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IT’S YOUR PAPER www.claytonpioneer.com
May 25, 2012
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Clayton takes a brief bow on international sports stage JAY BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
HOWARD GELLER
MAYOR’S CORNER Pause to remember loved ones on Memorial Day Memorial Day, a federal holiday, is on Monday, May 28 this year. Clayton will hold its annual Memorial Day Service on Main Street at our Veterans Memorial Flagpole beginning at 10 a.m. This diverse program features great speakers, music, song and prayer. The VFW will dedicate its new bronze memorial plaque paid for by the Clayton Business and Community Association. I look forward to seeing you there. Memorial Day, formally known as Decorations Day, originated to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. By the 20th Century, Memorial Day was extended to honor Americans who died in all wars. Today Memorial Day has become a day for those to not only remember our fallen
See Mayor, page 12
Photo by Pete Barra
THE PELOTON OF ABOUT 125 RIDERS WHEELED THROUGH CLAYTON LAST TUESDAY AFTERNOON during the third stage of the Amgen Tour of California international cycling event. The peloton was seven minutes behind a breakaway pack of four riders. Before the 115.3mile stage from San Jose to Livermore was completed the peloton had reined in the four leaders, none of whom finished in the podium spots.
Go a little wild at the Lindsay Museum this summer PAMELA WIESENDANGER Clayton Pioneer
Soar like a hawk over Mount Diablo, twist to dip into the canyons and flex up to the ridges over oaks and brush to hunt for prey. Listen to the sounds of raptors to know their call. Examine feather patterns that keep birds of prey in flight.
You can do this at “Raptors: Hunters in the Sky,” one of two interactive exhibits that opened last fall at Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek. The second exhibit is the “Wildlife Hospital Behind the Scenes.” Both examples set the stage for a better understanding of native animals and how to live in harmony with them.
The two exhibits are just a couple of the attractions at this popular and acclaimed museum and rehabilitation hospital. The “Behind the Scenes” exhibit takes visitors beyond the animal patient intake desk of the hospital for the first time. Watch through one-way glass as the veterinary team treats a patient.
Photo courtesy Lindsay Wildlife Museum
SEE THE WORLD THROUGH THE EYES OF AN EAGLE at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum. “Raptors, Hunters in the Sky,” is one of two interactive exhibits new at the museum this year.
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Special for the summer is the Summer Science Camp for ages 4 to 12 with five themes grouped by age. Animals also leave the museum to visit summer schools or camps. Lynne Vogensen, second grade teacher at Mount Diablo Elementary School, brings in the owls for her students’ science lesson in the fall. “Wow, cool, awesome,” are all comments from the students in awe of the raptors. The class measures their own wing span to determine what kind of owl they would be and dissects pellets to determine what the owl ate. The museum also brings preserved animals to Vogensen’s classroom. The Natural History to Go program offers more than 10,000 natural history specimens for rent, from bats and birds to bobcats. SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE Regular activities at the museum are fun for all ages such as the petting circle of small, fuzzy creatures, feeding and training demonstrations and live animal encounters. Yes, the raptors tethered above the display cases are alive and are right at home perching and looking below as they would in the wild.
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Lindsay is home for 50 species of non-releasable native California wildlife. The hospital treats injured animals so they can return to the wild, but if they would not survive, they are kept at the museum or taken into home care by a volunteer. Julie Ross, director of public relations and marketing, says there are no facilities “anywhere else in the country that house both a natural history museum with an extensive exhibit hall and a large-scale wildlife rehabilitation hospital.” Ross started as a volunteer in the hospital and still helps one day a week in addition to being a docent in the museum. “I like working with children and helping inspire them to learn about and care about nature and wildlife.” That is the premise that formed the museum in the early 1950s by founder and local businessman Alexander Lindsay. The wildlife rehabilitation program was the first in the United States. It began in 1970 as a response to people bringing in wild animals hurt or homeless by the loss of their habitat from urban growth.
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For a small town of under 12,000 residents, Clayton has had way more than its share of sporting glory with Olympians Daron Rahlves, Erin Dobratz and Chuck Berkeley in Games gone by and current homegrown aspiring Olympic athletes Kristian Ipsen and Kara Kohler. Last Tuesday afternoon the sporting spotlight was again on Clayton – for a little over 15 minutes while the seventh annual Amgen Tour of California came roaring through town in two waves of international bicycle racers. America’s most successful bicycle race added a climb up and down Mt. Diablo to its San Jose-to-Livermore stage three route and that allowed Concord and Clayton to be included in the course for the first time. The riders came down Mt. Diablo onto Oak Grove Road in Walnut Creek, turned onto Ygnacio Valley Road, proceeding over the hill to Clayton Road, where they came through Clayton and onto
See AMGEN, page 2
Businessman faces felony charges in insurance case TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
Joseph Medrano, insurance broker and civic leader, will be arraigned on June 1 on charges he embezzled $165,000 from a Redwood City company, despite his claims that the money was owed to him in the first place. Medrano is a Clayton city councilman and vice-mayor.
JOSEPH MEDRANO
In a preliminary hearing on May 18, a San Mateo County judge determined that there was sufficient evidence to bind Joseph Medrano over for trial on charges that his company, Insurance Management Corporation,
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