Mark Read/Pages From The Past
(Editor’s Note: The following are items of interest from the past taken from the pages of the Novato Advance.)
100 Years Ago
November 1920
— Five alleged violators of the game laws were taken into custody within the past few days by Game Warden Sellmer and are scheduled to appear before Justice of the Peace Herman Rudolff in Novato for trial. J. E. Adams, of San Anselmo, station at Ignacio, will have to answer for killing quail out of season. Peter Quaglino, San Francisco, is accused of the same offense. R. Tiejens, M. L. Goff and Joseph Gies, all of San Francisco, are alleged to have been shooting everything from a hummingbird to a swan.
— F.C. Butler is erecting a $10,000 house on a tract in the Novato Land Co.’s property. Pedeprade & Co., of Petaluma have the contract to plaster the residence. Brainerd Jones drew the plans for the residence.
75 Years Ago
November 1945
— A committee to be headed by Mrs. Helen Winckleman, was also appointed to arrange for the previously held out-door residential Christmas Tree contest, for best lighted and decorated tree, and for judging best decorated merchant Christmas window, with suitable prizes to be awarded.
— A communication from Greyhound lines, stated that the contract for the construction of the Novato bus shelter had been given to a contractor, and that lease with State Highway Division had been consummated for the shelter site, and that same should soon be placed and ready for use.
— The Novato Memorial Park Committee reported the park site on the Sweetser ranch had been chosen as the park site and that plans were being arranged for the early acquisition of the property by the creation of a- Park District, the commissioners of which would then be in position to take title, solicit public donations and apply for county, state and federal aid on the purchase of same.
— Director A. W. Bowman, chairman of the Civic Betterment Committee reported good progress being made on new building construction now under way in Novato, with many new buildings and homes planned by various property owners as soon as materials become available.
50 Years Ago
November 1970
— Public hearings scheduled for next Monday night’s meeting of the planning commission include consideration of a master plan to be submitted by Boise Cascade Building Co. for construction of 224 townhouse units on 59 acres of the Oliva Ranch.
— An East Bay developer is negotiating with the Frank Pinheiro family to establish a major shopping center complex on the dairyman’s property on Highway 101 just north of the main downtown section. The property has been designated in the Downtown Plan as the location for a regional shopping center. A major tenant interested in occupying the center has been lined up. It is a department store which reportedly would need more than 100,000 square feet of space. For comparison purposes, Ross apparel store, just opened, uses 1800 square feet of space.
25 Years Ago
November 1995
The Novato City Council will take on a fresh look following the election of two new members and one incumbent — Cynthia Murray, Carole Dillon-Knutson and Mike Di Giorgio each received enough votes Tuesday night to place them on the five-member council. Dillon-Knutson and Di Giorgio replace Mayor Bernie Meyers, who did not run for re-election, and Dennis Fishwick, who lost by nearly 2,000 votes in his bid to keep his seat on the council. All three candidates running on a slow-growth slate were handily defeated: Fishwick, Gail Meyers, and Dana DiBasilio. Margaret Kapranos, who served for a short time by appointment on the council several years ago, also did not garner enough votes to place her in one of the three open seats. Dillon-Knutson was the top vote getter, receiving 5,699, while DiGiorigio received 5,458 and Murray 5,375. Rounding out the field were Kapranos with 4,323; Fishwick with 3,993; DiBasilio with 3,181; and Meyers with 2,854.
— The victory parties told the story. Tuesday night in San Rafael, the volunteers who had bucked the Buck Center and the political powers that be on Measures A and B continued to celebrate, exultant in their stunning victory on the countywide vote after having been outspent 6-to-1. While the Buck forces prevailed in Novato with Measure B, which puts the Center’s property on the fast track to annexation to the City of Novato, the margin of victory was narrower than almost anyone had expected considering the support for the Center in the business and civic communities and the degree to which the Center had lobbied Novato. For Measure B in Novato, the “yes” vote was 6,527 or 55.8 percent The “no” vote was 5,163 or 44.2 percent The Buck opponents, who came together under an umbrella organization called the Committee to Save Mt Burdell, saw their 4.2 percent lead on Measure A as a moral and political victory. For Measure A, the final tally was 30,724 or 52.1 percent against the Center, 28,238 or 47.9 percent for the project “This shows you can’t buy Marin,” said a jubilant Shirley Graves of Novato, referring to the close to $600,000 in Buck Trust money spent on the campaign. The opponents spent more than $91,000 on the campaign.
— Editor: My personal belief is that any object that represents the past, no matter how insignificant, whether it be a building, vehicle, furniture or whatever, should be restored and/or preserved, no matter what the cost. Once these items are gone, they can never be replaced, as with the Hamilton Air Force Base Gate (interesting that the news came after the fact). If it was indeed unsafe, it would have been closed off for public safety reasons and, as for the construction trucks not being able to fit through, it is an idiotic excuse, since 100 yards north is an existing opening as wide as a football field.
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