NEWS
BART agrees to add Pleasanton in its Livermore expansion planning
Safeway flu shot paperwork missing
Agency to meet with council, hold discussions in both cities
Consent form patients may have filled out included health ID number, other health information
BY JEB BING
In a welcome turnaround, BART officials this week agreed to include Pleasanton city representatives in planning an extension of the rapid transit system to Livermore, which could take the tracks through northeast Pleasanton. The agreement came after Pleasanton City Manager Nelson Fialho complained to Malcolm Quint, BART project manager, about planning meetings held in Livermore in recent weeks to discuss a 2,000-page Environmental Impact Report that Pleasanton officials had never seen. Although some Pleasanton business leaders were invited to the discussion meetings, as well as city representatives from other communities, no one from the Pleasanton council or city staff were advised of the meetings or asked to participate. That brought a blistering letter from Fialho, who asked Quint if he was “intentionally leaving Pleasanton out of the policy/land use discussion” even though several alignments for an extension of BART to Livermore’s downtown called for placing elevated tracks over Staples Ranch, where millions of dollars in development projects are planned. Two developers, one of a 37-acre auto mall that would fall right under the elevated transit system, and another a 600- to 800-unit senior housing and care facil-
BY JANET PELLETIER
JANET PELLETIER
District 4 BART Director John McPartland (left) speaks to a crowd at a Livermore public hearing, as BART Project Manager Malcolm Quint (right) looks on.
ity, indicated they were unhappy with the BART plan. Fialho said Quint agreed to schedule meetings in Pleasanton and Livermore on an alternating basis and scheduled a major presentation about BART’s plans before the Pleasanton City Council on Dec. 15. Assistant City Manager Steve Bocian was designated as the city’s official representative to the BART planning process. BART has developed a series of alternate plans for extending the trains to Livermore, a long-sought goal. Up to now, the only discussed route had been extending the tracks from the Pleasanton-Dublin station east to Greenville Road with BART tracks continuing in the center or alongside Interstate 580 as they now do to Pleasanton. That’s still
an option, in fact it’s the shortest and cheapest of all the routes under consideration and would attract the most riders — 31,700 new daily BART riders by the year 2035, At a station planning meeting held in Livermore last week, most reviewers panned the route that would take BART into downtown Livermore, saying they preferred the I-580 route. However, Livermore officials want trains to be routed through its downtown. The city is in the midst of a massive downtown redevelopment that will include a 2,000-seat performing arts center, partly financed by Wente Bros. It needs BART to be downtown, too, to carry riders from other cities BART serves to its new downtown and theater. ■
Safeway is reaching out to anyone who received a flu shot at the Santa Rita Road grocery store’s mobile clinic in late September because some paperwork has gone missing. According to Safeway spokeswoman Susan Houghton, consent forms that patients may have filled out when they went for a shot on Sept. 29 have been lost. “Unfortunately we had a situation where the forms that these individuals filled out have been lost and it’s not something we’re happy about,” she said. “We just wanted to alert people to the situation.” Houghton said 30 people received shots that day, half of whom are Safeway employees. The forms contain personal information such as name, address, telephone number, health insurance identification number and other health information. “The good news is there were no social security numbers or anything like that on the form,” Houghton said. “We know they weren’t stolen.” The Santa Rita Road store does not have a pharmacy, so Safeway operates a mobile clinic that stations itself in the parking lot occasionally, where a hired pharmacist administers the shots. Houghton added that while Safeway doesn’t believe the information has been used improperly, she recommends the people affected check their health and credit accounts for any unusual activity. “We are asking people to go ahead and give us a call so we can explain the situation individually and go from there,” she said. The number to call is 877-SAFEWAY (723-3929). ■
New Talent for a New Year
Tracy Flores
Darius Linette
Heidi Lekan
Executive Chef – Tracy Flores joins Castlewood on December 1st. Her experience includes Executive Chef positions with Hilton Hotels, San Jose Country Club, Silver Creek Valley Country Club and The Villages Golf and Country Club in San Jose. Ms. Flores is a member of the Chef’s Association of the Pacific Coast and has volunteered at many non-profit fundraisers – including Special Olympics.
Tennis Director – Dariusz Linette has been a certified United States Professional Tennis Registry for the last 14 years and a competitive player for 16 years before that.
Director of Communications – Heidi Lekan has extensive country club administrative experience. She joins Castlewood from Anthem, Arizona where she worked six years for Fellowship Church. Mrs. Lekan also worked at Anthem Country Club in Henderson, Nevada and Terravita Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona with current General Manager Jerry Olson. She will be responsible for upgrading and maintaining the Club’s website among other duties.
Mr. Linette comes to Castlewood from Tompkins Tennis Academy. He also was a Tennis Director at Lake Geneva Country Club. Dariusz was a top ranked junior in Poland as well as on a national team. He also coached nationally ranked juniors in the United States. Mr. Linette will direct the tennis staff and will be responsible for organizing internal and external tennis tournaments, providing lessons for juniors, women and men players at all skill levels, operating the junior summer camp and cardio tennis.
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