www.claytonpioneer.com
August 21, 2009
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IT’S YOUR PAPER
Clayton police kick off trail patrols JULIE PIERCE
MAYOR’S CORNER Help thwart any damage to new park It’s nearly the end of August and many parents are looking forward to having the kids back in school. The city is looking forward to that day too, because the level of vandalism during school vacations is much worse than when the kids have more structured time. Several residents have written or called me to express dismay at seeing the disregard for our city’s parks and equipment. I agree but have been reluctant to make an issue of it for fear of making it worse. I don’t want to sound like a grouch, but it’s becoming a significant cost issue to repair the damage. We all need to work harder to stop this activity. I recently received an email that sums up the feelings many of you have expressed to me: “My husband and I love Clayton. We walk twice a day on the trail and into town, through the park and home again. We love to see children on the play equipment in The Grove. We love the concerts in the park and all of the things that make
See Mayor, page 17
Tamara Steiner/Clayton Pioneer
Clayton Police will begin regular bicycle patrols of the city’s trails and streets this month. Officers Daren Billington, Allen White and Cpl. Rich Enea make up the new unit. Police say the bike patrols give officers an added advantage in spotting vagrants and graffiti-artists. TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
Clayton police will become a whole lot more visible this month, when the special Bicycle Patrol Unit takes to the trails. In a move designed to increase public safety along
Clayton’s 27 miles of walking trails, one of the two regular day shift officers will patrol on two wheels instead of four. Cpl. Rich Enea and Officer Daren Billington, under the supervision of program coordinator Officer Allen White, make up the special unit that requires officers to complete a three-day certification class.
According to Police Chief Dan Lawrence, plans for the unit have been underway for several months but were spurred on by the June 19 attack of a 10-year-old boy on the trail next to City Hall. The boy was reportedly knocked off his bike by an AfricanAmerican man dressed in lilac scrubs and dragged into the
culvert, where he was sexually molested. White has been seen astride his bike on the trails and at community events for several months, but it was only recently that the department reached the 100 percent staffing level that permits one daytime officer on full time bicycle patrol. Last week, White spent a
day preparing Enea and Billington for the certification classes. The three rode the trails, orienting themselves to the city streets from a different perspective. “We have to know exactly where we are all the time,” explained White. “If we call for
See Bike Patrol, page 2
National Night Out Clayton Valley High proves fertile ground for world champion Blue Devils binds neighbors together JAY BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
Photo courtesy of Tanya Trowbridge
EMILY NUNN (LEFT) AND TANYA TROWBRIDGE of the Blue Devils display their Open Class World Championship gold medals Aug. 8 in Indianapolis. The Clayton girls are part of an eight-member contingent from Clayton Valley High on the undefeated Blue Devils B Corps.
What’s Inside Around Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Before the final chapter is written on the silver anniversary of Clayton Valley High School, you can add the names of eight students as world champions. The Blue Devils drum and bugle corps of Concord swept the Drum Corps International World and Open Class championships in Indianapolis. CV students Lucas and Olivia Hansen, Emily Nunn, Tanner Frey, Mason Case, Andre DeJong, Kyle Peterson and Tanya Trowbridge are members of the Blue Devils B Corps, which capped an undefeated season by winning the DCI Open Class championship. Peterson and Trowbridge are June graduates, while the others return to the Alberta Way campus this fall. For 16-year-old Nunn, it has
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for safer communities
been a fairy-tale season as a rookie in the B Corps. Nunn was a second grader at Mt. Diablo Elementary School in 2001 when she saw a flier for a baton twirling class. While she was taking the class, the Blue Devils Winter Guard gave a demonstration of color guard and she was hooked. Nunn joined the Winter Guard and then the Blue Devils C Corps, which she participated on from 2001-2007. She took off the summer of 2008 from the Blue Devils, concentrating on dance classes and the Winter Guard. This past winter, she returned to the Blue Devils and won a spot on the B Corps. After months of intense practices, the B Corps left by train July 22 to compete in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and
It may have been the 26th year as a national event, but on Aug. 4 Clayton celebrated its second National Night Out with four neighborhoods serving as meeting points. NNO focuses on building community relationships and crime and drug prevention through social gatherings that also involve local police departments. Herb Yonge, who is the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) coordinator as well as a volunteer for the Clayton police, fired up the community about the event. “I try to get neighborhoods that have had Neighborhood
See Blue Devils, page 4
See Night Out, page 6
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ANDRÉ GENSBURGER Clayton Pioneer
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André Gensburger/Clayton Pioneer
SYDNEY, 7 AND CAMERON, 10, OKONESKI, grandchildren of Lowell Robison at National Night Out on Joscolo View.
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