PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID CLAYTON, CA PERMIT 190
IT’S YOUR PAPER www.claytonpioneer.com
April 22, 2005
925.672.0500
Neighbors oppose Bocce Ball Centre JILL BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
GREGG MANNING
MAYOR’S CORNER ART AND WINE The first thing I want to do is remind all of you that before another issue of the Clayton Pioneer is published, the City will be hosting the annual Art and Wine Festival on April 30 and May 1. This year’s event will be the biggest yet with more craft vendors than ever and an even larger variety of wines and beers. On both days we will be starting at 10 a.m. On Saturday the event will close at 7 p.m. and on Sunday the event will end at 5 p.m. I want to thank the Clayton Business and Community Association and their dedicated members who have been planning this event since late last year. The core group is augmented by hundreds of volunteers. Like almost everything which happens in Clayton, it is the volunteers who
See Mayor, page 6
Tamara Steiner/Clayton Pioneer
CARDINET DRIVE RESIDENT CHRIS FREGOSI opposes the current Bocce Ball Centre proposal. Fregosi points to neighbor Joe Simeona’s home, which is less than 38 feet from the nearest court.
Neary leaves high school for good JILL BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
“I loved high school so much, I never left,” says Clayton Valley High School Principal John Neary reflecting on his years as an educator and administrator. In June, after serving seven years at Clayton Valley and a career in education that spans more than 30 years, the 57-year-old Neary will finally leave high school for good. Physically, Neary knows he’s ready to retire. “I’m so tired,
bone tired,” he says. When you look at Neary’s style as principal, it’s easy to see why. He runs through the day and night. He’s everywhere. “I literally can’t tell you how many times a student I don’t even know has come up to me to say ‘thank you’ for being at a certain event.” He’s at sports activities, drama presentations, music concerts and academic achievement assemblies. “My office door is almost always open. When the phone rings, I answer it. I talk to the
Tamara Steiner/Clayton Pioneer
CVHS PRINCIPAL JOHN NEARY retires in June.
people who want to talk to me.” His secretary for the past seven years, Cher Morehouse, likes the fact that Neary gave her the freedom to do her job and to be a better person. “We complement each other. He’s incredible to work for,” she adds. He’s a 24/7 type pf person.” CVHS teacher Michele Birkenshaw agrees. “He had an open door for me. He celebrated my successes with me,” she says. She describes Neary as a “force that’s leaving.” Neary thinks about his job as “having all those plates spinning on sticks.” And that’s why you’ll find him in the office every Saturday and most Sundays to catch up on the paper work. He thinks a high school principal should oversee everything. “So if you oversee everything you better be there. I love it all and I go to it all.” Neary’s love for sports and drama and day to day high school activities goes way back to his own high school days. “I had such a wonderful time, specifically in athletics and dramatics.” When he began to teach in 1972, he was 22-yearsold, married and had two children. He remembers getting the
job at Pleasant Hill High School because he had experience coaching football. When Pleasant Hill High School closed, Neary began teaching social studies at College Park. When he wasn’t teaching he was directing plays, and coaching football, wrestling, soccer and softball. “Teaching was a means to coach,” he says. In 1989, Neary moved on to become vice principal of Clayton Valley. He held that position until 1991 when a family situation led him to take a vice principal position in North Lake Tahoe. He went on to become the principal of North Tahoe Middle School. But it was his love for secondary education that brought Neary back to the Bay Area and to Clayton Valley when he was hired as principal in 1998. He was filling the shoes of his close friend Ray Schultz. The two kept in touch with each other during Neary’s stint in Tahoe and then Schultz got sick and eventually died in 1999. “I felt like my goal was to keep going what Schultz started and I think
After more than two hours of public testimony and more questions than answers about the proposed Bocce Ball Centre on a 0.7-acre site behind city hall, the Planning Commission decided to continue public hearing on the Environmental Review to the April 26 and May 10 meetings. Plans call for 10 courts, a storage building up to 1200 square feet, gazebo, restrooms, picnic tables and barbeque grills, lighting and public address system. Before a packed house at Endeavor Hall last week, the commission heard from disgruntled neighbors who are against the Bocce Ball Centre as well as seasoned Clayton players who anxiously await playtime on courts in their own city. Neighbors from Cardinet and Wallace Drive, streets adjacent to the bocce site, voiced their concerns about issues that they say immediately impact their homes, neighborhoods and families. Residents discussed a variety of negative
See Bocce, page 6
Make mom “Queen for a Day” Moms are the greatest. They spend most of their waking hours taking care of everyone else before they do anything for themselves. You can fix that. Write an essay telling us why your mom should be crowned the Clayton Pioneer’s “Queen For A Day,” and win a day of pampering in Pioneer Territory for the “queen of your heart.” If yours is the winning essay, your mom will receive a very special and elegant “Tea for Two” at the new “Englund’s Tea Cottage,” a relaxing massage and very special gift basket from Clayton Mind and Body Connections, a pampering facial from
Cynthia Gregory at Pe r m a n e n t Solutions and a bouquet of lovely spring flowers from C l a y t o n Flowers. And, last but not least; we will publish the winning essay in the Pioneer along with a photo of you and your mom in the May 6 issue. To be eligible, you must be a Clayton resident between the ages of 6 and 18. Your essay must be typewritten and must be between 200 and 350 words. Mail or e-mail your essay to The Clayton Pioneer, PO Box 1246, Clayton, 94517; essay@claytonpioneer.com, or drop off at the Pioneer office at 6200 F Center St., Clayton. Deadline for entries is 5 p.m., Wednesday, April 27.
See Neary, page 7
“Grove” park is a go if voters approve the landscape district JILL BEDECARRÉ & TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
In seven months, Clayton residents could be heading for the polls in a special election that would significantly change
the city’s landscape. If voters approve the renewal of the Landscape Assessment District next November the city could see some major landscape improvements, including the long awaited “Grove Park.” The proposed assessment of $365, up from the current
$122.90, will include the $15 necessary to fund the annual park maintenance, said Dan Richardson, head of the Blue Ribbon Landscape Maintenance Committee. Richardson addressed a handful of residents at the committee’s first community outreach presentation to
the AAUW on April 9. Park construction costs are no longer a problem, despite losing a $685,000 state grant last year, said City Manager Gary Napper at the April 5 City Council meeting. “It’s always been an issue of maintenance,” he said. Redevelopment Agency
funds, bond proceeds, developer fees and state paybacks will raise the estimated $1.23 million needed to build the park. Construction could begin as soon as next spring if residents approve the renewal of the District in November, said city staffer Laura Hoffmeister.
Besides paying for the estimated $60,000 per year maintenance costs, the $365 assessment would also be sufficient to fund the $2.5 million in deferred maintenance and capital improvements, and to continue
See Landscape, page 7