To the editor:

As expected, Don Freitas is going to run for mayor next election. And he should. He controlled the city council meetings very well. But that’s no reason to re-elect him. Since he left office two years ago, he has not made any appearances at council meetings, never any input on anything.

The same can be said of Arne Simonsen. Never shows at council meetings and little input in the newspaper. But I could vote for Arne if he would make a commitment to run as a full-time mayor and eliminate the position of city manager.

Arne is the only council person to ask questions. I always thought him to be the smartest of them all. He has the time to be full-time mayor and we need him.

Bob Oliver
Antioch

On Saturday, December 3 at 2 p.m., Santa will be dropping in on Byron Airport for a very special visit.

Santa Claus, with help from Bay Area Skydiving, will arrive at the Bay Area Skydiving hanger located at 6900 Falcon Way in Byron at 2 p.m. to give all the good little boys and girls an opportunity to get their pictures taken with him.

In the event of rain, pictures with Santa can be taken inside the Bay Area Skydiving hanger. The event is free, but Santa and his helpers would appreciate it if everyone participating would bring either a non-perishable food or monetary donation for the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano.

At 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 3 Santa will also be skydiving at Buchanan Field Airport. He will arrive behind the Crowne Plaza Hotel located at 45 John Glenn Drive at 10 a.m. to hand out candy canes and give all the good little boys and girls an opportunity to get their pictures taken with him. In the event of rain, Santa will be taking pictures inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

By Ray Faulkenberry

The Antioch Community Center in Prewett Park opened in January and has quickly become a popular attraction in the community, despite the fact that most people aren’t even aware of it.

Some may say, “How can the city be spending money on a community recreation center when the economy is down, jobs are down, and times are tough?” There are many reasons why and I’ll get to them, but first and foremost the funds used to create this incredible center came from Mello-Roos taxes earmarked for the recreational development.

Don’t be fooled, though, we’re not just talking recreation. The city is also offering an incredible number of services and classes that promote culture, growth, physical fitness, educational opportunities and other topics. A growing library sits just inside the doors alongside a computer lab that anyone can use to surf the Internet, enjoy a cup of coffee and hang out.

The center boasts a cutting-edge preschool that is designed to enhance and stimulate our kids. Also, for the first time in Antioch’s history we have our own 10,000 square foot community gymnasium (one not at a school). This beautiful gym hosts drop-in basketball, volleyball, indoor soccer, gymnastics and a variety of leagues. The gymnasium also hosts crab feeds, large conferences and a bridal faire.

As you know, nothing can be run without the right people. The community center has been blessed to have two facility managers – Susan Vasquez and Al Anthony, who are warm and incredibly dedicated to the city and its mission to enhance and support the community. They are excited about the expanding range of classes that encompass traditional fitness, martial arts, dance and the latest fitness craze – Zumba.

“We’re branching out with the fifty-somethings, as this segment of the population is growing and we want to keep them active,” said Susan.

As a fifty-something myself, I can appreciate the fact that our age needs and wants opportunities to grow, expand, learn and challenge ourselves. For example, the center has plans to incorporate more cooking classes.

Added Al, “We want to make the community center a true gathering place where people can come and hang out, learn, laugh and have fun.

Both Susan and Al are advocates of listening to the community and providing what it wants. They encourage anyone to share thoughts on classes, programs, or events that could benefit the city.

The center also has a gorgeous amphitheatre with tiered seating providing a beautiful view of the mountains as well as the performers.

“We’ve already had two concerts put on by the city where we tested everything and worked out whatever kinks we had,” said Al with more than a little passion in his voice. “The future recreation guide will list concerts. Again, we’ll see what the community wants, and we’ll do our best to give it to them.”

The conference rooms are clean, professional and beautiful. People from all over the East County are renting the banquet room for parties, weddings and receptions of all kinds.

The facility also has the potential to be a fully functioning, police substation.

“Fiscally we’re doing very well,” Susan said. “We’ve had a massive increase in registrations and we’re looking to continue to grow in 2012. We’re expecting an exciting year for the city and we’re doing our best to provide the best services possible.”

We not only have an amazing, gorgeous facility full of programs, classes and opportunity, we also have a center that is run by caring, compassionate, professional people – some of Antioch’s finest.

I’m honored to be able to offer my own small part in the center, as my son, daughter and myself teach the martial arts classes. Come out and see the facility and talk with the staff. It’s a reprieve from the stresses that we experience living in this day and age. Best of all, it is Antioch through and through: practical, professional, and warm.

Ray Faulkenberry, PhD, is an author, coach, and entrepreneur that specialize in helping people and businesses achieve their potential. He teaches Taekwondo and Kenpo at the Recreation Center on Monday and Wednesday nights. Log onto his website and for a short time receive his books on success, leadership, and transformation for free. He can be reached at www.rayfaulkenberry.com or rayfaulkenberry@comcast.net.

To the editor:

There should be an article about this problem. Honest. Neighbors celebrating the fact the house is getting some much needed love and attention may not know that the company hired to do the cleanuout isn’t always a reliable company.

Antioch is a victim of not so honest people doing foreclosure cleanouts that then illegally dump all the trash on the back roads in Antioch (instead of hauling the trash to the dump and paying like they are supposed to).

The lastest one I had to deal with came from a house on West 6th Street that was then dumped near a water source on McElheney Road. It took 5 people over 3 hours to clean up.

Impossible to track down who did it with the limited resources at hand. When I do get an address, and I usually do, they are, of course, bank-owned. But someone associated with the foreclosed home hired somebody to clean it out and the cleanout crew decided to keep all the money and illegally dump it instead.

I do not have the resources nor does the City to follow up every time this happens I do have pictures of what was recently dumped on McElheney Road by what we believe was one of these trash cleanout companies. Yet another side of foreclosures, unfortunately.

Neighbors need to take notice. If you see a trash cleanup at a foreclosed house, get the license plate number or take a picture or ask for a business card.

R.C. Ferris

By Walter Ruehlig

The public is warmly invited to the Simbang Gabi, a splendid cultural and spiritual treat held annually at St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic Church, 3351 Contra Loma Blvd., starting December 16th and ending December 24th.

Called the Misa de Gallo (Rooster’s Mass) in Spanish, the nine-day Novena begins each morning at 5 a.m. It helps conclude Advent, a season of joyful and abundantly spiritual expectations and prepares the devotee towards greater appreciation of Christ’s taking human form.

The Presiders will be Father Robert Rien and Father Ronan Rances. After each liturgy a breakfast of native delicacies and patented Filipino hospitality will be served.

The tradition traces back to Mexico in 1587 when the Pope granted a petition of Fray Diego de Soria, the prior of the convent of San Agustin Acolmar, to hold an outdoor Mass as the church could no longer contain the growing evening crowds. The tradition further took hold to allow farmers to hear Mass before going to the fields.

It has become one of the longest and most popular among the Filipino traditions with families hanging colored lights, lanterns and elaborate parols in their windows. In the olden days the church bells would ring as early as 3 a.m. to welcome the faithful to to enter their doors before the break of dawn.

Service would begin as early as 4 a.m. Bands would often play in the streets in rural towns and priests would even be known to knock on doors rousing the parishioners with the Good Word.

For further information contact Clarita Perez at 759-4488 or Sofia Zimmerman at 978-4788.

Former Antioch City Councilman, Contra Costa County Supervisor and biker Tom Torlakson rode off to a new position in Sacramento.

Now as the state school’s chief, Torlakson is touting his “Schools of the Future” initiative designed to change California laws to encourage more renewable power systems for state schools. (California just lost out on the race for a share of $300 million in Race to the Top funds because of an “incomplete” application.)

Interesting to note that U.S. Congressman George Miller is also touting renewable energy, more specifically a failing California solar company called SunPower. (Miller is now the senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee.)

SunPower received a $1.2 billion federal loan guarantee for a photovoltaic electric ranch project three weeks AFTER announcing it was building a new manufacturing plant to build the panels for the project in Mexicali, Mexico.

What was Rep. George Miller’s connection to the project? The answer is his SunPower lobbyist son, George Miller IV. Although not a registered lobbyist in Washington, he’s a member of its bar, although not a member of the California bar, home of his lobbying firm, Lang, Hansen, O’Malley and Miller.

SunPower and its officers are defendants in a federal shareholder lawsuit whose plaintiffs include the Austin, Texas Police Retirement System, the Arkansas Teachers Retirement System and a number of institution investors in an alleged scheme to deceive the investing public by making false statements contrary to nonpublic information known to the insiders.

All this was known at the time it received it’s $1.2 billion loan guarantee from US taxpayers to build a new manufacturing plant in Mexico.

Frankly it’s time for a change in Sacramento and Washington D.C. where lobbyists hold sway and members of Congress benefit from insider trading. Let’s start with voting for passage and enforcement of HR 1148, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act.

To the editor:

Bittersweet, yes, but given the state of affairs, progress. St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic Church tallied its receipts from the Fall Festival, raffle and gala dinner and exceeded expectations with a net profit of $32,000.

The sad news is that normally that money would have gone towards the ‘Complete the Vision Campaign’ to build an educational center. Due to three copper thefts in a matter of months that stripped air conditioners and perimeter wires, some $26,000 of it is earmarked for a perimeter fence, which is hoped to go in by the end of the year.

The projected fence installation follows in the steps of the Dhyanyoga Center across the street which was also repeatedly vandalized, as was a number of other churches and schools around the city.

In the meantime. a contingent of men, and one brave woman parishioner, are doing three hour shifts through the night watching the church. New security cameras and increased city police patrols add to the security effort. In addition, the church has volunteers patrolling the parking lot during services because of past car break-ins. Anybody with any tips on either variety of thief, please contact the Antioch police.

The church, incidentally, is just shy of a million dollars in pledges, a third of its goal. Parochial Administrator Robert Rien has been tirelessly pursuing foundations and under the leadership of Finance Committee Chair Ron France, the church is pulling out all the stops with recyclable collection, loose change jugs, fish fries, crab feeds, restaurant incentive nights, gourmet coffee and tri-tip sandwich sales and just about any fund-raising enterprise that is legal and wholesome.

The church welcomes ideas if you have any. Seems thieves may come and go, but men and women of good faith and resilience are a constant at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church.

Walter Ruehlig

The Antioch Chamber of Commerce is changing the date of the Antioch Business Mixer from December the 8th to Thursday, December 15th from 5pm – 7pm at Paradise Skate Roller
Rinkl, 1201 W. 10th St., Antioch.

This change is to allow chamber members to participate in the Reception honoring Tom Torlakson for his election to State Superintendent of Public Instruction, which will be celebrated on Thursday, December 8, 2011 with the Mayor and City Council from 5 pm to 7 pm.