By Lieutenant Diane Aguinaga, Antioch Police Field Services Bureau

The Antioch Police Department is asking for the public’s help to assist in their continuing efforts to find or identify citizens who have been reported missing or that are unidentified.

In late April, 1988 a citizen called the Antioch Police Department to report a decomposing body that was found off of Somersville Road, in a gulley, just south of Buchanan Road. Ultimately, the circumstances at the time did not lead to any indication of homicide or other felonious assault. An investigation to identify the subject has been ongoing ever since.

Antioch Police investigators responded to the area and located a body that had appeared to have been there for several weeks. The subject was determined to be a black female adult, near 40 years of age (approximately 35 to 45 years of age), and about 5’04” tall. The female’s weight was unable to be determined.

Of particular note: she was wearing a light pink knit long sleeved sweater with thin horizontal light blue stripes and a cloth collar; Levi’s blue jeans over grey sweats; brown socks; and light blue Nike tennis shoes with a white Nike “swoosh” symbol on them. On her left wrist she was wearing a gold watch with a maroon face, and she had on a thin gold necklace, with a gold pendant. The pendant was of the block letter “F”. Some keys were found in the area. There were (2) key rings with (3) Ford automobile keys, (3) miscellaneous keys, (1) oversized diaper pin, and (1) metal letter “F” with a blue face.

Please review the photographs, above and below, displaying a clay sculpture likeness of our Jane Doe, her clothing, and her unique jewelry.

Citizens with any information are urged to contact Detective Fortner at 925-779-6930.

You may also text a tip to 274637 (CRIMES) using key word ANTIOCH

By Allen Payton

Owned by Antioch residents Steve and Cheryn Adcock, with partners Mike Liston and his son Jeff, Able Hearth & Home has been serving Antioch and East County for 10 years.

Steve started in the industry repairing stoves and fireplaces and has been in the handyman business for 30 years.

Started in Pittsburg, with their first store on Buchanan, they relocated to Antioch, last year, near Costco.

They offer brand name wood, gas and pellet stoves and fireplace inserts, fuel and accessories – plus the Big Green Egg barbecues.

“The key thing to know is we can save you on your energy bill this winter and everyone after,” Steve says.

That’s because 95% of fireplaces in California are decorative and not built to heat the home – which means they’re less efficient. In fact only 20-30%!

“The stoves and fireplaces we sell are 70-90% efficient, even more efficient than home heating systems,” he added.

Able is the only full-service fireplace and stove company in East County offering sales, service, parts and repair.

In fact, they’re not only members of the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, they’re certified with the National Fireplace Institute and Jeff is certified as a Chimney Sweep with the Chimney Safety Institute of America.

They are the experts! So stop in and see them at 1874 Verne Roberts Circle, near Costco or call 925-586-0378.

Be sure to see their ad on page 11 of our February issue for great savings, this month.

By James Ott

An outpouring of support from passionate parents and students may have prevented the firing of an alternative education teacher in Antioch.

At the February 27 Antioch School Board meeting district staff recommended laying off at least 14 teachers as part of the school district’s annual review of projected student enrollment and corresponding staffing levels.

The list of potential firings included one teacher from Antioch’s E.N.C.O.R.E., (Educating and Nurturing with Options, Resources and Education) alternative teaching program.

But thanks to a fervent outcry from concerned parents and students, not only will that teacher likely keep her job, but the school board decided to look into expanding the successful program.

E.N.C.O.R.E. is a kindergarten through eighth-grade program that allows home schooled children to still have the benefits of learning part time in a classroom.

It is taught by teachers Leslie McKinnon, Irene McLaughlin, Ericka Spires and Cynthia Schroeder who was the teacher expected to lose her job if the district went through with the process.

Person after person spoke up at the meeting to say that all of E.N.C.O.R.E.’s teachers including “Miss Cynthia” as many of her students and their parents refer to her, are invaluable to E.N.C.O.R.E.

Parents and teachers argued that E.N.C.O.R.E.’s unique structure in which the same 100-125 students a year stay with the same teacher and fellow students as they move from kindergarten through eighth-grade cannot handle such a layoff.

Besides they said, E.N.C.O.R.E. is very successful program that consistently produces high grades and test scores and consistently has had to put interested families on a waiting list for most of it’s 20-year existence. This year there are already 12 families waiting for room to put their children into E.N.C.O.R.E.

“You have the best alternative education program in the Bay Area,” claimed one parent. “I know because I did the research and I chose to come here.”

Every parent who spoke agreed with that sentiment, many of them moving from other parts of the Bay Area just to enroll their kids. One father commutes from the Dublin/Livermore area just to get his kids into E.N.C.O.R.E.

Parents and students raved about the teachers and special classes that allow their home-schooled students socialization with other kids as well as a sound education.

“I went to E.N.C.O.R.E. as a very shy student that didn’t know how to go through public school and I came out a performer,” said former student Rayanne Baird.

Baird is now pursuing acting at Diablo Valley College.

There were similar stories of students that not only went to E.N.C.O.R.E. and got a good education, but several said the lives of these students were positively changed.

One mother recounted how her son was an angry trouble maker who had below average or failing grades and couldn’t handle public school. After 9-years at E.N.C.O.R.E. he consistently makes honor roll at his high school and is a well adjusted, happy young man.

Over and over parents and students credited E.N.C.O.R.E.’s success directly to it’s four teachers, describing them as “fabulous,” “wonderful,” and amazing.

Former students recounted how they dissected cow eyes and sequenced DNA in science labs, took field trips to galleries to appreciate art, made Chinese bamboo painting and learned to write critical thinking essays.

Several years ago a group of students at E.N.C.O.R.E. even wrote, directed, edited and starred in a feature film called “Around the World in 180 days.” The film was shone at the former Brenden Theaters in Pittsburg.

After all of the praise, many were left wondering why the district was even considering laying off any teacher from such a successful program that even has a positive cash flow for the district due to a lack of student abences.

Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for the district Keith Rogenski said that all of the potential layoffs were being looked at because of lower enrollment projections for the coming school year.

Those projections for each school he said, determined that certain teachers may not have enough students to teach and therefore may not be needed.

At the meeting however, Rogenski did stress that all of the projections and thus the potential layoffs were just preliminary estimates that the district is required to make each year by March 15.

He said the General Fund savings for those 14 potential layoffs could be as high as $700,000 for the 2013-2014 school year.

“This action is preliminary not an end all be all, permanent action,” he said.

The board, Rogenski said, is free to make changes to any of the teacher positions on the list in the coming months.

The decision to potentially fire an E.N.C.O.R.E. teacher seemed to come from the fact that the program only had about 75 students at the time the district was making their list.

Schroeder said that those figures are inaccurate and misleading because, like many schools their enrollment goes up after several weeks into the school year.

“The district stated that our attendance goal is 100 students – we have always met that,” she said. “Our new principal said that it was actually 106 so we met that – we are currently at 109 students.”

In the end the school board members seemed to unanimously agree that E.N.C.O.R.E. is meeting it’s attendance goals and it’s academic goals and should not be losing a teacher. In fact, they voted 4 to 1, (with Gary Hack against), to put off the preliminary vote on any of the layoffs in question until the next board meeting so that they can get staff to research how to grow the E.N.C.O.R.E. program.

“My vision 20 years ago was for E.N.C.O.R.E. to be much bigger,” said Board member Claire Smith, who helped found E.N.C.O.R.E. “I know you fit the needs of a lot of students.”

Board members seemed so impressed by the praise of students, teachers and parents that they said E.N.C.O.R.E. in many ways should be a model for the whole school district.

“You’re the dream for all of us,” said Board President Joy Motts. “[E.N.C.O.R.E.] is how we envision public education.”

The next school board meeting is on March 13 at 7:00 p.m. in the School Services Building at 510 G. Street.

Staffing at 1995 levels

By James Ott

In the face of surging crime rates and stagnant city income levels, Antioch will look into a possible tax measure that would provide money for more police.

Antioch currently has 88 sworn officers and has funding for up to 102 of them, but according to city Police Chief Allan Cantando, the city needs to have at least 126 officers just to be at the staffing levels the city was at before a free-falling economy nearly bankrupt Antioch.

City council members have long agreed with Cantando that the city needs more police and at the February 26^th Council meeting they discussed putting a tax measure up for vote to pay for them.

City Manager Jim Jakel said that the city council would need a tax to pay for the police because the city has seen, “massive declines in revenue,” including a decrease of over $13 million dollars since 2006-2007.

The issue of a tax is still at the very early stages of development, said Jakel and the city still has a lot of research to do before they can decide such things as the type of tax they want, the tax amount and how long the tax will remain in effect.

Making the process especially tricky is the fact that the city has to legally limit it’s involvement in the process while still gaining enough support to win the 2/3 vote needed to approve the item, added Jakel.

“We can’t run the campaign yet we’re intimately involved,” he said. “We can do things like very limited information gathering but can’t legally do ad campaigning.”

City council members agreed that they would need to wait until at least the November 2013 elections to place a tax measure on the ballot because they want time to do proper public outreach including community forums and public polls on the subject.

The city will look at three different tax possibilities: a sales tax, a parcel tax or a business tax. The sales tax would likely be either a quarter, half or full cent sales tax, while the parcel tax numbers are yet to be determined, according to Jakel.

Mayor Wade Harper suggested that one idea for the business tax could be to tax renters in the city.

“As far as the business license tax – there are people that own several different homes in Antioch and they’re basically running it as a business and they’re not paying a tax so we need to address that,” said Harper.

Charging $200 to $250 annually to the owners of the 11,000 plus rental properties in the city has been suggested by the public.

Jakel said that he will put together estimates for each of the three tax possibilities, including a low, medium and high tax amount as well as an estimate of how much each different tax measure might generate.

Council member Gary Agopian said that he liked the half-cent sales tax measure that was recently passed by Pittsburg and would like Antioch to take a look at it as a possible model for tax income.

“I like the Pittsburg model,” said Agopian. “A half cent sales tax for five years, then it decreases to a quarter cent sales tax for the final five years and then it ends. What would that generate for us?”

Regardless of the type of tax the city decides on, all members of the council agreed that they need a poll to find out what the citizens want and to judge the public’s receptiveness for the possible tax measures.

“I want to hear from the average voter that doesn’t necessarily come to council meetings,” said council member Monica Wilson.

Because the city cannot legally campaign for such a measure, it is very important that the city make sure they have the support of Antioch voters before they spend time and money to place a tax on the ballot, said council.

“We need broad community support,” said Agopian. “Does labor support it, does business support it, does the chamber [of commerce], support it, does the average citizen support it?”

The cost of the election Jakel said would be upwards of $250,000, not including research, polling and possibly hiring an outside firm to help with that information gathering.

City staff will gather information, make cost estimates and meet with City Council on March 28 to discuss the tax measure and try to iron out some of the many issues it faces.

By Sergeant T. Schnitzius, Antioch Police Field Services Bureau

On Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 8:42 a.m., Antioch Police responded to a call of a male shot in the 600 block of W. 19th Street. Upon arrival at the scene no victims were located. Several spent shell casings were located in the street. A short time later the Antioch Police were notified the victim had arrived at a nearby area hospital with a single non-life threatening gunshot wound. He is being treated and expected to make a full recovery.

Officers were unable to locate any homes or vehicles on scene that had any damage from gunfire. As of the time of this writing no other victims have been located.

Citizens can provide tips anonymously via text message by sending the message to 274637 (Crimes), please be sure to include the word “ANTIOCH” in the message so it can be forwarded correctly. All text messages are encrypted so your number cannot be traced.

Men are invited to gather at City Park in Antioch, Saturday at 7:15 am, prayer starts promptly at 7:30. For more information, contact Mike Pollard at foreveryoungmike@yahoo.com.