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East Bay Regional Parks Activity Guide
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Concord keeps flooding at bay despite record-setting rains
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From the desk of...
February 24, 2017
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JOHN T. MILLER Correspondent
LAurA HOffMeiSTer
MAYOR
Working to find common ground
The mayor provides an annual State of the City speech to interested community members, and I recently did so at a sold-out event on Jan. 25 at the Concord Hilton, hosted by the Concord Chamber of Commerce. I won’t provide details about it, as the Concord Pioneer has done another great job of covering it in this edition. (See page 2). But I do want to thank the Chamber of Commerce and their staff, as well as the Concord city staff who assisted. If you are interested in seeing my State of the City presentation, it is available on the city website at www.cityofTamara Steiner concord.org, THE LOWER WALNUT CREEK FLOOD CHANNEL LOOKS LIKE THE “MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI,” as seen from the bridge on Concord Avenue
See Mayor, page 7
looking toward the Concord Hilton. Once, all that water would spread out over the Concord, Pleasant Hill flood plain instead of flowing into Suisun Bay.The flood control channel, completed in 1965, has largely made major flooding a thing of the past.
Thanks to some tidy housekeeping all year and a series of major projects dating back to the 1960s, Concord escaped major damage and serious flooding during the round of storms that hit the Bay Area in early February. The deluge moved smoothly through the former flood plains of Concord and surrounding areas through Walnut Creek and Grayson Creek and has helped fill the Delta with much-needed fresh water. Justin Ezell, director of Public Works maintenance services for the city, said preparation for winter storms takes place all year. “We clear brush and debris from the creeks and streams and make sure catch basins and storm drain inlets are kept clean,” Ezell said. “These methods help avoid localized flooding when the storms do come.”
See Storms, page 8
McGallian appointed to replace Grayson on City Council PEGGY SPEAR Concord Pioneer
There may be fireworks on the Concord City Council in the coming months, and you can blame some of them on Tim McGallian. After all, it was McGallian who stepped in on behalf of the Todos Santos Association in 2014 to save the city’s Fourth of July celebration after it was in threat of being cancelled, and one of the reasons that made him a frontrunner — and ultimately the unanimous choice — to fill the vacant seat on the council. CONCORD CITY TREASURER TIM MCGALLIAN, appointed to fill McGallian, who currently the open city council seat, will be able to hit the ground serves as the city Treasurer, running because of his many community and civic activities. takes over for another Tim,
Tim Grayson, who was elected to the State Assembly in November. McGallian’s term will run through the 2018 election. McGallian ultimately beat out 30 other candidates, and was one of seven final candidates interviewed at the Jan. 31 special council meeting. The other candidates were Andrew J. Dodd, Hope Johnson, Ajit Kaushal, Terry Kremin, Susan Swift, and Dr. Harmesh Kumar, who was the runnerup in the November 2016 election. Each candidate was asked two questions by the sitting council members, one of which was if they felt the runner-up in an election should be
From fitness to firefighter Female engineer finding her way in a man’s world
ing for something to do. She challenged me to apply. She said, ‘If you do, then I will too.’ ‘You’re on!’ I told her.” The sister-in-law never followed through, but JohnsonDavis applied, graduated from the fire academy and was hired by ConFire. She turned 40 years old when she finished her probation.
NICK MARNELL Correspondent
It took a dare from her sister-in-law for Angela JohnsonDavis to become a firefighter. “I was a tomboy,” JohnsonDavis said. “I loved playing outdoors; I loved hanging with the guys; I loved working out.” But the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District engineer never dreamed of a job in fire service. She thought she would carve out a career in the fitness industry, which she did as a young fit-
Nick Marnell
NEITHER AGE NOR GENDER were obstacles when Angela Johnson-Davis set her mind to becoming a CCCWD firefighter.
ness instructor in local gyms. “I saw firefighters working out. They would tell me how great I’d be at their job, but I never took it seriously,” she said. She married and raised a
family. At a Mother’s Day barbecue years later, her sister-inlaw, a paramedic, told her that the fire department was hiring. “In truth, I was getting bored. My son was grown. I was look-
FINDING A NEW MENTOR The crew was tough on her from the outset. “Everything is heavy,” Johnson-Davis said. “‘Let’s see if she can carry that.’ ‘You get that,’ they’d say. They want to make sure you can do the job, but still, I felt eyes were more sharply focused on me.”
See Firefighter, page 8
appointed. McGallian summed up his answer in a way many did, that it may not be the right time for that person to serve. “I ran for council before and lost. Had I won, I would not have been able to do many of the things I did, like work on the Fourth of July event and make the vital
connections with the city agencies I did. It also did allowed me to serve as city treasurer, which allowed me to understand the fiscal workings of the city. It just wasn’t my time back then (when I lost).” Mayor Laura Hoffmeister
See Council, page 8
A winding tale of downtown’s past
EDI BIRSAN PULSE OF
CONCORD
The dark folds of history hide secrets that allow only wisps of rumors to slip out and tantalize the few who glimpsed their spark. Concord is no exception to the hushed tales of the unusual, unexpected and unexplored. A common story involves an underground railroad from the special bunkers off Willow Pass Road extending to the inland base for the transport of iridescent weapons of the Atomic Age. This, however, is quite false. Meanwhile, there lives a persistent story about a hidden
labyrinth and tunnel complex in Todos Santos Plaza’s south side, from the Spaghetti Factory stretching down the block to Skipolini’s. Before Skipolini’s, it was the site of TR’s Restaurant owned by now Congressman Mark DeSaulnier and – more tantalizing – the First Bank of Concord before that. The fragments of the story relate to the era of Prohibition, when the Masonic Temple a few blocks away was hosting the swing and flapper set of the late 1920s – complete with secret handshakes and passwords. Could there have been a sinister side to the down-low street traffic that scurried out of sight? An inquiry into the city’s
See Pulse, page 8
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