YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ward Winning News al A pa
Vol. 7, No. 21
Including Surrounding Communities
www.thepress.net
rs
Na t
pe
ion
May 22, 2009
Supervisors OK P6 spending Water woe
THIS WEEK
warnings
Discovery Bay to get two new deputies by Ruth Roberts Staff Writer Two additional resident deputies will soon be patrolling the streets of Discovery Bay – possibly as soon as June 1 – marking the end of a yearlong effort begun by residents to activate the town’s dormant P6 funds. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to allocate Discovery Bay P6 funds to pay for two additional deputies, a crime specialist and a new patrol car under a revised proposal made late last year by Sheriff Warren Rupf.
Discovery Bay elementary students are getting a boatload of insight about water safety.
Page 4A Photo by Richard Wisdom
The Hofmann Company has offered to make office space available to the new Discovery Bay deputies. The spot will most likely be in the old shopping center, above, on Discovery Bay Boulevard. “This is certainly positive news with regard to public safety,” said Rupf. “Every part of the community of Discovery Bay certainly needs something like this. I’m a bit embarrassed by the
slowness with which government progresses, but it’s still very good news.” The allocation of the funds, more than $500,000 annually, comes on the heels of recent
countywide law enforcement cutbacks. In unincorporated Discovery Bay, where regular nighttime patrol hours have been scaled see P6 page 21A
Nailing the numbers Students striving for arithmetical achievement will be pitching their tents at math camp.
Page 11A
Soft ball a hard target
Photo by Dave Roberts
The graffiti-laden trains that have been stored along Highway 4 in Antioch for a half year finally moved out of the area last weekend – but they could be back.
Graffiti trains gone, might return by Dave Roberts Staff Writer East County officials, who have been trying to run out of town on a rail scores of graffiti-laden train cars, breathed a sigh of relief this week when the cars finally left over the weekend. The bad news is that they could be back. “This was an effort I led in Washington, D.C. and with the CCC Mayors Conference as well
as the Delta Six (committee),” said Antioch Mayor Jim Davis via email regarding the trains leaving the Union Pacific Mococo Line in Antioch, where they moved in a halfyear ago and were quite visible to motorists on Highway 4. But Union Pacific spokeswoman Zoey Richmond said that while company officials are aware of elected officials’ concerns about the trains, the cars were moved because they were needed to haul freight for
a customer. “That’s the reason why we have to keep these cars stored in various areas throughout our system,” said Richmond. “At a moment’s notice we can have a customer call us up needing to ship something, and we need to be ready to serve that business.” Although there are no current plans to again store rail cars in East County, Union Pacific could do so at any time, despite concerns that
Sound off!
have been voiced by community officials, she said. “We have around 60,000 rail cars in storage because of the slow economy,” she said. “From time to time the communities do complain about them being unsightly, being a little irritating. As business goes up and down in the area, there is always the potential you might see cars stored there again. It’s all going see Graffiti page 21A
The Lions had little success laying any lumber on a Falcon ace’s scorching pitches.
Page 1B
INSIDE Business .............................7A Calendar ..........................27B Classifieds ........................17B Cop Logs ..........................17A Entertainment ................12B Food .................................14B Health & Beauty ............... 8B Milestones .......................11B Opinion ...........................16A Sports ................................. 1B WebExtras! ....................... 1B
Let your voice be heard.
Share your activities, thoughts or beliefs.Start a blog at www.thepress.net. Read more on page 20A.
FOR MOVIE TIMES SEE PAGE 5A