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IT’S YOUR PAPER September 8, 2017
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Heat cancels last week’s concert as 10th season nears the end BEV BRITTON Clayton Pioneer
JIm DIAz
MAYOR’S CORNER
New city engineer has key experience The City Council is pleased to announce the hiring of a new contract city engineer. Scott D. Alman, P.E., is the director of engineering services with the engineering firm of Harris & Associates, which has an office in Concord. The council approved Alman’s appointment and contract at a noticed special meeting on Aug. 14, and it’s effective immediately. For more than 30 years, Alman has helped ensure that civil engineering projects translate into improved living conditions for communities across A.J. Chippero California. He has served as The summer concert series has become a favorite of music lovers around the Bay Area, many who follow their city engineer for numerous favorite artist from venue to venue. Pictured above, Diamond Dave Hosley, a local entertainer with a large folSee Mayor, page 7 lowing, leads the audience in a rambunctious “Y.m.C.A.” at the July 8 concert.
Blistering heat and air thick with smoke from California wildfires forced the cancellation of The Fundamentals concert last Saturday. But there’s still one more concert left in the season. Crowd favorite East Bay Mudd will close out the 10th Annual Concerts in The Grove, Saturday, Sept. 16, 68:30 p.m. It seems every year the crowds get bigger and the bands get better. At the Aug. 19 concert, high-energy dance band, Busta Groove packed the park elbow to elbow, possibly setting a record for both attendance and enthusiasm. Even those in lawn chairs got into the groove – shoulders bopping and arms swaying – as Busta Groove performed “I Will Survive.” Dancers were everywhere, including moms in sundresses swinging with their kids.
See Concert, page 11
Possible hope for abandoned Bella Cerra ranch
Tamara Steiner/Clayton Pioneer
Named Bella Cerra by its builder, the Tudor-style ranch has been vacant for seven years due to litigation arising out of original owner Victor Weber’s 2010 conviction for fraud.
Weber and his horses. Weber bought the property at the corner of RusselThere it sits, abandoned mann Rd. and Marsh Creek and empty—that ghostly, boarded up faux Tudor mansion on Marsh Creek Rd. just outside the city limits. Who owns it? And why on earth would they leave it to decay and rot for over seven years, home only to rats and graffiti-obsessed squatters? At one time, the six-acre ranch was home to Victor TAMARA STEINER Clayton Pioneer
in March of 2001. A mortgage of $999,000 was recorded in July of that year. He built the 5,700 square foot
house and 10-stall barn in 2002. In 2010, Weber, a shyster insurance agent was convicted of running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors to the tune of $800,000. Weber sold life insurance to third party investors when the insured no longer needed the policy. For example, a parent outlives his kids and no longer needs the policy. The investor takes over the payments and eventually receives the payout when the insured dies. Problem was—Weber never bought the policies. He pocked the investors’ money and spent it on personal and business expenses. When the law caught up to him, Weber was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison. When he went to jail in 2011, the lender took posses-
sion of Bella Cerra—Weber’s name for the ranch, and listed it with real estate agent John Fink for $1,495,000. That was then. This is now. Loaded down with liens and litigation arising out of Weber’s conviction, the prop-
erty has been unsellable. And after seven years, the house, 7-car garage and barns are completely trashed inside and out. The buildings have been stripped of anything that
See Ranch, pg 3
We Remember
Roll out the barrel and tap the keg, here comes Oktoberfest
What’s Inside
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Dance the polka to the music of The Internationals all weekend at CBCA’s Oktoberfest Sept. 30-Oct. 1.
CBCA’s celebration of all things German is back for another year. The annual Oktoberfest takes over Main Street in downtown Clayton from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 30, and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 1. There is no admission charge to attend. The Internationals, the biggest little German band in the West, will be onstage in the main tent. Outside, are the food court with Wiener schnitzel, sausages, German pretzels and sauerkraut and the traditional Biergarten with
See Oktoberfest, pg 3
Every year since 2002, the firefighters of Station 11 have set 343 small flags in the grass in front of the station to remember each of the firefighters and law enforcement officers lost in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The flags will be up through the 9/11weekend. The public is encouraged to visit the memorial and spend a few minutes in gratitude for the 343 firefighters who lost their lives that day.
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID CLAYTON, CA 94517 PERMIT 190