IT’S YOUR PAPER www.claytonpioneer.com
January 25, 2013
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CVCHS has a new look for the new year
Jason Rogers photo
ATHLETES AND TEAMS COMING TO CLAYTON VALLEY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL for the first time this year will probably do a double take when they see the turf on the Gonsalves Stadium floor. Lacrosse, soccer and football teams will have to get used to the black all-weather surface that was laid down in the past month replacing the original turf which was installed in 2004.
JAY BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
Students returning to Clayton Valley Charter High School after the long three-week holiday break were greeted with a
science building, 2,000 freshly painted and repaired red lockers in the educational wings and a nearly complete black all-weather turf in Gonsalves Stadium. And CVCHS operations
director Pat Middendorf says more changes are on tap. One of the more significant ones doesn’t entail new facilities but rather new eyes. The school is now monitored by a three-person
security staff that patrols the entire complex during all hours when school isn’t in session. Middendorf explains that with the investment in so much new infrastructure the charter
high school wants to make sure the improvements and upgrades are secured. Measure C-funded projects for Clayton Valley will also include new security cameras and more outside lighting.
Once-injured Oakhurst owl soars to freedom above golf course
The new lockers greeted the students last week. The process challenged staff to get them all assigned to students, who removed all their belongings
See Turf, page 4
Medrano to serve jail time for felony embezzlement Longtime Clayton business and civic leader sentenced to three years
JULIE PIERCE
MAYOR’S CORNER
TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
City seeking answers for reduction at fire station We are all very frustrated at the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District’s closure of our 24/7 fire station by staffing it only Monday through Saturday, 2 p.m.-8 p.m. To figure out where we go from here, the fire district will host an informational meeting on Jan. 23 (between my press deadline and the time you get this paper). To make sure all residents have a chance to view the meeting, your city is paying to videotape it for rebroadcast 24 times over the next six weeks on CCTV, Comcast Channel 26.
Tamara Steiner
FORMER VICE-MAYOR, Joe Medrano, checks messages as he waits for sentencing outside the courtroom. Jason Rogers photo
A YOUNG GREAT HORNED OWL WAS RETURNED TO THE WILD AT OAKHURST COUNTRY CLUB ON JAN. 12. The owl spent nine months in a wildlife center recuperating from injuries it sustained after being attacked by a dog in April.
See Mayor, page 6
Fire Station Meeting What: CCCFPD Chief Lauder to answer questions about the closing of Station 11 When: Jan. 23, 7 p.m. Where: Clayton Community Library, Hoyer Hall
A young, great horned owl, rescued on the Oakhurst golf course last spring and nursed back to health, came home last week and was released to return to the wild. The owl was barely a week old when he fell out of his nest last April and was attacked by a dog. An Oakhurst staff member found him on the ground with
multiple lacerations and puncture wounds around his left eye. The injured owl spent several days at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek before being transferred to the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley (WCSV), where he spent the next nine months learning to be an owl. He moved in with a slightly older, but non-
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releasable, great horned owl that was already in residence. “It’s important that young wild animals be raised with their own species so they don’t get attached to humans,” said Ashley Kinney, a staff member at WCSV. “He seemed comforted to have a buddy to perch with.” The young owl had an insatiable appetite and he soon out-
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grew his shared quarters. The next move was to the center’s 50-foot raptor flight aviary, where he spent four months learning to fly and hunt. This month, staff deemed the young owl mature enough to return to the wild. More than 30 observers gathered on the bal-
See Owl, page 3
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It is a political implosion more worthy strife-ridden cities like Chicago and New Orleans, not sleepy little Clayton: A successful city councilman, philanthropist and local business leader now finds himself behind bars, sentenced to three years in prison for felony embezzlement. When a San Mateo County judge sentenced former Clayton Vice Mayor Joseph Medrano on Jan. 11, Medrano’s attorney, Matt Oliveri, made a desperate, last minute bid for leniency, calling his client’s actions “a mistake…a bad decision.” He asked for probation based on Medrano’s civic activities, his family responsibilities and his lack of criminal record.
See Medrano, page 7
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID CLAYTON, CA PERMIT 190