13 minute read
Education
by Kyle Szymanski Staff Writer
Jack Ferrill’s influence on Liberty High School is immeasurable.
When former colleague Roy Ghiggeri tried to count the number of students Ferrill impacted during his 68-year Liberty Union High School District career, he gave up at somewhere in the tens of thousands.
Ghiggeri’s anecdote was just one of many shared during a moving ceremony remembering the legendary teacher, coach, athletic director, physical education chairperson, assistant principal and principal. Ferrill died in December at the age of 93.
“Jack had all the elements of great leaders, of great men,” said Floyd Reese, a member of the Ferrill-coached 1965 undefeated Liberty football team.
The committed, motivational, respected, memorable figure cemented his Liberty legacy during a 39-year stint at the school that concluded with his first retirement in 1990.
Some two weeks later, he was back — across the street from Liberty, helping establish Independence High School’s physical education program, which he was part of until 2019. Those combined 68 years in education — including an illustrious 23 years coaching basketball, track, swimming and football — generated lifetimes of lessons, memories and laughs, attendees confirmed during the memorial.
Former Liberty coach Jerry Miller, who worked beside Ferrill for 22 years, praised him as a master motivator, teacher and mentor.
“Perhaps Jack’s greatest trait was his ability to make others feel like they could do anything they put their mind to,” he said.
Ferrill’s influence shone through in Liberty students like Reese.
The 1960s Liberty football star admitted during the service that he’d thought he was destined for a career as a steel mill worker, but then he played for Ferrill and turned that ex
Community members, seen here singing ‘Hail Liberty’ packed Liberty High School’s gym last week to honor district icon Jack Ferrill, who died in December at the age of 93.
Photo by Tony Kukulich
perience into a career as a NFL executive.
“Jack took this short, fat guy and taught him how to play football, made him do it right, made him be a better player than he probably deserved,” Reese said. Reese wasn’t alone. Other former players and coaches lauded Ferrill’s motivational skills, which he used to will his players to prepare, work hard, care for teammates and never give up. Ghiggeri recounted one time Ferrill ordered cupcakes for his football squad — pretending to be from an upcoming strong and undefeated future San Ramon opponent that hinted the Lions were as soft as the baked goods. The tactic worked — Liberty handed San Ramon the only tie of its entire season.
Ferrill didn’t stop at molding students into fine adults and athletes. He made sure that many would be remembered forever by establishing the Liberty Union High School District Athletic Hall of Fame.
He also left his mark outside Brentwood. The lifelong Stockton resident, World War II veteran, devout husband and father of four was a sixth-degree black belt in judo and ran the Stockton Judo Club; headed the Stockton Athletic Hall of Fame; and served as a Stockton lifeguard for so long he was proclaimed the oldest lifeguard in America.
But Ferrill always returned to Brentwood — if not to teach, then to watch Liberty football.
And like clockwork, a gaggle of Ferrill fans, mostly past students and community members, would return as well, seizing the opportunity to reunite with the legend at his field-level seat.
In a parting nod, the school board has announced that Liberty’s future aquatics center will bear Ferrill’s name.
“He was the greatest Lion of all,” Miller said. To view a slideshow, visit www.thepress. net / multimedia / slideshows
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Oakley considers recycled water use
by Tony Kukulich Staff Writer
In partnership with the Diablo Water District (DWD), the Ironhouse Sanitary District (ISD) is examining the potential to reintroduce treated wastewater into the drinking water supply through a process called indirect water reuse.
“This is the way of the future,” said Tyson Zimmerman, ISD assistant general manager. “As populations grow and water supplies are scarce, it’s just making the best use of what we’ve got to work with. The science is behind it, and the science has been behind it for quite awhile. I think it’s an opportunity for agencies like us to be able to promote that and say, ‘Look, we’re trying to be the most responsible with resources as we can.’”
A bill, H.R.5302, co-authored by Rep. Jerry McNerney (CA-09) and introduced at the end of 2019, could provide up to $5 million toward the design, planning and construction of the infrastructure necessary to achieve that goal. ISD is one of 12 agencies that will receive funding if the bill is passed into law. A press release issued by the bill’s sponsors stated that these projects would provide a combined total
of nearly 20,000 acre-feet of new water when fully functional. That’s approximately 6.5 billion gallons of water.
The objectives of both agencies involved are closely aligned said Dan Muelrath, DWD general manager.
While a process design has not been completed, Zimmerman said groundwater recharge is one way to introduce treated wastewater into the drinking water system.
“Water starts on the surface and it’s percolated through (the ground),” he explained. “As it percolates through, it’s filtered or polished, if you will. With
see Recycled page 7
groundwater recharge, that would be a similar type of thing. You put it into a percolation pond and it percolates down into the water table. Then it gets pumped out and treated further so it can be drinking water.”
At the end of the wastewater process, ISD has a volume of Title 22 recycled water, a standard established by the state that allows the water to be used for irrigation and other applications but not for direct human consumption. Title 22 water can also be discharged into streams and rivers if no other use is available. Some districts and municipalities have installed a network of purple pipe that distributes water to locations like parks, landscaping and fountains where it can be used in place of drinking water.
Installing purple pipe can be prohibitively expensive, particularly if the installation can’t be integrated with other planned infrastructure projects. The City of Oakley does not currently have a purple pipe network. As a result, up to 2 million gallons of recycled water is pumped across Jersey Island and discharged into the San Joaquin River every day.
“All water is recycled water,” noted Casey Wichert, wastewater operations manager for the City of Brentwood. “Every city in the Bay that dumps water into the Delta, that water is pulled out by another city, and it’s used again for potable water. In some sense, all the recycled water and all the treated waste
water gets additional use and becomes potable water at some point.”
A grant from the State Water Resources Control Board is presently funding half the cost of a study to start an indirect water reuse program within the ISD service area. ISD and DWD are funding the remaining cost of the report.
“The current study we’re looking at with Diablo looks at (purple pipe), but we’re looking beyond that,” Zimmerman said. “A lot of agencies are moving away from purple pipe and moving toward reuse. Reuse is where you’re taking highly treated recycled water and you’re treating it additionally, and even putting it into the ground so it can be drawn out, and then putting it into systems for potable or drinking water uses.”
H.R.5302 is still working its way through the House. Assuming it does get passed, Zimmerman gave a back-ofthe-envelope estimate that an indirect water reuse process would be operational in five years.
“Although it’s not the route (the water) will take, I’m sure there will be some resistance to drinking water that has gone from the toilet to the tap,” said City of Oakley Mayor Kevin Romick. “But, with enough information and education on how the process will work, fears will (get set) aside and perceptions will change. Droughts and California are synonymous, and dealing with water scarcity is an ongoing challenge. Developing new ways to reuse water is a necessity.”
FHA & VA BUYERS? I’ll often get questions from some buyer’s agents asking if my sellers would be “OK” with an offer from a buyer who is using FHA or VA for their loan. (FHA stands for “Federal Housing Administration” and VA stands for “Veteran’s Administration.”). It used to be that these types of loans were frowned upon because of the extra red-tape, restrictions, delays and extra costs to sellers.
FHA and VA loans started out with the goal to help buyers get into homes when they didn’t have 20% saved up for a down payment, or they didn’t qualify for regular conventional financing. Buyers can buy homes with as little as 3.5% down for an FHA loan, and 0% for VA, and even with lower credit scores than required with other financing options. The trade-off was that they did take much longer than conventional loans, and they had pretty tough rules about the condition of the property, what fees the buyer could pay, etc. Their goal was to “protect” the buyer, but the end result was that agents and sellers would refuse offers from FHA and VA buyers because of the perceived hassle. A few years ago FHA and VA both streamlined their programs and removed much of the delays and rules. VA does still require a pest inspection to be done and to have the Section 1 items repaired (sometimes even the Section 2 items) and both of them require the home to be habitable and safe from any obvious hazards, major appliances need to work, no peeling paint, etc. If we are dealing with a home that’s been well-maintained, I tell my seller clients to not to turn down a FHA or VA buyer out of hand. If the home has a lot of deferred maintenance that the seller isn’t willing to address, then FHA or VA may not be the best choice for the loan.
If you have questions about real estate, call me at (925) 240-MOVE (6683). Voted “Best of Brentwood” multiple times. To search the MLS for free, go to: www.SharpHomesOnline. com. Sharp Realty. #01245186 – Advertisement
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