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October 12, 2012
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Good gourd! Monster pumpkins take over Highlands backyard DeniSen HarTlOve Clayton Pioneer
HOwArD Geller
Mayor’S corner
Good neighbors make for a safer community I want to thank those of you who e-mail me comments about my column, along with suggestions for future ones. The common thread in most e-mail I receive is complaints about speeders and people running stop signs in our neighborhoods. I forward these e-mails to our city manager, Gary Napper, and our police chief, Dan Lawrence. There is no simple solution to this problem that plagues all cities. Clayton has approximately 45 miles of roads to patrol. We patrol all neighborhoods. However, police need to be on main thoroughfares during rush hour. Since all roads are not as problematic as others, we try to concentrate on roads that get the most complaints. The squeaky wheel getting the oil is true. These are several things you can do to help reduce speeding in your neighborhood. For offenders you see speeding on a regular basis, try to obtain the car’s make and model, the
See Mayor, page 13
Medrano faces tough court battle Embezzlement trial should wrap up late this week Tamara STeiner Clayton Pioneer
After months of delays and jurisdictional wrangling, the embezzlement trial of insurance broker Joseph Medrano finally began on Monday, Oct. 1. The jury heard four days of prosecution testimony before being excused on Friday. Defense testimony began last Tuesday and the case is expected to go to the jury by the end of this week. Medrano is owner of Insurance Management Corporation (IMC), a middle-man between insurance companies and the businesses they insure. He is also a city councilman and Clayton’s vice-mayor. Medrano is on trial, charged with embezzling $159,630 from a former client. The prosecution says that
See Medrano, page 7
after Halloween, laura anD aDaM fiScHer plan to till at leaSt two of tHeir four giant puMpkinS into the soil to prepare the ground for new landscaping next spring – after removing the seeds, of course. Miss Piggy weighs in at 222 pounds, The Ogre, at 303, Fat Albert at 329, and Fatty McGee tips the scales at a whopping 434 pounds.
On a quiet, tree-lined street in the Clayton Valley Highlands, sits a home with lovingly tended lawns and rosebushes, whose picture window smiles a welcome out to visitors and passers-by alike. But in the back, behind the house’s friendly exterior, lurk not just one, but four monsters. Although the monsters live on in their backyard, homeowners Laura and Adam Fischer aren’t in any danger, unless, that is, a surfeit of pumpkin pie, pumpkin ravioli and pumpkin butter could be considered a threat. The monsters, while giant, are entirely benign. They are, after all, pumpkins. Having grown up on farmland in Stanislaus County – his parents’ property sported 10 acres of walnut orchards – it wasn’t a stretch for Adam to plant a vegetable garden in the backyard of their own home. There, brightly colored chilies and green beans race tomatoes and cucumbers for the sun’s rays. But though Adam had grown pumpkins as a child, this was a new experience.
See Pumpkins, page 15
City, SMD ready to dedicate small but vital property Lot 25 includes the important ‘missing link’ of Mt. Diablo Creek Peggy SPear Clayton Pioneer
When Save Mount Diablo members, Clayton officials, representatives of Toll Brothers homebuilders and local residents gather to dedicate a five-acre parcel of land next to Diablo Pointe subdivision on Oct. 28, it won’t be your average trail opening. It will be a celebration marking 10 years of unprecedented collaboration between environmentalists, the city and developers to make the most of a beautiful and pristine sliver of land known as the “missing link” of Mt. Diablo Creek. “Lot 25” – as it is unceremoniously called – is the latest acquisition of land by SMD, and also has the distinction of being the first parcel in which a building was torn down to allow for the replanting of the riparian (riverbank) corridor. “This project has a long storyline,” says Clayton City councilwoman Julie Pierce. “At the end, though, it is liter-
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ally a link between the mountain and the city of Clayton, and we have another beautiful spot available for recreation for our families and the whole community.” The ‘missing link’ Besides its beautiful setting, Lot 25 includes 500 feet of Mt. Diablo Creek, the last thread of that waterway not protected between the Regency Meadows creek dedication and the city-owned segments downstream. It also features intact riparian vegetation including maple, cottonwood, sycamore, oak, buckeye, and willow trees. It was also the home of the caretaker’s house on the premises of the Claretian Seminary, a large, 35,000square-foot school building that overlooked Clayton from a knoll below Mount Diablo’s Donner Canyon. Built in 1961, the school was owned by the Claretian Missionaries religious order. The school and its surrounding grounds made for an attractive parcel, and the missionaries received a lot of proposals for it over the years. Nothing ever came of them until 2003, when Lemke Con-
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struction proposed replacing the school building and caretaker unit with 25 homes. The project included significant grading near the park and three houses along Mt. Diablo Creek.
Save Mount Diablo and neighbors along Rialto and Regency Drives worked with the developer to create a plan everyone could be happy with. Part of the plan was that the 25th lot in the develop-
ment would be donated to the Mount Diablo State Park, and that the caretaker’s house would be removed to restore natural habitat.
See Missing Link, page 4
Scott Hein/Save Mount Diablo
SMD’S late co-founDer art Bonwell anD executive Director ron Brown strategize in 2004 on how to preserve the piece of land that will complete the connection between Clayton and Mt. Diablo. The “missing link” will be dedicated on Oct. 28 at 1 p.m.
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