To the Editor,

Why is it that the state can’t get its educational priorities straight, since the “kids” are our future? It’s simple. Over 100 years ago we needed men and women to fill a need in industry.

These individuals didn’t have a need to know about money, only what they were getting an hour and how to pay their bills. School districts all over the country fell prey to the philosophy “push them through school so we can be a powerful economic force.” And in the pushing there wasn’t a need to teach them that they could be more than spokes on the wheels of prosperity, but a vital force to expand that success. So the study of money, how it works and how to use it was left out.

Now we are faced with a dilemma: our money is not money anymore (backed with gold) – it’s currency floating in value on the world market. Big business has shipped thousands, if not millions, of jobs overseas, or has sold out to foreign concerns that have no interest in supporting U.S. workers.

Is there any possible answer to fixing this? Yes, there is but it will be a work in progress for several years if we start now, decades if we don’t.

We need to not just look at our current system, but at a model that would first create an atmosphere of entrepreneurship. Students who have a vested interest in their own businesses would be able to do many beneficial things, like raise the tax base, contribute to the educational system and lower crime. They would leave a legacy for their posterity to build on in instead.

Students who are taught about having their own businesses would need, even want, to know more on how to grow it through an education about what money is and how to use it. Some of these same young business owners would start to fill the empty storefronts in town. They could give back to the school district with donations, mentoring, and time to help others find the “American Dream.” These future business people would able to hire others reducing crime and welfare in our city.

And yet we struggle with outdated early 20th century concepts of money. We need to revisit the late 19th century to see that most people had farms and knew enough about money to calculate the worth of their crops. Some farmers had stores in town to highlight their specialties so that people wouldn’t have to make the trip out of town. This concept has been the backbone of the successful small business person. Why not let our future generations regain the greatness we have lost?

Jack Yeager
Candidate for Antioch Board of Education

To the editor:

I have been following BART since it started about 40 years ago. How did we get e-BART? I don’t ever remember a session where the locals had any input. I know we were in on many meetings to hear what was being done, but never were we in on the plans for construction.

Why are there two rail lines between Antioch and Pittsburg? One should do, and be about 3 million dollars cheaper. Why are there two rail sizes involved?

I am asking questions because I don’t know the answers. I see no reason why we can’t have one line connection to Pittsburg. I don’t expect that much traffic. I thinks it’s time to stop everything and start over again.

Bob Oliver

“The rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night” – a refrain in our National Anthem, which is played over and over on the July 4th holiday, signals not only our patriotism but, unfortunately, that of the ugly assault to our personal property which occurs every year.

I’m speaking, folks, of the continuous fireworks, starting on Saturday July 2nd and ending in a barrage of poppers, flares and ear shattering explosions of M-1000s on July 4th. It was like being caught in the middle of a firing range with my property being the target. Several residents a few homes away from mine were involved in the assault as well as number of people setting off fireworks in Harbour Park behind me.

I called the Antioch Police Department and asked them to send a car down my street and to the park but the noise never lessened. Frankly, I think the city should buy the cops loudspeakers with tape recorder speaker attachments so they can drive through neighborhoods and remind residents that fireworks are illegal and the fine considerable.

It doesn’t help that the Antioch Police Dept. is 22 officers short, although frankly I’m not sure that count is accurate as it’s a few months old and may not include two officers who recently chose to leave the department.

Perhaps the police department wouldn’t be so short staffed if the Antioch Police Officers Association (APOA) would agree to pay more than 3% toward their retirement and that “concession” is only till 12/31/11. Their existing contract runs until Sept 2013. Police Managers agreed to pay full 9% over 5 year of phase in.

Restore the Delta has learned that representatives from the State Water Contractors, the San Luis Delta-Mendota Water Authority, and the Metropolitan Water District are holding closed-door meetings with officials from the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Water Resources to create a finance plan for construction of the peripheral canal or tunnel.

This project, known as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, will divert the Sacramento River away from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

As recently as June, Jerry Meral, who has been given charge by the Brown Administration to lead the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, assured public participants that all processes underway through the BDCP were open and transparent. However, video from the June 28,2011 Metropolitan Water District Special Committee on the Bay Delta confirms that water contractors, including Metropolitan Water District’s General Manager Roger Patterson, are already working with government officials to create the finance plan for new conveyance.

(The meeting can be heard at http://mwdh2o.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=12&clip_id=1630 , minute 36.)

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director for Restore the Delta points out, “The BDCP website describes work on project financing as not beginning until the fall of 2011 after determinations are made regarding benefits of new water deliveries for State and Federal Water Contractors. However, as we have always suspected, those who want to take additional water away from Northern California and the Delta are crafting a finance plan without California tax payer and/or rate payer input.”

(See the BDCP website description of financing at: http://baydeltaconservationplan.com/BDCPPlanningProcess/WorkingGroups/WorkingGroup-Financing.aspx)

California Delta Chambers Executive Director Bill Wells asks, “How much more are urban water users in San Diego and Los Angeles willing to pay for water in order to finance this project? Can Central Valley Farmers afford to farm if the price of water triples and quadruples to pay for a canal? And how much of the financial burden will be shifted to tax payers to cover the astronomical costs for environmental mitigation to the Delta?”

Restore the Delta maintains that Californians are being hit very hard with cutbacks in education and essential services due to budget cuts. Californians should, therefore, have a say when it comes to large expenditures like building a canal or tunnel through the Delta – even if they will be asked only to finance a part of the project.

The conflict between the Brown Administration’s assertion that the Bay Delta Conservation plan is an open and transparent process and the real ongoing practice of dealing with the most important aspects of the BDCP in private is alarming. Barrigan-Parrilla asks, “Shouldn’t these types of meetings on financing the Bay Delta Conservation Plan be noticed and open to the public? Why the secrecy if there is nothing to hide?”

To the editor:

Here we go again with political schemes that created the gerrymandering districts that left Walnut Creek divided amongst three supervisorial districts after the last redistricting ten years ago.

In an eloquent doublespeak, District 4 Supervisor Karen Mitchoff argued that the map she favored is not personal or political, and that Walnut Creek suffered no ill effects as a result of the three-way split. I challenge Ms. Mitchoff to prove she believes her own argument. Show leadership and volunteer the equal division of Concord, your political base, and not some city in East County, which has been the dumping ground and step-child of Contra Costa.

Unbiased redistricting establishes supervisorial districts reasonably equal in population while maintaining neighborhoods and communities of interest. Dividing any town or city is a contradiction to this goal. Please explain, Ms. Mitchoff (or Ms. Piepho), how Walnut Creek can be part of the East County neighborhood when the only land connection is a trek up Mount Diablo?

Something is cooking and East County is on the menu. A supervisor not in favor of Plan 7 (which keeps neighborhoods and all cities intact) is not upholding the intent of the process and must be suspect of political maneuvering.

Cynthia Ruehlig

To the Editor,
Why is it that the state can’t get its’ educational priorities straight, since the “kids” are our future?

It’s simple; over 100 years ago we needed men and women to fill a need in industry. These individuals didn’t have a need to know about money, only what they were getting an hour and how to pay their bills.

School districts all over the country fell prey to the philosophy to push them through school so we can be a powerful economic force. And in the pushing there wasn’t a need to teach them that they could be more than spokes on the wheels of prosperity, but a vital force to expand that success. So the study of money, how it works and how to use it was left out.

Now we are faced with a dilemma, our money is not money any more, (backed with gold). It’s currency floating in value on the world market. Big business has shipped thousands, if not millions, of jobs overseas, or has sold out to foreign concerns that have no interest in supporting U.S. workers. Is there any possible answer to fixing this?

Yes, there is, but it will be a work in progress for several years if we start now, decades if we don’t. We need to not just look at our current system, but at a model that would first create an atmosphere of entrepreneurship. Students who have a vested interest in their own businesses would be able to do many beneficial things, like raise the tax base, contribute to the educational system and lower crime. They would leave a legacy for their posterity to build on instead.

Students who are taught about having their own businesses would need, even want, to know more on how to grow it through an education about what money is and how to use it. Some of these same young business owners would start to fill the empty storefronts in town. They could give back to the school district with donations, mentoring, and time to help others find the “American Dream.” These future business people would able to hire others reducing crime and welfare in our city. And yet we struggle with outdated early 20th Century concepts of money.

We need to revisit the late 19th Century to see that most people had farms and knew enough about money to calculate the worth of their crops. Some farmers had stores in town to feature their specialties so that people wouldn’t have to make the trip out of town. This concept has been the backbone of the successful small business person. Why not let our future generations regain the greatness we have lost?

Jack Yeager
Candidate for Antioch Board of Education

You probably didn’t spot the Notice of Public Hearing published by the East Bay Regional Park District on June 15th. Let me enlighten you.

Qualified senior citizens (62 years or older) who own property in the East Bay Regional Park District’s East Contra Costa Landscape and Lighting District can obtain an annual assessment discount of 50% for the 2011-12 fiscal year; basic assessment rate is $19.70.

Income qualifications are as follows:
Household: Annual Income:
1-2 persons $31,800
3 persons 37,400
4 persons 45,100

Frankly, I’m disgusted that EBRPD only ran a inexpensive teensy tiny public notice 2 weeks before deadline to advise low income senior citizens how to save a few bucks. The district doesn’t hesitate to continue to raise our parcel taxes, publish an expensive semi monthly Activity Guide and pay their administrators high salaries and large pension/health benefit packages See below for the total cost of employment figures for some of the district’s administrators.

Retiree – General Manager Patrick O’Brien $346,209
Asst. General Mgr John Escobar 300, 208
Asst. General Mgr. Ted Radosevich 287,222
Asst. General Manager Robert Doyle 278,429
Asst. General Manager David Collins 269,360
Asst General Manager Timothy Anderson 265,914
Human Resources Manager Susan Gonzales 249,813
Assistant General Manager Richard Anderson 243,145
Retiree-Assistant Gen. Mgr. Rosemary Cameron 238,891
Police Captain Mark Ruppenthal 222,381

Qualified senior citizens must apply by June 30th for the discount. To obtain an application write to NBS, 32605 Temecula Parkway Ste 100, Temecula, CA 92591 or call NBS (800) 676-7516. (Be sure to have your parcel number.) When I phoned, the person on the other hand seemed surprised and asked how I found out. Well, I always read the public notices, that’s how!