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April 23, 2010
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Firefighter puts training to test in water rescue HANK STRATFORD
MAYOR’S CORNER Updates on library, cell towers, finance issues I thought it was time for another update on some things going on in Clayton. We might as well deal with the tough issues first, so here’s the latest on the city’s finances. City staff continues to work on next year’s budget. Things are looking tight, as we expected. We are planning on a 5 percent decrease in property tax revenue, which is going to be a challenge. Concord is bracing for an 8 percent decrease and Antioch has seen a $20 million decrease in its property tax revenue. So things could be worse. The county library has asked all the cities, including Clayton, to pay more to keep the current level of operations. We are looking at options, but we may have to reduce the number of hours the library is open. T-Mobile is interested in placing two cell phone antennae in Clayton. These leases would result in about $61,000 in revenue to the city per year. We have so few opportunities to raise revenue, we believe these leases will be good for the city with minimal impact. Save Mount Diablo has already voiced its opposition. I hope the group chooses to work with T-Mobile and the city in making this opportunity work, rather than simply trying to block it. Our police department continues to do a great job protecting the city. Incidents of crime have been down lately and we hope this continues. With the nicer weather, Officer Allen White has been out on the police bicycle patrolling the trails and Office Jason Shaw has been using the patrol motorcycle. With the good rainfall and the above average snow pack, we expect the Contra Costa Water District to lift the water restriction. We expect this to occur by May 1. The city can
TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
JAY BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
Fire engineer David Manzeck and the crew at Station 84 in Pittsburg were cooking dinner a little after 6 p.m. on Sunday, April 11. They had been out on a fire that day and were ready to kick back for the evening when the call came in. A car had crashed through a fence on Mt. Diablo Boulevard near San Miguel in Walnut Creek and overturned in the flood channel. At least two people were in the water. Station 84 is a water rescue operation. Manzeck and his crewmates are highly skilled and trained in techniques needed for complex rescues. Within seconds, they were en route to the scene at Bancroft and Minert Road in Concord, 2½ miles downstream from the accident. A passenger, Janet Hogan, 74, had been carried there by the fast-moving current.
CBCA Art and Wine Festival FREE Art and craft exhibit and sale, live music, food court, beer and wine & a Kiddieland. When: Saturday, May 1, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. Sunday, May 2, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Where: Downtown Clayton
STEPPING INTO ACTION Swollen with heavy rains, the 50-degree water was moving at 20 mph. The woman had gone over a 10-foot waterfall and was trapped in the “boil,” the churning water at its base. From the bank high above the channel, Manzeck could see her fighting for her life. “There was frantic in everyone’s voice when I first got there,” he says. “We could hear her yelling and screaming for help.” Upstream, rescue workers had three times thrown inflated bags to her. She grabbed at each one but was only able to hold on for 15 seconds or so. Overhead, a CHP helicopter had dropped a harness to the drowning woman, but she was too weak to put it on. With no audio communication between him and the pilot, Manzeck used hand signals to call for a line. “Conditions were extremely difficult,” Manzeck explains. “There was literally a twofoot margin between the trees and the barbed wire fence where they had to drop the line.” There was no time to call for the threepoint harness normally used in water rescue, Tamara Steiner/Clayton Pioneer so the hoist operator in the helicopter, Sheaun Bouyea, lowered the rescue harness – DAVID MANZECK STANDS ABOVE THE SPOT where he and CHP helicopter rescue workers pulled Janet Hogan from the fast moving water of the Walnut Creek See Manzek, page 3 flood channel after a car accident on April 11.
Like the crack of the bat at a baseball game and the green hills with blooming wild flowers, the annual Clayton Art and Wine Festival signals that spring has come to our little corner of the world. The Art and Wine Festival, presented by the Clayton Business and Community Association, returns for the 15th year on Saturday and Sunday, May 1 and 2. All the features that more than 150,000 attendees during past festivals have come to enjoy will return: premium wines and beers, arts and crafts vendors, a food court,
Locals meet in the Grove for tax day ‘tea party’ Tamara Steiner/Clayton Pioneer
See Mayor, page 6
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID CLAYTON, CA PERMIT 190
Volunteers make Art & Wine Festival a community trademark
Mike Dunn/Clayton Pioneer
NICHOLAS WILLIAMSON of Clayton exercises his constitutional rights to free speech and freedom of assembly at the Tea Party Movement gathering on tax day.
What’s Inside Around Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Church News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
While many Americans were waiting in lines at the post office to file their tax returns on April 15, others were gathering in the Grove that evening for a different kind of tax day observance. Organized by Claytonian Bill Jordan, the event was part of a national Tea Party Movement of conservatives opposed to big government and increased taxation. Of the estimated 250 attending, about 30 locals took the microphone, to speak out against what they
Club News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Community Calendar . . . . . . . . . . .16 Directory of Advertisers . . . . . . . . . .5 DVMS Reporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Financial Sense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Food for Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Garden Girl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
believe are unresponsive elected officials, the national debt and healthcare reform. “I would say that it was a “great Americana event that Clayton can be proud of,” said Pete Laurence, local real estate broker and former city councilman. “There was no drinking, fighting, yelling, no pot smoking, no loud noise from a loud speaker system, just a bunch of our patriotic citizens in the “Town Square” discussing the politics of the day.
ED WARANER turns the scrap wood from his tree business into animal carvings.
continuous live music and the popular Kiddieland. The Art and Wine Festival is open to the public with no admission charge. Saturday’s festivities run 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Ed Waraner, owner of Waraner Tree Service, will join the more than 100 vendors that will line Main Street and Marsh Creek Road. Waraner creates the very recognizable large wood
See Art & Wine, page 21
Obituary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Pets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Pioneer Photo Album . . . . . . . . . . .20 Police Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Safety Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 School News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Senior Moments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Teen Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Upcoming Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Your Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7