$PRING $AVINGS: BECAUSE SAVING MONEY MAKES CENTS A COMMUNITY WIDE YARD SALE HELD TO RAISE MONEY FOR THE CVHS STUDENT ACTIVITIES. LOCATED AT THE MABEL PARKING LOT AT THE HIGH SCHOOL THIS SUNDAY, MAY 1 FROM 8 AM TO 3 PM
CASTRO VALLEY FORUM A COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CASTRO VALLEY SINCE 1989
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2022
YEAR 34
NO. 17
MAC Board Says In-Person Meetings Will Return Soon
INSIDE YOUR
FORUM NEWS
internet and he says it causes frustrating lags and delays. CASTRO VALLEY FORUM “That is a very unfair way for me to have to sit into a After more than two years of virtual meetings, the Castro meeting,” said Moore. MAC member Bill Mulgrew Valley Municipal Advisory said one solution may be for Council (MAC) will soon be the MAC to gather in person at back to meeting in person. The MAC told county staff the library and perhaps broadcast to the public at home. that they are tired of tedi“I don’t see the difficulty in ous tech glitches and Zoom doing that,” said Mulgrew. calls and want to get back to The County Board of Supermeeting in person at the Castro visors is now holding meetings Valley Library, as they did with a hybrid model—Supervipre-pandemic. sors that want to meet in person The MAC voted to extend can do so and others can telthe authorization of remote teleconferencing meetings just econference. County staff said that model would trickle down one more time in order that Monday night’s meeting could from the Supervisors to other various committees, commisbe held but indicated they sions, and boards and the MAC wouldn’t do so again. should be back in person in the MAC member Chuck next couple of weeks. Moore is forced to use a see MAC on page 10 satellite link-up to access the By Amy Sylvestri
Wood You Join? Live woodworking demo using simple tools this Sunday at CV Libray
Page 2 NEWS
Bad Business Model Bikes donated nine refurbished bikes to the MCC East Bay Islamic Center last September to help refugees from Afghanistan.
Link to the Land Ohlone tribe unearths DNA linking ancestors to land near Sunol
Page 3 PARENTS
Sound Mind Studies show that music can help the very young deal with stress
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Two-Wheeled Passion By Michael Singer CASTRO VALLEY FORUM
On any given Sunday, you’ll find Billy Bradford in his garage surrounded by bicycles in various stages of repair happily fixing a busted chain or bent tire rim. The various mountain bikes, cruisers, and road bikes will be added to the hundreds of other two-wheelers that Bradford has donated to the community since 2014. “We’ve given away more than 600 bikes since we started,” Bradford told the Forum. “I have a passion for bicycles. I like riding them. I like working on them. And I like donating them.” Bradford is known around Castro Valley as the guy you can go to if you need a bike, and you can’t afford one. His company, Bad Business Model Bikes, gets its supply from various sources. Bradford then uses his past experience working on cars as well as lots of advice from local bike stores like Eden Bikes and Cyclepath in Hayward as well as YouTube channels to help him spruce up the bicycles enough to be functional. see PASSION on page 4
Solar Power, War Overlap in Rotary Speaker’s Message By Mike McGuire CASTRO VALLEY FORUM
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF BILLY BRADFORD
Billy Bradford of Bad Business Model Bikes and his girlfriend Ari are gearing up for this year’s AIDS Lifecycle event in June. The company has repaired and donated 20 professional bikes for the ride this year.
Disruptions to fossil fuel supplies caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine should remind us that we need to end our dependence, say advocates for solar power and other renewable energy. Igor Tregub, a senior policy advisor with the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA), brought that message to the Castro Valley Rotary yesterday. The Forum spoke with Tregub just before that meeting.
“War is a terrible reminder that it’s a bad idea to keep sending our money to prop up petrostates to buy fossil fuels,” Tregub said. “We’re getting very upset about losing the one percent or so of our oil we get from Russia, but a better idea would be working toward us not needing to use oil at all.” He added that understanding the connection is crucially necessary for reducing the harm from climate change that we are already seeing, but a change also makes economic sense as time goes on. see SOLAR on page 4