IT’S YOUR PAPER
www.claytonpioneer.com
HowarD Geller
January 15, 2016
925.672.0500
Save Mount Diablo to purchase majestic North Peak property
MAYOR’S CORNER
Clayton’s in a sweet spot for 2016
Looking back at 2015, Clayton fared quite well. We began and ended the year with a balanced budget and a small surplus. Here are a few highlights of Clayton’s 2015 accomplishments (in no particular order): We produced 10 wellattended Saturday Concerts in the Grove Park and our 2016 Saturday Concert schedule is approved. Clayton was named by two independent studies as the third safest city in California and the 10th best city for young families to settle in Northern California. We honored two Eagle Scouts and are benefiting from their Scout projects in the Clayton Dog Park. Measure “P” passed with 81.25 percent of your votes. This will maintain and operate The Grove Park for 10 more years. The Grove Park tot lot playground’s resilient play surface was replaced and largely paid for by the original installer. We also remodeled the water play feature in The Grove but due to water drought restrictions it cannot be turned on yet.
See Mayor, page 17
2015 in Review: Endings and New Beginnings PEGGY SPEAR Clayton Pioneer
It was a relatively quiet year in the city of Clayton, punctuated by the clacking of bocce balls in the Ipsen bocce courts and clanking of beer steins at the annual Oktoberfest on Main Street. But the loudest cheers — and boos — came from the local high school, where the off-campus activities of its leaders nearly drowned out the academic and athletic success of the students in the classrooms. It was also a year of goodbyes, as Clayton lost two local stalwarts, as well as a year of new beginnings. The local fire station reopened to much fanfare, a new residential
See 2015 Review, pg 18
GraPHiC
CourTeSy of
Save MouNT Diablo
SAVE MOUNT DIABLO (SMD) AN OPTION TO PURCHASE THIS 88.5-ACRE NORTH PEAK RANCH from Steve and brenda benkly for $1.1 million. The property rises from Marsh Creek road just east of Clayton onto the slopes of North Peak, Mount Diablo’s second tallest and more rugged peak. it shares a boundary with Mount Diablo State Park. MONICA RUCK Special to the Pioneer
The heavily wooded and scenic North Peak Ranch is one of the most beautiful parcels in the Mount Diablo foothills. With a small canyon that climbs up onto the slopes of rocky North Peak, and divides around several knolls, it is a hikers paradise. Two tributary creeks drop down the steep slopes over moss-covered rocky cataracts and small grottos then meet Mount Diablo Creek just off-site. Further downstream, Mount Diablo Creek crosses the northwest corner of the parcel.
Now, thanks to an agreement between Save Mount Diablo and owners Steve and Brenda Benkly, the parcel will be preserved for generations to come. SMD last week signed a 10year option agreement to purchase 88.5-acre North Peak Ranch for approximately $1.1 million. The property rises from Marsh Creek Road just east of Clayton onto the slopes of North Peak, Mount Diablo’s second tallest and more rugged peak. It shares a boundary with Mount Diablo State Park. “The property is really special,” said Benkly. “We have Muir Woods in our back yard.
One area has big green ferns, vivid green moss, and during the winter months a waterfall just a few hundred yards behind the house. Every day we wake up, look out our back window at North Peak and just count our blessings.”
FUNDRAISING NEEDED The couple appreciated their property so much that they wanted to make sure others could, too. “We are so appreciative of Steve and Brenda Benkly,” said Ted Clement, Executive Director of Save Mount Diablo. “They
See SMD, page 2
heinphoto.com
HEAVILY FORESTED HILLS FORM A BACKDROP FOR STEVE AND BRENDA BENKLY, Clayton ranchers who are selling their North Peak ranch to Save Mount Diablo.
Community bids farewell to Katie Grace TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
The DVMS gym was filled to capacity last Sunday when more than 500 turned out to celebrate the short life of 13-year-old Katie Grace Groebner who lost her fight against pulmonary hypertension on Christmas Day. Friends, family and community members remembered a brave little girl with an infectious giggle and big eyes who faced her disease and her future with optimism and joy. Katie was six when she was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension—a rare disease that went undiagnosed during her early years. Knowing Katie Grace would need medical care beyond what they could get in their home state of Minnesota, the family sold their home, packed up everything in their RV
Tamara Steiner
KATIE GRACE GROEBNER
and headed to the Bay Area and Stanford’s Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital. John Groebner had a job waiting in Concord and the family settled in Clayton
where they were embraced by the close knit congregation at Clayton Community Church. For the next six years, Katie Grace’s mother, Kathy, learned as much as she could about pulmonary hypertension, all the while watching as the disease was slowly claiming Katie Grace’s lungs. By June 2014, when Katie Grace was near death, the family received a middle-of-the-night call from Stanford—they had a match. On the day before Father’s Day, Katie Grace received a new heart and two healthy lungs in a rare and risky multiple-organ transplant. Initially, she thrived. Just weeks after her surgery, she was swimming and playing without the cumbersome backpack that had contained her oxygen and life-sustaining drugs. The playground was her favorite place. Sleepovers with friends and
pizza parties were common. But, the success was shortlived. Early in the summer of 2015, she began having breathing problems. Infections set in and by September, Katie Grace was back in the hospital. Her body was rejecting the new lungs and she was too sick to survive another transplant. Katie Grace breathed her last on Christmas Day surrounded by her family. Just as they had embraced Katie Grace during her life, the CCC community and the Groebners’ friends stepped up to organize her memorial. CCC pastor, Shawn Robinson officiated the two-hour service that included prayer, poetry, reflections and music by the CCC Worship Team, CVCHS Women’s Ensemble, CVCHS alum and Katie Grace’s close friend, Kyle Metz. Katie Grace was born July
16, 2002 in Mankato, Minn. She is survived by her parents, John and Kathy Groebner, sisters Savahna Hope Groebner, Summer Nichole Hineline and Kristiena Faith Manbeck and her grandmothers Eileen Kelly and Janet Groebner. Memorial donations can be made for pulmonary hypertension research at 222.phaware.global/donate. Financial gifts can also be made to help the Groebner family during transition. Go to www.gofundme.com/katiesfarewell. The family also encourages those who can to sign up as an organ donor.
What’s Inside
Around Town . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Community Calendar . . . . .13 Directory of Advertisers . . . .7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 School News . . . . . . . . . . .14
Postal Customer ECRWSS
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID CLAYTON, CA 94517 PERMIT 190