San Fernando Road

San Fernando Road, one of the oldest and most historic streets in Glendale, is part of a route that traces its roots back to Southern California's earliest days. Once a primitive, dusty trail, it was the primary route for those traveling from Mexico City to Northern California. No doubt, many of the Spanish soldiers, priests, Indians and early settlers used the trail as they passed through this area. The route ran right through the 36,000 acres on which Spanish soldier Jose Maria Verdugo grazed his cattle.

GLENDALE ? A man crashed his truck into a utility pole on San Fernando Road Monday morning, knocking it and a second pole down and cutting off electricity to surrounding homes and businesses, police said. The man apparently lost control of his Chevrolet S-10 pick-up truck, hitting a utility pole after he turned north onto San Fernando Road from Electronics Place just west of the railroad tracks, Los Angeles Police Officer Richard Eagleson said. At least two other cars parked alongside the road were damaged, he said.

GLENDALE — The world's top franchiser of paint-your-own-ceramics studios is bringing its headquarters into the city — a move that takes Glendale one step closer to filling its vacant office space. Color Me Mine Enterprises Inc. — formerly of North Hollywood — has purchased a building on the 3700 block of San Fernando Road. Company President Michael Mooslin said he chose Glendale because of its location and efforts to revitalize the corridor. "I love what Glendale's been doing over the years," he said.

GLENDALE — After years of being held up in fruitless negotiations between the city and railroad and utility authorities, the Redevelopment Agency is poised to approve a whittled-down plan to beautify a portion of San Fernando Road today. The project would add $1.5 million worth of new trees, shrubs, vines and irrigation infrastructure along the west side of San Fernando Road between Grandview and Goodwin avenues. "It is a much scaled-down version of our original planting scheme," Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian said.

GLENDALE — City officials are stressing the need for calm during ongoing construction on San Fernando Road that has closed two lanes of traffic and caused prolonged delays along one of Glendale’s main thoroughfares. Construction crews this week will be installing four 90-foot-tall columns between West Doran Street and Fairmount Avenue as part of the bridge extension project that will expand Fairmont Avenue west over San Fernando Road, the adjoining railroad tracks and the Verdugo Wash, Public Works Director Steve Zurn said.

Crews will soon begin work on a $3.8-million revamp of San Fernando Road with new pavement and more aligned intersections for the busy industrial corridor. The City Council is expected to sign off on the construction contract today, with work on the six-month project slated to begin in February. The second phase of the San Fernando Road rehabilitation project — funded by state bond proceeds — will run from Tyburn Street to Pacific Avenue. For a corridor that sees up to 35,000 daily vehicle trips — many of which are heavy work trucks or big rigs — the street needs it, said Public Works Director Steve Zurn.

Dozens of people lined up outside a San Fernando Road building Thursday morning as a familiar face returned to the Glendale retail scene. The Salvation Army opened a new thrift store in south Glendale, about two years after closing a Brand Boulevard shop. The new store breathes life into a site abandoned by Smart & Final warehouse stores when that chain opened a store on Glenoaks Boulevard. Opening day brought Glendale Chamber of Commerce ambassadors, shoppers and treasure hunters to the Salvation Army at 6850 San Fernando Road.

Buck Wargo The following is a list of Glendale businesses asked by the state Regional Water Control Board to provide information about the possible use of chromium at their sites: ACCO -- 6265 San Fernando Road. Advance Biodiagnostics (Former Verdugo Mental Health Center) -- 417 Arden Ave.. Armik Auto Repair -- 306 N. Central Ave. Armstrong Garden Center -- 5816 San Fernando Road. Arrow Die Casting -- 4031 Goodwin Ave. Automation Plating -- 927 E. Thompson Ave. Automation Plating Corp.

Buck Wargo CITY HALL -- Glendale has hired a Seal Beach company to help acquire property for improvements to exit ramps off the Ventura (134) and Golden State (5) freeways. Cutler & Associates will be paid up to $450,000 to obtain appraisals, legal counsel and services for acquiring property. The company will be paid from state grant funds given to Glendale for the project. The state will be paying $33.1 million to have the San Fernando Road exit at the Ventura (134)

Gretchen Hoffman Residents who depend on San Fernando Road for their daily commute will have to bear with the headaches of construction for a few more months. A four-part sewer project that is responsible for the detours and lane closures is set for completion Dec. 19, City Engineer Lou LeBlanc said. During the evenings, two lanes are open in each direction, with the center cordoned off to store construction equipment. In the mornings, San Fernando Road is cut back to one lane in each direction, with no parking lanes.

Ice Energy's decision to set up a 25,000-square-foot distribution facility in Glendale, with more jobs to match, highlights a possible “nectar approach” to attracting new industry to the San Fernando Road corridor - especially as the city reassess its ability to bring in new business without the power of its now-defunct redevelopment agency. While Ice Energy's executive vice president Mike Hopkins said Glendale is “kind of like the center of the map for us here in California,” we wonder if another “center” could have been found if not for the $3.2 million the city's utility has spent on the firm's energy-saving air-conditioning units so far. The “Ice Bears,” which reduce air-conditioning energy demand by as much as 95%, will no doubt start propagating in more and more commercial business buildings, for which energy use remains a huge cost.

Despite efforts to stop it, the chemical Chromium 6 has been seeping into Glendale groundwater for years at the site of a defunct plating company. By early next month, that will start to change. Ralphs Grocery Co. plans to finalize the purchase of the nearly 1-acre property near the border of Los Angeles and Glendale within the next two weeks. With that done, it will begin cleaning up the contaminated dirt left behind by Excello Plating Co. in order to expand the grocer's distribution center next door.

Glendale officials plan to revisit a city ordinance limiting sidewalk solicitations after the U.S. Supreme Court this week rejected Redondo Beach's bid to revive regulations on where day laborers can solicit work from passing drivers. In 2010, Glendale officials postponed revisions to its own law, which is less restrictive than  Redondo Beach regulations, as they waited for the higher court decision. With that out of the way, Glendale City Atty. Mike Garcia said his office would reviewing the city's ordinance "more closely to see if additional refinements to our ordinance are necessary.

Engineers have decided to bring in a crane to remove a Mercedes sedan that got trapped in the Verdugo Wash today after the driver reportedly mistook a concrete water channel for a freeway on-ramp. Officials are preparing to temporarily close San Fernando Road between Doran Street and Kenilworth Avenue as they remove the car. The driver, a 53-year-old Glendale woman, entered the wash about a mile up and reached speeds of up to 70 mph, whizzing by maintenance crews who attempted to flag her down, officials said.  After barreling down several 3-foot long steps, she stopped before reaching a steep drop-off in the channel near San Fernando Road.

Glendale police shot and killed a man at about 2:30 a.m. today after he engaged them in what a department spokesman called "a pretty extensive gun battle. " The two officers who came upon the armed man were not hurt, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. A bullet did strike the patrol car of a third officer who was called in as backup during the gun battle. The man who was killed was not immediately identified. The incident occurred in South Glendale on San Fernando Road near Brand Boulevard, where police continue to investigate the scene.

A Latino man in his 30s died of multiple gunshot wounds early Friday morning after engaging Glendale police in a gun battle near Cerritos Elementary School. No officers were injured during the battle, which started at 2:30 a.m. at San Fernando Road and Glendale Avenue. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. “Right now, we are trying to determine why at 2:30 this morning he was wandering the streets and firing his weapon before the police arrived, and why then, when the police arrived, he literally attacked the officers,” police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

Glendale Water & Power on Wednesday announced that it had received $400,000 to continue its work in testing two methods for stripping underground water of chromium 6. The utility has been the lead agency in a coalition of stakeholders testing two high-tech methods for stripping underground contaminated with the cancer-causing element left behind largely by the San Fernando Road corridor's former aerospace manufacturing industry. The latest grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Reclamation.

Glendale’s Jubilee in 1981 marked 75 years since its founding in 1906. During the jubilee event, the city’s pioneers (those who had lived here for 75 years or more) were honored. Making the introductions that day was Carroll W. Parcher, born in 1903, whose father was Wilmot Parcher, the city’s first mayor. As Carroll announced each honoree, mayor John F. Day, presented them with a commendation and Glendale News-Press writer Ellen Perry made brief comments. The oldest attendee was Dora Verdugo, then 99 years old. She was the great-granddaughter of Jose Maria Verdugo, owner of the Spanish land grant on which Glendale was founded, according to the Daily News, May 16, 1981.

CITY HALL — A major South Glendale corridor could soon get a slate of traffic calming measures and accommodations for cyclists and pedestrians under a $700,000-project going to the City Council. Updated curb ramps and improved sidewalks, bike lanes and sharrows — or shared lanes with vehicles — and new circular intersections are included in the plans for the corridor that spans Riverdale Drive from San Fernando Road to Central Avenue, Maple Street from Central Avenue to Verdugo Road, Rock Glen Avenue from Verdugo Road to Lincoln Avenue and Lincoln Avenue from Rock Glen Avenue to Colorado Street.

The city is cranking up efforts to lure new businesses to the San Fernando Road creative corridor, offering financial incentives as part of a marketing plan to bring entertainment and design-related firms to old aviation and manufacturing sites. The City Council on Tuesday approved grants to new businesses and a $260,000-marketing plan to attract firms to join the Walt Disney Co., DreamWorks Animation SKG and KABC in southwest Glendale. It also tweaked an existing incentive plan under which the city provides funds to help convert buildings for modern uses.