Compiled by Nick Sestanovich

75 years ago

Benicia School Won’t Accept Shipment of WPA Warehouses (Feb. 18, 1943)

Disregarding the refusal of the school board to accept discarded WPA plyboard demountable warehouses for a school here, the old buildings have been shipped here and are being unloaded at Benson’s Lumber Yard. Consigned to the school, refusal to accept was made by Dr. Henderson, principal.
On Tuesday Wright L. Felt of Los Angeles, assistant regional director met here with the board but failed to impress the members that Benicia was especially favored in being able to get such material.
Principal Henderson has sent a report to headquarters at Washington in an effort to get some definite action with regards to the school situation.

50 years ago

Eight Candidates File For City Council Race (Feb. 15, 1968)

Eight candidates have filed their papers to qualify for April’s municipal elections to fill three vacancies on the City Council.
Incumbents Mayor C. Carsten Johansen and Councilman James Reed head the list. Councilman Roy J. Charboneau, whose seat is up for re-election, is not a candidate.
Other candidates who have filed are James Kurtz, Warren H. Humbert, Willard R. Seifert, Royce Brooks, William Odom and Vernon Estey.
The other two council seats up for election are those of Johansen and Reed, who filled the unexpired term of Enos P. Nebergall.
Betty M. Pellinam and Mary Jane Odom have filed for the city clerk’s post while Mrs. Marie Silva, city treasurer for the last 16 years, is unopposed.

25 years ago

Rally shows heart for shipyard (Feb. 14, 1993)

By Sarah Rohrs

More than 2,000 workers, their families and residents from Benicia and Vallejo filled a city block– waving signs and pumping clenched fists in the air– to make their message loud and clear: Don’t close Mare Island.
Military budget cuts threaten the base, as well as the economy Vallejo, surrounding towns and thousands of families.
Friday’s noontime rally at the foot of Tennessee Street in Vallejo near the shipyard’s main gate drew scores of Mare Island workers dressed in red shirts and hats, some wearing armbands.
Some signs read “California Doesn’t Need More Joblessness,” “Get the Navy Out of Japan” and “Jobs, Not Welfare.”
Speaker after speaker, including U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, vowed to do all they could to keep the naval base open– not only to preserve thousands of jobs, but also because national security is important and because California has suffered its share of base closures.
Miller said he is part of a coalition of elected officials that is lobbying President Clinton, the Department of Defense and the Pentagon to keep the 143-year shipyard open.
The coalition includes Congressman Vic Fazio, D-West Sacramento; Congressman Dan Hamburg, D- Napa; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-San Francisco; and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Kentfield.

The full articles of these and other stories are available on microfilm at the Benicia Public Library.

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