The Central Coast Wine Competition has announced that the Contra Costa Fair will be joining the family of California fairs that encompass the competition. “We are thrilled to add one more location for the award winning wines to be displayed, noted Chief Judge Bob Foster. “Contra Costa County winemakers are making some superb wines from the grapes grown in the region. Our panel of judges are anxious to evaluate wines from another segment of the Central Coast AVA.”

The Central Coast Wine Competition is the largest evaluation event for wines produced exclusively on California’s Central Coast and is hosted by five Central Coast fairs: the California Mid-State Fair, Santa Barbara County Fair, Monterey County Fair, Ventura County Fair, San Benito County Fair and the Grand National in San Francisco. With the addition of Contra Costa County, the region of grape growing will expand slightly outside the Central Coast AVA to include all parts of the county.

“Fairs were built on the foundation of agriculture and education”, stated Robert Williamson, CEO Contra Costa County Fair. “We are excited to add this key agriculture component to our fair program and hope to expand the locally grown awareness of our area.”

The 2013 competition features an internationally renowned panel of judges including wine writers, winemakers, sommeliers and wine buyers. New this year, all Gold Medal wines will receive a point score, as well as, the medal award. The competition staff strongly encourages wineries to take advantage of the opportunity to enter the competition online at http://cmsfw.fairmanager.com/. The entry book, which details the entry classes and guidelines, can be found at the California Mid-State Fair webpage or the CCWC blog at http://centralcoastwinecomp.com.

For a complete list of judges, further information regarding the competition and to submit online entries, please refer to the competition’s blog at www.centralcoastwinecomp.com. Entries will be accepted through May 24, 2013.

According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, today, the California “Supreme Court gave Walmart the go-ahead Wednesday to expand its Antioch store into a ‘supercenter’ by adding a grocery section, rejecting a challenge by environmentalists and labor groups.”

For the complete story, click here.

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 James Ott

Crime rates in Antioch are still soaring and the city’s police chief and council agree the best way to curtail that trend is to hire more cops – a move that will cost taxpayers millions if it is approved.

In an end-of-the-year report given at the council meeting, on Tuesday February 15, Antioch Police Chief Alan Cantando reported that Antioch’s crime rates were up and arrest rates were down from January to December 2012, compared with those same rates in 2011.

Total cases of violent crime were up 30.6 percent, including a doubling of homicide cases while property crime was up nearly 23 percent and arrests were down 13.7 percent, according to Cantando.

The main cause of those startling figures are that the city’s police force just doesn’t have enough manpower to keep up with a large, high-crime city like Antioch, said Cantando.

“[It] comes from our staffing levels. Obviously the more officers you have on the streets, the more arrests you’re going to be able to make,” he said.

During his presentation, the Chief showed a slide comparing Antioch’s police force in 1995 with what it is today to illustrate why he believes crime rates may be so high.

Antioch in 1995 had about 75,000 residents and had 89 sworn officers to deal with it’s 48,000 calls for police service. Fast forward to today and the population has grown to 104,000 and must deal with over 81,000 calls for service and it only has 88 sworn officers. In addition Antioch has had to rid itself of nearly all of the specialized units such as the narcotics and traffic units it used to have in 1995.

Antioch City Council has actually approved up to 102 sworn officers and 6 Community Service Officers, (CSO’s), for the police force. Currently the city has 88 of those sworn positions filled with 7 more in the hiring process, leaving 7 vacancies waiting to be filled. Two CSO’s have been hired and one more is in the hiring process, leaving 3 CSO vacancies.

To fix the city’s crime problem Cantando presented the city council with two hiring options. He said that the city could approve hiring 24 more officers to get to the 126 sworn policeman he considers the minimum to get crime rates in check. The police force could then have dedicated officers for the area high schools, 4 traffic officers, 5 community officers, and a narcotics and a special response unit, among others.

It’s estimated that those 22 officers would cost taxpayer’s $3.6 million.

What Cantando really wants however, is to eventually have 144 sworn officers in Antioch. It would allow the same specialized units only they would be better staffed. The extra police would also allow things like specialized gang enforcement and burglary suppression – things that have plagued the city for years.

The cost for 42 more Antioch police? An estimated $6.8 million.

Despite the cost, Cantando and the city council say they support whatever is necessary to bring crime rates down in Antioch.

Mayor Wade Harper – a former Tracy Police Officer who ran his campaign mainly on reducing crime – said that the crime rates are unacceptable and he commended Cantando for working with the city to fix the problem.

Mayor Pro-Tem Mary Rocha, a resident of Antioch for decades lamented the city’s transformation into a high-crime city. “Those who haven’t lived here long don’t know what we’ve lost.”

Council member Gary Agopian, a self-professed fiscal conservative, said that the high cost needs to be paid, and he openly supported hiring up to 144 officers.

“I’ve heard the argument that we can’t afford this. Well look what we’re affording right now,” said Agopian. “We’re affording reduced property values. Is that OK? Is it OK that we have to buy security systems? For a city our size we need the 144 sworn officers. I want to make that statement tonight – that’s the number we need. Nothing less because anything less gets us what we already have, and that’s not good enough.”

Several Antioch Residents showed up at the meeting, complaining of crime in their neighborhoods. Many said they see daily drug deals from low-income housing nearby.

Resident Shelly French who lives on rock island drive off of Deer Valley Road choked up when describing the two bullet holes that went through her husbands truck and into her garage.

If the city council decides to approve the hiring of additional officers, they will need to find funding and even then the city will likely wait for years to see the benefits of the new officers.

Antioch Police Department has been struggling to fill it’s current vacancies, let alone dozens more. According to Cantando that is due to the standard slow recruitment and hiring process for officers. He said that the city’s police department has gone through 833 applicants just to get those 7 sworn officer candidates that are currently in the hiring process – a capture rate of about one percent.

Chief Cantando said hiring those additional officers could take up to two more years.

Also at the Meeting:

The Bay Area’s Water Emergency Transportation Authority, (WETA), recently completed a feasibility study on the proposed Antioch Ferry Terminal.

At the last council meeting they presented city council with four possible locations for the ferry terminal.

The early estimates are that the terminal will cost from a low of about $7 to $17 million to a high of $18 to $26 million.

Two of the proposed sites were located off of the fishing pier while the other two were closer to the land area of downtown Antioch. The “fishing pier” sites tended to be less expensive due to some infrastructure being in place while the “downtown” sites tended to increase in price due to higher construction cost estimates.

The city council seemed to want the site that would most allow economic growth in the downtown area while still remaining affordable to the city.

The cost estimates are very early and the city and county would still eventually need to find revenue to pay for the terminal.

“Ultimately this is going to feed into a discussion of a sales tax,” said WETA Planner Chad Mason. “Right now there is no operational funding for this project.”

Next up the city has to develop the project further, find funding partners and then go through the environmental review process.

Mayor Wade Harper planned to attend the meeting with WETA on February 21 to further discuss the project and will keep the city updated on it’s progress.

By Sergeant T. Schnitzius, Antioch Police Field Services Bureau

On Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 12:58 p.m., Antioch Police responded to a call of a vehicle accident on Flagstone at Boulder Drive for a garbage truck that struck a power pole. Upon arrival officers found the driver of the garbage truck was in the process of lowering the front dump bin when he struck the overhead power lines causing them to arc. The energized lines caught the truck and its contents on fire.

Con-Fire responded to put out the fire while PG&E responded to sever power. Several houses were temporarily evacuated as a precautionary measure. There were no injuries as a result of the incident and no damage to any structures. Approximately 40 houses lost power as a result of the incident with an estimated time of 6-7PM before power would be restored.

 

WHAT:           Congressman McNerney (D-Stockton) will host a Congress At Your Corner meeting in Antioch to discuss issues and concerns with people in the community.

 WHERE:         Antioch Community Center, 4703 Lone Tree Way, Antioch

 WHEN:           Fri., March 1, 2012, 2-3 pm

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) are widening State Route 4 (SR-4) through Pittsburg and Antioch. As part of this construction work, the contractor will be installing temporary supports for the construction of one half of the G Street Overcrossing. In order to ensure crew and public safety during this work, the contractor will close all lanes of SR-4 in the westbound direction between Lone Tree Way/A Street and Contra Loma Boulevard/L Street, and the westbound on-ramp from Lone Tree way/A Street to SR-4 on Tuesday through Friday evenings, February 26 through March 1, from 11:00 pm until 3:00 am.

The contractor will also close all lanes of SR-4 in the eastbound direction between Contra Loma Blvd/L Street and Lone Tree Way/A Street on Tuesday through Friday evenings, February 26 through March 1, from 11:59 pm until 4:00 am.

The detours for this work will be as follows (please see maps, below):

o Westbound motorists will be directed off the highway at Lone Tree Way/A Street, right on A Street, left on 18th Street, left on L Street, and right on westbound SR-4 on-ramp.

o Eastbound motorists will be directed off the highway at Contra Loma Boulevard/L Street, right on Contra Loma Boulevard, left on Fitzuren Road, right on G Street, left on Putnam Street, left on Lone Tree Way, right on eastbound SR-4 on-ramp. For detour map, please see attachment. Motorists are advised to expect delays and allow extra time for their commute. Please drive with caution through the detours and leave a safe traveling distance between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead of you. Caltrans and CCTA appreciate your patience as we work to improve the highways.

For the most current information on all SR-4 corridor closures please visit our web site at: http://4eastcounty.org.