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March 5, 2010
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YMCA to close end of March TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
HANK STRATFORD
MAYOR’S CORNER
Faced with mounting debt and declining revenues, the Mt. Diablo YMCA announced last week that the Clayton Valley branch will close all operations at the end of March. The Delta
Family Fitness Center in Oakley will also close and the future is uncertain for the San Ramon Valley facility. Day care at the Delta facility has so far survived the cuts. The YMCA has functioned as the recreation department for the city of Clayton since 2003,
providing after-school programs, youth and adult sports and summer camps for Clayton residents for a fee. The income isn’t enough to support the program, and they can no longer draw from other resources to pay operating costs, says Jennifer Beck, program director for the
Clayton branch. Beck is hopeful that the YMCA will return to Clayton when the economy improves. While the Clayton branch has never been self-sustaining, city manager Gary Napper says that’s not unusual. Recreation programs typically don’t recover
more than about 70 percent of their operating cost. The loss of the YMCA will leave Clayton without a recreation program. “The reality is, this is the unfortunate, heartbreaking
See YMCA, page 9
City funds restrict recreation options The issue of recreation has been on my mind lately. We recently learned that the YMCA program at the Clayton community gym will be closing at the end of March. The YMCA had been operating in Clayton since 2003 and many people have benefited from its programs. The current economic environment was sited as the reason for its closure. I am sad to see them go. One may ask why the city doesn’t take on the role of running the various recreation programs. As far as I know, recreation departments in other cities
Clayton man goes where the sea takes him – including the South Pole HARRY STOLL Clayton Pioneer
Commander Scott Shackleton of the Navy Reserve isn’t fazed by the South Pole’s foggy, wind-beaten, gray-black landscape. “I went to sea when I was 18,” says Shackleton. Thirty years into his journeys, the Clayton resident looks seaworthy – of sturdy construction, his mostly gray hair closecut, glowing outdoor skin, the nails of his strong-looking fingers trimmed. Yes, everything is scrubbed down and shipshape. He grew up amidst the echoes of the exploits of his fifth cousin, Irishman Sir Ernest Shackleton, who went to sea at age 16. He was in the Robert Falcon Scott South Pole expedition of 1901 and led his own Nimrod Expedition in 1907 to within a record 97 miles of the pole. For this, he was knighted by King George V. The elder Shackleton led a return expedition in 1912 that ended with their ship, Endurance, stuck in the ice, crushed by the ice and sunk below the ice. He led his crew in open boats across an icy sea to land, then led them over treach-
See Mayor, page 9
Year after post office slaying, Casso family strives to heal TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
On a sunny Saturday morning last March, a Saturday not much different than any other, 73-year-old Ray Casso ran to the post office to get the mail. He never came home. At the same time Casso was picking up his mail, Shannon Bradley Moore, a 37-year-old Concord man with a history of mental illness, was at the counter trying to convince postal worker Tony Oliver to exchange some outdated postage stamps for cash. It was against regulations and Oliver suggested to Moore that he look for a collector on the Internet that would buy the stamps.
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID CLAYTON, CA PERMIT 190
See Casso, page 8
Photo courtesy of Scott Shackleton
NAVY RESERVE COMMANDER SCOTT E. SHACKLETON stood at the South Pole last month, realizing a life-long goal set by his hero and ancestor Sir Ernest Shackleton, who tried and failed to reach the Pole during early 20th century.
See Shackleton, page 15
Creekside Arts Celebration gets down to earth BEV BRITTON Clayton Pioneer
Clayton artist Debbie DeSousa takes the theme of this year’s Creekside Arts Celebration to heart in her everyday life. The idea “A Community Comes Together … Arts, Culture and Nature” is reflected not only in her recycled art but also in her career – where she runs a trade exchange called Barter Bucks Banc. For her bold and bright floral arrangements, she utilizes
old water bottles, aluminum cans and glass along with paint picked up at the county toxic waste center. She’ll be among the artists selling their wares at the celebration this weekend at the Clayton Community Library. While acknowledging that she draws inspiration from gardens she sees while walking around town, the artist isn’t quite sure how her flower-making sprang to life a year ago. “I just know how to make stuff,” she says with a laugh. “I am very creative. I have these visions and I just make them
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work.” In addition to life-size arrangements in vases, DeSousa concocts larger-than-life pieces using old golf clubs or rebar for stems. This weekend, festival visitors can find her six-foot creations popping out amongst the flowers in front of the library – with 7-Up bottles doubling as leaves and garage sale plates as blossoms. “I’m trying not to buy anything. Right now, I need green 7-Up bottles so I’ve been calling all my neighbors and anybody I
See Arts, page 17
Club News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Community Calendar . . . . . . . . . . .16 Directory of Advertisers . . . . . . . . . .5 DVMS Reporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Fitness Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Food for Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 From the Chief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Garden Girl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
COLOR IS AT THE TOP OF ARTIST DEBBIE DESOUSA’S list when creating her floral arrangements from recycled materials. See her work this weekend at the Creekside Arts Celebration.
Movie Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 On the Net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Parenting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Pets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Pioneer Photo Album . . . . . . . . . . .18 Police Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Readers’s Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
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