Latest News
Congratulations to Pablo Jimenez, one of three readers who correctly identified last week’s “Where am I?” as the antique wagon on display at Pomona Valley Mining Company. Pablo is now entered into the year-end drawing for a one-year subscription to everyone’s favorite award-winning local newspaper, the Claremont Courier. So, “Where am I” this week? Email your answer, full name, and city of residence — and suggestions for future mystery photos — to contest@claremont-courier.com for your chance to win. Courier photo/Tom Smith
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has filed charges against Former Claremont Unified School District Board of Education President Steven Llanusa and two other people in connection with a December 3 holiday party at Llanusa’s Claraboya home.
“The allegations involved inappropriate behavior and furnishing alcoholic beverages to members of the Claremont High School Choir program,” read a news release from Claremont Police Department Lt. Karlan Bennett.
Thanks to an increase in property and sales tax revenues, the city’s finance department reported a small budget surplus during Tuesday’s Claremont City Council meeting, which the Council elected to spend on hiring a police officer.
The new officer will address commercial and residential burglaries, and criminal activity around the motels near the 10 Freeway, according to a staff report.
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle recently announced this year’s theatrical excellence awards, and Upland’s Ophelia’s Jump Productions artistic director Beatrice Casagran was among the winners of its Gordon Davidson Award for distinguished contribution to the Los Angeles theatrical community.
“I am honored to be recognized as part of a hardworking grass roots coalition that worked really hard to get SB1116 passed,” Casagran wrote in a statement.
Claremont Unified School District teachers, including Lorrie Brown, pictured here, gathered outside the Claremont Helen Renwick Library Wednesday evening to protest a petition drive for a special election being held there.
The petition, if successful, will compel the school district to hold a special election to fill the Trustee Area 4 seat on the CUSD Board of Education, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $273,000. Those pushing for the special election have until Tuesday, February 21 to gather the 99 signatures they say are required to force the election.
It’s fitting that on a recent weekday evening, Vince Skelly wore a green baseball hat emblazoned with the Sycamore School leaf logo. Yes, Claremont’s oldest elementary school is the 35-year-old artist and furniture maker’s alma mater, but it’s also an indirect nod to his craft: carving trees into singular sculptures that accentuate the raw material’s natural beauty. What’s more, many of the trees he carves grew right here in his hometown.
In the wake of the devastating windstorm in January 2022, which felled more than 300 of Claremont’s beloved trees, Skelly embarked on a rescue mission in his pickup truck, clearing driveways, streets, and local landmarks of fallen branches and uprooted trunks with a hand-cranked crane hooked to his tailgate.
Anyone who has even taken a casual look at the pages of the Claremont Courier will undoubtedly be familiar with reports of crime and other problems emanating from the motels near Indian Hill Boulevard and the 10 Freeway. On Tuesday, the Claremont City Council took a step toward redeveloping one of those motels when it approved an amendment to an existing specific plan.
By a 4-1 vote, the City Council agreed to reduce the current 60-foot setback in the code to an average of 15 feet to accommodate the proposed construction of a Residence Inn by Marriott at 721 S. Indian Hill Blvd., the location of the former Knights Inn, which is currently being operated as a University Inn.
Claremont Courier Event Calendar: (February 17, 2023- February 25, 2023)
Is Claremont the city of Trees, PhDs and unsafe streets? Data suggests it may be, but what exactly can be done to make our highways and byways safer for all?
According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, Claremont ranks in the bottom 20% of similar sized cities in a composite of all traffic deaths and injuries. The highest mark the city received was 23rd out of 94 cities in data from 2017, but its rank sunk every year after that until 2020, when it moved down to just 11th out of 91 cities.
Pitzer College biology grad Ben Sievers is very comfortable wearing a crisp white coat in the sterile environment of a lab. That’s been his M.O. for the last several years as a research fellow at the J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla. These days, work looks a little different for the 23-year-old.
“Picture me — I have this big blue tarp on, three layers of gloves, these white boots, and two masks. We’re at a pig slaughterhouse and there’s like a thousand pigs,” he said. “It’s blazing hot and I’m sweating through all my layers of personal protective equipment. Everyone’s watching me, chasing these pigs trying to swab their noses.”
The San Gabriel Valley Consortium on Homelessness selected Claremont City Council member Jed Leano as the recipient of its inaugural Joseph M. Lyons memorial award.
Leano was honored at the San Gabriel Valley Consortium on Homelessness’ annual housing summit on Wednesday at the Tzu Chi Buddhist Foundation campus in San Dimas.
Claremont Courier Event Calendar (February 10, 2023- February 18, 2023)
A stroll down Yale Avenue in the Claremont Village yields two different sights. Most businesses on the east such as Pizza N Such, Union on Yale, and Amelie, are thriving, while three vacant storefronts occupy the west: the former Barbara Cheatley’s Antiques, Heroes and Legends Bar and Grill, and most recently, We Olive.
Over the last 12 months, several Village businesses have closed or relocated, including the aforementioned Heroes and We Olive, and also Neon Moon Art Supply, Sonja Stump Photography, Del Anno California, Curtis Real Estate, Honeybird, and Rhino Records. Barbara Cheatley’s shuttered in May 2021. The Press Restaurant, which has been closed since March 2020, may reopen, but tenant issues are keeping it from returning, said Nicholas Quackenbos, a longtime commercial real estate broker at Quackenbos-Bell who handles commercial business in the Village.
On Saturday, Montclair Police arrested a 17-year-old Pomona resident in the shooting death of another teen last Thursday at Montclair Place shopping mall.
The 17-year-old is accused of shooting a 15-year-old boy during an alleged altercation in the mall’s northeast parking lot, 5060 E. Montclair Plaza Lane, after a group of youths “exchanged words” inside the mall.
Claremont police arrested a 37-year-old unhoused man at Mallows Park Friday morning after he reportedly shouted, “I’m going to kill them. They can’t do this to me. I have a gun,” in the vicinity of a mother and her young daughter.
The man, whom police said was apparently from Indiana, was charged with making criminal threats, a felony, and resisting arrest, a misdemeanor.
Everything Claremont resident Valerie Martinez does, each new engagement or project she adds to her busy life, furthers her goal of promoting equity and social justice.
A definite silver lining emerged from the destructive storms that pummeled California, when the state’s top water regulator took the first step last week toward easing tough water conservation measures brought on by years of drought.
On Thursday, the California Department of Water Resources announced its intention to boost water allocated to member agencies from the State Water Project, which moves water south from Northern California. The increased supplies will affect 27 million people, most of whom live in Southern California and have been under mandatory water use restrictions since last spring. The announcement is also good news for many of California’s farmers.