Compiled by Steve Bankhead
25 years ago on March 4, 1996
Watsonville High teacher Kathy Anderson was named Santa Cruz County’s Teacher of the Year for her work in the Interactive Mathematics Program. She sought help from the Packard Foundation and received a $150,000 grant to spend for materials like calculators and teacher training. From her success, the foundation decided to fund all Santa Cruz County, as well as Santa Clara and Monterey counties. Students David Derpich and Brenda Salcedo said how Anderson gives up her lunch hours on Fridays to help Honors students get the extra credit they need for college. Anderson, who turns 48 this year on Einstein’s birthday, said she went to college in LA at a time when women weren’t encouraged to use their heads. “If we were smart, we hid it.” But when she began getting straight A’s she realized it was “fun to use my mind.” She now helps many other students enjoy that same fun.
50 years ago on March 2, 1971
Former Watsonville Police Chief Frank Osmer announced he wouldn’t run for the city council. “The reason is Mrs. Opal Marshall,” Osmer said, referring to his longtime political foe before and after he held public office. “The handwriting is on the wall,” Osmer said, “another barrage of vilification and personal attacks. I knew I would be opposed by some because I had been indicted by the grand jury (Editor: on a charge of selling seized liquor to friends without a license), though the court eventually dismissed the charges, and ordered the record expunged, and I was technically not convicted. I was willing to submit to an election, and to be elected or lose under the system provided by the city charter. Mrs. Marshall worked untiringly for my removal as police chief,” Osmer said. “I felt that after 10 years she would relent and allow me to run for office. However, this was not to be.”
75 years ago on Feb. 27, 1946
A veteran’s housing project totaling $172,500 has been approved by the FHA for Manuel Bernardo, a local contractor and owner of the Bernardo Park subdivision near Santa Cruz Road in Freedom. Don Colegrove, local real estate agent handling the project for Bernardo, said that a total of 22 homes would be built, 20 in the Bernardo Park area, and the remaining two in the Lone Pine subdivision near the Monument at the north end of Freedom. According to the terms of the agreement, those structures must be offered for sale or rent to veterans during the time of construction, and for 30 days after completion. Colegrove said all will be for sale, most of them for $7,750 and $7,950, and six larger units for $8,650. Prices for the structures include the lot, sidewalks, sewers, water connection and paved streets. Twenty-year loan monthly payments will range from $40.91 to $52.43.
100 years ago on March 5, 1921
The 27-acre full-bearing apple orchard on the east side of town formerly known as the Tuttle property, which was sold by Sydney A. Jehl, the local realty broker, to Joseph Michaud and later to Dr. Cree, a dentist of San Francisco, has again been sold to a very prominent orchardist, G. L. Goddard. Dr. Cree takes as part payment an alfalfa ranch located near Tracy. The balance was paid in cash by the Goddards. The Goddards will immediately erect a very beautiful colonial residence on the property….The work of creating a new park in Corralitos has begun, with walks laid out, then the walks and border of the park receiving plantings of geraniums. The Frapwells had the honor of planting the first tree, a Hawthorne, and George Enos brought some acacias. Ben Ceschi has promised to poison the gophers in the park. More tree plantings and other work is being rapidly accomplished.
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