Fontana Pacific Electric Train Depot Restored.. (Daily Bulletin 072206) 90yrs after it was built, City Officials...

I Think that it is great that Joe Baca Jr. is pulling papers to seek a seat on the Rialto city Council. I also think that it is wonderful that Ed Scott is so worried that the two little puppies that Mr. Scott has licking the back of his hind end on all the votes and what ever he has called for, It is almost like Ed Scott has some kind of Information on old Joe Sampson that he would be so embarrassed to be released, because when it came down to the Police Department, when Joe Sampson was being interviewed by the local Paper, and he was wrong and you could almost tell that he knew that he was wrong by the statements that he was making, but he stood fast by Ed Scott's talking points and that was at that time that the city needs a change in the Police Department and they have got to go, but now he has certainly changed his tune all over again, but this time it is much better, because he has allowed the Police Department to stay, since they were caught in a huge Lie, Oh? Wait, that was Garcia, McGee & Owens (the last word) who said that the Signature Gatherers were not allowed to gather signatures since the don't Live in Rialto. When the election Law and the law is clearly printed so any person with a 4th grade education can understand it, but the Three Musketeers (Garcia, Owens, and McGee) disallowed the signatures only to be found out a fool by the Register of Voters that stated that anyone whom is a Registered Voter, can Gather signatures as long as they are registered with in the County that they are gathering the signatures. Funny how that works. Three things to be a good signature gatherer, 1. Registered Voter in the county that you are gathering signatures. 2. Gathering signatures from Registered Voters of that city area that it effects 3 must sign and date the form before turning them in as witnessed each signature gathered.

Now what Owens said was that the Signatures were not good because the Signature Gatherers were not registered in the City of Rialto. They were hired to gather signatures, at a $1.00 a signature. They were registered in the county, which meant they lived in the county, just not in the city, and they had signed all the forms properly. Owens could not get that through his head that they were good signatures and they were collected right, because he is such a smart lawyer, and he knows everything being a Lawyer by mail graduate!! I tell you if Owens was in a class of 100 he must have graduated 110th in the class, he is so bright!

That is all I have to say before I get to terribly insulting!!

BSRanch

PS: Thank You Joe Baca Jr. You have my support, even though I don't Live in the city, I have lots of friends that live in the city, and I will cast my support your way!!
BSR

Fontana Pacific Electric Train Depot Restored

By: Leonor Vivanco, Daily Bulletin Staff Writer

FONTANA - Ninety years after it was built, city officials pried open the heavy, welded doors of one of the city's historic treasures.

When they walked into the Pacific Electric railroad freight train depot on Spring Avenue near Nuevo Avenue last fall, they realized just how dormant the building had become.

‘‘Inside, it was almost pitch black,'' said Ray Bragg, the city's director of redevelopment and special projects.

‘‘It was like walking into a Halloween haunted house with real-live cobwebs.''

Crews then began cleaning the depot, which was constructed in 1915, and put on a white coat of paint to brighten up the building, preparing it for its new life. Doors and windows were ordered to replicate the historic feel.

‘‘I can't believe how good it looks,'' Bragg said.

The refurbished depot will now house a pottery studio, art gallery and coffee shop.

The $438,000 project started in September, and the building just received its certificate of occupancy with the businesses now moving into their new digs.

The city's summer concert series is being held outside the depot from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. each Thursday through Aug. 24.

‘‘The coffee shop is going to give the people downtown, at City Hall and working people down there, a place to go and sit down and chat with friends,'' said Joan Geist, community relations representative for the Fontana Downtown Revitalization Task Force.

The depot is expected to once again be the gathering place it was during its heyday in the 1940s.

‘‘There was a lot of activity there with people going in and out. It was very active back then,'' said Geist, also a member of the Fontana Historical Society.

Rail cars hauled citrus until the depot's freight operations ceased in the 1950s. The depot later had a couple of different uses, including serving as a mercantile store before being vacated in the 1980s, Bragg said.

‘‘We're really happy we're able to reuse the building as a way to remind people of the past as well as looking forward into the future,'' Bragg said.

It is located near the Fontana Historical Society at the Hazel Putnam Historical Plaza.

‘‘The prize was where the passenger depot was,'' said society member Joe Bono.

The 1974 demolition of that structure, which featured Greek columns, sparked residents to get involved in saving the city's older buildings.

The historical society was founded by Mary Vagle when she saw old buildings being torn down and tried to save the Pacific Electric passenger depot.

‘‘We have to save what's left,'' Bono said.