-song compilation. It includes songs about the discovery of oil in 1923 and about Liberty Hill in San Pedro, among other places.

Penn’s grandfather, who moved to Signal Hill in 1917, worked under Guy F. Atkinson, a contractor. Penn’s father worked for Shell Oil at the Dominguez Plant. He’s saved old photos with his grandpa with oil barracks in the background, and he said it was pretty easy to write about the city because it’s a part of his life.

“When my grandfather retired, he “Signal Hill” returned. He would go down and help and tear down barracks because he said, (Chorus) Signal Hill, Signal Hill ‘Well, I helped put them up, and I’m Black gold we’re gonna drill going to help tear them down,’” Penn said. “That stuck with me.” long before the white man, Penn’s previous albums include Folk long before the drill Songs of The Coachella Valley, Southindians sent smoke signals up ern California Mines: State Historical on Signal Hill Landmarks, Songs of the Landmarks: up on Signal Hill Imperial County and several others.

Many feet it rises, Most of his gigs are played in country three hundred sixty-five clubs around La Quinta, where he lives. and see the land for miles around “I’m going to keep moving along as when the oil men arrived I can,” Penn said. “It was quite an e oil men arrived honor for them to do that plaque, and what they’ve done is kind of cool.”

But early wells were dusters, For more information, visit oil they had none mysite.verizon.net/res07i6x/index.html . till Frank Hayes was heard to say *Based on a story written by Stephanie Raygoza and published in the Signal Tribune on Aug. 26, 2011

in nineteen twenty-one nineteen twenty-one “ere’s oil in the soil” for Shell oil he begun to drill a little deeper, with Well number one alamitos number one on the 23rd of June, 9:30 in the night alamitos one erupted, it was an awesome sight What an awesome sight a hundred feet the oil rose to the California sky “i’m Signal Hill’s oil boom, to peaceful times good-bye” peaceful times good-bye e hill looked like a porcupine, three hundred wells or more Quarter million barrels a day, by nineteen twenty-four nineteen twenty-four ough now the hill is going dry, it had a mighty run Here’s to the men from Wilmington, and alamitos one alamitos number one Signal Hill, Signal Hill Black gold we’re gonna drill.

JUNE 20, 2014

HISTORY BOOK

paGES of the aGES

Oil is ubiquitous to the history of Signal Hill, but one book sets out to show that more pumps through the veins of the city’s history than just black gold.

“The oil history is interesting, but I think it’s how people lived around the oil that is interesting” said Ken Davis, who along with the Signal Hill Historical Society, put together the photo essay Signal Hill, released in Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series.

The 128-page book comprises hundreds of pictures of Signal Hill history, starting with a distinctive driverview photograph of a horse-drawn wagon approaching the city, which is a treeless mound on an otherwise flat horizon.

“I think it’s a good The 128-page book Signal Hill features hundreds of photos cross-section of our his- from the city’s history. tory”, said Davis, who is a Parks & Recreation commissioner and local realtor.

Through the historical society possesses a significant photographic history of Signal Hill, Davis said longtime residents also contributed with photos from their personal collections to show a wider history than the society could alone provide.

The book is divided into five chapters: Farms and Ranches, Early Oil Years, People and Events, Fires and Disasters, and Homes and Street Views.

The first chapter introduces the reader to Signal Hill before the omnipresent oil derricks, when farms and horse-drawn wagons were the only things checkering expansive acreage.

Inevitably, the formation years pictured in the book retell the “black gold rush” that quickly and dramatically changed the look and direction of Signal Hill, but the book also shows the unique arrangement of homes literally footsteps away from oil derricks.

Among the tragic episodes in Signal Hill history shown in the photo collection are photos of the US Air Force F-86 crash that destroyed four homes on the corner of 19th and Raymond Avenue. The crash took the lives of five people, including then Mayor Morris Shoup’s son “Spud” for whom a baseball field was later named.

The latter part of Ken Davis the book shows the progression of Signal Hill from an oil city to the Signal Hill of today– with fewer, discreetly placed derricks and pumpers.

Signal Hill’s residential and commercial success in recent decades has given Davis satisfaction. “I think we are fulfilling our destiny now” he said.

While Davis’s admitted passion for the history of Signal Hill was a catalyst for piecing together a one-stop photo history of the city, finding someone to publish the collection was something else. That is where Arcadia Publishing came in. With proceeds from the book going to the Signal Hill Historical Society, Arcadia Publishing added Signal Hill to their ongoing series of books chronicling American cities stretching from Main to California.

The book should also “punctuate,” as Davis put it, the city’s identity– something he thinks might be lacking when a number of residents think Signal Hill is a part of Long Beach. “It’s nice to be able to coalesce (the city identity),” Davis said. He hopes the book can help people learn how rich the city’s history is.

Signal Hill is available at area bookstores, independent retailers (including Costco), online retailers and through Arcadia Publishing at arcadiapublishing.com .

FREE

LESSON!

SIGNAL TRIBUNE

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20 SIGNAL TRIBUNE

SCULPTING HISTORY

GEttinG the BronZE

dedication ceremony involved a search committee of city residents, fielding proposals from several artists, and dis- cussion of the winning piece’s ultimate placement.

Cindy Jackson’s “Tribute to the Roughnecks” came out on top, and because of its photogenic design, found its home instead at Sunset View Park overlooking the city and the surrounding Long Photo by Joseph Serna Beach. “I feel very proud and Jerrel Barto, with his mother, 92, look on with the public at Cindy humbled,” Barto said at the dedication, which was hosted by the Jackson’s 1-ton statue, “Tribute to the Roughnecks.”

Signal Hill City Council. “If it weren’t for Bruce Kerr...for his faith and abilin the misty, gray backdrop of a Saturday ties in Shell’s interest, we wouldn’t be standing morning in late September 2006, one thing stood here today.” out among the scenery: a more than 6-foot-tall, 8feet-in-circumference statue of two Signal Hill oil arto’s and Kerr’s likenesses were men, immortalized in bronze. chosen by Signal Hill Petroleum, who were The men, Bruce Kerr, a Shell Oil Company allowed to choose the faces on the statues employee for more than 52 years, and Jerrel because they volunteered to fully fund the Barto, chairman of both Signal Hill Petroleum project, saving the City money. and Paramount Petroleum, are portrayed as Though the men’s likenesses were installing oil pipe, in the $120,000 piece of art, selected because of their significant contrilocated at Sunset View Park in Signal Hill. butions to the oil-rich history of Signal Hill, The statue dedication concluded an idea born their friendship is also commemorated in eight years prior by the Signal Hill City Council the statue, an unplanned, but added bonus to for a unique, public art piece to display at Discov- its meaning. ery Well Park. The three years leading up to the Barto and Kerr became close friends

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pEddlinG tHE MEtal

while doing business early in their careers, and remained so until Kerr’s death in 1989.

“On this statue, they will be friends forever, drilling oil,” said Dave Slater, executive vice president of Signal Hill Petroleum.

“We are very honored to see such two industry titans, and two great men, depicted on this monument.”

“This is going to bring great pride to the city,” artist Jackson told the crowd of more than 100 at the ceremony in 2006. “It’s just going to be a monument you are forever going to be proud of.”

Among those in attendance at Saturday’s dedication were Bartow’s and Kerr’s families, including Bartow’s 92-year-old mother, the Signal Hill City Council and administration including City Manager Ken Farfsing and then Community Services Director Kathy Sorenson and Long Beach 9th District Councilman Val Lerch.

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fter the ceremony, as the public meandered around, some taking pictures with the statue, Kerr’s son revealed an unplanned, but poignant coincidence about the dedication– it would have been Bruce Kerr’s birthday.

* Based on a story originally written by Joseph Serna and published in the Signal Tribune on Oct. 5, 2006

One local sculptor, Patrick Vogel, was so moved by the tragedy he felt he had to design and build a memorial to honor the victims and to help ensure that no one on the West Coast would ever forget the horrors of that terrible day. Originally, he wanted to put the monument up somewhere in Long Beach, but as it turned out, the memorial ended up in Signal Hill.

On Sept. 8, 2002, almost one year after the tragedy, the sculpture was unveiled in a dedication ceremony. A few days later, the Signal Tribune published an article about the event written

by Mark Eastman.

“Under blue skies of which ideas are conceived, the dream of an artist and a city of 10,000 people was made Patrick Vogel public Sunday in a colorful dedication,” Eastman wrote. “Local metal fabricator Patrick Vogel came before the Signal Hill City Council on July 2, determined that his ‘Unity Monument’ saluting the courage and heroism of the 9/11 tragedy should be built.”

Eastman noted that Long Beach’s lack of action led Vogel to seek a home for the monument in Signal Hill. Vogel elaborated. “I approached The Unity Monument by Patrick Vogel

sculpted monument adjacent to Signal Hill’s Discovery Well Park serves as a reminder of one of the most horrific events in America’s history.

In 2001, the unthinkable happened. The collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the two other plane crashes resulted in the loss of approximately 3,000 lives. The attacks cost the United States hundreds of millions of dollars, significantly reduced air travel and severely impacted the nation’s economy.

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In June of 2014, the Signal Tribune contacted artist Cindy Jackson and asked her to share what her inspiration was for “Tribute to the Roughnecks.”

“I wanted to kind of show the pride of the working man,” Jackson said. “I wanted him to feel heroic, and I wanted him to feel real. There was a call put out by the City to put a sculpture in that park there. Signal Hill being an oil community, I thought, ‘Oh this is the perfect place to show just how majestic the working man is.’ I wanted to do something about the working man, the person, and the particulars.”

Jackson said the sculpture is a tribute to the working man. “It’s doing what I want it to do– to call attention to the men that work, rather than the politics,” she said. “It’s about the humans behind everything, and how what really propels industrialization forward is just the common working man.

I think it’s a nice piece. I like to see people interact with it.”

the City of Long Beach, and they seemed very interested, but they didn’t have the money and they didn’t know where it would go,” he said. “I spoke to the owner of the World Trade Center [in downtown Long Beach,] but he was in the middle of a deal to sell it to (foreign) investors, and he didn’t want to sour the deal by having artifacts that would remind people of the attack.”

Sensing that doors were not opening in Long Beach, Vogel began talking with Signal Hill officials and made his formal request to the City Council in June 2002. “They were very excited because they understood the gravity of this and wanted to participate,” he said. “They found a place for it, I think within a week.”

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File photo

ogel designed the monument in 2001, about two months after the attack. “I started peddling the idea in late December of that year, but people were having a hard time visualizing what it would look like,” he said. “Then I built a one-to-twelve scale model, and that’s when people really got it.”

During its July 2, 2002 meeting, the Council unanimously agreed to have the monument installed near the intersection of Temple Avenue and Panorama and Skyline drives. At that meeting the Council enthusiastically told Vogel to proceed with his plan to raise funds for the project.

Three weeks later, the Signal Tribune reported that $80,000 had been raised. Eastman wrote: “According to project coordinator Ken Davis, major donors of late include Signal Hill Petroleum– $20,000; Comstock, Crosser & Associates– $20,000; Centex Homes– $15,000; Office of LA County Supervisor Don Knabe– $10,000; Universal Care– $5,000; and Signal Hill Disposal– $5,000.”

Eastman also reported that

by July 25, 2002, Vogel had purchased materials for the monument’s superstructure and had commenced work on its construction.

Several thousand dollars more was raised in the next few weeks and by late August the sculpture had been completed. The 12-foot statue combines five metals that are not normally welded to each

other: stainless steel, copper, brass, bronze and copper-nickel. Vogel said the five metals represent the racial, cultural and religious differences in the nation.

In another Eastman article, the artist explained what the sculpture’s form represents. “The shape is random in nature, which is parallel to the event,” Vogel said. “The events were random and premeditated, preplanned by individuals who carried out those plans.”

Vogel also told Eastman that he designed the project to symbolize the enormity of the 9/11 devastation.

“I want people to take note and have a little humility when they see it,” he said.

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ow, people still visit it, leaving an occasional bouquet of flowers in memory of the victims. Most visitors are Southern Californians, but some come from other parts of the state and from other states as well. Vogel, who undertakes public-art projects for several California cities, drives past it twice a day on his way to and from his Vogel Designs metal-fabrication shop, which is located in Signal Hill. He also takes the time to clean the statue at least once every six months.

The City of Signal Hill places a line of American flags in the area in front of the monument to commemorate 9/11. “We are very proud to have it in our city,” said City Councilmember Mike Noll. “It is amazing what this symbol means to so many people.”

Vogel noted that during this election year there has been a lot of bipartisan talk about making sure nothing like 9/11 ever happens again. “This sculpture just serves as a way of keeping the memory of that terrible day alive,” he said. “Hopefully, the Unity Monument will remind Americans of how fortunate we are to live in this country, how important it is to safeguard our liberties and to never forget the innocent victims of the tragedy.”

In June of 2014, the Signal Tribune contacted artist Patrick Vogel and asked him to explain his inspiration behind the Unity Monument.

“It’s a humanistic-looking figure, characterized as maybe a human in a real, abstract form,” Vogel said. “It’s made up of five different materials– those materials represent the different ethnicities we have as a society. I welded them together, making them one form...It grows on me the more I look at it.” * Based on a story originally written by Nick Diamantides and published in in the Signal Tribune in September of 2008

WHErE tHErE’S SMokE Jon Ciccetti

“Earth Upon Water,” by Jon Cicchetti, is located in Hilltop Park. “The inspiration was: the history of the hill; the tremendous, awe-inspiring views; as well as the concept of evolving one’s perspective through the passing of time,” Cicchetti said in June of 2014. “I feel it is just as relevant today.”

JUNE 20, 2014 CJ Dablo Staff Writer

SHELF-LIFE OF A CITY

SIGNAL TRIBUNE

a knaCk for StaCkS

Signal Hill City librarian Gail Ashbrooke had a lot of energy on a recent May afternoon as she fielded questions from a reporter about the city’s early history. She dug through the archives in search of antique newspapers, climbed up to a shelf to pull out a box of microfilm, and then, at one point in the afternoon, disappeared to proctor an exam for a home-schooled student. Ashbrooke and her staff of library aides and assistants are in charge of a collection of about 25,000 to 28,000 titles, including books, DVDs and other media. They work in a building that was built in 1931, the same structure that used to serve as the engine room for the city’s fire department.

City officials have considered construction for a new library since 1998, but the vision for a new building has to wait a little longer. In her interview with the Signal Tribune in May, the librarian was asked what she hoped to get out of a new facility, if one is ever built. Ashbrooke replied with one word– space.

“So if you go out to the main room right now, you’ll see there [are] a lot of people,” she said, “but we’re all kind of cramped. We need some elbow room.”

She pointed to dozens of books on the floor in a back room that may be weeded out from their collection due to lack of space. They aren’t checked out that often.

Right now, the library is about 4,234 square feet. One possible plan for the library that was presented to residents in 2012 offered nearly 12,000 square feet in space.

The present-day building isn’t the first home for Signal Hill’s library. As the City’s collection of titles grew, library facilities had to move a couple of times before settling into the present location next to the old police station.

Since the Signal Hill Police Department moved to its new building on Walnut Avenue in January of 2013, the library now sits next to an abandoned facility that doesn’t seem to have usable space for a book and media collection, according to City Manager Ken Farfsing. In an interview in May, he described how the old police station can’t easily be repurposed to house an expanded library since the station was originally designed for a different use. The former police station has, among other facilities, a jail.

It’s been more than 15 years since city leaders have talked about how to build a new library, but the plans have hit a number of roadblocks.

Farfsing explained that the City of Signal Hill had issued bonds in early 2011 to raise money to build the library using the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) program. In that same year, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown announced his intention to end the RDA program throughout the state. Later, new legislation required that bonds issued after Dec. 31, 2010 should be defeased.

Bond-holders, in other words, had to be paid back. However, Farfsing explained that the bonds sold are taxexempt and city officials had expected to pay them off over 10 years. The city manager said that Signal Hill couldn’t defease the bond legally and those holding the bonds would have sued the City.

City officials have some hope to fix the problem. A new legislation is now under consideration by California lawmakers to amend some of the rules that affect the bonds for redevelopment projects like the Signal Hill Library.

One 2012 estimate of the library building projected that the cost of constructing a new one would total over $10.51 million. At the time of the report, the available funding sources for construction included $8.4 million in RDA bonds. If the legislation is fully approved, those proceeds from the RDA bonds could be available to build the library. There are additional funds available to supplement the amount available from the RDA bonds. The staff report from 2012 noted that, at the time, there was also about $1.8 million available in park-development funds and $316,500 in library-reserve funds.

The vision to build the library, however, is a controversial one. The plan that was presented to residents in 2012 drew scrutiny, particularly from a few who represented an organization called Signal Hill Community First. As the Signal Tribune reported at that time, members of the organization criticized the size of the multi-million-dollar construction plan during a time of budget concerns and asked whether the cost of maintaining the facility would also increase.

Community Services Director Pilar Alcivar-McCoy acknowledged in an interview with the Signal Tribune in May that the project is planned to be LEED-certified, a high standard for energy efficiency in buildings. She

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noted a report that estimated that the current cost of maintaining the library building’s utilities is about $2.93 per square foot and the plans for a LEED building projected that the cost of utilities is about $2.03 per square foot. She also described how the proposed library design allowed staff to be close to key areas for kids and teens who require more supervision than adults.

Alcivar-McCoy stressed the vital role that the library staff has to assist individuals with research. She also acknowledged that the needs of library patrons are changing in the electronic age.

“There is more to a library than just checking out a book,” the community-services director said, explaining that there are now possibilities for libraries to offer e-books.

“I think there is still a need for people who want to borFile photo row, but not have to pay, for a book– who want to read and still have access to all the materials that are avail- This photo, likely from the 1930s or ‘40s, shows librarian aide Jillian Hidalgo at the reception desk at the Signal Hill Library, which was, at that time, on the top floor of City Hall. able.”

File photo

Congressmember Craig Hosmer, Signal Hill Mayor Tom Denham, Councilmembers Bill Mendenhall, Gertrude Beebe and Paul Kemner, and librarian Kathleen Brady at the ribbon-cutting of the Signal Hill Library when it was moved to the lower floor of City Hall

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tHE City oF SiGnal Hill’S 90tH annivErSary BannEr SponSorS Black Bear Diner Hofman Hospitality Group Nova Graphic Services Downtown Long Beach Lions Club Farmers & Merchants Bank A & A Ready Mix Terry Rogers/Coldwell Banker Pics 4 My Party Councilmember Mike Noll Councilmember Lori Woods Asset Media Group Circle Pet West Coast Wing Chun Imperial Occidental Ken & Rita Farfsing Signal Hill Honorary Police Officer’s Assoc.

Kluger Architects Long Beach Airport EDCO Long Beach Heating & Air Bixby Knolls Car Wash Datsun Alley Signal-Innova Lopez General Engineering Aleshire & Wynder LLP Gary & Diane Weinberger Ocean Crest Credit Union Signal Hill Tattoo Hill Street Boxing Gym Tank One Productions Gary Dudley & Jane Fallon

Gerbino Flight Systems Tyler Management, Inc. Grayfox Oil Co. American Gymnastics Academy Prestige Too Collision Center Vice-Mayor Larry Forester e Nicotine Lady Signal Hill Chamber of Commerce Tom’s Tire Automotive Service Dynamic Glass/Dyana Dulin Bud’s Beach Cities Big E Pizza Fresh & Easy e Undershirt Enterprise Rent A Car Signal Hill Petroleum Peter Kong/State Farm Ins. Kashiwa Restaurant Boulevard Buick GMC Golden Eagle Restaurant Boulevard Cadillac Signal Hill Historical Society Lona’s City Limits Bill’s Top Shop Long Beach City College/College Promise Crissell & Associates Turner’s Outdoorsman Griff ’s Electric Mayor Edward H. J. Wilson e Wine Country Direct Buy Congressmember Alan Lowenthal

PRC Resoration Rossmoor Pastries Signal Hill Florist Baker Precision Chinese Combo Neo Oil Co. Courtyard Care Center Signal Tribune Newspaper City of Signal Hill Steve & Neena Strichart Century Calibrating Company Friends of Signal Hill Library Wille’s Tin Shop Mercedes-Benz Calvary Chapel of Signal Hill Judie Jacobus Food Finders Allegra Marketing Print Signs Pat Crosby & Ellen Ward Fantasy Castle Massingham & Associates L.A. County Fire Station #60 at Insurance Guy.com Mercedes-Benz of Long Beach Long Beach Honda Office Depot/Max New Horizon Home Loans Terry Rogers/Organo Gold MadKat, Inc. Shelter Clean Services, Inc. Accountable Health Care, IPA Delius Restaurant

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