Compiled by Nick Sestanovich

75 years ago

City Sets $1000 License Fee For Running Pin Ball Machines (April 30, 1942)

An ordinance setting a license fee of $1000 for one year for the operation of pin ball machines and similar devices in the city was passed at an adjourned meeting of the Board of Trustees of the City of Benicia in City Hall last Saturday.
The fee of $1000 entitles the licensee to operate as many as 25 such machines within the city for a period of one year, and provides that for each additional machine that a number fee of $40 shall be charged.
Upon payment of the license fee the licensee will be given 25 seals which must be placed on the machines in operation. The license is good for one year from the date of issuance. Additional seals, of course, will be provided for any number of machines above those covered in the original license.

50 years ago

‘Big Ditch’ Plans For Straits Aired (April 27, 1967)

Benicia’s Big Problem is the Big Ditch with its ramifications which defy solution for the present.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has applied the term Big Ditch to its ambitious, 10-year undertaking to provide a deep watch channel_ stretching from the Golden Gate to the Port of Stockton.
The forum for the discussion of the Big Problem was provided Monday by Benicia Industries Inc. at a luncheon hosted in the Industrial Park. Attending were approximately 60 city and county officials, representative of the Solano County Industrial Development Agency, The Contra Costa County Industrial Developments Commission, major industrialists and utilities as well as the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC).
It will cost millions of dollars and when completed it will provide shipping a 55-foot channel across the San Francisco Bar, 45-foot depths and improved widths from the Bar past Richmond and the Pinole Shoal as far upstream as Chip’s Island and a widened, 35-foot channel from that point to Stockton.
As an engineering feat, the proposed project poses no insurmountable problems—provided funds for its design and construction are made available by Congress.

25 years ago

Bidou to retire as police chief (April 26, 1992)

By David Hagerty

Pierre Bidou will retire later this year after 16 years as chief of the Benicia Police Department, spurring a statewide search for his successor.
Bidou said he has planned for some time to step down when he reaches his 55th birthday in October.
“It’s time for a new person to come aboard,” the chief said.
Recruitment of a new chief should begin in May, with Bidou helping in the search.
City Manager Mike Warren said he will be seeking applicants from around the state who have at least attained the rank of lieutenant, and who preferably have completed a master’s degree.

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

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