Brentwood Press_01.01.10

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YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

Vol. 12, No. 1

Including Surrounding Communities

www.thepress.net

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January 1, 2010

Effort launched to re-move theater by Rick Lemyre

Nancy Torres, former artistic director of the Brentwood Community Theater, talks with a crowd of about 200 people who attended what was to be a farewell to the Bristow Theater. The idea of moving the theater rather than demolishing it is being studied.

Staff Writer Two hundred people came together at the Bill Bristow Community Theater on the Edna Hill Middle School campus Dec. 19 to look at pictures, tell stories and remember. With a new theater set to open in January, the venerable venue, moved to Brentwood from Pleasant Hill some 30 years ago, is planned to come down, and some of those who have seen or put on performances there had come to say goodbye. But “Goodbye” might just turn out to be “See you later.” Amid the impromptu reprise of past performances, Jan Melloni of the Brentwood Arts Society made an announcement that surprised and pleased virtually everyone in the room: preliminary plans were underway to save the building from destruction once again, move it to the site of the

Photo by Rick Lemyre

future Agricultural Heritage Park on Sellers Avenue, and use it for the home of a new community theater group. “It’s going to take about a million dollars to buy the the-

ater, number all the pieces, take it apart and put it back together,” Melloni told the crowd. “We’re looking to the community for a large part of it because we can’t do it alone.”

Things will have to move quickly if it’s to happen. The school needs the building gone by July 1, Melloni said this week, see Theater page 18A

Obama orders delay in 2-Gates project by Ruth Roberts Staff Writer Opponents of the proposed Delta 2Gates project won the battle if not the war last week when the Obama administration called for the delay of the controversial test plan to save the Delta smelt. “We’re excited that they are slowing it down, but I’m not super surprised,” said Mike Guzzardo, publicity chairman for the Discovery Bay-based group San Francisco Bay and Delta Foundation (SFBDF). “It’s a minor victory, but we’re happy.” The Federal Interim Act report, released Dec. 22, promises a stronger working relationship between state and federal agencies as it pertains to California’s drinking water and the declining Bay-Delta environment. The 23-page report also calls for, among other items, a re-evaluation of the scientific process and cost efficiency behind the proposed 2-Gates program. “Federal agencies have undertaken intensive review and permitting efforts on this project in recent months,” reads an excerpt from the report. “As the reviews have pro-

“ We’re excited that they are slowing it down ... It’s a minor victory, but we’re happy.

Mike Guzzardo, publicity chairman, San Francisco Bay and Delta Foundation ceeded, it has become clear that the project purpose could most expeditiously be advanced by first proving (or disproving) the underlying hypothesis that must be established for the 2-Gates project to be effective as a potential water supply enhancement.” The 2-Gates project is a five-year, $80 million, experimental program designed to save the Delta smelt by rerouting them away from the water pumps on Old and Middle rivers in Byron. The project is a joint venture by the State Department of Water Resources, the Federal Bureau of Reclamation and the Southern

California Metropolitan Water District, and would implement the installation of gates at Old River between Holland Tract and Bacon Island, plus a Connection Slough between Mandeville and Bacon Island. The automatic gates would be closed at various times of the year for as much as 20 hours per day, depending on flood tides. Over the past few months, local groups and organizations up and down the Delta have lobbied for a halt to the gates project. In Discovery Bay, the SFBDF was able to extend the public comment period on the project, and eventually hopes to force the Bureau of Reclamation to provide an Environmental Impact Report for the Discovery Bay and Delta regions. Members of the SFBDF also met recently, along with Congressman Jerry McNerney and Supervisor Mary Piepho, with the Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation to discuss the 2-Gates project. “Clearly this was all already in the works (the plans to delay the project) before we had the meeting,” said Guzzardo. “But it was

ePress easy!

see 2-Gates page 18A

TO ALL OUR PRESS READERS

FAREWELL 2009 As we’ve done with the first edition of the year for a decade now, this week the Press looks back at some of the stories that graced our pages over the last 12 months. As always, the selection isn’t meant to suggest what were the most important, but to provide a sampling of what went on in the year just past. As always, we consider it our privilege to have been a part of life around here and hope that 2010 brings prosperity, peace and happiness to all our readers. Thanks for sharing with us, and enjoy this stroll down memory lane.

INSIDE Calendar ..........................19B Classifieds ........................13B Cop Logs ..........................15A Entertainment ................18B Food .................................10B Health & Beauty ............... 8B Milestones ......................... 7B Outdoors ...........................8A Sports ................................. 1B WebExtras! ....................... 1B

Flip the online pages.

Browse the pages of the Press just as they appear in the hard copy at www.thepress.net. See page 7A.

FOR MOVIE TIMES SEE PAGE 5A


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