By Scott Willerford, Antioch Police Field Services Bureau Lieutenant

On Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 7:58 p.m., Antioch Police Officers responded to reports of gunshots in the area of Sycamore Drive and Mandarin Way.  Upon arrival, officers located a female victim lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the leg. The female was transported to an area hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

Initial investigation revealed there were two groups of subjects arguing in the street when multiple gunshots were fired from at least two weapons. All subjects fled prior to police arrival.

The Contra Costa Sheriff’s helicopter was used to assist in an area search for those responsible with negative results.

It appears that the victim was not involved in the fight but standing nearby and hit by a stray bullet.

The investigation is ongoing at the time of this writing.

There is trial and error in the game of golf. No way around it. I believe some golfers recognize this way more than others, and golfers who play and practice within themselves are able to grow and learn from their trial and error more easily.

I had the good fortune to give the great baseball player Reggie Jackson a series of lessons when I was in Southern California in my early professional years, and it struck me within the first five minutes of the first lesson of how he recognized this.

He came to the course with two other ball players and immediately after their arrival, the other two younger players were pounding drivers while Reggie was patiently working with a 7 iron. Reggie pointed over and said, “See, I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and that’s how I’ve learned. I’m new to the game and I don’t need to be doing that right now. Pounding drivers is a lot of fun and feels good but I know I need to be right here, with this club learning fundamentals.”

Reggie was exactly right. Here he was, strong as an ox, with the ability to hit it a mile, but he had the discipline to resist the urge to pound it, in order to develop his understanding of the fundamentals and learn how to stay within himself.

Don’t get me wrong, there are times I believe in going after the ball, but doing so within yourself is vital for being able to do so repeatedly and consistently. Here are some practice pointers for learning how to stay within yourself and grow in your understanding of your game:

Work the wedge. Practice the pitch, chip, chip, pitch, half wedge, flop, bump n run, wind cheater, and more. To develop your full swing, practice with the wedge more than any other club in your bag. There is a sequence to the motion in the golf swing, and these small shots with their various ball positions and adjustments will help you learn the timing of your swing. It is like learning to dance.

Do you jump right out on the dance floor and go as fast as possible right out of the gate? No, you get the steps down slowly, and then as you gain confidence in repeating, you then start to quicken up the pace. So using the wedge is rehearsing and getting the steps down slowly; something all golfers need to continually do.

Hit shots on the range with varying percentages of power. Take your 7 iron and hit some balls full length of backswing but half (50%) power. I’ll bet you will be surprised. That golf ball is going to fly farther then you thought it would. Then move up by 10% increments and hit some shots swinging 60%, 70%, 80% up to 100%.

This is a great way to learn about how to keep the club swinging on a good path and plane. Also, a great way to learn about the best tempo for your swing. You may just find that when you swing 90% and 100% that the club has more of a tendency to get yanked off the correct path and plane and not fly as far and accurate. Try this with a hybrid or 5-wood too; you’ll probably have some fun and you might even find your balance improving.

On the range, hit at your usual 8-iron green with your 7-iron. Really try and land 7 irons on that green. By taking a club more to hit to the target, you have to stay within yourself. You are also going to learn how to keep the flight of the shot lower by practicing this way which will give you more ball control.

This type of control can come in handy when trying to hit greens and also when playing on windy days.

I hope these pointers help you with your game. Read all of my columns on the Lone Tree Golf Course’s website at www.LoneTreeGolfCourse.com and look under “The Course” and “Your Pro’s Corner”.

By Natalie Souza-Rapp

In 2011, Ms. Christine O’Brien became the first woman President of the Antioch Rotary Club. The club has been serving the Antioch community for 65 years since it was formed in 1947. If anyone has ever wondered “who belongs to the Rotary Club and what do they do?” The organization is comprised of Antioch businessmen and women, and community leaders with a passion to serve people in our community, as well as internationally, who are in need. The Rotary motto, “Service Above Self”, is the driving force behind the group.

 

As a mother of 20-year-old twins, O’Brien moved to the United States in 1983 from Australia and has been living in Antioch since 2010. She has been working in the community since 2002 and manages both Bank of the West branches in town.

 

O’Brien joined the Antioch Rotary Club in 2003 because she wanted to meet people in the community and give back. When asked “what prompted her to serve as Club President?” she replied, “it is an honor and a privilege to serve as the first woman President.” She enjoys giving her time to all the great causes the organization helps.

 

The club meets every Thursday at 12:15 p.m. at the Lone Tree Golf & Event Center. Many people tend to view Rotary as an older men’s club. However, there are “young men and women Rotarians”, says O’Brien. Rotary is made up of “ordinary people doing extraordinary things”, she added.

 

Rotarians believe in living by a life-long standard known as the ‘4-Way Test’. In all things they say and do, a Rotarian will ask the following: 1. Is it the TRUTH? 2. Is it FAIR to all concerned? 3. Will it build GOOD WILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? 4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned? This sounds like a perfect standard for all to live by.

 

Just some good works the Rotary Club provides include: coats for kids, food for the hungry, Christmas gifts and Easter baskets to our youth. Their biggest program in Antioch is providing free dictionaries to the children in the community. In partnership with Delta Rotary Club of Antioch, Antioch 3rd graders in 11 schools received dictionaries this past year. On an international level, Rotarians are well known for their fight against polio. Rotary International is striving for a world where all children can get the polio vaccine.

 

On May 18, the Rotary Club had their 19th Annual Golf Tournament at Lone Tree. This is their biggest fundraiser which helps fund the following year’s projects. This is O’Brien’s favorite organization. “Collectively, as a group, we do amazing things” she said.

 

O’Brien will complete her term at the Club’s annual “Demotion Party” where they roast the outgoing president and induct the club’s president for the new year beginning July 1st.

 

To learn more about the Antioch Rotary Club, visit their website at www.antiochrotaryclub.org or on Facebook by typing in Antioch Rotary Club.

Dear Editor:

Sunday’s Contra Costa Times tells us that 400 people thought they were qualified to be city code enforcer but the city only interviewed three of them. And all three of them turned the job down. Why is that? I thought a job with the city was a good deal.

Who wants to come forward and tell us why three qualified people would turn down a job with the city of Antioch?

If council members don’t know perhaps the three applicants will come forth and tell us why they could not accept the job.

Bob Oliver, Antioch

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Apparently that is what the Contra Costa County Flood Control and Water Conversation District is trying to do, albeit in a different manner than the taxpayer funded $1.5 million dollar campaign to get property owners to approve the “Clean Water” assessment which went down to defeat.

Yup folks, on June 26th (10:00 a.m.) the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors will be holding a public hearing in regard to adoption of storm water utility assessments for fiscal year 2012-2013. Rate setting will affect properties located within the incorporated areas of the following cities, as well as the unincorporated areas: Antioch, Clayton, Concord, Danville, El Cerrito, Hercules, Lafayette, Martinez, Moraga, Orinda, Pinole, Oakley, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill, San Pablo, San Ramon and Walnut Creek.

Apparently, this will be the ONLY opportunity property owners will get to comment on what is sure to be a rate increase, According to the legal notice, at the hearing the Board will hear and pass upon any oral or WRITTEN objections to the adoption of the proposed 2012-13 fiscal year storm water utility assessments and, upon close of the hearing, may abandon the proposed actions or proceed with same!

Better get cracking folks. Get your letters in to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors or appear in person at the hearing.

Made up your mind yet about Proposition 29? Consider who is opposed.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is one. Another is the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, an outfit that, under the guise of saving mom and pop from being taxed out of their home, succeeded (through Prop 13) in giving big tax breaks to corporations, subverting majority rule on spending measures, and taking away control of taxation from local democratically elected officials.

Harry Stoll

Dust off those picnic blankets and baskets and start practicing your best two-bar rendition of ooohhh-aaahhh! Yes, the outcome is certified with no ifs and or buts. By popular demand, Antioch is bringing back the Fourth of July full skinny this year, fireworks included.

The festivities start at 5 p.m. with a classic car show in the City Hall parking lot at 2nd and H and a Kids Zone at Waldie Plaza. Two DJ’s will entertain us.

For those wishing to come light, there will be half a dozen food vendors selling pizza, burgers, hot dogs, burritos, tacos, ice cream and other goodies.

The Parade, starting at 7 p.m. has something for everyone, from a marching band, Scouts and veterans, classic cars, tanks, school buses, martial arts and dance performers, to clowns and a circus performer. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for the Budweiser Clydesdales. The Parade Awards presentation will follow at 9.m.

Then the fireworks extravaganza, this year with accompanying patriotic music all along the waterfront, starts at 9:30 p.m.

In years past, crowds have been fifteen to twenty thousand people, but get there early as this one promises to be a knockout. Remember, we’re the only show in the area, that night.

Here’s a plea. Since the celebration is completely privately funded, this year, it takes the proverbial village to make this happen. Two years ago Susan Davis and Martha Parsons kept the patriotic embers alive by sponsoring a parade at Somersville Towne Center. Last year Allen Payton and I took on the mission, with the indispensable organizing help of Louise Green, of bringing the parade back to where we all agree it belongs – Rivertown.

Then for this year’s celebration, within weeks after the last parade ended, a July 4^th Celebration Committee formed to go the full nine yards and seek $65,000 needed to ensure we had fireworks – with all the costs covered including the fireworks company, barge, tuboat, permits, parade and city staff hours, including police overtime needed for the show.

In fact, along the way of our initial monthly and now weekly meetings, we added a bonus. In talking with merchants about the Celebration we realized that having our downtown trees lit year-round would do wonders for the ambiance, so, primarily through the work of Joy Motts, we have raised an ancillary $5,000 in cash and $5,000 in labor. Count Rivertown now lit.

Susan Davis, Louise Green, Allen Payton and I are co-chairing the Committee. Joy Motts and Martha Parsons are Fundraising Co-Chairs, spearheading the prodigious task of raising money. Jim Lanter and Rivertown Impressions are handling the T-shirts and postcards. Louise Green and family are managing the sound and car show and she, Susan Davis and I are orchestrating the parade applications, sequencing and trophies.

Robin Agopian oversees food vendors and youth group water sales. Connie Komar graciously hosts our meetings at her Rick’s on Second restaurant, feeding us freshly baked cookies to keep the enthusiasm high. Carole Harrison has been our faithful scribe and she and her husband, Wayne, are working with store can collections, poster distribution, security and clean-up details. Jeff Warrenburg is running a delightful Kids Zone. Diane Gibson-Gray of the Antioch Arts & Cultural Foundation and Sean Wright of the Antioch Chamber of Commerce, are assisting in the fundraising with the use of the non-profit foundations.

The community, as well, has been instrumental in making this celebration a reality: Kiwanis of the Delta-Antioch donated the event insurance and the Soroptimist Club will be donating the proceeds from glo-stick sales, Universal Sweep are donating the street sweeping the day before the event, Allied-Waste is donating the portable toilets, Funnygate Publishing donated the website design, Unlimited Graphic & Sign Network donated their labor for the fundraising signs, John Slatten’s East County Insurance lent us use of their fax number, eTanzUSA helped secure the fireworks contract, and the Antioch Herald has helped with publicity.

Our cornerstone grant, a magnificent $25,000 has come from the generosity of the GenOn Community Fund and Supervisor Federal Glover.

Major sponsors are Allied Waste, PG&E, The Beswick Family Fund/Sharon Beswick, Macy’s, Mike’s Autobody, Leo Fontana, Electrical Industry Advancement Program-IBEW Local 302, Contra Costa Building & Construction Trades Council, VFW, Roddy Ranch Golf Club, Antioch Woman’s Club, Joe & Martha Goralka and Pinky’s Klassy Karwash.

Special thanks also to the City of Antioch staff for their cooperation and the owners of Fulton Shipyard, as well as Ron Greger of Greger Marine and Chris Lauritzen for assistance with the barge, tugboat and patrol boat.

The story doesn’t end there though. We need public support as we are still about $10,000 short of our goal. Our motto is “Give $4 for the Fourth” because if every family in Antioch just gave $4 we’d more than meet our goal. Of course, if a family can spare ten or twenty, or more, bless them. Anything extra will be used as seed money for next year. We started at zero, this year and prefer not to do that, again!

You can drop off a check at the Chamber or Commerce or mail to the Antioch July 4^th, 21012 Celebration Committee c/o the Antioch Chamber Community Foundation, 101 H St. #4, Antioch, CA 94509.

You can also visit www.AntiochJuly4th.com and contribute thru PayPal or sign up to participate in the parade. Also visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/antioch.julyfourth.

Obviously, an event of this magnitude takes many helping hands. You can help promote the event, too. Just look for the full-page poster inside the June issue of the Antioch Herald, cut it out and tape it in your window, in your lunch room at work or anywhere people can see it.

Every bit helps as we bring back a family-friendly Antioch tradition and honor the most patriotic of American holidays.

Now on the count of three…… ooohhh, aaahhh!

Walter Ruehlig, Co-Chair, Antioch July 4^th Celebration Committee