Police Service of Salinas history

By 1930 the Salinas population reached 10,263, and would continue to grow given the area’s many advantages.

Salinas made its first annexation to the original city in 1933, a 52 - acre addition to the south side along Romie Lane.

The Philippines Mail of September 7, 1936 reported that a Filipino worker was a casualty of the first day.

Other Salinas milestones following the armistice were: closure of the Salinas Army Air Base and return of the airport to the city; repair and return of the Salinas Garrison to the Rodeo Grounds in time for the 1947 Rodeo, though without Sgt.

In 1948 Salinas Junior College was officially named Hartnell College, and the Salinas Californian moved to its new building on West Alisal Street.

Jobs also came to the area through the efforts of the Monterey County Industrial Development, Inc., better known as the MCID, which received its charter of incorporation from the State of California on December 10, 1951.

In 1952 the North Salinas “book station” opened at the firehouse on Laurel Drive.

Universal Match Corporation in Prunedale and Wilder Manufacturing both opened in 1957.

The Salinas Californian of September 18, 1963 called it the worst bus tragedy in the state and in United States history.

Notre Dame opened in 1964.

In 1965 the National Farm Workers Association, led by Cesar Chavez, joined the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) and called strikes against selected grape growers in the San Joaquin Valley.

Without the protection provided by the reservoirs rancher Jim Bardin estimated that about six feet of water would have flooded the courthouse on Alisal Street during a “500-Year Flood” in early 1969.

On Christmas Eve 1970 Chavez was released pending the outcome of an appeal [ibid].

By 1971 Chavez and the farm workers union had won key contracts.

In 1973 the city’s Center City Authority decided to focus on the development of a shopping and tourist oriented “Oldtown” that would reflect the community’ s rodeo and western heritage.

Even as late as 1974 the Salinas Californian observed that this strike, which pitted shed workers from the Alisal against their Salinas employers, raised a formidable psychological barrier between the two communities.

Throughout 1975 the project was of great interest to the community.

On October 24, 1976, Mayor Hibino dedicated the Hebbron Neighborhood Center, a remodeled appliance repair shop at 725 E. Market Street, and vowed a Hebbron upgrade.

In 1977, the downtown merchants opposed an expansion of Northridge that would accommodate Sears, then a mainstay of the Valley Center Shopping Center on South Main Street.

Despite the controversies surrounding the cleanup, the Firestone site was purchased in the mid 1980’s by businessmen Carini and John Panattoni who partitioned the sprawling space into 20,000 square feet of storage blocks that were then leased to manufacturers and warehouse interests.

In May of 1981, the Salinas Californian and Hartnell College sponsored the second annual Chicano Conference.

Another institution serving the disadvantaged was born on April 7, 1982 when Salinas native Robert Smith began serving lunc h to the homeless in Salinas’ Chinatown.

In 1983, the Salinas Public Library Steinbeck Archives received recognition in The American Studies International Newsletter, along with the collections at Stanford and the Pierpont Morgan Library.

Nonetheless in February 1987, based on a scoring process that rates current or potential health impact, the site was added to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List, making it a Superfund site.

In June 1992, positive cleanup levels were achieved in all hydrological zones.

Everett Alvarez High School opened in Northeast Salinas in August of 1995.

A year later the Salinas Californian of March 9 - 10, 1996 reviewed the disaster toll.

Anna Caballero became Salinas’ first female and first Latina Mayor in 1998.

In 2004 County Supervisors considered selling the center which serves the county’s poorest residents.

In 2005 the Maya Cinemas opened in the Oldtown area on Main Street near the National Steinbeck Center.