PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID CLAYTON, CA PERMIT 190
IT’S YOUR PAPER www.claytonpioneer.com
March 25, 2005
Chief Smokey Peterson to retire in July
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stands proud at fire station JILL BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
Smokey the Bear has made his presence known in front of the California Department of Forestry (CDF) Sunshine Station on Marsh Creek Road outside of Clayton. His expression is priceless. And the contours of his thick redwood body get you thinking that any minute he’ll point his finger at you saying, “only YOU can prevent forest fires.” Smokey is one of the latest carved redwood masterpieces created by Clayton resident Ed Waraner. The nearly eight foot, 800 pound Smokey truly represents what Ed does best; carve to his heart’s content and then donate his carved statue to charitable or service organizations. Smokey took Ed about 40 hours to carve and create and he enjoyed every aspect from the hat and nose to the ears and feet. And Ed took just as much joy in the delivery as in the creation. “The firemen were stoked,” he said. They came to me and asked if I would carve a
TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
City Manager Gary Napper stunned a standing room only crowd at the last City Council meeting with the announcement of Clayton Police Chief Pete Peterson’s retirement after seven years on the job. As Napper read Peterson’s
bench or something from a huge stump of a tree that toppled. When he tested it, the stump was rotten. Ed offered to carve Smokey from a rather large piece of redwood that he already had in his workshop. The CDF staff said thanks but that they didn’t have the money for a project of that scope. “Then I’ll do it for nothing,” Ed said. He’s been carving and designing for some 10 years and has a lot to show for his artistic endeavors. Ed and his chainsaw have produced a myriad of eagles, wolves, anatomicallycorrect bears with teeth and animal caricatures. His house is full of his work and you can see his carved figures throughout the community. For the San Ramon School District alone, Ed has created Eagles, Panthers and Wolves Most of his work focuses on the animal kingdom, but he has carved a variety of items including Buddha’s and naked women.
See Smokey, page 6
CHIEF PETE PETERSON
resignation, a collective gasp was heard around the room, crowded with those who came because of the main agenda item, the business license tax. Come July 15, the well liked chief will pack up his desk and head home to begin work on a long list of “honey-do’s.” Retirement plans also include involvement with a number of community volunteer
See Chief, page 7
Tamara Steiner/Clayton Pioneer
Jimmy Waraner and CDF firemen slowly lower Smokey to the cement filled tree stump.
JIMMY WARANER, SMOKEY
AND
Tamara Steiner/Clayton Pioneer ED WARANER
Tax changes wait pending FPPC ruling Police say damage to TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
The City Council put off until next month any decision to modify the business license tax to give Councilmen Pete Laurence and Bill Walcutt every opportunity to debate and vote on the issue. Laurence and Walcutt are licensed real estate professionals and a vote on the tax, which is vigorously opposed by Realtors, may pres-
ent a conflict of interest for the two councilmen, the city attorney advised. Because of this, the two men have not been present for any meetings, public hearings or deliberations on the issue. Laurence, however, has requested a ruling from the Fair Political Practices Commission, the body responsible for enforcing the state’s conflict of interest code. According to Laurence, the FPPC has verbally advised
him that both men qualify for one of the many exceptions to the conflict of interest rules. In this case, because the business license tax affects a large segment of the business community, (more than 25 percent of businesses in Clayton, and virtually 100 percent of “outside” businesses doing business in Clayton), it does not have a disproportionate impact on Laurence and Walcutt. So, they will be allowed to vote on any
proposed changes to the business tax law. Laurence expects the FPPC to issue the written ruling by the first week in April. In the meantime, he and Walcutt will continue to recuse themselves from the proceedings, leaving council members Dave Shuey and Julie Pierce and Mayor Gregg Manning to hear testimony from the community and deliberate the issue.
See Tax, page 7
Measure C funds hard at work at MDES JILL BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
While students and faculty at Mt. Diablo Elementary School take a much-needed Spring Break over Easter, Measure C monies will be hard at work on the school campus in a more than $6 million renovation project. Following closely on the heels of similar projects at Highlands Elementary and Pine Hollow Schools, Mt. Diablo will be under construction for at least one year under the direc-
tion of the VANIR/3DI construction management team hired by the district to undertake the district-wide project. The major component of the multi-million project at Mt. Diablo is the construction of 15 new classrooms, including a new kindergarten room with its own bathrooms. The rest of the project centers on infrastructure upgrades including paving, roofing, electrical, lighting, painting and campus-wide upgrades to meet the requirements of the
See Measure C, page 6
Illustration courtesy of VANIR/3DI
THE NEW CLASSROOMS have a contemporary design with innovative use of space.
cop’s personal trucks was not accidental TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
On the afternoon of March 9, Sergeant Tim O’Hara, Clayton PD, was pulling out of the City Hall parking lot in his 93 Ford pickup when suddenly the right tire and wheel assembly buckled inward and the upper control arm fell to the ground. At first, O’Hara figured it was just an unlucky break. But, when tow truck driver Richard Shipp examined the truck’s front end, what he found was more than an unlucky break. A nut was missing from the front suspension, which allowed the bolt to work its way loose and the right front end to fall out – a situation that the experienced mechanic had never seen happen. It looked to him and to O’Hara as if the nut had been deliberately removed. “The nut is put on and heated up and is self-locking,” explained O’Hara, “you have to manually break it loose and pull it off.” Suspecting that the truck
had been tampered with, he immediately called his wife who had the family’s other 93 Ford pickup. He explained to her what had just happened with his truck and she said she had been hearing a knocking sound in the front end of her truck. “Wherever you are, stop driving,” he told her. An examination of his wife’s truck found the exact same nut missing from the front-end suspension and a wheel assembly that was minutes from buckling. O’Hara was now convinced that both trucks had been sabotaged. He recalls finding a nut at the end of his driveway about two weeks before the damage to his truck was discovered. “I didn’t know what it was for, so I just stuck it in the garage and saved it,” he said. It was a nut that had been removed from one of the trucks. O’Hara reported his suspicions to the Concord Police and to Clayton Police Chief Pete
See O’Hara, page 6