Merced Sun-Star
September 25, 1983: Weaver School District officials have finalized purchase of property for a new school site and are starting the process of getting state approval for building a second campus.
Nearly 2,000 new housing units are scheduled to be built in the Weaver attendance area and one of the projects, a 238-unit complex of apartments, multi-dwellings and zero lot line homes at the corner of Parsons and Childs avenues, has already been started, according to district officials.
The district bought the 10 acres of land, located at the northwest corner of Mission Avenue and Coffee Street, for $120,000 after more than two years of negotiations and friendly eminent domain procedures.
District Superintendent Roy Ward said he expects the new growth will cause a need for a new school in about 1 1/2 to 2 years.
He said six developments, totaling 1,983 units, have been proposed for the area. "The problem is, we don't know when (they will all be completed)." he said.
At present, Weaver School has 810 students in grades kindergarten through eight, and it has a capacity for 900 to 1,000, Ward said.
An architect is putting together a site utilization plan for the new property, to outline what the district plans to do with the property before filing for a use permit, he said.
Ward said the district anticipates the new building will cost about $2 million.
September 25, 1998
B-52 ADDS OLD-TIME AIR TO FLY-IN:
Gliding to earth like some ancient pterodactyl, an old warbird touched down at the former Castle Air Force Base early Thursday afternoon.
Lt. Col. Jim Blackwood let it roll a ways down the runway before ordering full power to be restored. A gathering crowd of sentimentalists gasped as the beast lifted to the sky again. They had witnessed the first B-52 touch-an-go landing at Castle in nearly three years.
"I've made a lot of touch-and-goes on this runway," Blackwood said, moments after the crew performed a perfect landing and taxied the 38-year-old B-52H Stratofortress to its reserved parking space on the flightline, near Trajen Flight Support.
It will remain there throughout the weekend as the Experimental Aircraft Association conducts its first Golden West EAA Fly-In and Convention at Castle Airport Aviation and Development Center.
The three-day program, featuring aircraft displays, and seminars, forums and workshops on flight-related topics, begins today. It concludes Sunday evening.
"This place looks familiar, except there's been a lot of development around it," Blackwood said, revealing he was assigned to Castle from 1992 through 1995. He had flown two of the last B-52's off the base shortly before it closed in 1995 and was on board the last KC-135 tanker to depart Castle.
