YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
Vol. 17, No. 25
READ FAMILY-FRIENDLY NEWS AT WWW.THEPRESS.NET
Town remodels dog park
Henry The Canada Goose
Smiling for the win
by Dawnmarie Fehr
Local Brentwood author pens first children’s book about love and acceptance. Page 5
Correspondent
The Town of Discovery Bay is updating its two dog parks. In a process that began last September, the town has been killing weeds and removing asphalt to make the parks more userfriendly. Initially, just the small dog park and a portion of the large dog park were closed for extensive weed killing. Now, both parks are shut down and a temporary park, on the other side of the community center’s lot, has been set up. Parks and landscape manager Brian Miller has been handling the project. He said things are moving forward, albeit not as quickly as originally planned, thanks to
Be A Big Break Docent Photo by Dawnmarie Fehr
K
ayden Watts, Aspen Hall, Sophia Lopez and Ashley Greer of the Discovery Bay River Otters 11/12 girls ‘A’ relay team pause to smile before winning their race last Saturday morning. The River Otters swam against the Tracy Tritons in a dual swim meet at the Triton’s home pool. Despite many top three placements and improved times, the team fell short of winning its fourth meet of the season.
see Dog page 22
Fire board examines funding options by Tony Kukulich Staff Writer
An effort by the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District (ECCFPD) to secure additional funding took a step forward on Tuesday, June 18, when district officials were briefed on research related to residents’ attitudes on fire service and fire funding. Recently completed for the district by public affairs firm CliffordMoss and EMC Research, polling indicates the public’s perception of the district’s funding problems might be changing, as a slight majority of respondents support a benefit assessment. “I am cautiously optimistic,” said ECCFPD Fire Chief Brian Helmick. “It’s good to see
“ I am cautiously optimistic. It’s good to see that our community values the services that we provide.
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Fire Chief Brian Helmick that our community values the services that we provide. More importantly, I’m encouraged that there is growing awareness of the need for more resources to improve 911 emergency response times and attract and retain qualified professional firefighters.” ECCFPD operates three stations and estimates that a minimum of six stations are required to provide an adequate level of service for residents. At an estimated cost of $4 million a year per station, the incremental
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funding need is approximately $12 million per year. With about 45,000 parcels in the district, ECCFPD’s goal is to raise $300 per year, per parcel. Attempts to increase funding were voted down in 2012, 2015 and 2016. The district is researching a benefit assessment and a parcel tax, and there are important differences between the two measures. “The district only has two viable mechanisms,” explained Helmick. “A parcel tax goes to all voters and it takes a twothirds majority to pass. It’s
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very unrestricted. You can use it however you want. The other mechanism we have is a benefit assessment. The voters are the property owners of our jurisdiction. It takes a 50 percentplus-one voter threshold for it to pass. We have to define a specific benefit to each parcel within our jurisdiction, and that is the amount they are charged.” Of the 691 respondents, 53 percent said the district has a great need for additional funding, and a majority of those polled supported a benefit assessment. Even a slim majority of support for the benefit assessment may indicate that voters have turned a corner with regard to fire district funding. Researchsee Funding page 22
County Openings www.thepress.net/news/webextras
A variety of citizen advisory seats are available in Contra Costa County.
Big Break Regional Shoreline in Oakley looking for volunteer docents. Page 5
Major League Hopeful
Former Freedom pitcher and farm team player working toward his dream of major leagues. Page 15 Calendar................................23 Classifieds.............................19 Cop Logs................................13 Education................................4 Entertainment.......................9 Food..........................................8 Milestones............................11 Opinion..................................14 Sports.....................................15
Parks Survey
www.thepress.net/news/press_releases
East Bay Regional Park District is conducting a survey and asking for public feedback.