YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
Vol. 17, No. 48
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City officials approve new hires
Modernizing The District
Fall Foliage
Upgrades and renovations are planned at each of the LUHSD school sites. Page 4
by Kyle Szymanski’ Staff Writer
The Oakley City Council recently approved the creation of two new city positions and approved a 3 percent raise for City Manager Bryan Montgomery. That change bumps Montgomery’s monthly pay to $19,188 per month. The increase is retroactive to July 31 when general city employees received a raise, which is routinely followed by an evaluation of city manager pay. “Mr. Montgomery has done a great job working with a relatively small staff in meeting the goals and expectations set by the city council,” said Councilmember see Hires page 30
December 1, 2017
Random Act Of Kindness
Photo by Ray Figueroa
P
hotographer Ray Figueroa recently captured the changing of the seasons in all its beauty during a sojourn through East County.
Community members help a stranger left stranded when his RV breaks down. Page 5
Fire district works to develop strategic plan Falcons Head by Kyle Szymanski’ Staff Writer
The East Contra Costa Fire Protection District (ECCFPD ) intends to craft a strategic and economic plan to guide the organization into the future. The financially struggling agency, which comprised eight stations in 2008, is now down to just three stations to serve nearly 115,000 residents over 249 square miles. The district is still in the process of selecting a strategic planning agency to assist in the effort, but it plans to bring the community and area stakeholders together to identify desired service level increases. The plan will prioritize those additional services, explain how long they would take to implement, and include the current and future
costs associated with the changes. “Once the strategic and economic plan is in staging and we understand the priorities, then the board would have to decide if it wants to act upon them,” said Fire Chief Brian Helmick. The fire board is expected to approve a strategic planning services proposal in January as part of the first step in the process. Currently, the district struggles to provide adequate service. For 16.5 hours in September, all three district engines were tied up, which meant incoming calls during those hours were
handled by firefighters outside the district or by ambulances alone. When ECCFPD crews do respond, they are failing to meet the targeted national response time of five minutes – instead, responding to calls in 7.5 to 25 minutes, Helmick said. A 2016 independent study of deployment performance and headquarters staffing adequacy recommended that the district have nine stations. “The strategic and economic plan will provide a roadmap to meet the master plan, which is more of a vision statement of the num-
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ber of stations we should have and the response times we should try to meet,” Helmick said. A key problem for the district is that its property-tax allocation was set with the approval of Proposition 13 in 1978, when volunteer departments were sufficient to cover all of East County. Since 2012, residents have shot down a revenue-generating parcel tax, a benefit assessment and a utility-user tax. Expert help, however, could be on the way. In addition to the strategic and economic planning, the district also plans to seek the services of a legislative consultant to provide a variety of services, including acting as a conduit between the district and state officials, fact-finding and bringing information to the board, see Fire page 30
FOG Recycling
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Ironhouse Sanitary District hosts light bulb and grease recycling event on Dec. 2.
To NCS Finals
Freedom High advances to NCS finals after clinching semifinal against Antioch. Page 21 Breaking News ...................11 Calendar................................31 Classifieds.............................26 Cop Logs................................29 Health & Beauty..................13 Milestones............................14 Opinion..................................20 Pets.........................................10 Sports.....................................21
Health Forum
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Public forum scheduled to discuss issues relating to mental illness.