As police pursued the criminals with ground and helicopter units, both parts of the nearby Hugo Reid Elementary and Primary schools had to go on lock down just as students were preparing for lunch.

At about 10:54 a.m. Wednesday, police received a call from a resident reporting a suspicious subject knocking on his door in the 900 block of Panorama. The resident noticed the subject was associated with an occupied vehicle on the street and watched as they continued knocking on other doors in the neighborhood. As officers arrived, the vehicle was located and a female adult driver was detained.

Moments later a second resident, who was working in his garage in the 1000 block of Panorama, called the Police Department and stated that two male subjects exited the rear door of his residence. One of the subject’s descriptions matched that provided by the previous caller. The resident watched as the two subjects ran down his driveway toward the street at which time they saw the police officers. The two subjects then ran back to the rear yard and jumped over the wall. A police perimeter was established and the two subjects were located in a nearby construction site where they were taken into custody.

Officers discovered a burglary had been committed at the residence of the second caller. Both callers identified the subjects involved. They were arrested and transported to the Arcadia Police Department for processing. The arrested suspects are:
Brian Magallanes, 19 years old from Duarte
Eulises Andres 19 years old from La Puente
Stephanie Iraheta, 18 years old from La Puente.

The case is currently being investigated by the Detective Bureau and the loss is yet to be determined. Please direct all inquiries to the Watch Commander at (626)574-5156.

– By Scott Hettrick from a police report.

This was no simple set-up, as Bo’s request required Santa Anita officials to figure out how to get a horse up to the Chandelier Room on the third level of Santa Anita. The solution? The horse rode the freight elevator, of course.

One other seeming hurdle for officials: Chantal must have been granted a temporary waiver since she clearly isn’t conforming to the strict Turf Club dress code!

Click here to see Vanity Fair’s behind-the-scenes video featuring moments like the photo below.

– By Scott Hettrick

This driver exiting alley at right will no longer be able to cross Santa Anita and make a left turn.

The work is part of a plan to revise three intersections along Huntington Drive between San Rafael and Santa Anita in hopes of improving traffic flow on Huntington. The projects include (see photos):

• Creating additional left turn lanes on southbound and northbound Santa Anita at Huntington. This will include closing off the cut-through from the alley south of Huntington on the east side of Santa Anita (photo at right and bottom right).
  
• .
• * Adding another northbound right turn lane where Huntington makes a sharp turn to the east at the intersection with Santa Clara by shaving off a piece of the County’s Arcadia Park property  (photo at left).
• .

• Closing off another median cut-through for left turns at San Rafael near Citizens Bank and to the 100-to-1 bar. The City announced at the Council meeting Tuesday that this work will now be delayed since the Gold Line’s impending closure of Colorado Boulevard over the next month to take down the train bridge would severely limit access to the residential area north of Huntington Drive and south of Colorado. (Photos at right)

The Arcadia Police Department was notified by staff at a local hospital that they were treating a victim Thursday evening (May 17) of a stabbing that he said in Arcadia six days earlier.
Officers met with the victim, a 20-year-old, male Asian from Hacienda Heights, at the hospital, where he was being treated for a single stab wound to his chest. The victim said he had walked out of the beverage shop when he was approached in the parking lot by two males, asking the victim where he was from. Words were exchanged, and the suspects punched the victim. One suspect stepped back, pulled out a folding knife, and stabbed the victim in the chest. The suspects then ran off. The victim said the incident took place between 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. The victim provided a vague description of the suspects as being Hispanic males, 18-21 years old, one wearing a blue “LA” hat, blue shirt, black/gray plaid shorts, and white knee high socks.

The victim does have admitted gang affiliation and based on the victim’s account, the incident may be gang related. Due to a lack of witnesses and delayed reporting of the incident, police are asking the public’s help in providing additional information on the crime. Anyone with information related to this case is asked to call the Arcadia Police Department at (626)574-5156. You can also submit crime tips and information via text, phone, or web to LA Regional Crime Stoppers, 800-222-TIPS (8477).

But the picture may not be that bleak. First of all, the City expects to make more than $600,000 from the one-time sale of former water well property and another $700,000 – $1.2 mil. from a joint IRS Task Force program involving the recovery of money through audits, according to Police Chief Robert Guthrie. Lazzaretto, who had only a few weeks to prepare the budget since taking over in late March, said during a study session Tuesday that those two projected windfalls cannot be budgeted since they are uncertain income.

In addition, the City typically proposes very conservative budgets and usually winds up with a hefty surplus, such as the current 2011-12 fiscal year ending June 30 which is projected to end up with a nearly $900,000 net gain versus the initial budget last year that forecast a deficit of about $850,000.

And finally, significant additional sales tax and business license tax revenue is anticipated from new shops scheduled to open at Westfield Santa Anita, starting this fall — probably September — with a new two-level Forever 21, and followed by a Gold’s Gym next February on the third level of the same building, the former Robinsons-May store.
In fact, two of the brightest spots in the City of Arcadia’s income for fiscal year 2011-12 and projections for 2012-13 come from Arcadia businesses. Sales tax revenues and business license taxes are projected to climb another 6.3% and 9.1%, respectively, to a combined $10.8 million in 2012-13.
The City’s annual sales tax from businesses has increased $2.3 mil. (34%) each year, climbing back this year to more than $9 mil. for the first time since the recession. Sales taxes are projected to climb to $9.6 mil. next year. And the Business License Tax, which has steadily increased each year, is budgeted to reach $1.2 mil. in 2012-13.
(Despite the success of businesses, the City may consider cutting the fee it pays the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce by 50% as the Chamber is asking for only the second fee increase since the 1990s.)

Although Redevelopment funds from the state, which were eliminated earlier this year by Governor Brown, do not technically show up in the City’s General Fund, those state funds were used to pay nearly $1 million in staff salaries and other City expenses that must all now be covered by the General Fund.

Councilman Segal expressed concern that while the City may find temporary ways to cover projected deficits, those deficits are only going to get bigger each year until the City either finds significant new revenue streams or makes significant cuts in City services, such as cutting back the number of days the Library is open, cutting back tree trimming and street services, or even closing a fire station. He was not suggesting any of those things, but noting that it would take something on that scale to close the projected budget deficits over the next several years.

After a three-hour presentation by City department heads Tuesday, City officials decided to reconvene at 5:30 p.m., May 29, to decide how to approach the 2012-13 budget that starts July 1 — whether to make potentially major cuts to offset the $1.5 mil. projected loss on paper to come up with a balanced budget, or to leave expenses as budgeted by City staff and take a calculated gamble that the expected additional income will come through and more than cover what currently looks like a deficit. Or a combination of both.

Councilman Amundson expressed a desire to balance the budget. Mayor Harbicht later said that he is confident that City revenue will rebound when the economy recovers.

– By Scott Hettrick