Town Crier: 50 years
This is the fourth in a series of articles commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Los Altos Town Crier.
It’s one thing to incorporate, and quite another to get a municipal government up and running, especially on a shoestring budget. It can complicate things more when many citizens are not convinced they want to be part of a municipality. Those were challenges facing the Los Altos City Council’s challenge following the city’s formation in December 1952.
In 1953, the new council hired Los Altos’ first administrative staff members: employee number one, Police Chief Joseph McClelland; Joseph Salameda, building inspector; Roland Renshaw, police officer; John M.R. Hope, city clerk; Herbert Rose, city treasurer and Gardner Bullis, city attorney. Council set the initial tax rate at 23 1/2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The police chief used his own car and the entire city government ran on one telephone.
“So uncertain was the future of the new city with the possibility of disincorporation (sic) by the strong opposition that City Attorney Gardner Bullis advised (me) not to terminate his position with the City of Palo Alto but to take a leave of absence,” wrote Joseph Salameda in “A History of the Incorporation of the City of Los Altos.”
Things were looking up in 1954 when Arthur Fowle donated the final $13,000 of $115,000 needed to purchase the 10-acre site of the future Los Altos Civic Center. Council adopted a master plan for the future city while one-third of the land within city limits still lay undeveloped.
Some residents continued to agitate to dissolve the city’s incorporation. Howard Campen “caused a furor when he predicted that Los Altos would disincorporate (sic) within 10 or 15 years,” wrote Salameda. Campen “was immediately blasted by city officials.”
Undaunted, city leaders moved ahead with civic improvements. In 1955, Shoup Park was dedicated as the city’s first park, Covington Pool was built, and Los Altos High School opened. Construction began on the city’s sanitary sewer and storm drainage system the following year, although the system was not universally welcomed by all residents.
Residents put the brakes on spending in 1957, rejecting by 2-1 a $575,000 bond issue proposed to finance construction on the civic center site. They also rejected a school bond issue.
The Town Crier grew along with Los Altos. In 1956, Dale Whitney joined its staff as the photographic editor of the new monthly pictorial magazine, “Foothill Focus.”
The magazine was folded back into the Town Crier as a special section in 1957, when the paper adopted a new 8 1/2-by-17-inch format and began publishing weekly. While the Town Crier was mailed free to 8,600 local homes, voluntary $1 per year subscriptions were offered to pay for more editorial content. The publishers added book reviews and sports coverage, as well as more photos of local events. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Town Crier offered paying subscribers a chance to win a Hawaiian vacation.
That same year, the Town Crier reported the opening of Foothill Junior College, with 600 students, on a temporary site on El Camino Real. Another big story was the grand opening of the downtown parking plazas, constructed for $1 million under the leadership of future U.S. Senator Alan Cranston. Dave Brubeck and his jazz quartet gave a two-hour concert as part of the festivities.
City leaders succeeded in funding the city hall, dedicated Feb. 2, 1959. The $180,000 school bond issue that failed in 1957 was passed in 1959, paving the way for more elementary school rooms. The Los Altos Rotary Club formed that same year, and the Town Crier moved to a Wednesday publication.
Los Altos’ population stood at 19,000, an increase of 4,000 since its incorporation, and more growth was just around the corner.
