City of Corona - City Government history

On July 13, 1896, the citizens of South Riverside voted to incorporate the town into the newly developed Riverside County.

In 1897, the Corona City Water Company was incorporated for domestic water distribution.

More than 4,000 square miles (10,500 square km) of the desert lie below sea level, including the 300-square-mile (800-square-km) Salton Sea, a lake with no outlet that was created in 1905–07 when the nearby Colorado River broke out of its channel.

In the east-central region is the Trans-Sierra desert, which extends along the sheer east escarpment of the Sierra Nevada range and comprises part of the vast interstate Great Basin of the Basin and Range Province. Its largest towns are in the Owens Valley, which was a fertile farmland until its groundwater flow was diverted to Los Angeles through a mammoth series of conduits built in 1908–13.

New groves continued to spring up and by 1912 there were 5,000 acres of established lemon and orange groves.

On September 9, 1913, in observance of California's Admissions Day, Corona residents celebrated with an international automobile race on the Boulevard.

Largely known for its agricultural products, it was the site of the first lemon-processing plant (1915) in the United States and subsequently developed as a citrus-processing and shipping centre.

Prior to December 27, 1943, Hispanics were restricted to using the pool on Mondays, when the pool was drained and cleaned.

In 1954 they employed over 700 people and marketed a variety of lemon products for worldwide disbursement.

The California State Water Project, launched in 1960, is the largest water-transfer system ever undertaken.

In 1961 citrus was still considered the backbone of Corona's economy, and the largest source of revenue.

The Riverside Freeway (Highway 91) was constructed through Corona in 1962.

In 1964, the City of Corona purchased the assets of the Corona City Water Company, creating a municipally owned utility.

In order to collect and preserve information about the community, the City of Corona opened a Heritage Room at the Corona Public Library in November 1980.

By 1982 Corona's agricultural industry faced a bleak future as "production costs made the economics of farming only fair or poor." Plans were begun to replace the groves with approximately 12,500 dwelling units.

By 1989, the I-15went in to the east of town, and development of Sierra del Oro, Corona Hills and South Corona were in full gear.

In June 1993 the City opened the newly redone Corona Public Library at 650 South Main Street with 62,300 square feet of space and the addition of new automated technologies.

By 1996 Corona's population had topped 100,000 people, there were 32 Corona parks, a Senior Center, gymnasium and 30 schools in th Corona Norco Unified School District.

2001-25, which established a municipally owned utility.

In December 2002, the department changed its name to the City of Corona Department of Water & Power to incorporate the increased services to the community.