Freighter seen from Lauritzen's Yacht Harbor

This photo is taken out at Lauritzen's Yacht Harbor. The San Joaquin and the Sacramento River merge by Oakley and it isn't uncommon to see a freighter slowly passing on these Delta waters heading from the Stockton Port out to see via the San Francisco Bay. We just happen to see this one from the freeway and decided to drive in and get a photo.

Blossom Trees in Oakley

At one time the city of Oakley used to be filled with Almond Orchards. Over the years trees were lost to homes and a disease. Today trees can be found here and there through the city. This one is taken just behind my home by the railroad tracks. The trees blossom every February.

Live Oak Church

This is Live Oak Community Church on Main Street and Live Oak Ave., in Oakley, California. This church has been her for over 100 years. The building used to be a school, actually in Antioch, but over the years boundaries have changed and now the property is well in Oakley's city limits. The building has been a church for several years. Currently they are working on placing a bell they recently had donated to them in the the bell tower.

Business Spotlight--Heavenly Hair

Name of business: Heavenly Hair by Qwivander

Type of business: Hair salon and barbershop

Owners: Qwivander Smith

Founded: 1997

Address: 1139 East 18th Street, Antioch

Phone number: 925-706-2131

Hours: Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Sunday.

Number of employees: 5

Products and services: Heavenly Hair offers precision cuts, coloring and highlights, up do's, eyelashes, weaves and fusions, braids, twists, locks and silky flat iron. They also have a full line of professional products available.

How did you get into the business? "I always had a gift for doing hair," Smith said. "My husband encouraged me to go to school and open my own place."

Best part about the business: "We have a nice quiet Christian atmosphere that the customers enjoy," Smith said.

Worst part about the business: Smith said she couldn't think of a worst part about the business, she truly enjoys coming to work each day and doing what she loves.

Key to success: "It is really important to have consistency and have fair pricing," Smith said. "Other than that doing a great job on clients hair is key."

Biggest misperception about the business: Smith said there were no real misconceptions. "When people come in they get just what they are expecting 'Heavenly Hair'. They experience just that when they come in."

She prides herself and her business on offering everything positive, encouraging and uplifting.

Future plans: Smith said that they are always doing promotions on different hairstyles and they will keep that up in the future. Some time in the fair off future she hopes to expand her location and add more services for men in her barbershop area.

Senior Health Fair in Oakley March 7

Seniors are invited to attend a Free Senior Health Fair, where more than 50 agencies will be on hand at the Oakley City Hall offices Saturday, March 7. The event, which is sponsored by the East Contra Costa County Senior Coalition, will be open to all seniors who need help with a variety of issues.
"This event keeps growing, year after year," said event organizer Harriett Zych. Zych is a senior who lives in Oakley and has been very active with the CCC Senior Coalition since 2000.
"We're very lucky to have Oakley donate the use of their city hall for this event. The size of the building will allow us to service more people," she said.
The event will feature several groups and organizations, including some county departments and help from John Muir Medical Center and Sutter Delta Hospital. The health fair focuses on screenings that can identify risk factors that are known to lead to other health issues.
The Senior Coalition believes that the prevention is the key to staying healthy, but unfortunately a lot of times seniors have difficulties either getting to doctors' offices or paying for the service.
"They do the screenings at absolutely no cost to the seniors," Zych said.
One of the primary goals of the event is to promote health awareness and education. The screenings that will be provided glucose, cholesterol, bone density and blood pressure. Additionally, senior agencies will be onsite to provide information about resources available to the senior community.
Realizing that the seniors may have a hard time getting to the City Hall for the fair, organizers have worked in conjunction with the city of Oakley to offer pickup at several different locations in Oakley. The pickup points will be The Commons apartment complex, Eagle City Mobile Home Park, Summer Creek Senior Apartments, the HUD apartments on Rosemary Lane and Golden Oaks Senior Apartments.
"Hopefully this will give a chance for people who normally can't come to these types of events to come and get the help and services they need," Zych said.
The East County Senior Coalition has been helping seniors since November of 1999. Their primary goal is to bring organizations and people together to make sure that seniors have all the services available to them. The group is funded by the county, although like many other county organizations, they are concerned about their budget being cut. Until then, Zych said they would do whatever they can to help the seniors. She also said that the group is always looking for volunteers who want to get involved. They do not have to be involved with an organization or even be a senior, just someone who wishes to help the senior community.
Spaces are still available for organizations to come and hand out information that will benefit seniors. Call the Senior Coalition to sign up for the event. The event will take place March 7, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oakley City Hall is located at 3231 Main Street. For more information on the free Senior Health Fair, contact the coalition at 925-978-2754.

Business Spotlight--Brightstar Healthcare

Name of business: Brightstar Healthcare

Type of business: Home healthcare staffing

Owners: Ed Navales

Founded: 2008

Address: 5079 Lone Tree Way, Antioch

Phone number: 779-9000

Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday; Saturday by appointment; phones are answered 24/7.

Number of employees: 40 to 50

Products and services: Full service healthcare staffing agency available for medical and non-medical home care. Brightstar works with private and corporate clients, hospitals, nursing homes and home assistants.

"Senior make up a large part of our business, but we do work with pediatrics, workers comp cases, veterans and long term health care issue," Navales said.

Navales also said that they are active in the public schools and retail health clinics.

Presently Brightstar is not licensed by the state, but is working on getting all the paper work complete.

How did you get into the business? Navales said he used to work in management consultant and fell in love with health care. "I used to travel four to five days a week nationally and didn't have a lot of time with my family," he said. "When my family experienced its own healthcare issues, it brought me to this journey, to this job. I love what I did, but now I have a passion for my work."

Best part about the business: "Going out and opening cases with the nurses. I like seeing that we give piece of mind and security that loved ones are safe. It's very rewarding," Navales said.

Worst part about the business: Navales said that there really isn't a worst thing, but he does know how hard it is for small businesses in health care industry. He also said that he sees how hard it is for families to can't afford healthcare for their family and trying to come up with alternatives because they can't really afford the care that is needed.

Key to success: "Being available 24/7. That means I answer the phone 95 percent of the time myself," he said. "Also earning the trust of the clients is very important."

Biggest misperception about the business: Navales said that Medicare covers some of the services need for in home care, but not everything. "Brightstar appeals to those who want more for their loved ones," he said.

He explained that Medicare give clients a window of time that they will come and check out the patients. He said that he makes sure that he provides an exact time, is punctual and he provides inexpensive home care.

Future plans: Currently Brightstar has offices that cover the East Contra Costa area, as well as, Central Valley including Lodi, Manteca and Tracy. Soon he would like to open a Stockton office so that he will have two separate teams to cover the large area. Next he would like to move in Solano and Napa counties while continuing to provide the same quality service.

Harvest Time Church Reaching Out

Over the past few years Harvest Time Church in Brentwood has been reaching out to the local communities to help those in need. They started slowly by helping at the Contra Costa Food bank and later purchased a van that they used to make food donations and deliveries. Now they are taking their efforts one step further by offering "A Day of Compassion", scheduled at the church on March 7.
"We started recognizing how times were getting harder for everyone, even those who had once been considered affluent and wanted to come up with an idea to help," said Pastor Dennis Reynolds of Harvest Time. "Once we got started the families of the church really took it to heart."
Their idea taking off, was the group to making regular trips to two locations, an apartment complex in Brentwood and a mobile home park in Oakley, offering a pick up point where needy families can come and pick up food and supplies. Reynolds said that once the van, or "mobile food bank" was purchased the church found it a lot easier to get what the community needed to the various locations.
The concept of "A Day of Compassion" event started when the group received a large donation from a Springfield, Missouri organization called "A Convoy of Hope". The non-profit, which was first responders during the Kratrina Hurricane in New Orleans and other natural disasters, offered Harvest Time Church over $20,000 in food.
"It is amazing to be able to partner with this group," Reynolds said. "We hope to feed between 1,500 and 2,000 people in need with this donation."
The story doesn't end there, however, since word has gotten out that the church will be offering the food donations after the truck arrives in Brentwood on March 7, other professionals have been coming out of the wood work to help. Reynolds said it started with a dentist who offered to come out and check teeth on this day. "He didn't just offer to come and do an exam, which would have been great, but he also offered to have the patients come back to his office and get fillings or whatever work they needed done for free," Reynolds said.
Reynolds said the list of those willing to donate their time and resources has been multiplying until now they currently have several dentist, doctors and even hair cutters coming out to offer their time on March 7. Sutter Delta and Mt. Diablo Medical Center has offered their help and services, as well.
"This has really rejuvenated our people a lot," Reynolds said. "This hard economy isn't just hitting the people who have always needed help, but those who may have had money and got hit with recent problems."
Reynolds said that so far his group has offered help to a variety of people. One couple, he explained, lived in Discovery Bay. When the van drove up to the very nice, large two-story house, there were two Mercedes parked in the driveway. From the outside this looked like a very affluent family, not needing any help. On the inside, it was a very different story. "The couple was in real estate and lost everything. The cars in the driveway were waiting to be repossessed, the house in foreclosure. The family was just waiting for the bank to evict them. They had three children who needed to be fed. They had no money for groceries," he said.
Reynolds said this it is his church's heartfelt desire to just help people. They are also looking for people with like minds. They estimate that they will need at least 100 volunteers for this event. Most of the volunteers will come from their church, but others are welcome if they just want to come lend a hand.
"We've really found that it is the little things that cause so many problems. We want to help empower people to live their lives and this is one way we can help," Reynolds said.
Reynolds said that they wouldn't be taking applications to make sure people qualify for service. They are taking on faith that those who come out to the church on March 7 are really in need. Harvest Time Church is located at 2220 Ventura Drive in Brentwood. The event starts at 9 a.m., but the food donations from Convoy of Hope are coming in on that day, and donations will start once the truck arrives. For more information call the church at 516-1908.

Percussion Discussion with Ken Bergmann

What do you get when you combine 1,600 third graders, a "smashing spectacle" of drums, cowbells, chairs and all the flash one would expect from a drummer gone amok? A little Percussion Discussion. This morning the Antioch Music Foundation has invited all the third graders in the Antioch Unified School District to learn more about percussion from the master Ken Bergmann.
In his, Percussion Discussion show Bergmann incorporates instruments from around the globe in a popular family-oriented show featuring a romp through the sound effects of Hollywood and a unique look at the computer age.
"The show will inspire these kids to become musically active. They will leave the theater experimenting with sounds and reliving the many musical moments and the humor of the show," Bergmann said. "I have run in to kids several years after they see the show and they still remember the jokes and the bits."
During the one-hour show students will hear all styles of music, including swing, Latin, jazz, rap and rock, Bergmann says he even has added some Scott Joplin ragtime and the Baroque music of J.S. Bach. While it looks like he's just a guy sitting in front of a really impressive drum set, Bergmann utilizes many instruments that students are already familiar with like cowbells, triangles and wood blocks, as well as many they might not have seen before. He uses humor to show off his rosewood marimba, cabasa and gankogui to help children remember what the unfamiliar instruments are well into the future.
Working with this age group, "is amazing to me and gives me a renewed prospective on how impressionable our youth are," Bergmann said.
Ken Bergmann is an educator as well as a professional musician and actor. As an actor he has performed the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar, Zach in A Chorus Line, and most recently Harold Hill in The Music Man.
Best known as a musician, he has performed throughout the world including the Theatre de la Ville in Paris, Royal Albert Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Symphony Hall in Toronto and Minneapolis, as well as New York and Berlin. His performance has been featured on ABC's 20/20, NBC's Entertainment Tonight, and CBS' Evening Magazine.
The Antioch Music Foundation is able to host Bergmann's show with the help of grants from the East Bay Community Foundation and the Keller Canyon Mitigation Fund in conjunction with Contra Costa County District 5 Board of Supervisor Federal Glover's office. The show will be set in three different times to accommodate all of the students at the El Campanil Theatre in downtown Antioch.
Bergmann say that he likes working with third graders because of "their energy and honesty. They get so excited about what is happening. From the opening air drumming sequence to the final featured musical number they are on the edge of their seats."
Others who want to see Bergmann can attend his upcoming show next month at the Lesher Center for the Performing Arts in Walnut Creek. The show will run at several different times March 10 through the 14. There will be special school and group matinees. For tickets contact the Center at 925-943-SHOW (7469).

Gateway Power Plant opens in Antioch

Just over a month since the power was turned on at the new Gateway Generating Station in Antioch, Pacific Gas and Election held a dedication ceremony. The electric company purchased the under construction power plant from Mirant Delta in June 2006 and worked to complete construction on the project in two year, said Randy Livingston, vice president of Power Generation for PG & E.
"This plant will send power into a grid that services 400,000 customers," Livingston said. Transmissions on this line will reach seven western states, including customers in central and northern California.
Members of the PG & E staff are very excited about this particular plant, Livingston said, because the plant employs new technology known as dry cooling. Under this new technology the plant can run by using 97 percent less water than previous conventional water-cooling system designed plants. It also produces 96 percent less discharge than the conventional plants.
"We are keenly aware of the Delta issues and a plant like this can safe an incredible amount of water," Livingston said.
Gateway is a 530-megawatt, state of the art gas facility. Cost of the construction for the Gateway plant at $386 million is higher than that the cost of building conventional plants, but Livingston said that in the long run the higher construction would provide a more efficient running plant and save money in the long haul.
Not only does the plant use less water, but also PG & E reports that the combined cycle technology will decrease fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions, which is reported to contribute to climate change. With this plant up and operational, as well as two other PG & E projects in California underway, California will ease away from relying on other aging fossil-fueled power plants and lower air emissions.
Currently there are hundreds of variations of these types of plants throughout the United States. They are expected to last 30 years or more. "From an engineering perspective these are at top efficiency," Livingston said.
The state of California is setting new regulations in 2010, and possible again in 2020, that will require more natural resource, such as wind and solar powered plants. Livingston explained that the advanced technology in a plant of this type is equipped to shift the load of power as needed. This will also be helpful with other future fluctuation changes, such as the increased need for electricity as more hybrid automobiles are purchased.
The Gateway project and these newly approved contracts are part of PG&E's comprehensive energy strategy designed to meet our customers' future energy needs in as environmentally responsible a manner as possible, Livingston said.
During construction PG&E hired on hundreds of local independent contractors and now that the plant is up and running it employs 22 local residents as regular staffing personnel.

Around Oakley: Property-maintenance codes catch some by surprise

In December 2007, the city of Oakley finalized its property-maintenance codes, providing detailed descriptions of do's and don'ts on residential and business properties. City officials and council members spent more than two years getting input from residents and offering online and newsletter surveys. When all was said and done, they believed the codes reflected the consensus of the community. But did they?
Over the past few weeks, several residents have complained because city officials have sent out enforcement notices and told residents it's time to clean up their acts — literally. These people aren't happy to learn that if they don't comply within a certain period time, they will be fined, and if they still don't comply, the fine goes up.
Here are some of the questions they are asking: Is this fair, because they didn't hear about these codes when they were being discussed by the City Council? Shouldn't this code have been voted on by residents before being forced on them? Isn't there a water shortage? Who cares how much cement I have on my front property?
Unfortunately, these people weren't happy to hear the answers to their complaints. First, code violators may think the city is just suddenly trying to collect money for their coffers because of the recent shift in the economy, but the actual reason is the city was shorthanded in the code-enforcement department and didn't have the manpower to
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keep up with neighbors' complaints. It seems all that has changed now.
Some charge that the complaints are nitpicking and giving credence to silly disputes among neighbors. For example, one resident said she had a leak from a fish tank and needed to leave her carpet out to dry flat for a few days. She placed the carpet on her front lawn, and within a day received a notice from the city sighting debris in the frontyard.
An easy enough fix, except, as long as you're cleaning up, you have a few more problems to take care of.
Keeping one's property clean and weed-free is certainly one of the goals of the municipal code. City representatives say the code was designed to benefit everyone in the neighborhood.
What if you want to sell your house in the future? You can spend a fortune on nice curb appeal, but if your neighbor has junk piled high in front of his garage, the property values for everyone in the neighborhood go down.
One of the major complaints about the code, though, is that the cost of repairs to property is really low on peoples' list of priorities right now. Let's face it: The economy is getting worse every day, and cutting weeds or removing excess cement in the frontyard can't be a No. 1 goal.
Residents are also asking whether the city can give them a break for a while and reduce some of the nonessentials in the code.
That question needs to be asked of the City Council. They meet the second and forth Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. It can't hurt to ask.
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A new business is coming to Oakley, and let's hope it is a good omen for 2009.
It was a great disappointment to lose Bonanza Industrial Supply. Cynthia Showaker was a great supporter of the Oakley community, always donating when asked. In a few months, R&B Company will be moving into her old place.
It's another industrial supply-type business offering distribution of underground water, sewer, storm and irrigation pipes and the like. Unlike some cities surrounding Oakley, this city needs as many businesses as it can get.
Let's hope seeing new life on Main Street will draw others.