TriValley
Vol. I, Number 11 • August 24 , 2009
Swirl and sip: Livermore Valley wine festival is back with some changes PAGE 5 New faces: Dublin Partners in Education names new board members PAGE 5
Serving the Dublin community
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Church celebrates life of a young counselor
“He’s the one who stimulated the rest of us to create a regional vision.” Janet Lockhart, former Dublin mayor
Jeremiah Murray remembered as an ‘enthusiastic go-getter’ By Emily West
Jeb Bing
Livermore Mayor Marshall Kamena, a recognized Tri-Valley leader and booster, stands on First Street in a downtown district he helped revitalize.
Bouncing Back Recovered from cancer, Livermore mayor takes on Tri-Valley priorities By Jeb Bing
Healthy again and now back in a strong Tri-Valley leadership position after a sevenyear battle with cancer, Livermore Mayor Marshall Kamena plans to seek re-election to his fifth term of office in November. His focus in what will be his last two-year term in office, if re-elected, will be to finalize major projects in Livermore, including plans for its multi-million-dollar performing arts center, and to move forward on regional projects that include extending BART to Greenville Road, seeing the extensions of both Stoneridge
Drive and Jack London Boulevard connect at El Charro Road, firming up plans and securing the funding as part of a Tri-Valley coalition to widen State Route 84 between interstates 580 and 680, and working with Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton) and others to keep the Veterans Hospital and care center open in east Livermore. Kamena, who was elected Livermore’s mayor in November 2001 and re-elected in 2003, 2005 and 2007, is now completing the first of a two-term limit imposed two years ago. Recognized in Livermore for controlling growth
while also revitalizing the city’s downtown center, he is also credited with creating a Tri-Valley coalition that has effectively pushed for county, state and federal recognition and assistance as a regional political force. Neighborly cooperation and mutual respect was not always common here. At one time, Dublin, Livermore and Pleasanton, like other neighboring cities, were often at each other’s throats with a few lawsuits thrown in over commercial and residential growth issues, boundary lines, congested roadways and airport noise. See kamena on Page 4
While he had some rough times in his life, 20-year-old Jeremiah Murray had been on the right path and was helping others find it, according to student ministries pastor Mike Mason. Murray drowned earlier this month in a scuba-diving accident. He was a longtime member of CrossWinds Church in Dublin, where he had served in youth ministry along with his dad. “[Murray] was very influential, particularly with some of the younger kids, as he was a junior high leader in the past,” Mason said. “He was a very enthusiastic, go-getter type of person.” His fun-loving nature, however, may have led to his death during a popular, annual youth group houseboat trip to Shasta Lake, just north of Redding, Calif. Murray had gone scuba diving alone on the morning of Aug. 4. According to the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, Murray vanished about 70 minutes later and reportedly had about 60 minutes of air left in the tank. Church staff is unsure how this incident will affect future trips, but said that the unfortunate tragedy will encourage them to have greater diligence. “One thing we’re trying to remind everyone is that this was a leader who took it upon himself to dive alone,” Mason said. “It’s not a normal part of the trip.” The group had scuba equipment on the trip, he added, because they have a certified diver check for stumps and other hazards before letting the kids swim. Mason also said that the group makes sure to have life jackets for everyone. After Murray’s body was recovered, the students and church leaders returned to Dublin. Since returning, Mason said the students are grieving at different levels. They have access to pastoral counseling as well as services offered by other churches. The Pleasanton Unified School District also offered to help with their counselors. “We are doing our best to make sure our kids are cared for,” Mason said. “Some knew Jeremiah very well.” A celebration of life service was held Aug. 6 at the church, located at 6444 Sierra Court in Dublin. “He was a wonderful person,” Mason said. “His life is always going to be a great testimony of faith. And even before this tragedy, he had affected so many lives.” n
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Around the Tri-Valley McKeehan chair at Tri-Valley’s only nonprofit hospital
F
ormer Pleasanton City Manager Deborah McKeehan has been elected chairwoman of the ValleyCare Health System board of directors, a move that puts her at the helm of the Tri-Valley nonprofit’s board at a time when health care and costs are part of the national agenda. McKeehan is well-suited for this unpaid leadership position. As Pleasanton’s city manager from 1990 to 2004, she rebuilt Main Street and restructured the city’s financial system to place emphasis on salting away funds for a “rainy day.” A city manager during a time of unprecedented growth, she also worked with Livermore to merge the two cities’ fire departments. Her only disappointment, she told me later, was that Dublin, which contracts out its fire protection services, wouldn’t join the new partnership. On her watch, we saw the construction of the Pleasanton Senior Center, the development of the Callippe Preserve Golf Course and the agreement with Greenbriar Homes to give the city 318 acres of the Bernal property free of charge when the developer bought the 510-acre parcel from San Francisco. McKeehan also served as president of our sister paper, the Pleasanton Weekly, for about two years, and then took “early retirement,” as she called it, to spend more time with her husband, Jim, a Signature Properties executive, and their two daughters. Kelly, almost 20, is now a junior at Cal Poly, and Jessica, 15, will be starting her sophomore year at Amador. Although McKeehan left the workforce, she hardly retired. Even while at the Pleasanton Weekly, she volunteered as a board member at the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce, which she plans to leave at the end of the year, and with the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association Foundation, which raised millions of dollars for children’s charities and where she is now president. She’ll give that up, too,
SmartSense. Heath Care plans that make sense in so many different ways. By Jeb Bing
in September, concentrating her volunteer efforts at ValleyCare and with Lady Hustle, a premier, traveling girls’ softball league with four teams that she co-founded. She’s passionate about both, spending long hours at strategic planning sessions at ValleyCare and also traveling throughout the West for tournament and showcase play with the Lady Hustle girls. Over the years, ValleyCare, which was founded in the 1950s to serve a Livermore population that lacked nearby medical facilities, has had its financial challenges. At one time, it was targeted for takeover by John Muir and at another time a corporate health care giant was looking at the medical facility. But a strong Tri-Valley board of local residents and new CEO Marcy Feit prevailed and ValleyCare has become more independent and financially strong ever since. It’s this appeal McKeehan plans to build even further, pointing out that she’s proud to represent one of the few hospitals in the country that truly serves the communities it’s in. Board members, with a few exceptions, must be from Pleasanton or Livermore. Most of the physicians accredited to serve at ValleyCare have offices locally. It offers numerous personal services for patients and families that the “big guys,” as McKeehan puts it, can only dream about. McKeehan points to ValleyCare’s new partnership with UC San Francisco’s children’s services center which will now provide specialized pediatric care at the Pleasanton medical center. She knows many here who had to travel with their infants and young children to Oakland, San Francisco or Stanford University for the consultations, treatments and other care they needed. That service is now only a short distance away thanks to ValleyCare’s continued expansion into medically-focused fields usually not found in community hospitals. She recognizes that these are challenging times for health care but contends, that when the public listens carefully to the proposals for improvements in a system some say is broken, it should look at the vibrant, thriving community hospital we have right here at home serving the Tri-Valley. ■
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Publisher Gina Channell-Allen Editorial Editor Jeb Bing Managing Editor Janet Pelletier Features Editor Emily West
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TriValley Views • August 24, 2009 • Page 3
KAMENA
Continued from Page 1
“Marshall came to me right after he was elected mayor to talk about ending all that and developing a way in which we could work together for the good of the whole region,� said former Dublin Mayor Janet Lockhart, who left office last November. “He’s the one who stimulated the rest of us to create a regional vision. We did and it’s worked.� Mayor Jennifer Hosterman of Pleasanton agreed. “There have been a great number of arenas where he has played a really crucial leadership role in the Tri-Valley,� she said. “He has stepped up and joined forces with the other mayors to help with regional projects that are important to all of us, including transportation issues, regional communications, climate change and much more. His longevity as a leader has gone a long way toward helping all of us get things done.� Kamena also served on the Livermore City Council from 1976 to 1985, which makes him the longest serving elected official in the Tri-Valley. He is a strong advocate of extending BART to Livermore and adding technology, commercial and wine country features to make the valley an attraction for business organizations, families and visitors without impairing the quality of life he believes all three cities enjoy. For a time, Kamena’s advance planning efforts took a nasty turn. On Sept. 12, 2002, having felt weak and losing weight, his doctor diagnosed him with lymphoma cancer. He remembers the date, even the time, because two minutes after leaving the doctor’s office, his son Scott called to say that Margaret Kamena, Marshall’s mother and Scott’s grandmother, had just passed away at San Leandro Hospital where she was being treated. “That was a tough day,� Kamena said. Over the next year, Kamena endured a regimen of chemotherapy treatments with all the side effects cancer patients have, including nausea and hair loss. Still, he kept on working, for a time donning a Cal cap at council meetings and even rejecting nausea-control medication when he learned each pill would cost $2,300. “It was already costing $7,000 a shot for the chemo, which was directed toward killing the cancer,� Kamena said, “but for $2,300 I could handle the results of the nausea, uncomfortable as it was, so that the insur-
JEB BING
A 1930s Coca-Cola machine is a prized possession in Marshall Kamena’s Livermore City Hall office.
ance money could be used for someone and something more important.� After treatment, the cancer disappeared and, for the next four years, Kamena took on more responsibilities, including meeting with both the Tri-Valley city officials as a member of the Triangle Transportation Study Committee and traveling with the mayors of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton to Washington to seek federal aid for mutually-important projects. “It was unusual for five neighboring cities probably anywhere in the country to go to Washington as one interest group and I think Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and those we saw in Congress found it somewhat novel,� Kamena said. “We had a wonderful reception. We were unified on a number of positions and it’s paid off in the attention we’ve received.� Then two years ago, “just as I began to have confidence that I had beaten the cancer,� Kamena recalled, a routine exam showed it was back. He learned that chemotherapy is generally not effective the second time around, so his doctor enrolled him in a special protocol at UC San Francisco medical center that involved extracting stem cells, treating them and then using them to fight the cancer. When he couldn’t produce enough, UCSF doctors managed to get him on an experimental drug that
accelerated stem cell production. It worked and a month later—after 30 days of having to watch hospital-programmed TV programs— Kamena came home with final tests showing no trace of cancer. Only one concern remained. By replacing all of his blood in the UCSF procedure, Kamena also lost all of his childhood immunization protections and had to have all the shots he’d had over the years. So after the required oneyear wait, it was back to the doctor in May for all those shots all over again. “They were poking me all over with needles,� he said. “But it was a pleasure because that meant that I was truly on the road to recovery.� Now it’s back to work with Kamena sitting again as mayor at council meetings and working with other Tri-Valley mayors to gain more stimulus funds, build more affordable housing, beef up emergency communications and add carpool lanes on the freeways to ease local traffic congestion. Along with supporting the merger of the two cities’ fire departments into a combined, jointly-managed Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department, Kamena also has been a longtime advocate of extending Stoneridge Drive to El Charro Road and Livermore. He said the roadway was promised back in the mid1970s when ValleyCare Medical Center chose to build its new medical center in Pleasanton
and closed the one in Livermore. With Jack London Boulevard to be extended to El Charro to meet the extended Stoneridge Drive, which the Pleasanton City Council has now approved, Livermore residents, including those employed in Pleasanton, will be able to travel directly to Pleasanton without having to use the freeway or out-of-the-way Stanley Boulevard. At the same time, Kamena and Lockhart, joining forces with Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, have agreed to support Pleasanton’s effort to turn State Route 84 into an expressway between interstates 580 and 680 to reduce cut-through traffic in Pleasanton. Those projects are also part of a new four-lane interchange being built at I-580 and El Charro Road as well as a 140-160store Prime Retail Outlet mall that Kamena said, despite the economy, will be built starting next year at the southeast corner of the interchange in Livermore. A new auto mall and senior care center are planned across El Charro on Staples Ranch, which will be annexed into Pleasanton. “I think it’s safe to say that our three neighboring cities are pretty unified,â€? Kamena said. “When I’m outside the area and asked to describe what we call the Tri-Valley, I say that Livermore, Pleasanton and Dublin are very dynamic cities, but each with our individual identities like each being a third of a triangle.â€? Kamena said that by working together, the entire Tri-Valley today has “a quality of life that is superb, the crime rate is low, shopping opportunities are wonderful, and our residential housing and job opportunities are abundant and diversified.â€? “We’re really quite a place,â€? he added, “with a beautiful wine country, a regional performing arts center on its way, a veteran’s hospital, an army base, the regional Stoneridge Shopping Center, large business centers in all three cities, many churches and good parks and recreational facilities that are open to all.â€? Kamena, an optometrist, and his wife Barbara have two sons, including Scott, who is also an optometrist and a board member with the Livermore Area Parks and Recreation Department. He and his wife Jennifer, a former district attorney in Pleasanton, have two children: Audrey, 4, and Evan, 1. The Kamenas’ second son is Todd, a Livermore dentist, whose wife Margaret is due to have their first child this month. “It’s great to be alive, to have a family like mine and to live in this wonderful valley we all call home,â€? Kamena said. â–
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Dublin Partners in Education names new board members
Livermore wine festival back—with some changes Wineries will pour at Robertson Park, or host guests with shuttle service by Janet
Pelletier
The 28th annual Harvest Wine Celebration will return to Livermore amd Pleasanton this Labor Day weekend but with some changes, organizers announced. Taking place Sunday, Sept. 6 and Monday, Sept. 7 from noon and 5 p.m. and produced by the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association (LVWA), this year’s Labor Day weekend event will feature a festival-like atmosphere at Robertson Park, which in past years has been the meeting place to pick up shuttle buses to the wineries. A total of 21 wineries will be pouring their wines both days at the park, featuring live music, arts and crafts vendors and food vendors. Live bands will perform on two stages at the Harvest Village, including Finding Stella (Sunday noon-2 p.m.), salsa band El Desayuno (Sunday 2:30-5:30 p.m.), Georgie and the Rough Week (Monday noon-4 p.m.) and Lane Coker and the Big Delta Blues Band (Sunday 12-5 p.m. and Monday noon-4 p.m.). For those who would like to venture out to the wineries for tastings, there will be another 20 wineries pouring at their winery locations on both days. Each winery has committed to offering a unique experience including samples of its latest releases, music, arts and crafts vendors and food for sale prepared by a local caterer or restaurant. Shuttle buses, included in the price of admission, will transport guests between each of these wineries on Sunday only. As in past years, the shuttle bus hub will be Robertson Park, where there is ample free parking. More than 20 shuttles will serve three different routes, stopping at their specified wineries along each route. Celebration guests will receive a map outlining the three different shuttle routes, so they can choose which one to take. In addition, two routes will cross so celebrants can transfer and visit another group of wineries, if they choose. All shuttles return to the hub at the end of their route. The new ticket structure is as follows: $50 for a twoday (Sunday/Monday) ticket, $75 on day of event; $45 for a Sunday-only ticket; and $40 for a Monday-only ticket. Non-drinking tickets (required for children over 12) are $10 and are valid for both days.
Steven F. Kelly
A sign post at the intersection of Mines Road and Concannon Boulevard in Livermore guides visitors to local wineries.
Tickets are available online and at all participating Livermore Valley wineries in Livermore and Pleasanton, the Wine Steward in Pleasanton, First Street Wine Company in Livermore and all PW Markets stores. Funds raised from this event benefit the LVWA. During the Harvest Wine Celebration, the more than 40 participating wineries are open only to ticket holders with event wristbands. No outside food is allowed into the wineries or at the park. For more information, visit www.lvwine.org or call 447-WINE. n
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Jim Gulseth, JG, P.C. Law; Don Babbitt, Heartwood Communities; Dr. Stephen Hanke, DUSD Superintendent; and David Haubert, DUSD Board President. DPIE’s executive director is Janet Lockhart, former Dublin mayor. Lockhart said that DPIE, which was established in 1992, delivers highly desired educational enhancement programs that are unfunded by other means. Popular programs include arts and mathematics enrichment, and mentoring services. DPIE is an autonomous organization but works closely with the Dublin Unified School District and related parent organizations. “Dublin schools need community assistance now more than ever,” said Alcina Wegrzynowski, DPIE board president. “DPIE has a full schedule of exciting programs to help, beginning with our participation in DUSD’s ‘Show Up for Education’ program.” “Our increasingly popular Celebrity Waiter fundraiser is coming up in late October,” she added. “We also plan to pursue more corporate and non-profit grants this year. On behalf of the DPIE board and its newly elected officers, I commit to connect the resources and considerable talents of our local business community and residents in the service of education.” —Janet Pelletier More information on Dublin Partners in Education can be found at www.dublin.k12.ca.us (click on the DPIE tab).
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Based on Golfweek UÊ V>Ìi`Ê Ê- ÕÌ Ê* i>Ã> Ì Magazine’s UÊ > i } }Ê`ià } Êv ÀÊ> ÊÃ Ê iÛi à statewide ranking of “Public Access Courses” UÊ Ài>ÌÊV ` Ì Ê> `ÊiÝVi i ÌÊ`À> >}i published March 2006 2009 UÊ*À>VÌ ViÊ>Ài>Ê> `Ê`À Û }ÊÀ> }iÊ Thank you for voting us UÊ6 à ÌÊ ÕÀÊvÕ ÞÊÃÌ V i`Ê*À Ê- « Best Golf Course UÊ6 ÃÌ>Ê,iÃÌ>ÕÀ> ÌÊÃiÀÛiÃÊLÀi> v>ÃÌÊ> `Ê Õ V ÊiÛiÀÞ`>Þ°Ê ÊÊÊ* i>ÃiÊV iV ÊÕÃÊ ÕÌÊv ÀÊÞ ÕÀÊ iÝÌÊL> µÕiÌÃ]Ê«>ÀÌ iÃÊ again! ÊÊÊ> `Ê ÀÊ iiÌ }ð
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The Dublin Partners in Education (DPIE) has announced it has elected officers for its 2009-2010 year. Two new members also have been named to the board. The executive officers are: Alcina Wegrzynowski, board president; Kathy de Jong and Fawn Holman, co-vice presidents; Bill Moy, treasurer; Peter Holthe, treasurer pro tem; Chris Bennett and Kellee Jones, co-secretaries. Edy Coleman and Kathy Rosselle have joined DPIE’s board of directors. Coleman, a 32-year Dublin resident, recently retired as director of community services for the American Cancer Society and earlier served two terms on the Murray School District Board of Directors (one as president and one as secretary) before it became the Dublin Unified School District. Rosselle is the principal at Wells Middle School which was honored as a California Distinguished School for 2009. Other members of the DPIE board are Don Biddle, Dublin City councilman; Ted Hoffman, owner of Earl Anthony Dublin Bowl; Mona Lisa Ballesteros, Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD), and Kathleen Schaub, vice president of Sybase, Inc. Greg Tomlinson, DUSD board trustee; Tess Johnson, principal of Dublin Elementary and Dr. Dave Marken, assistant supervisor for educational services serve as liaisons to DPIE from the Dublin Unified School District. The DPIE Honorary Council members are Tim Sbranti, Dublin mayor; Stephen Brooks, ACOE;
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TriValley Views • August 24, 2009 • Page 5
Charter high school to open in Livermore By Emily West
Plans are in motion for classes to begin in the fall of 2010 at a new charter high school in Livermore. Bill Batchelor, chief operating officer at Livermore Valley Charter School, said the opening stems from community as well as student interest. LVCS is entering its fifth year of operation and currently serves 932 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. While efforts ae under way to secure a permanent facility for the new charter high school, the first class will likely meet at either Granada High, located at 400 Wall St., or
Livermore High at 600 Maple St. While still a public school, the charter program is different than a typical high school and isn’t associated with the unions or the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District. It is similar, however, in that it is still a standards-based school and its students will participate in statewide testing. “They (the charter schools) are public schools, but in a smaller learning community,� Batchelor said. “There are smaller class sizes and everything is a little more intimate. It’s a college preparatory program and we try to offer as much
enrichment as possible.� While the LVCS does receive state funding, Batchelor said they are not hurting with the budget cuts. “There’s not a lot of administrative overhead and not a lot of bureaucracy,� he said. “There are no unions and we’re able to run like a business. Local programs are cutting arts and music, increasing class sizes, but that’s not the case for us.� State funding is provided per student depending on enrollment. When those children go to a charter school program, it could essentially take money away from the school district.
Much of LVCS funding comes through supplemental donations. Half of the fundraising comes from parents, Batchelor said, and the other half comes from businesses. The high school will start with just a freshman class and will grow from there. It will also have its own extra-curricular programs, such as sports teams. Enrollment is open to the public, with students in Livermore receiving highest priority and students accepted from other communities. Some elementary and middle school students come from as far as Tracy and Brentwood. AU T H E N T I C H O M E - S T Y L E I TA L I A N REGIONAL CUISINE WITH A REFINED FLAIR
“In general terms, [enrolling in a charter school] is no different than at any other high school, but it’s a little more rigorous,� Batchelor said. “Anyone who wants to apply can, assuming there are spots. We get oversubscribed for spots every year and then hold an open lottery. We do a drawing and then there’s a wait-list based on where you’re drawn.� While he said it is tough to predict how much space will be in the high school, he expects to have 110 students in the freshman class for the first year. For informantion, visit www. lvcs.org. n
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Goings On a calendar of TriValley
Aug. 22-31 Furry Faces 2010 Calendar Contest Submit photos of your pet through Aug. 31 for a chance to have them featured in Valley Humane Society’s 2010 calendar. Email photos to hs_operations_manager@hotmail. com or mail them to VHS (Attn: Nat), 3670 Nevada St., Pleasanton, CA 94566. Each submission is $15. No cell phone photos or photos with people will be accepted. Online public voting will be held Sept. 14 to 28. Call 426-8656 or visit www. valleyhumane.org.
Aug. 26 Wednesday Walks Explore Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area during Wednesday Walks with East Bay Regional Parks, at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 26. Participants can discover the history of the parkland while improving health during this fast-paced, 3-mile hike through the Arroyo and by the reservoir. Hikers of all ages and abilities welcome. Admission is free and parking is $6. Call 1-888-EBPARKS or visit www. ebparks.org.
Aug. 28 Dublin Family Movies Under the Stars Emerald Glen will become an outdoor movie theater Aug. 28 as “Shrek” will be the final show of the season in the Family Movies Under the Stars series. Moviegoers should arrive around 7:30 p.m. and movies will begin at dusk. Organizers encourage people to bring blankets and low beach chairs. Refreshments will be available. No pets allowed. For more information, call 556-4500.
Aug. 29-Oct. 31 San Ramon Farmers’ Market Forest Home Farms, 19953 San Ramon Valley Blvd. hosts the San Ramon Farmers Market from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through October. The market features locally grown produce, artisan foods, cheese, bread, honey, nuts, flowers and a food court area with live music.
Aug. 29 Free Boot Camp Tri Valley Adventure Boot Camp is offering a free boot camp from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Aug. 29 at Emerald Glen Park in Dublin. Email to register and receive an information packet prior to camp. Call 518-3434 or email info@ trivalleybootcamp.com.
Aug. 29-30 San Ramon Eco-Festival The San Ramon Eco-Festival is a free two-day event providing good
events worth a look
green fun for everyone by teaching a simple, cost-effective green lifestyle. It’s from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 29-30 at the San Ramon City Center,6200 Bollinger Canyon Road. Visit www. eco-festivals.org.
Sept. 5-6 144th Scottish Highland Gathering and Games
continues from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 12, 1 to 5 p.m. Sept. 13 and noon to 6 p.m. Sept. 14. Call 8281315 for details.
Sept. 12 Axis Immunization Summer Clinic
Tickets to the Scottish Highland Gathering and Games have been slashed to 1995 prices at $12 for adult one-day tickets; $8 for seniors, youth and handicapped; and $20 for two-day adult tickets. The fair opens at 8 a.m. Sept. 5 and 6, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. Visit www.caledonian.org.
Axis will host the final immunization summer clinic from 9 to 11 a.m. Sept. 12 at Axis, 4361 Railroad Ave. in Pleasanton. These clinics are open to all low income or uninsured Tri-Valley families, including Medi-Cal and Medi-Cal Managed Care. Bring child’s immunization records and information about family income and medical insurance. There is a fee for some immunizations. Call 462-1755.
Sept. 6-7
Sept. 19-20
Livermore Valley Harvest Wine Celebration
Day on the Glen Animal Adventure
The wine celebration is back for the 29th year from noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 6 to 7 in Livermore. New this year is the Harvest Village, a hub of activity at Robertson Park where 20 wineries will pour wine and wine lovers can enjoy live music, arts and crafts vendors, food vendors, and more. More than 20 wineries will also be pouring at their winery locations, each hosting music and vendors. Complimentary shuttles available Sunday only. Twoday tickets are $50 in advance or $75 at the event. Tickets for Sunday only are $45 or Mondays only are $40. Non-drinking tickets are $10. Call 447-9463 or visit www.lvwine.org.
Sept. 9 Dublin Friends of the Library The Friends are a volunteer organization of people interested in books and libraries. They work to focus public awareness on the services and needs of the Dublin Library and to raise money for the library. The group meets from 6:15 to 8 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month at the library, 200 Civic Plaza. For details, visit www.dublinfriends.org/.
Sept. 11-14 Fall Used Book Sale The Friends of Dublin Library will put on their semi-annual used book sale from Sept. 11 to 14 at the library, 200 Civic Plaza. Friday night is a members-only preview night and membership applications will be available at the door starting at 5:30 p.m. An annual membership is $10 for adults, $20 for families or $100 for an individual lifetime membership. Gently-used and almost new hardbacks and paperbacks, children’s books, audio and video tapes, DVDs, books on tape and music CDs will be for sale. are pleased to offer their fall semi-annual used book sale. Tote bags are available for $10. The sale
From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 19-20, Emerald Glen Park will turn into a jungle of activity for the Day on the Glen Animal Adventure. Attendees can get up close and personal with a variety of interesting, fun, furry and even feathered critters. Learn about reptiles with Python Ron, leopards, cougars and lynx with the help of the Wildlife Conservation Fund. Sandi and Steve and the Insects present grasshoppers and butterflies. A “pet” pot belly pig, llama and iguana are all expected to make an appearance. Rock Replica will also play favorite ‘80s hits on Saturday afternoon. Other activities include a basketball tournament, carnival rides and skateboard competition. For more information, call 556-4500.
Downtown Pleasanton’s
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