YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
Vol. 17, No. 32
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Interns get hands-on training Courtesy of Contra Costa County Office of Education Led by career technical education ROP (CTE/ROP) instructor, John Grigsby, 10 Contra Costa County high school students have met each Thursday this summer in a small conference room at Walnut Creek Kaiser Permanente for their weekly professionaldevelopment day. Through Kaiser Permanente’s KP LAUNCH Summer Internship, which includes a Contra Costa County Office of Education (CCCOE) CTE/ ROP course component, students had the opportunity to learn about and explore different health-care options and enhance their technical and leadership skills. KP LAUNCH enables these students to work a 40-hour week for 8 weeks over the summer as health-care interns. The interns’ work weeks included four days at a des-
ignated Kaiser Permanente hospital and one day of inclass professional development. On this particular day, Grigsby’s curriculum featured a hands-on CPR workshop, an informative presentation by a Kaiser Permanente general practitioner and two local Toastmasters members who presented a proactive presentation on interviewing for a job. During the school year, Grigsby is the athletic trainer at Miramonte High School in Orinda, where he also teaches CTE/ROP sports medicine and advanced sports medicine. While teaching this summer class of interns, he oversaw their educational curriculum, attendance to the worksites and classroom and grades for this high school course. The KP LAUNCH program provides the students with internship job placements at local Kaiser Permanente see Training page 30
Staff Writer
The closure of one of four East Contra Costa Fire Protection District (ECCFPD) fire stations in July is affecting the district’s ability to respond to calls, according to statistics. The number of hours that all three engines were tied up and unavailable to respond to incidents jumped from four in June to 15 in July. The number of calls that went unanswered by district fire engines also increased, from nine to 31. “I know that having no engines for 15 hours is something that none of us wants; it’s just a fact of life with a three-station
Teens Sing In New Musical
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Lance
Rosa Peña of Dozier-Libbey High School in Antioch is one of the KP Launch summer interns.
“ This in no way is a fix for anything. This
is simply the best means of operation that we currently have.
”
Joel Bryant, ECCFPD board president department,” said ECCFPD Board President Joel Bryant. The district’s fourth station in Knightsen closed on July 1, when supplemental multijurisdictional funds given to the district in May 2016 ran out – leaving only three stations to cover 114,000 residents and 249 square miles of property in the cities of Brentwood and Oakley, along with the unincorporated areas
of Bethel Island, Byron, Discovery Bay, Knightsen and Marsh Creek-Morgan Territory. The district’s average response time when units were available remained steady in July, except in the Marsh CreekMorgan Territory area, which saw average response times increase by about two minutes, to 13:59. The average response time
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Keeping The Lights On
Brentwood’s Del Sol Energy fine-tunes products to meet the needs of utility users. Page 10
Unanswered fire calls increase in July by Kyle Szymanski
August 11, 2017
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to calls in Brentwood and Oakley remained around seven minutes; calls to Discovery Bay, Byron and Knightsen around 9:30; and calls to Bethel Island at 14:39. However, the resource shortage means district personnel have begun fighting structure fires differently, interim Fire Chief Brian Helmick said. “Right now, (firefighters) arrive at the scene, assess every situation to ensure that adequate resources are at the scene in a reasonable timeframe and make a decision: are we going to make an aggressive fire attack or be purely defensive and fight the see Fire page 30
On Aug.11, the Brentwood Teen Theater Company presents “High School Musical.” Page 8
Grappling On National Stage
East County wrestlers do well at Marine Corps Junior Nationals in North Dakota. Page 21 Breaking News.....................14 Calendar................................31 Classifieds.............................26 Cop Logs................................29 Entertainment.......................9 Food..........................................8 Milestones............................18 Opinion..................................20 Pets...........................................6 Sports.....................................21
MCE Clean
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New Contra Costa communities to benefit from energy choice partnership.
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