San Bernardino City Services

The newspapers of San Bernardino city are: the Times-Index, daily and weekly, edited by L. M. Holt, and the Courier, daily and weekly, edited by A. Kearney. The first named is issued in the afternoon, and the second in the morning.

The following is a list of newspapers published in the county of San Bernardino:

  • City of San Bernardino Times-Index, daily and weekly.
  • Courier, daily and weekly.
  • Riverside Press, daily and weekly.
  • Phoenix, weekly.
  • Colton Chronicle, weekly; News, weekly.
  • Ontario Record, weekly; Observer, weekly.
  • Redlands Citrograph, weekly.
  • South Riverside Bee, weekly.
  • Beaumont Sentinel, weekly.
  • Banning Herald, weekly.
  • Chino Champion, weekly.
  • Rialto Orange Grower, weekly.

The city water works were instituted as follows: on November 2, 1889, the citizens voted $160,000 of bonds for a system of water works. The contracts for laying pipes, constructing reservoirs, sinking wells and setting hydrants, are all let, and operations are now (May, 1890), in active progress. The supply will be of artesian water, from an elevation of 205 feet above the city, being very pure and excellent water. By the first of October 1890, water under pressure will have been introduced into city use. The city engineer estimates that the quantity will be abundant to supply the needs of years hence, even under the conditions of rapid in crease. The cost to the city of the electric streetlights is $411 monthly, which supports five towers, and some 175 street lights in suspension.

During 1888-’89, the municipal government, under the authority of the State law known as the Vrooman Act, did a vast amount of execution in the way of beautifying the city and improving its sanitary condition. Among other important features is the completion of the sewer system. About 51,000 feet, or over nine miles of sewer pipe was laid, at a cost of about $85,000, and about 140 house connections were made with it, at a cost of some $14,000. This has revolutionized the system of house plumbing. The principal streets were graded at a cost of some $8,000; and, at a cost of $4,000 culverts were put down to carry the storm water. At the street crossings were laid good plank walks, costing $2,000, and nearly three miles were laid of artificial stone and bituminous rock sidewalks, which cost about $40,000. The construction of the large ditches on the outskirts of the city has been a marked success. The total expenditure for public improvements during this season was $135,000.

San Bernardino has taken a decided stand on the telephone system, having numerous local connections, besides others with Riverside, twelve miles distant; Colton, three miles distant; Etiwanda, sixteen miles distant; and Red-lands, ten miles distant.

The first burial ground of San Bernardino valley was located on a bluff overlooking the lowlands, on the spot where M. B. Garner’s home now stands. Many of the bodies from this cemetery were removed to the new graveyard, east of A Street, between Seventh and Eighth, just outside the city limits. The Jewish cemetery occupied the adjoining lot on the north, and next to that was the Roman Catholic burying-ground, until a few years since, when that sect purchased a new tract, several miles north of the town. In this old cemetery are buried most of the dead of San Bernardino valley.

Source: An Illustrated History of Southern California: embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of lower California.

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