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Vol. 10, No. 5
YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
Delta Forum finds no easy fixes by Dave Roberts Staff Writer Six officials discussed the crisis of the collapsing Delta ecosystem for three hours before a packed audience at the Antioch Historical Museum Saturday morning – with little agreement on how to save the premiere waterway on the West Coast but with lots of fingers pointing at those contributing to the problem. The biggest culprit is waterthirsty crops, according to Dr. Lawrence Kolb, former assistant director for the Water Quality Board. “The real root problem we have in California is we take too much water out of the Delta for agriculture,” he said. “Farmers use about 80 percent of the water. A lot of water gives us limited social return. All of the crops amount to about 2 percent of the state’s economy. “About 40 percent of the water that farmers use goes to four low-value crops: cotton, rice, alfalfa and irrigated pas-
Environmentalist David Nesmith tells the audience at a Delta forum that fish get shortchanged because they can’t write checks or vote.
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January 29, 2010
THIS WEEK
Digging deep for Haiti aid
Opportunities abound for East County residents to join the international effort to relieve the suffering in Haiti.
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Exhibit A: local artists Photo by Dave Roberts
ture. These crops are about 13 percent of the value of agriculture but they use 40 percent of the water. Agriculture is a fairly small player in the economic picture of California – especially these low-value crops. They are
really expensive to grow, heavily mechanized and don’t provide much employment. We aren’t giving up that much (economically) if we have to cut back (water to farms).” But Kari Fisher, represent-
ing the California Farm Bureau Federation, begged to differ. “Water is liquid gold,” she said. “Without water, irrigated agriculture would not exist. Califorsee Forum page 18A
The Lynn House Gallery will be displaying the work of two artists whose reputation ranges far beyond East County.
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Wolverines edge Patriots
Mayor: Antioch not on life support by Dave Roberts
“The state of the city is good, … it is guarded, it’s stable, it’s not on life support, it’s breathing on its own,” said Mayor Jim Davis in his State of the City speech last week at DozierLibbey Medical High School.
Staff Writer Antioch’s city government is sick in bed with the fiscal flu, but it’s expected to pull through, according to Mayor Jim Davis, who chose the venue of Dozier-Libbey Medical High School to deliver a mixed diagnosis in his annual State of the City speech. “The state of the city, as I said seven months ago, was good,” he said. “Let me make a little bit of change to that. The state of the city is good. But because we are here at Dozier-Libbey Medical High School, it is guarded, it’s stable, it’s not on life support, it’s breathing on its own. And with your help and our nurturing, Antioch will survive and be stronger than ever before.”
Photo by Dave Roberts
While the mayor chose to accentuate the positive, Finance Director Dawn Merchant was more grim in her report describing the city’s fiscal crisis. In the past two years, sales tax revenue
has dropped 15 percent, property taxes are down 20 percent and community development fees are off 40 percent. “Every city in the state of California, as well as the state of California, is facing dire
Sell stuff!
financial straits,” she said. “And we definitely are not alone in that. We will continue to face challenging economic times.” As a result, city officials have slashed $11 million from the General Fund budget, laid off two dozen employees, closed City Hall every Friday, frozen hiring, reduced equipment and supply purchases, rescheduled police officers in order to reduce overtime, and gotten wage and benefit concessions from the employee unions. “Personnel costs are approximately 70 percent of the general fund budget,” said Merchant. “So, unfortunately, many of the cuts have to come in the form of staffing and salaries.” see Mayor page 18A
Post FREE online classifieds. It’s just one of many things you can do as a member! Sign in today at www.thepress.net. See page 17A.
The DV D stood strong and helped the Wolverines come away with a paper-thin win in a high-scoring scuffle.
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INSIDE Business .............................8A Calendar ..........................19B Classifieds ........................12B Cop Logs ..........................15A Entertainment ................18B Food .................................10B Health & Beauty ............... 8B Milestones ......................... 7B Opinion ...........................14A Sports ................................. 1B WebExtras! ....................... 1B
FOR MOVIE TIMES SEE PAGE 5A