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YOUR HOMETOWN NEWS | SERVING EAST COUNTY
Vol. 23, No. 10
March 5, 2021
Investigators get new capabilities Mid-year Fire Marshal Steve Aubert, seen here, will become one of the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District’s sworn peace officers. The designation provides the ability to detain, question and arrest suspects.
by Tony Kukulich Staff Writer
REGIONAL The East Contra Costa Fire Protection District (ECCFPD) Fire Board recently approved a plan to assign sworn peace officer status to the district’s fire marshal, deputy fire marshal and fire investigator positions. Drawing a distinction between fire investigators and inspectors, the peace officer designation will afford investigators capabilities not currently available to the district’s fire inspectors. These will include the ability to detain, question and arrest suspects; book suspects into jail; bring charges to the district attorney and issue subpoenas. “The main benefit is that it changes our ability to have further access to information regarding contacts we make in the field,” said ECCFPD Fire Marshal Steve Aubert. “Right now, as a non-peace officer working with our allied police agencies, they can’t share information about anyone we may
Contra Costa County Fire Protection District (ConFire). ConFire ended that contract in 2018, leaving the district to develop its own fire prevention bureau, which is headed by Aubert and includes the district’s fire inspectors. While the district has worked in close collaboration with local law enforcement agencies to determine the cause and origin of fires, the process has
“ It’s not going to be a typical first day of
Correspondent
REGIONAL School districts in East County are preparing to bring students back to campuses for inperson, hybrid learning. While some will phase in the youngest children first, middle and high school students will only be allowed to return once the county enters the red – or less restrictive – tier of California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. All families will have the option to remain in full distance learning if desired. KNIGHTSEN The small district of Knightsen will welcome students back next
school. We will have masking, parents won’t be able to come on campus…
”
Knightsen Elementary School District Superintendent Harvey Yurkovich week, beginning March 8 with the youngest grades and later phasing in older elementary students. “It’s not going to be a typical first day of school,” warned Knightsen Elementary School District Superintendent Harvey Yurkovich. “We will have masking, parents won’t be able to come on campus and tour the classrooms as
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they do on a typical first day, and a lot of the instruction with the kids the first couple of days will be on safety and distancing and masking and handwashing. Being that we are starting school in a physical environment so late in the year, we are having to readjust some schedules, so we are currently working with families on that right now.”
Classifieds.........................................14A Cop Logs............................................12A
see Districts page 18A
see Budget page 18A
see Investigators page 18A
Education............................................4A Legals.................................................16A
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Knightsen will welcome back its students in an am/pm hybrid model beginning March 8 with transitional kindergarten through third grade. Since the following week starts the district’s two-week spring break, older students will be phased in based on the county’s COVID-19 cases at the time. Details about the safety measures the district is taking were presented in a virtual Q&A with Yurkovich and Old River Elementary School Principal Veronica Polk. Parents were able to submit questions prior to the meeting, and Yurkovich said every effort was made to address all concerns.
not been without its challenges, said Aubert in a presentation to the district’s board of directors. Carrie Nash, vice president of the ECCFPD Fire Board, echoed that sentiment. “Our current method of collaborating with local law-enforcement has proven challeng-
Districts prepare for classroom return by Dawnmarie Fehr
by Kyle Szymanski OAKLEY The city’s finances appear to be staving off severe pandemic-induced impacts, according to a recent budget update. The city’s mid-year budget projections show it balanced, with a 20% reserve and a $2.3 million unexpected fiscal-year revenue increase. This is partly due to unexpected big jumps in building-related revenue and sales and property taxes. “Team Oakley has taken pride in being fiscally prudent,” said Mayor Sue Higgins. “Our last independent audit found our budget to be without any discrepancies and was 20 years in a row of being so.” The number of new singlefamily dwelling permits in the first half of the fiscal year (312) has already eclipsed last year’s 185 total. This fueled a mid-year budget rise of $830,000 in building and developer fees; a $216,000 jump in building-related administrative fees; and a $173,000 increase in buildingrelated impact administration fees. Property taxes are also expected to jump by $294,000 (to $7.6 million total); sales taxes by $280,000 to $2 million total. This is in large part because of the overall pool of online sales tax revenues outpacing fuel and restaurant sector losses. “Revenues are coming in higher than anticipated, which are mostly nonrecurring revenues, such as building revenues that were much higher than anticipated when we prepared the budget,” Oakley Finance Director Tim Przybyla said.
Photo by Tony Kukulich
make contact with. We don’t know if a person has previously been arrested for fires, or if this is a brand new one that no one knows about. As peace officers, we’ll be able to share information, look at the background of these people and be able to process them accordingly.” Prior to 2019, fire investigations within ECCFPD’s borders were handled under contract by the
budget stable
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