NEWS
Seminars planned to help with mortgage problems
Handles Gastropub moving into Pleasanton Hotel
Cities also launching fundraiser for Tri-Valley Housing Opportunity Center BY JEB BING
Farmer to close Sunday, new eatery opening in fall The Farmer Restaurant in the Pleasanton Hotel on north Main Street will close Sunday with a new restaurant to replace it in September. Restaurant staff has been handing customers glossy cards along with their table checks, promoting Handles Gastropub as the new restaurant. Handles bills itself as a restaurant that features “American comfort food” while also offering 30 craft beers and 16 local wines. Mixed drinks also will be available. On its Facebook page posted Friday, Handles Gastropub lists its general manager as Brent Schwager, who is also listed as the operator of Mountain Winery in Saratoga. Brian Hampton is named as the chef of the new Handles restaurant here. Handles will be the third restaurant in just a little over two years in the hotel. —Jeb Bing
GLENN WOHLTMANN
The fun of science Junior Raquel Fraticelli (right) and sophomore Samuel Peters explain rocks, gems and minerals to students from Lydiksen Elementary at Amador Valley High School’s annual Spring Science Extravaganza. Students from all the district’s elementary schools were invited to see science in action with activities that ranged from the science of slime to experiments with dry ice. “It’s just fun to see how the kids want to do all the things we do on a regular basis in high school chemistry,” said junior Matthew Gugielmo. “It’s something to look forward to.” The 550 high school students involved raised their own money for the two-day event, with T-shirt and entertainment book sales and the help of a grant from Pleasanton Partnerships In Education.
The city of Pleasanton will co-host two free housing education symposiums to observe Tri-Valley Housing Opportunities Week starting tomorrow. The seminars, being held in collaboration with the cities of Danville, Dublin, Livermore and San Ramon, will cover a broad range of topics related to housing including financial literacy, foreclosure prevention and homeownership education. The first seminar will focus on the subject “I’m Behind on My Monthly House Payment — What’s Next?” It is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon tomorrow in the Dublin Library, just behind the Dublin Civic Center on Dublin Boulevard. Led by local nonprofit agencies, attorneys and Realtors, the workshop will have information about how to pursue a loan modification, the foreclosure process, the short sale process, how to ease the transition of losing a home, as well as resources and infor-
mation on “next steps.” Then Thursday, June 9, the seminar will focus on the question: “Is the Real Estate Market Meeting the Needs of First-Time Homebuyers?” Hosted by the Tri-Valley Affordable Housing Committee, this meeting will be held in the Regional Meeting Room in the Dublin Civic Center from 9 to 10:30 a.m., and will again include representatives of the real estate and mortgage loan market. Also in the coming week, an open house is planned from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, June 8, at the Tri-Valley Housing Opportunity Center, 141 N. Livermore Ave. in Livermore. The event will kick off a major fundraising campaign for the center and will also serve to highlight services and opportunities for business and community partnerships. For further information, contact Pleasanton’s Housing Specialist Scott Erickson at 931-5007 or serickson@ ci.pleasanton.ca.us. N
Our local news comes at a (very low) price. The Pleasanton Weekly may seem free, but it’s really not.
share some of the costs of producing this journalism.
Supporting a staff of local journalists, publishing a weekly newspaper and operating a website with breaking news is an expensive undertaking … too expensive in an economy where the local businesses we rely on for advertising are struggling.
For as little at 17¢ a day ($5 a month) you can become a subscribing member of the Pleasanton Weekly. We’ll thank you in ads, invite you to special “members-only” events and send you a “Support Local Journalism” bumper sticker.
So after giving you more than 10 years of free news about our town, and creating a website that has become Pleasanton’s most popular local online destination, we’re asking you to
But most important, we’ll be able to keep providing Pleasanton with the award-winning local reporting that any vibrant community needs.
To begin your membership, call us at 600-0840 or go to SupportLocalJournalism.org/Pleasanton and sign up online.
Pleasanton Weekly Print and Online
Pleasanton Weekly Today’s top stories & hot picks
5506 Sunol Boulevard, Suite 100, Pleasanton (925) 600-0840 Page 6ÊUÊJune 3, 2011ÊUÊPleasanton Weekly
e or s 7 m hip et 8 2 s e ly ber o m n O em d t al! m de go e r ne ou