YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ward Winning News al A pa
Vol. 9, No. 12
Antioch, California
www.antiochpress.com
Council urged to support Delta by Dave Roberts Staff Writer
Bill Worrell, an Antioch resident with the Sportsman Yacht Club, this week asked the City Council to attend a meeting Monday night in Brentwood concerning the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, which, he said, “will be our last chance to stop the Peripheral Canal. Once this is approved, our governor, also known as the Delta Terminator, will … ram the canal down our throats. I’m appalled at the lack of (local) political opposition to the canal.” Councilwoman Martha Parsons agreed with Worrell’s concerns about the canal hurting local water quality. “It seemed that someone drank the KoolAid,” she said. “The governor took us out the equation. He may do whatever he wants by making the declaration of the drought as he did. I have written letters. But beyond that, I’m not sure what we can do other than storm Sacramento.
I do feel your pain.” The meeting will take place 6-10 p.m. Monday, March 23 in the Brentwood Community Center, 730 Third St. For more information, go online to www.water.ca.gov/deltainit/bdcp.cfm. In other business at Tuesday’s meeting: • Former City Councilman Allen Payton told the council Tuesday night that a city creek in the vicinity of A Street and Wilbur Avenue has become severely polluted. He provided photos to the council showing gray, brackish water containing litter and debris and told the council that, fortunately, the photos don’t convey the sewage-like stench rising from the creek. “When you see this, it’s rather disturbing,” said Payton. “I encourage you to go down there and check out what this is. There’s an old truck torn apart and a huge pile of trash. Something see Council page 13A
THIS WEEK
Small stature, big hearts
Page 9A
Photo by Allen Payton
The City Council has been asked to look into conditions in this creek off Wilbur Avenue, which reportedly smells as bad as it looks.
by Rick Lemyre Staff Writer
This is the second of a three-part series on the efforts of two far East County towns to retain their heritage and remain rural and small in the face of regional growth and changing local politics. Part one (last week): Setting the stage (log on to thepress. net); this week: The changes play out; part three: Looking ahead.
Photo by Stacey Chance/Discovery Bay Studios.com
Residents of the small East County town of Byron are concerned that their town’s heritage and ambience is threatened by future development. packed a local meeting room, bringing together for the first time some disconcerted residents, their recently displaced representatives, their newly appointed representatives, and
March 20, 2009
These Diablo Vista students really care – and they’ve got the documents to prove it.
Emotion, commotion and the metamorphosis of two local MACs
The East Contra Costa towns of Byron and Knightsen are both more than 100 years old, small, and like it that way. Residents of both feel threatened by nearby development and are alarmed that the area they represent has been recently cut in half and their representative councils replaced. They’re suspicious of county government, of their neighbors in Discovery Bay and of District III Supervisor Mary Nejedly Piepho, who falls into both categories. And they each recently
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Piepho. Back in 2005, Piepho, along with District V Supervisor Federal Glover, had been directed by the full county Board of Supervisors
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(BOS) to form an ad hoc committee to “improve consistency” among the county’s 11 municipal advisory councils (MACs). Most were set up in the late 1980s and early 1990s to provide the county supervisor in their district with recommendations on matters of concern in their unincorporated communities. The MACs were a hodgepodge of roughly similar organizations ranging in size from five to nine members. Some had elected representatives; others were appointed. Some got administrative assistance from the county; others didn’t. And there were no consistent criteria for drawing boundaries. Over the next two and a half years, new policies, procedures and boundary guidelines were created, discussed in public meetings and adopted by the full BOS on Dec. 16, 2008. Most MAC boundaries were untouched, Knightsen and see MACs page 21A
Curtain goes up on ‘Proof’ An award-winning and timely play explores the dynamics of hope and despair.
Page 4A
Local soccer scores grant
The nurturing alliance on the sidelines forged by parents and coaches earned a local league some much-needed funds.
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INSIDE Business ...........................14A Calendar ..........................23B Classifieds ........................17B Cop Logs ..........................17A Entertainment ................14B Food .................................12B Health & Beauty .............11B Milestones ......................... 9B Opinion ...........................16A Sports ................................. 1B WebExtras! ....................... 1B
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