November 4, 2011
On the Internet at www.LaMesaCourier.com
INSIDE THIS ISSUE e th
C
a
MESA LA Je wel o ls f th e Hil
By Donna Jones wn to
100 YEARS
H e
Cel eb r
n
ENN IA NT E
L
1912
Americ a
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t
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RE-DISCOVERING ANTIQUES IN LA MESA’S DOWNTOWN
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2012
Updated calendar of Centennial events, Page 13 PMS 2765: C=100 M= 98 Y=0 K=45
PMS 147: C=19 M= 40 Y=85 K=65
PMS 2726: C=84 M= 70 Y=0 K=0
PMS 600 : C=1 M= 0 Y=34 K=0
Anthony's Restaurant
Still creating memories 50 years later
Meet La Mesa's new Police Chief, Page 3
Consider shopping locally for the holidays… Page 6
Autumn returns. Find two great fall recipes, Pages 12 & 13 NEWS TIPS (619) 697-2500 x124 Editor@LaMesaCourier.com
ADVERTISE WITH US (619) 697-2500 x133 Sales@LaMesaCourier.com
Volume I – Number 6
Want a relaxing experience this holiday season? You can spend a day in downtown La Mesa hunting for treasures in more than half a dozen antique shops? La Mesa’s quaint downtown has a Leave it to Beaver look that puts you in the mood for vintage merchandise. It’s a walkable, friendly neighborhood where you can park your car in one spot and then spend a couple of hours perusing the merchandise. And who knows? You could find that Tiffany vase or wind-up Mickey Mouse that will land you a spot on Antiques Roadshow. You might be asking yourself why
For many La Mesa residents, lunch or dinner at Anthony’s Fish Grotto brings back happy memories. A family birthday celebration…a pre-prom dinner…a waitress who remembered your name…taking a restless toddler out to feed the ducks… even the menu itself, which has changed very little in 50 years (except of course the prices). It’s the kind of place your mom expected you to dress up for. You might not have been happy about that as a teenager, but once your platter of fried shrimp arrived, you forgave all. It all comes flooding back as you settle into one of their comfy booths and gaze out towards the peaceful lake. Anthony’s is a San Diego institution. Long before the Cohns came to town, the Ghios and their business partners were perfecting their winning formula for special event dining. The La Mesa restaurant was their third venture when it opened in 1961, on the shores of a small natural reservoir in the Grossmont foothills. Two members of the second generation of that original team are still owners. Two Ghio brothers, Anthony and Tod, and their friend Roy Weber helped their mother Catherine, “Mama” Ghio start the first Anthony’s restaurant on the waterfront in San Diego in 1946, after serving in World War II. The La Mesa restaurant opened 15 years later. Mama Ghio used Old World recipes and developed new ones. Her original recipes, batters, sauces and dressings are still on the menu. According to their marketing staff, they now serve more than one million customers and five million pounds of seafood each year at their three restaurants (including two on
you should be looking at antiques when you could be spending your money on a new smart phone or the newest app for your iPad. Aside from the fact that antiques rarely have the “Made in
See Anthony's, page 13
See Antiques, page 4
The Country Loft: One of many antique shops in the Village area
Proposed High School Boundary Changes Mt. Helix and Fletcher Hills among Affected Areas By Ted Crooks
plan to the District Board of Governors and presented it to the community at three forums. The next regularly schedAttendance boundaries between schools in the Grossuled board meeting is November 10 at 6 pm; the plan will mont Union High School District, last set in 2000, are likely be considered at that time. If you wish to be heard, check on to change. District population has shifted (El Cajon Valley Board policies and agendas at guhsd.net and arrive early. If High has grown 26% while Santana High has 24% fewer history is any guide, the plan may change, but major changes students and Granite Hills High has long been over-capacity); are unlikely unless there is substantial community pushSteele Canyon Charter High School (formed in 2007) and back, which at the time of this writing has been only modest. Helix Charter High School (chartered in 1998) have removed The plan allows current high school students to remain students from District control; overall district enrollment is at their assigned school but requires incoming students declining (non-charter enrollment is expected to decline from to follow the new boundaries. 18,711 in the 2010-11 school Limited intradistrict transfers year to 18,059 in 2013-14); and would be allowed, but option utilization of district-controlled areas now including about schools now averages 85% of 900 students would disaprated capacity but varies greatly pear. Overall, about 24% more from school to school. On top of students would be eligible for bus these internal shifts, the District transportation. is facing severe cuts in funding Grossmont High would from the State. lose about 400 students and its Responding to these changes, boundaries shrink in the north/ the District created a committee of community members and staff south direction by shifting most chaired by local business leader Fletcher Hills students northDoug Deane (CEO and founder of ward to West Hills (west Santee) long-established DSD Business and many Mt. Helix-area students Systems) and served by wizard southward to Monte Vista while First of three community forums about demographic consultant Vince including students further east boundary changes was sparsely attended. O’Hara. The committee first met to relieve overcrowded El Cajon in March. It has recommended a Valley. Helix High, now a charter See Boundary, page 7