Trail advocate strives to add diversity to park district

VINCE MARTELLACCI Correspondent

John Mercurio speaks beautifully about our corner of the East Bay and why he loves serving on the board of directors for the East Bay Regional Park District.

The trail-lover and consummate volunteer has brought his passion for diversity, family and the world’s trails to the role since being elected in November. His Ward 6 spans Clayton, Concord and the surrounding area from San Ramon to Antioch.

Mercurio gave us an overview of our trails, especially the Black Diamond

Trail, in the aftermath of the stormy 2023 winter. He said that damage to Clayton’s trails was “severe” and reached into remote areas that will be hard to clear. The last figure he saw was $13 million in damage for the whole area.

Work is underway in our ward and will be done in phases through the next rainy season. At the time this story was written, the clearing of Black Diamond was on track for the end of July and expected to take just a few days.

LONG LOVE OF TRAILS Mercurio has been involved in the district’s parks and trails for at least 35 years. “The first thing I ever volunteered with the district for was to build trails,” he recalls.

When his first daughter was 3 days old, he took her out on a trail. Now his adult children love trails as much as he does.

Once a member of the state Trails Commission and of the no-longer active Diablo Road Runners, Mercurio helped plan the latter club’s running routes. His stamp is all over our trails, clubs and our entire community.

“John’s love of trails and hiking and running will only add to his value as park director,” says Joe Sullivan, voted to cut ties with the developer over its proposed term sheet for the project.

Concord First Partners was seeking approval for a revised deal that would have included nearly 16,500 homes, a 34% hike from the original terms set forth when the developer won the contract nearly two years ago. There was widespread opposition to those plans from environmental groups, residents and community organizations.

It’s not clear if or how the multi-million-dollar museum project would have benefitted Concord First Partners’ development of the former military base. Neither Seeno Jr. nor his daughter, Jackie Seeno, returned calls or emails seeking comment.

“We tried several different companies and they all said they weren’t writing California policies,’’ she said. “We weren’t surprised because it happened before, but we got very worried calling around.”

The reason fire insurance is difficult for Morgan Territory and Marsh Creek is that they there are residential properties and natural areas that are surrounded by high fire fuel areas.

Getting coverage is also problematic when people are trying to buy or sell homes.

Julie Rogers, the owner of Weichert Realtors, said she has heard from other real estate professionals that potential buyers of Morgan Territory properties reconsidered buying in the area because of the uncertainty around homeowner insurance.

Mortgage lenders will not approve loans without fire insurance being in place.

State Farm said that it will continue to service existing policies but will no longer write new fire insurance policies. Other companies reportedly have cancelled existing