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YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
Vol. 11, No. 28
Ground broken on power plant by Samie Hartley Staff Writer
Local, county and state officials gathered in Oakley on Tuesday to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Oakley Generating Station. A crowd of approximately 150 attended the festivities that marked the official start of construction of the 614-megawatt, state-of-the-art, natural-gas-fired, combined-cycle power plant. The station, located on Bridgehead Road on 22 acres at the former DuPont property, will offer one of the first applications of General Electric’s latest, advanced 7FA gas turbine, which will operate more efficiently and be more environmentally friendly than previous turbines. The new technology will eliminate 19,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually and use 93 percent less water than
Photo by Steve Nosanchuk
Oakley City Council members, from left, Vice Mayor Kevin Romick, Carol Rios, Mayor Jim Frazier, Pat Anderson and Randy Pope make their mark at the Oakley Generating Station groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday. conventional power plants. “This is a beautiful day,” said Oakley Mayor Jim Frazier as he welcomed the crowd to the invitation-only event. “It’s been a long
process … but here we are today, and it’s a good day. Let’s get this party started.” Danville-based Radback Energy formally introduced the
Oakley Generating Station project back in November of 2009 when the project went before the California Energy Commission (CEC) for its first public hearing. After months of investigations, the CEC approved the project in May of this year. The construction of the plant is expected to take 32 months and create more than 700 union jobs. After completion, a crew of approximately 20 will operate the facility. Frazier said he and the Oakley council are proud to welcome Radback and GE to Oakley and look forward to their continued partnership. Radback has already contributed to the community in many ways, most recently helping fund a portion of the fireworks show at the annual Oakley Citysee Power page 15A
Fire district developing options by Rick Lemyre Staff Writer
A pair of committees is now looking at possible futures for the cash-strapped East Contra Costa Fire Protection District that serves Brentwood, Oakley, Discovery Bay and unincorporated far East County. The district board held a special workshop Monday to discuss a plan offered by fire board directors Pat Anderson of Oakley and Steve Barr of Brentwood. That plan, created with the help of representatives from Citigate, the consulting firm that put together a now-outdated plan for the district 10 years ago, could see the district divided into coverage zones based on population concentrations rather than city limits. Under the plan, each zone would receive the same baseline service, based on what the district can afford now. The district now spends nearly $12 million per year, but de-
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clines in property tax revenue have reduced income to just over $8 million per year. The district is currently making up the difference with reserves, which will run out next year. That means that without a revenue enhancement, the baseline could be reduced to three stations in the district that now operates six. Citigate representative Stewart Gary said there are only three ways the district can reduce expenses: cut pay, cut hours or cut staff. One possible way, he said, was to use as many as 13 paid-on-call (POC) firefighters in place of some of the district’s 48 full-time employees. It’s important to note that POCs are not volunteers, Gary said. Because so many residents work out of the area and are not available to answer calls, and since modern firefighters require 70 to 100 hours per year of training to stay current, a volunteer system such as far East County relied on years ago isn’t practical. Paid-on-call firefighters are es-
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July 15, 2011
Back to the blackboard
From immunization rules to new campuses, our Back-to-School section gets you ready for the first bell. Page 1B
Hard gets a lot easier The historic Roswell Butler Hard House in Antioch appears on the road to restoration. Page 3A
No little victories
Several local Little League teams took home hardware at a district all-star tournament. Page 19A
Photo by Rick Lemyre
At this week’s fire board meeting, Oakley police Chief Bani Kollo, center, presented ECCFPD Captain Jeremy Copple, left, and Engineer Kalani Dillon with a Certificate of Valor for pulling a gunshot victim to safety at the height of a hostage crisis. sentially part-time workers, although they are fully qualified firefighters. Typically young, POCs are paid less and can be used to bolster staffing during big community events or periods of high fire danger. At Monday’s occasionally contentious workshop, the district’s Executive Committee (EC), which includes city managers Bryan Mont-
Corn-ucopia
go to news/WebExtras! Check out the kernels of culinary genius in our Corn Recipe Contest.
gomery (Oakley) and Donna Landeros (Brentwood) and fire Chief Hugh Henderson, was tasked with developing a strategy and possible team of experts that could help put together various service scenarios. That strategic outline will be brought back to
Business ............................... 6B Calendar ............................ 19B Classifieds ......................... 12B Cop Logs ............................17A Back-to-School ................... 1B Entertainment ................... 9B Food .................................... 10B Health & Beauty ................ 8B Milestones .......................... 7B Opinion ..............................16A Sports .................................19A ravemotionpictures Brentwood 14 +
see Fire page 15A
Wide berth
go to news/press releases A campaign called Move Over aims to protect highway workers and cops.
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FOR MOVIE TIMES SEE PAGE 5A
BMX blowout
go to multimedia/videos Top BMX stars set Brentwood’s Sunset Plaza ablaze with sick tricks.