January 27, 2012
Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com
Around Town
Rare bobcat sighting in Crystyl Ranch
Girl Scouts remember moms at STAND shelter
GIRL SCOUTS BREANNA KEARNEY, Emily Rabbitt, Monishaa Suresh, Casey Mitchell, Sarah Owen, and Emmy Hurley made Christmas a little brighter for domestic violence victims.
When Clayton Senior Girl Scouts from troops 31895 and 31100 learned that the children in a local domestic violence shelter operated by STAND for Families Free of Violence had received donated gifts for
Christmas, but that not many had come in for the moms, they went into action. With contributions from the troop families and donations from the community, they assembled bright, festive gift
bags containing $500 worth of beauty items and Target gift cards for the women. The girls brought the gift bags to the shelter’s holiday party where they then entertained the children with face painting and balloons.
Church EIR, from page 1 After weeding out duplicate comments and those coming in after the deadline, the consultants are left with 88 letters and 315 comments that must be addressed in order to complete the EIR. The original contract contains a provision for amending the costs based on higher-thanexpected response to the draft report. The church objected to the added costs, saying that the consultants are professionals
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$48,000,” Pierce said. “The amount is reasonable. People are passionate on both sides of the issue and they deserve a response.” Joe Medrano wanted the consultants and church to continue to “try and work something out.” David Shuey agreed that the consultants should be paid for the extra work – but only $30,000, a number he acknowledged was arbitrary. “I’m not happy with either party,” he said. “I didn’t like the tenor of that letter,” he said to Grutz-
post mountain lion warnings if they have reports of a sighting. However, “most ‘mountain lion’ sightings in the area are really bobcats,” explains Adams. A single mountain lion will range over 50,000 acres and doesn’t like to share its territory. “There are maybe three or four wandering through the whole area from Brentwood to Oakland at any one time,” Adams
estimates. While it is rare to seem them, it is not unusual behavior for the bobcat to be in a neighborhood like Crystyl Ranch, which backs up to the SMD Mangini Ranch open space. “They behave like big housecats,” he says. “They like to lie around near trails and roads where they can watch things go by.”
Short tail and high rump are characteristic of the bobcat
macher, referring to his November 11 letter. In that letter, the church accuses the city of “bias” and “risks violation of RLUIPA,” a federal law that prohibits using land use laws as a means to restrict free exercise of religion. (Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.) “I take that as a threat – throwing RLUIPA at us,” Shuey bristled. “Threats won’t work.” However, he said “LSA underbid the project; it appears to be an attempt to gouge.” So, they should “split the
baby,” he said, voting against the $48,000 amendment. With the amendment and an additional deposit toward city staff time, the church will need to come up with $68,000 to complete the EIR, an amount CCC Pastor Shawn Robinson says the church doesn’t have. “We will have to go to our church family and ask them to come up with the money,” he said. “But, this is our baby, and we are prepared to go the distance. There is no turning back.”
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Vladan and Gita Lunacek were treated to a rare wildlife sighting last week when a big bobcat visited near their Crystyl Ranch home. Because of its size they thought it was a mountain lion. The two cats are physically very different. A mountain lion (also called a puma or cougar) is a tawny color with has a broad head and wide set, black-tipped ears and a very long, thick tail. It can be up to eight feet long. The bobcat is smaller than a mountain lion — about the size of a boxer dog, with a short tail and dappled rump that is higher than its shoulders. Bobcats on Mt. Diablo are generally larger than those in other areas, says Seth Adams, Land Programs Director for Save Mount Diablo. Both mountain lions and bobcats are very shy and sightings are rare. Adams, who spends most of his time outdoors, says he has never seen a mountain lion on Mt. Diablo and has seen only two or three bobcats in 10 years. Park officials will sometimes
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costs, according to City Attorney Mala Subramanian. “This would be considered a gift of public funds and against federal law.” Grutzmacher admitted he was wrong in his demand. “I must own up to a lack of client control on that one…my bad,” he quipped. The Council was divided 32 in its approval of the amended contract. Julie Pierce, Howard Geller and Hank Stratford approved the increase at $48,000. “I don’t know very many companies that would eat
who should have known there would be a high level of response to the controversial project and should be held to the original contract. In a five-page letter to the city dated November 11, church attorney Ed Grutzmacher chastised the city for its “inability to manage the City’s consultants,” and said if the consultants didn’t waive the extra costs, the city should pay them. The city can’t absorb the
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