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It’s a blend of hope and heartbreak, of promise and peril.
While most people were taking advantage of an extra day off yesterday by sleeping in or getting an early start prepping food for a Memorial Day barbeque, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts from across western Contra Costa County were heading to the Rolling Hills Memorial Park and Funeral Home on Hilltop Road. Dressed in official uniforms, they set to work at 8 o’clock sharp placing thousands of flags on gravesites belonging to veterans of American armed services.
Nine months of school, homework and studying are soon to be over, and Richmond’s young citizens can’t wait to start their holiday. But the summer break also brings some problems. One of them is so called “summer learning loss” — the loss of certain knowledge and academic skills during the summer school vacation months.
In North Richmond, a community farming project may be the answer to providing healthy choices to residents who have long lived in a “food desert.”
On June 7, Richmond residents will go to the polls to vote on Measures C and D, both tax-related measures that are meant to make up for shortfalls in the budget stemming from Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed budget cuts. But opponents say the measures are a bad idea, and could potentially expose the city to costly lawsuits.
Ready to move forward after the first quashed attempt, Chevron’s Richmond refinery began the process to restart its embattled Renewal Project on Monday by filing a new conditional use permit application. This will be the second attempt to complete the project, which was halted by a county appellate court in 2009 after it was narrowly approved by the city council. The project is meant to upgrade equipment at the refinery and replace aging components.
John F. Kennedy High School students, parents and teachers got a first-person history of the Freedom Rides when Alameda Contra Costa Transit District’s Freedom Bus rolled up at the school Thursday. The presentation took place at an open house for Kennedy High parents.
A bevy of state, county and local officials donned hard hats and grabbed shiny new shovels to break ground for the West Contra Costa County Health Center in San Pablo. The shovels were ceremonial, but real work will begin soon on the new clinic that will serve real needs in the community.
When we first visited Richmond’s Seed Library in June last year it was a fresh idea popularized by its coordinator, Rebecca Newburn, and other garden-lovers volunteers. Today, exactly one year from its launch in May 2010, the library has between 350 and 400 users.