“The rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night” – a refrain in our National Anthem, which is played over and over on the July 4th holiday, signals not only our patriotism but, unfortunately, that of the ugly assault to our personal property which occurs every year.

I’m speaking, folks, of the continuous fireworks, starting on Saturday July 2nd and ending in a barrage of poppers, flares and ear shattering explosions of M-1000s on July 4th. It was like being caught in the middle of a firing range with my property being the target. Several residents a few homes away from mine were involved in the assault as well as number of people setting off fireworks in Harbour Park behind me.

I called the Antioch Police Department and asked them to send a car down my street and to the park but the noise never lessened. Frankly, I think the city should buy the cops loudspeakers with tape recorder speaker attachments so they can drive through neighborhoods and remind residents that fireworks are illegal and the fine considerable.

It doesn’t help that the Antioch Police Dept. is 22 officers short, although frankly I’m not sure that count is accurate as it’s a few months old and may not include two officers who recently chose to leave the department.

Perhaps the police department wouldn’t be so short staffed if the Antioch Police Officers Association (APOA) would agree to pay more than 3% toward their retirement and that “concession” is only till 12/31/11. Their existing contract runs until Sept 2013. Police Managers agreed to pay full 9% over 5 year of phase in.

Restore the Delta has learned that representatives from the State Water Contractors, the San Luis Delta-Mendota Water Authority, and the Metropolitan Water District are holding closed-door meetings with officials from the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Water Resources to create a finance plan for construction of the peripheral canal or tunnel.

This project, known as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, will divert the Sacramento River away from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

As recently as June, Jerry Meral, who has been given charge by the Brown Administration to lead the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, assured public participants that all processes underway through the BDCP were open and transparent. However, video from the June 28,2011 Metropolitan Water District Special Committee on the Bay Delta confirms that water contractors, including Metropolitan Water District’s General Manager Roger Patterson, are already working with government officials to create the finance plan for new conveyance.

(The meeting can be heard at http://mwdh2o.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=12&clip_id=1630 , minute 36.)

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director for Restore the Delta points out, “The BDCP website describes work on project financing as not beginning until the fall of 2011 after determinations are made regarding benefits of new water deliveries for State and Federal Water Contractors. However, as we have always suspected, those who want to take additional water away from Northern California and the Delta are crafting a finance plan without California tax payer and/or rate payer input.”

(See the BDCP website description of financing at: http://baydeltaconservationplan.com/BDCPPlanningProcess/WorkingGroups/WorkingGroup-Financing.aspx)

California Delta Chambers Executive Director Bill Wells asks, “How much more are urban water users in San Diego and Los Angeles willing to pay for water in order to finance this project? Can Central Valley Farmers afford to farm if the price of water triples and quadruples to pay for a canal? And how much of the financial burden will be shifted to tax payers to cover the astronomical costs for environmental mitigation to the Delta?”

Restore the Delta maintains that Californians are being hit very hard with cutbacks in education and essential services due to budget cuts. Californians should, therefore, have a say when it comes to large expenditures like building a canal or tunnel through the Delta – even if they will be asked only to finance a part of the project.

The conflict between the Brown Administration’s assertion that the Bay Delta Conservation plan is an open and transparent process and the real ongoing practice of dealing with the most important aspects of the BDCP in private is alarming. Barrigan-Parrilla asks, “Shouldn’t these types of meetings on financing the Bay Delta Conservation Plan be noticed and open to the public? Why the secrecy if there is nothing to hide?”

The public is highly welcome to attend the Antioch Mello Roos Board meeting on July 11th at 7 p.m. at 510 G Street. The Board is soliciting public input to pass on to the City Council as to what to do with the remaining $1.7 million available in the Mello-Roos fund for improvements to Prewett Park.

Anyone unable to attend can take the Antioch Herald poll or e-mail comments or suggestions to walter.ruehlig@gmail.com.

The Antioch Police Department is excited to announce the 25th installment of the Neighborhood Cleanup Program. This is a collaborative community effort which involves active participation from United Citizens for Better Neighborhoods (UCBN), community volunteers, and the Antioch Police Department Crime Prevention Commission; Neighborhood Watch Program, and the Public Works Department.

Collectively, “We”, everyone who works and lives in the City Antioch, can make a difference and improve the quality of life. It’s our community and it’s our chance to make a difference.

The City of Antioch Neighborhood Cleanup program is not just for residential neighborhoods. It is a program that will change venues on a monthly basis and it will include business and commercial areas as well. Neighborhoods that are free of trash and refuse are inviting, and a clean community instills a sense of community pride.

The 25th Neighborhood Cleanup event will occur on Saturday, July 9th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Volunteers should report to the City Hall Parking Lot located at 212 H Street. Volunteers will receive instructions and the equipment necessary to accomplish the goal. The targeted area is within walking distance. Excluding inclement weather, future Neighborhood Cleanup events are scheduled for the first Saturday of every month and the locations will be announced in advance.

Remember, cleaning up your neighborhood can make life better for your family, your neighbors and your community!

Restore the Delta, along with sixteen other Delta community/political leaders, sent a letter to Congressman Tom McClintock, Chair of the House Sub Committee on Water and Power, to express widespread opposition to HR 1837 (Nunes).

Recent massive fish kills at the water project pumps in the south Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta highlight the folly of H.R. 1837, Congressman Devin Nunes’s resolution to guarantee water supplies to the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.

Nunes’s San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act would undo years of efforts to balance Delta restoration with water supply reliability and to restore the San Joaquin River.

Says Restore the Delta Executive Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, “H.R. 1837 is an end run around California’s water rights laws. It puts junior rights holders ahead of Delta agriculture, Delta municipal water users, and fisheries. Forget public trust protections.”

Recovery of the West Coast’s recreational and commercial fishing industries is threatened by operation of federal and state water projects, which create conditions hostile to fish. Since April, eight million fish have been killed at the pumps, despite the fact that reservoirs are full.

Export contractors have refused to pay for fish screens at the pumps.

Nunes argues that federal endangered species protections have cost tens of thousands of jobs in impoverished San Joaquin Valley communities. But research by Dr. Jeffrey Michael of the University of the Pacific’s Business Forecasting Center has shown conclusively that San Joaquin Valley job losses are lower than claimed and have been driven by the housing construction collapse.

Even with pumping restrictions to protect salmon and other species, average exports from the Delta are now similar to what they were in the 1980s and 1990s. Several years of dramatic increases in pumping during the past decade have driven some species of fish to the brink of extinction.

Millions of tax dollars have been spent on scientific reviews confirming the adverse effects of project over-pumping.

Restore the Delta is a broad-based coalition including Delta farmers, environmentalists, fishermen, business leaders, and concerned citizens. Restore the Delta advocates for a more comprehensive and thoughtful approach to address the state’s water needs, including projects that safeguard the Bay, the Delta, the environment, and the people of California.
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By Walter Ruehlig

Like love and marriage, a horse and carriage, the Fourth of July and the word “celebration” go hand in hand. Though it’s been a good twenty four hours since the 2011 Antioch 4th of Parade faded into the local history books, can you honestly blame me for still feeling the goose bumps?

After a year’s downtown’s absence, Antioch had its mojo back. Frankly, it was exhilarating to again hum “Yankee Doodle Dandy” in the shadow of the El Campanil Theatre, marching a relative stone’s throw from the San Joaquin River in this vintage Americana classic that dates back locally 142 years. In 1869, sixty residents first gathered. That grew into a crowd of 1,600 the following year as the train brought miners and their families from the Black Diamond area.

Admittedly, I’m a sucker for classic cars, motorcyles, low-riders, Clydesdale horses, cultural costumes, dance troupes, floats, scout and veterans groups and the sentiment-stirring likes. I also must confess that I’m an easy mark for unabashed silliness, something we probably all need more of in this turbulent world.

My better half, Cynthia, and I never miss marching in a parade. In years past we have taken the roles of Sonny and Cher, Superman and Superwoman, Elvis and Priscilla, Bill and Monica, Popeye and Olive.

I’m glad to report there were abundant like-minded fun-lovers this year as, on short notice no less, Antioch had some sixty organizations strut their stuff. Granted, no fireworks for this privately-funded event, but also no attendant $85,000 bill. This year we scratched the $5,000 barge cost, thousand dollar a minute aerial artillery costs and the expense of scores of overtime police for a night-time crowd.

Hopefully, private business sponsorship or a parking or entrance fee may yet bring fireworks back to Antioch. Oakley, Concord, Martinez, Pleasanton and San Ramon had shows, after all. This Rivertown revival was, though, at least a start. Some four to five thousand locals tickled their inner child celebrating the most American of holidays, a collective national birthday bash. In these angst-ridden and fractious times, the cheer and communal bonding were priceless.

Incidentally, if anybody wants a CD of the event, for $10 you can relive the day. All proceeds defray the day’s security costs. E-mail me: walter.ruehlig@gmail.com or call (925) 756-7628.

Let’s acknowledge the many helping hands. First and foremost, thanks to Louise Green, the tireless logistics manager. Assuredly, I couldn’t ‘t have pulled the event off without her magic. Kudos to: Allen Payton and the Antioch Herald for promotion; Martha Parsons for asking the Kiwanis Club of the Delta-Antioch to sponsor event insurance; Luns Louie and his photographer crew of Steve Benson, Vanessa Boscia, and Megan Louie; sound man Mike Green;

emcee David Bates; Mayor Jim Davis for soliciting Allied Waste for port-a-potties; the Chamber of Commerce for coordinating participant applicatiions and donations; Nicolas Welzenbach of Oak View Memorial for lending his meeting room; the American Legion, Post 161, for donating $200; Tim Forrester for lending a nifty Benz and red Corvette; the Patriot Sentinels for trophies; Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla’s office for certificates of recognition; the award judges, Maris Bennett, Sandy Henry, Barbara and Len Herendeen, and Genny Payne-Nice; event committee members Connie Clement, Sue Davis, Tony Fettig, Tom Karas, Leslie Scudero, Larry Thomas, Nancy and Patrick Tofoya; day of event volunteers Melodie and Russ Guthrie, Mary and Roy Ledofrd, Gil Murillo, Mark Nottsend, Janet Pagano, Debbie and Steve Posthauer, Karen Rogers, and Sue and Kent Wiser.

Congratulations to the trophy winners: Dancers Elite for the Mayor’s Award for Best Patriotic Music Performance; East County Military Families for Best Patriotic Float; American Legion Post 161 for Best Patriotic Club; Sons of Italy for Best Patriotic Cultural Group; Boy Scout Troop 151 for Best Patriotic Scout Troop.

We can all be proud that Antioch, long a bastion of patriotism, and wholesome values, didn’t give in to hand-wringers but stayed resolute and honored the words of Daniel Webster: “May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely than this our own country.”

On July 2 at 3:41 p.m. Antioch Police received several reports of shots fired from the apartment complex at 600 Wilbur Avenue. While police were en route, a 22-year-old male, of Lindsay, California, phoned 911 to say that he had been shot at by Joseph Sakamoto, 21, of Oakley, who was later determined to have fled the scene in a vehicle.

Upon arrival, police located the victim and determined he had received non-life threatening injuries to his head but no obvious gunshot wounds. The victim was transported by ambulance to a hospital for treatment.

A short time later Sakamoto called police and arranged to turn himself. He was taken into custody without incident and booked into county jail. The vehicle and firearm were also recovered and there are no outstanding suspects in this case. The motive for the shooting is still under investigation.

Just a quick reminder that the Antioch July 4th Parade will be held tomorrow, Monday, July 4th (hey, what a coincidence!) at 10 a.m. on 2nd Street in historic downtown Rivertown.

Be sure to get there early to get a seat along the parade route.

Presented by Delta-Antioch Kiwanis, Allied Waste, the City of Antioch, Mayor Jim Davis, Antioch School Board Trustee Walter Ruehlig, Antioch Chamber of Commerce Community Foundation, American Legion Post 161, Antioch, and the Antioch Herald.