A successful Night Out in Clayton

our summer meetings, as is our practice, I wanted to share a few updates around town.

First, thank you to everyone who came out to National Night Out at Clayton Community Park. The event, organized by the Clayton Police Department, was a perfect opportunity to bring people together.

was recently installed as a result of grants and a generous donation from the Clayton Valley/Concord Sunrise Rotary.

Our police put on a wonderful event, and I look forward to next year.

I hope everyone is having a great summer and finding ways to stay cool. While the City Council has canceled some of

The goal is to continue fostering the positive relationship between the police and the community. With food trucks, music and weather that cooperated, it was a great way to bring back this event in Clayton. It was also a showcase for the new playground equipment, which

Clayton will be hosting the monthly Contra Costa County Mayor’s conference on Sept. 7 at Oakhurst Country Club. All are welcome to the 6:30 p.m. business meeting, where there will be a presentation by Climatec and their work with the city of Clayton on energy resiliency.

This event brings together mayors from each of the cities in Contra Costa County. For more information, see www.ccmayors.org. School is starting and with it means busy times on our streets during pick up and drop off times, and with new student drivers. Please be aware, watch your speed and give yourself extra time as you drive. Our summer Concerts in the Grove series will be wrapping up soon. Performances are every other Saturday through Sept. 16. See the city of Clayton’s website to learn more or go to https://claytonca.gov/fc/Concerts-In-The-Grove-2023.pdf.

Calendar Editor

J AY B EDECARRÉ, Sports Editor, Schools Editor

S TAFF W RITERS : Jay Bedecarré

C ORRESPONDENTS : Bev Britton, Karen Jenkins, Kara Navolio, Vince Martellacci, Pamela Michaels, David Scholz

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I have three items to share with you this month that are representative of why Pleasant Hill is a great place to live, work, play and raise a family.

A Day To Help Thecommunity

If you’re looking for a way to give back to your community, Community Service Day is the event for you.

Each year, hundreds of Pleasant Hill residents turn out to help with community service projects around the city. The projects include creek, school and park cleanups, refurbishing used bicycles for donation and helping White Pony Express prepare for food deliveries. This year, Community Service Day is set for Sept. 23. The event starts at 7:30 a.m. with a free breakfast at Pleasant Hill Park, courtesy of the

Lion’s Club. This is also where our volunteers will pick up their complimentary T-shirts. After breakfast, crews of volunteers will head to the various project sites until noon. For those unable to be there on the day, there are other ways you can help out.

If you have a used bike you can part with, drop it off at the Pleasant Hill Police Department before Sept. 22 for use in the Bike Build-AThon project. Crews will clean and refurbish the bikes, which are then donated to needy families.

In addition, there will be food collection sites around the city. The food collection is being done in partnership with the Food Bank of Contra Costa/Solano County. Sites for this year will be listed on the city’s website at www.pleasanthillca.org/csd later this month.

We will begin volunteer signups after Aug. 15. Residents will be able to sign up for specific projects in advance through a signup genius. You can also sign up the day of the event by coming to the park.

STRIPING ANDBIKELANES

NEAR VALHALLA

With the school year getting started, we want to make drivers, pedestrians and cyclists aware of some work that’s been going on near Valhalla Elementary School.

If you’ve traveled on Kiki Drive near Valhalla recently, you may have noticed the striping and signage changes completed as part of the citywide repaving project. Many of these changes are intended to make it safer for students to travel to and from school by foot or bicycle.

Enhancements include new crosswalk striping and signs, shoulder striping, a reduced school zone speed limit, and a buffered bike lane on the north side of Kiki Dr along the school frontage

Earlier this year, I encouraged all of us to prepare our homes and property for fire season to help protect ourselves and our community. Another way we can protect ourselves and our community is to stay up to date on vaccines. Vaccines can be administered at different points in life. As children and parents are preparing for the school year, it’s a great time to make sure everyone is up to date and fully protected. Contra Costa Health recommends vaccines including measles, tetanus, hepatitis and polio.

Older community members who had chickenpox when they were younger can be at greater risk of getting shingles, which can be incredibly painful. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends everyone 50 and older get the shingles vaccine to help prevent shingles or reduce its severity. There are seasonal viruses that you can get vaccinated for annually, like the flu vaccine. The flu virus can change over time so last season’s vaccine may not protect from this year’s flu season. November through March is when the flu virus is most likely to spread in this area, so it’s important to get vaccinated before then. An updated version of the flu vaccine is made each year and usually becomes available around September and October.

Along with the updated flu vaccine, an updated booster shot for the latest COVID-19 variant is expected to become available soon. Even though the pandemic has ended, the virus continues to circulate and change.

A vaccine cannot prevent every single person from getting infected, but vaccination helps prevent potentially harmful diseases from causing hospitalizations or even death. They can also prevent children from missing important days at school and adults from missing work.

For more information about what vaccines are recommended for you or your loved ones, Contra Costa Health provides a vaccine information page at http://cchealth.org/immunizati on. This page includes places to get vaccines, school and childcare vaccine guidance, and even vaccine travel information.

Whether you’re preparing to return to school or embark on a vacation, it’s always a good idea to be up to date with vaccines. Let’s work together to make everyone safer and healthier.

Ken Carlson is Contra Costa County District IV supervisor. Email questions or comments to Carlson at SupervisorCarlson@bos.cccounty.us or call his office at 925-655-2350.