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January 30, 2004
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Early morning fire causes $60,000 in damage to the Village Market BY TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
Jill Bedecarre / Clayton Pioneer
FIREFIGHTERS WORK TO extinguish the flames that gutted the upstairs rooms of the Village Market
A fire swept through the upper rooms of the Village Market in the early morning hours on January 16 causing an estimated $60,000 damage. store owner, Sam Sandhu and his son, Johnny, arrived to open just before 7 a.m. to find the store full of smoke. Sam Sandhu climbed the stairs at the back of the store to turn on the lights. As he pushed the upstairs door open, he could see smoke and flames. He reported the fire at 7:05 a.m. Captain Ben Smith of the Contra Costa Fire Protection District and the crew of Clayton’s Engine 11 were the first to arrive on the scene just a block and a half from the fire station. According to Captain Smith, the upstairs was fully involved and the heat was intense as the fire rapidly advanced. The fire was extinguished in less than an hour. Standing at the front doors, Sam Sandhu gazed into the eerie, dark store. “We just washed all the bottles,” he said, quietly. The last of the Christmas decorations still hung on the front facade. The downtown store has been owned and operated by the Sandhu family since purchasing it in 1990 from Don and Carmen Williams, long-time Clayton residents. The Williams’ built the store in 1978. The cause is still unknown. According to Randy Champion of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection
Few faces in Clayton are more recognizable than that of Dan Ashley, ABC-TV, Channel 7 Weekday News Anchor. Ashley brings the national and local news into Bay Area homes twice a day, at 5 and at 11 p.m. Locals will also recognize him as Clayton's 4th of
July Parade Grand Marshall and official "Christmas Tree Lighter." Dan Ashley, came to ABC7 from an affiliate in Charleston, North Carolina. He had been in California covering the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 and "fell in love" with Northern California. He'd considered several other opportunities before tak-
ing the Channel 7 spot, including both Chicago and New York. But, raising a family in a big city held little appeal. "New York, that's the top," he mused. “As I stood in Times Square, looking up at Rockefeller Center, I thought about the kids and knew I just wasn't ready to change our lives that drastically." In 1995 the San Francisco job opened up and The Ashley family, Dan, wife Spalding and sons Parker and Bennett, moved west. They spent four days house hunting in the East and South Bay, and when they got to Clayton, "it seemed familiar," said Dan. "It looked like home." I arrived at the Ashley home in Oakhurst for our midday interview to be greeted by the aroma of roasting lamb. Spalding cooks early for the family and Dan takes dinner to work, "so he doesn't have to eat Lean Cuisine every night,"
Tamara Steiner / Clayton Pioneer
See Ashley, page 4
ABC CO-ANCHORS, Dan Ashley and Jessica Aguirre
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OWNERS Sam Sandhu (foreground), and son Johnny row or to see how the family was faring,” said Hood. It isn’t known yet, when the store will re-open. “But Sam wants everyone to know that the little blue store will be back—bigger, better and beautiful,” said Hood.
City seeks input on sales tax extension
To ABC’s Dan Ashley, Clayton looked likehome BY TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
District, “It’s not unusual for fire investigations to take a week or more to complete. We want to be as thorough as possible. For a situation like this, there can be other agencies involved and we have to gather all of the information. It all takes time.” Gary Hood, friend and spokesperson for the family, says that the Sandhu family has been overwhelmed by the community concern and support. “Sam wants to thank everyone who called or came by to express their sor-
JULIE PIERCE MAYOR’S CORNER The Clayton City Council will be considering and commenting on the alternatives for the extension of the Measure C half-cent sales tax for transportation at its meeting on February 3. The extension will be put before the voters of Contra Costa in November 2004. As Clayton’s representative to TRANSPAC, the central county transportation planning committee, and the current Chair of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA), I want to hear what Clayton voters have to say about transportation priorities for the proposed extension of this local sales tax. State and federal funding is projected to be severely limit-
ed in the next 25 years. You can help the CCTA address future traffic congestion by participating in the process to continue the existing Measure C sales tax. A 20 year extension, if successful, would provide an estimated $1.6 billion in flexible transportation funds to improve Contra Costa’s highway, transit, pedestrian and bicycle network. Since 1988, the current Measure C has funded important transportation projects such as the extension of BART to Pittsburg/Bay Point, improvements to I-680, Highways 4 and 242, transit services for the elderly and persons with disabilities, local streets and roads, bicycle and pedestrian trails, and countywide transportation planning. The cities and county receive 18% of the current measure
for local transportation improvements. Extending the Measure C sales tax is important to continue local funding for local streets and roads, transit services and to pay for important transportation projects, such as extending BART further into East County, widening Highway 4 east out to Antioch, widening the Caldecott Tunnel, improvements to the I-680/Hwy. 4 interchange, adding new bus and rail service and improving our bicycle and trail system. To help craft the new measure, the CCTA has prepared three alternatives for modifications to the Measure C Expenditure Plan and Growth Management Program. Two recently released documents, the Draft Countywide
See Mayor, page 13
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