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IT’S YOUR PAPER www.claytonpioneer.com
January 14, 2005
925.672.0500
Landscape District to go to voters this year JILL BEDECARRÉ AND TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
The city council will not wait for the Landscape Maintenance District to reach the end of its ten-year term before putting the assessment issue before the voters. A Blue Ribbon Landscape
Maintenance Committee was established by the council over a year ago to review and evaluate the city’s landscaping issues. The committee presented their findings and recommendations to the city council last week. Their strategic plan calls for a special election to renew the district this year—two years before the district expires in 2007. The
election will be decided either by a mail ballot on August 30 or at the polls on November 8. Voters will be asked to increase their current annual assessment from $122.90 to at least $365 per parcel per year. The assessment is to cover citywide landscape maintenance costs and to fund $2.3 million in deferred maintenance and capital
improvements. Measure E, passed in 1997, initially provided for a special tax to fund landscape improvements and maintenance of the city’s roadways, medians, open spaces and the city fountain at the corner of Clayton Road and Oakhurst. Since its inception, the district has been seriously under funded. “(In
1997) we didn’t go for what we needed, we went for what the voters would pass, said Mayor Gregg Manning.” An unrealistic assessment compounded by an inadequate provision for inflationary increases has left the District with dying
Clayton Counts Down
Headline stories of 2004 Clayton hit the national scene last year when Erin Dobratz took the bronze in synchronized swimming at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. For a recap of this and the other top stories from last year, read on.
GREGG MANNING
MAYOR’S CORNER Last year was very eventful for the city, the state, the country and the world, for that matter. A year ago we did not know what was going to happen in 2004 but we knew it would effect us in many ways. The same is true for the coming 2005. A great many things will happen and we hope that in balance the changes will be beneficial for each of you. 2004 ended in Clayton with the city’s Countdown to the New Year. This was the second annual Clayton New Year’s Eve celebration and it was even bigger than last year’s. This is a family event and the large number of families attending seemed to have a great time. With all of the rain, I was worried there would be a lower turnout but that proved not to be the case. I want to thank all of the volunteers who worked in all aspects of the event. Without each of you and your efforts and contributions to the evening, nothing would have happened. We are already planning for the celebration that will usher in 2006. All of us do a lot of planning, and it’s good to do so. However, events in the last part of the year got me thinking about the present and whether or not I am looking too much
See Mayor, page 8
DOBRATZ
She’s not a morning person. When you call her office before
BRINGS HOME THE
BRONZE
SCOTT LORENTZEN, 6,
Tamara Steiner/Clayton Pioneer
AND
JACK CLOUGH, 7, both of Clayton bounce into the New Year at Clayton’s New Year’s Eve party.
Clayton really knows how to throw a party. About 1200 people showed up to ring in the New Year at the Clayton Community Gym at Diablo View Middle School. Despite the rain and the wind, families came into the gym in droves with the kids darting from one game to another and the parents frantically trying to keep up. This was the second year that the city of Clayton in
conjunction with the YMCA put on an alcohol-free New Year’s Eve party with something for everyone. The free event featured hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and drinks for dinner plus plenty of popcorn and cookies for dessert. There was kickball, pillow polo, family soccer, adult and kids basketball, a hat decorating contest and the popular jungle gym. The first three hundred chil-
dren received a t-shirt. The Connel family of Clayton were all smiles at the event. “I think it’s fantastic,” said Jacqueline Connel as she watched her two children Serena and Tyler fly down the slide. Kate and Rick Happy of Clayton also enjoyed the festivities with their three children William, Meredith and Sarah. “We wanted to do something fun with the kids. They really did a good job,”
Hoffmeister lives a tale of two cities JILL BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
See Landscape, page 5
10 a.m., her co-workers sometimes laugh when you ask if she’s in. “I just don’t do mornings very well,” she says. She may not do mornings
Tamara Steiner/Clayton Pioneer
Laura Hoffmeister and Clayton City Manager Gary Napper
well. But Laura Hoffmeister is good at a lot of other things, like being the Mayor of Concord and the Assistant to the City Manager of Clayton, her full-time job for the past six and a half years. Her boss, Clayton City Manager Gary Napper says Laura is the “perfect assistant for a city like Clayton.” “She’s everywhere,” he adds. The petite 43-year old elected official does seem to be everywhere in Concord and in Clayton. Her calendar is chock full of meetings, special events, conference calls, socials, ribbon cuttings, council sessions and chamber mixers. And very often her days move quickly into
nights when she shuffles back and forth between a myriad of mayoral duties and the responsibilities that come with helping to manage a city. “She comes into my office at four or five o’clock ready to chat, and we’re all starting to wind down,” says Napper. He describes her as “detail-oriented” and that helps with the hoards of paperwork that come with the territory. Her office speaks for itself. Piles of documents and reports are stacked on her desk, on the floor and on top of her computer. She spends anywhere from 10 to 20 hours reading Concord City Council agendas
See Two Cities, page 8
Kate said. Over 100 people stayed until the very end and rang in the New Year. Volunteers manned the food stand, games and individual activities while a variety of sponsors made the event possible. Committee members estimate that they more than doubled last year’s attendance. For more New Year’s photos, see Around Town on page 3.
Clayton’s own 21-year old Erin Dobratz was one of nine girls on the U.S. Synchronized swimming team who swam to a bronze medal at the 2004 games in Athens this past summer. Erin has been training since she was nine years old and has traveled all over the world. “It has b e e n amazing to meet the athletes from all the other ERIN DOBRATZ sports who have the same goals and dreams as I do,” Erin said after the medal ceremony. Following the Olympics, she returned to Stanford University to finish her senior year. OKTOBERFEST THE BARRELS
ROLLS
OUT
It was a true German Volkfest right in downtown Clayton when the Clayton Business and Community
See Stories, page 6
Village Market to reopen in March TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
Despite the insurance company’s refusal to pay his claim, Village Market owner Sam Sandhu says he will reopen in March. The store has been boarded up since an early morning fire last January heavily damaged the upstairs area. Efforts to collect the insurance money have been unsuccessful and Farmers Insurance denied the claim in September. In response, Sandhu filed a suit against Farmers for nearly $1 million in losses sus-
tained from the fire and another $1 million in damages, charging that the company has acted in bad faith Immediately after the fire,
See Market, page 18
Send a Valentine to your sweetie. See page 17