City to work with fire district on safety

Thanks to all of the community members who attended the Fire Station 11 closure City Council ad-hoc committee meeting on Feb. 4. Councilmember Jim Diaz and I attended the Fire District Board meeting in Martinez on Tuesday, Feb. 12, to convey our community’s concern over the closure of Station 11 and our desire to be involved in any solutions that the district may consider for covering Clayton during the closure. Jim strongly conveyed the need for real answers to the questions raised in our previous meetings.

I emphasized the need for district-wide discussions including all of the elected representatives of cities in the district. While the fire district is a special district over which we have no authority, their decisions directly impact all of our citizens and we must be included in their discussion on an advisory basis at a minimum. The Board endorsed the idea and directed the Fire Chief to initiate those meetings, which will also include all Contra Costa Fire Districts and the public. I’ll keep you posted on when those meetings will take place.

Fire Station closure ad-hoc committee members David Shuey (Shuey@rankinlaw.com) and Jim Diaz (jimdiazclaytonci@gmail.com) are working to enlist the aid of the public in obtaining more information regarding fire district plans for regaining fire station operation, preparing plans for our community during non-operation of station and coping with delayed response times. If you would like to participate in these discussions, have suggestions, or want to be added to the contact list, please send them your name, best phone and email address.

CVCHS Success Continues

This note is from CVCHS Executive Director Dave Linzey on Monday, Feb. 4: CVCHS “held our Public Random Drawing (lottery) for next year’s incoming students as we have nearly 700 applications for 550 seats available. At the lottery, parents and students literally cheered and cried when their name was drawn and they responded like they had “won the lottery!” Students placed on the waiting list to enter our school also cried as they feared they will not be able to attend our terrific high school.”

I want to add my congratulations and a continuing “Thank You” to all the teachers, parents and residents who worked so hard to create and make our charter high school so successful. Our whole community is reaping the benefits.

Spring around the corner

Our Clayton Road medians are looking good. Last fall’s renovations to Clayton Road have made a striking improvement to the appearance of the main entry into our town.

In 2007, Clayton voters overwhelmingly passed Measure B, making our arterial landscaping and trail maintenance a priority. Measure B provided for the formation of a Trails and Landscape Committee (TLC) of up to 11 Clayton citizens to advise the city on maintenance, improvements and financial matters related to the district. The district has an annual budget to maintain the public roadway and median landscape areas, public open space and hillsides of the city, annual weed abatement, seasonal fire breaks, the Clayton Fountain and trail system of the city.

The city council appointed five new members to the TLC committee, bringing the membership to nine – there’s still room for two more volunteers. The TLC members are Anthony Chippero, Robert Erich, Donald Fitzgerald, Ryan Lowe, Harun Simbirdi, Alyse Smith, Clayton Smith, Robert Steiner and Ted Sudderth.

The TLC committee of Clayton citizens has been diligent over the years, making sure our dollars are spent wisely and efficiently. The measure provided that capital projects would only be done on a pay-as-you-go basis as funds accumulated. We are now reaping the rewards of our patience for those improvements.

As always, you can contact me by email at Julie_Pierce@comcast.net. Let me know what you think!