Compiled by Nick Sestanovich

75 years ago

Council Passes Ordinance On “Man’s Best Friend” (Jan. 7, 1943)

Persons owning dogs in the City of Benicia will be required to secure a license for each dog, according to an ordinance passed at the City Council Tuesday night and published in the Herald-New Era today.
The price of the license was fixed at $1.50 annually for each male dog and $2.50 annually for each female dog.
Dogs will not be permitted on the street unless on leash and unlicensed dogs found within the city limits will be impounded for 48 hours and unless owner calls within that time, the dog will be killed, unless owner pays the city $2.00 before removing dog from pound. Any dog having a license, and running at large shall be put in the city pound for ten days and will be killed at the expiration of that time unless owner pays $1.00 per day for each day the dog is impounded.
Any violation of the ordinance shall be deemed a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $5.00 nor more than $100 or a jail term not exceeding thirty days.
William Davena was named pound master at a monthly salary of $25.

50 years ago

Humble Oil Plant Gets Even Bigger (Jan. 4, 1968)

A 465-foot high smokestack towering above the hills in northeastern Benicia is symbolic of the transformation of this one-time California capital (1853-54) from a sleepy little residential community to a potentially great industrial center.
At the base of the smokestack, there is a beehive of activity as hundreds of workers, some operating heavy equipment, continue construction of Humble Oil & Refining Company’s first West Coast refinery.
This $135 million project– by far the largest private industrial development in Solano County to date– was begun in 1966, but it was not until 1967 that tangible evidence of its magnitude could be seen as steel tanks and spheres, an administration building, mechanical shops, laboratory and other facilities began to rise.
The great refinery project was more or less directly responsible for other major developments in the past year– and undoubtedly will lead to others in the future, as satellite industries are encouraged to come into Benicia Industrial Park and elsewhere in Solano County.

25 years ago

Service agency sets its sights on Benicians at-risk (Jan. 3, 1993)

By Sarah Rohrs

Because of Benicia’s outpouring of generosity for needy families during the holidays, a fund created to help the community’s low-income residents remain in town will go into full swing this week.
The Benicia Human Services Fund convened a special meeting in October and formed a subcommittee, after a city-sponsored committee became alarmed by what it perceived as a “crisis” of growing poverty and homelessness here.
Viola Robertson, executive director of the Benicia Community Action Council, said more and more are coming to her office for assistance.
In October, 10 families needed help getting by and were in danger of becoming homeless. During the holidays, the CAC provided help to more than 200 low-income families, which included at least 400 needy children.
Mary Frances Kelley Poh, an original member of the Human Services Fund, said assisting the CAC and the community’s low-income residents is still a high priority for the commission.
Poh’s main concern has been that residents falling into the ranks of the low-income are forced to leave Benicia and move to neighboring communities where rents and housing costs are considerably cheaper.

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

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