The Bedford Center is celebrating the expansion of their facility and doubling of their capacity. The Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting ceremony will be held on Tuesday, October 4, 2016, from 4:30-6:30 at 1811 C Street, Antioch.

The long held dream of having a dedicated licensed program serving those with mid to late stage Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in east Contra Costa County is now a reality. For over 20 years The Bedford Center has been meeting the varied needs of the community’s most vulnerable members in order keep them vibrant and give their hero caregivers respite.

The community is invited to join in the festivities. The favor of an RSVP is required at http://tinyurl.com/zc7s7bo.

By Allen Payton

Ahead of the symposium in Antioch on community-police relations and 21st Century Policing, planned for this Saturday night, Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando released a list of ways the Antioch Police Department engages with the community. (See symposium article, here)

“Please understand that this is the community engagement we have been doing for years, which just so happens to align with President Obama’s 21st Century Policing program,” Cantando stated. “We are engaged with our community because this is the best way to work in partnership and make our city a wonderful place to live.”

Following are the ways the department engages with the Antioch community. It is not necessarily a comprehensive list:

• Coffee with the Cops
• Pizza with the Police
• Volunteers In Police Services (VIPS) program
• Neighborhood Watch / Business Watch
• Police Explorer program
• Citizens Police Academy
• National Night Out
• Police Activities League (PAL)
• Hispanic (ESL – English as a Second Language) Coffee with the Cops at Holy Rosary Church
• Antioch Police Activities League
• Programs with the Junior Giants
• College Preparedness classes
• Etiquette classes
• After-School Skate
• After-School Bowling
• Field trips to sporting events for our youth
• Life After High School program to prepare kids for college
• Youth Leadership Program
• Annual charity golf tournament
• After-School Basketball program (in-progress)
• Legos and the Law program
• Social media outreach (Facebook / Twitter/youtube)
• PD Smartphone App to provide information to our citizens
• Crimereports.com that allows citizens to view crime in our city
• Running Man Video
• Visits to faith based organizations
• “Panther Tails” program where H.S. students run with our shelter animals
• Halloween Candy giveaway
• Holiday Food and Gift giveaway
• Visits and presentations at schools
• “Read Across America” program in our schools
• Rotary “Empowerment Program” focused at girls in high school
• “We’re looking out for you” program where waste disposal drivers  and postal carriers are trained to look for and report crime
• Monthly neighborhood clean-ups
• “Tip-a- Cop” events for Special Olympics
• “Torch Run” for Special Olympics
• Police Department Open House
• Quarterly presentations to City Council regarding crime and departmental updates
• On-going and pro-active dialog with NAACP and LULAC regarding community

While neither Cantando nor Captain Tammany Brooks, who learned about 21st Century Policing while attending the FBI National Academy in Washington, D.C., will be able to attend the symposium, they’re working with the organizers to schedule a future meeting regarding the issue. The discussion during Saturday’s forum will be about matters in general and not specific to Antioch, organizers have said.

The symposium, entitled Building Bridges & Tearing Down Barriers, hosted by the Antioch Community Team will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 24, at the Delta Bay Church of Christ located at 913 Sunset Drive in Antioch.

The forum for the seven candidates running for the Antioch School Board in the November election, hosted by the Antioch Herald, has been rescheduled for a final time to Friday night, September 23 at 7:00 p.m.

We apologize but, this is due to three of the candidates informing us, either yesterday or today, that they couldn’t attend the forum previously scheduled for tonight.

Associate Publisher Connie Woods will be the panelist asking the questions, City Clerk Arne Simonsen will serve as timekeeper and Publisher Allen Payton will serve as moderator, keeping track of the questions, answers and rebuttals.

The Antioch City Council candidates’ forum will still be held tomorrow night, Tuesday, September 20th at 6:30 p.m. and the Antioch Mayoral candidates’ forum will follow at 8:15 p.m.

All three forums will be held in the Antioch City Council Chambers at City Hall, located at 200 H Street, between West 2nd and West 3rd Streets in downtown. Each candidate will have the opportunity to ask two questions of fellow candidates and give two rebuttals. The audience will have the opportunity to ask questions of the candidates, as well.

A video of each forum will be made and will be shown later on one or more local cable TV access channels.

So be sure to attend and bring with you your best questions to be asked of the candidates.