Montclair

Montclair Plaza hits the big 4-0 today. Amazing, huh? The valley's very first indoor mall, now middle-aged. No wonder it's looking kind of tired.

But more on that later. First, let's reminisce about how the mall was born.

MONTCLAIR -- Ground was broken Thursday morning for a new police department building at Monte Vista Avenue and Arrow Highway that will be triple the size of the current police headquarters.

The 45,000-square-foot station is expected to meet the needs of Montclair for the next 50 years.

"The department outgrew the current facility and exceeded the capacity," said Capt. Keith Jones, who represented the department in the design and construction of the new building.

When the city initially looked into expanding the Police Department's headquarters, which was built in 1963, consideration was given to adding a second story.

But officials said they quickly realized a new facility was needed.

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_4414882

In addition to freeway projects, Measure I provides funds for major street improvements throughout the San Bernardino Valley. These funds are used for major rehabilitation, construction or reconstruction of main thoroughfares, also called arterial streets. A Measure I Arterial Program Five Year Plan is adopted each year to allocate funds for these streets.

A long long time ago in an IE that was a lot different than it is today, there were little places along the roadside that have since grown with popularity.

One little franchise that I remember starting out as a young woman selling tamales out the back of her station wagon. She had her kids do all of the stuffing and sold every weekend. Then we convinced her to start selling over the holidays. In time she had to buy a kitchen and hire more people to make her tamales. That is all she made. Tamales. Beef, Pork and Chicken tamales.