YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
Vol. 16, No. 9
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Giving hope to teens
Snowcapped mountain
March 2, 2018
Take It To The Professionals
by Aly Brown Staff Writer
In the wake of Discovery Bay resident Jesse Ramirez’s death, his family is channeling their grief into something positive for the community. Jody Gianni, Jesse’s stepmother, joined WR Properties as a real estate agent about four years ago and spoke often with the company founder, Wes Olson, about ways they could serve the community. “Life gets busy, and the idea got put on the backburner,” Gianni said. “In 2017, we spoke about it again, wanting to make it a reality.” But when Jesse took his own life on Jan. 16 this year, following a series of insee Hope page 22A
Find health advice, resources in this week’s Medical and Dental Professionals section. Page 1B
Here Come The Brides Photo by John Parker
W
inter finally arrived this week and East County was treated to a gorgeous snowy view of Mount Diablo. Discovery Bay resident John Parker snapped this dichotomous photo from his deck. Other local photographers also offered their photos, which can be found at www.thepress.net/multimedia/slideshows.
Brides-to-be enjoy a Brentwood fair to find inspiration for the big day. Page 10A
California WaterFix project picking up speed Patriots Win “ They want a water right to build two
by Tony Kukulich Staff Writer
The pace of activity related to the California WaterFix project has stepped up considerably in the last few weeks, and several major developments have arisen. Those developments included the resumption of the Part 2 hearings, the issuance of a major ruling by the State Water Resources Control Board, the revelation that the Metropolitan Water District is examining the option of funding a majority of the cost of a two-tunnel solution and the release of an long-awaited economic analysis of the project. The original WaterFix plan was based on the construction of two tunnels, each with a 4,500 cubic feet per second (cfs)
tunnels, but they don’t want to tell the public how much that will cost or what the real water quality impacts will be for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.
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Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director, Restore the Delta capacity. On Feb. 7, Karla Nemeth, Department of Water Resources (DWR) director, issued a statement that called for the construction of a single tunnel with a 6,000 cfs capacity. This has been referred to as a singletunnel plan, but that designation is a misnomer as the plan allows for the construction of a second tunnel at some undetermined
point in the future when sufficient funding is available. The adoption of a staged construction approach came after Central Valley and Southern California water agencies expected to pay for the construction failed to commit to the cost. The change to WaterFix proposed by DWR prompted a number of groups opposing
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the project to file motions with the State Water Board seeking to have the tunnel construction permit approval hearings stopped. The motions argued that the hearings were based on a two-tunnel plan and the adoption of a staged approach to the construction was significant enough to necessitate restarting the hearings based on the new plan specifications. The Part 2 hearings got underway on Feb. 8 but lasted only a short while. The Water Board opted to cancel two weeks of hearings during which time it considered the impact of DWR’s change on the hearing process. The State Water Resources Control Board ruled on Feb. 21 that the Part 2 hearings should con-
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Heritage boys’ and girls’ basketball teams advancing to the North Coast Section semifinals. Page 15A
see WaterFix page 22A
Breaking News ..................7A Calendar.............................23A Classifieds..........................19A Cop Logs.............................14A Entertainment..................10A Education ............................5A Opinion...............................11A Pets........................................ 8A Sports..................................15A
FCC Town Hall
Children’s Forum
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Congressman Jerry McNerney hosting net neutrality town hall meeting.
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14th Annual Young Children’s Issues Forum on March 17 in Pleasant Hill.