$21.6 million UC Davis new recital hall to be located near the corner of First and A streets to open in 2011

University of California, Davis
March 10, 2008

SUSTAINED BY MUSIC THROUGH HARD TIMES, A DAVIS FAMILY GIVES BACK

[Editor's note: Photos of the Noda family, images of the planned recital hall available on request.]

A Davis family with a long history of supporting music, science, Japanese-American civil rights and other humanitarian causes has donated $1 million to the UC Davis Department of Music to help build a major new music recital hall. The gift, the largest in the music department's history, will support construction of a modern, 400-seat performing arts facility on the edge of campus near downtown Davis.

Due to open in 2011, the new recital hall near the corner of First and A streets is expected to become one of the most active concert venues in the Sacramento region.

The gift from Grace and Grant Noda and their adult daughters, Kathy Miura and Tanya Yan, was announced Sunday at the annual performance of the combined UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and Alumni Chorus. In appreciation, the campus plans to name a courtyard on the west side of the new recital hall in honor of the Nodas. The Noda Family Courtyard will be an outdoor site for lectures, informal performances and artist receptions.

"We are tremendously grateful to the Noda family," said Jessie Ann Owens, dean of the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies.
"In musical performances, space is a true partner in the performance.
It is impossible to make music of the highest quality without having a performance space with good acoustics. What a well-equipped lab is to science, a superb recital hall is to music. We have excellent
students: They need a good space in order to reach their potential."

In addition to the recital hall, the new facility will include four new teaching studios, recording controls, an ethnomusicology studio, artist and audience amenities, and production and teaching offices.
The Noda Family Courtyard will connect the recital hall to the existing music building.

The $21.6 million project will be financed by a combination of public and private support: $16.1 million from a bond issue proposed for the November 2008 ballot and $5.5 million in private contributions. With the Noda's gift and others, $4.4 million in private funding remains to be raised.

The recital hall is expected to accommodate more than 100 concerts annually, including such music department presentations as chamber festivals, the free noon concert series and performances by student and professional resident ensembles and artists in residence. The new space will also provide additional programming options for the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

The new facility will represent a critical addition to teaching space for the Department of Music. For example, enrollment in Music 10, a large basic survey course that will be taught in the new recital hall, has grown from 50 to 750 since 1966, when the present Music Building was constructed. The number of undergraduate music majors has increased more than 13-fold during the same period, from 11 to 150, and the number of faculty has ballooned from six to 39.

The Nodas are both second-generation Japanese-Americans. Grace Imamoto was born in 1920 in Berkeley and raised in Orange County.
Grant Noda was born in 1922 in Turlock. Neither family had much money
-- Grant's father, a farmer, often struggled to feed nine children, while Grace's father earned a modest living as secretary of the Farmers Association of Norwalk and principal of the local Japanese language school, where her mother also worked as a teacher.

Nevertheless, Grace and Grant both grew up with pianos in their homes. Grace studied piano and cello as a child and went to Los Angeles with her father to hear performances by Rachmaninoff and other world-class musicians. Her youngest sister, Alice, referred to as a "musical genius" in a 1935 Los Angeles Times story and photo, played piano for Polish Prime Minister Ignacy Paderewski and U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas. Grace's other two sisters also learned instruments as children.

"Nisei Memories: My Parents Talk About the War Years," a 2006 book written by Grace's nephew, Paul Takemoto, tells the story of her family's separation, internment and loss in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Given time to grab only a toothbrush and her Bible, Grace's mother was arrested and jailed at Terminal Island for three months. Her father was imprisoned first in Tujunga then in Santa Fe, N.M.

It fell to Grace, then a senior at UC Berkeley, to return home to care for her younger sisters until "relocation" orders arrived, instructing the rest of the family to report to an "assembly center"

at the Santa Anita racetrack. The Imamoto girls, joined by their mother after her release from Terminal Island, shared a stable there for 10 months. The next stop was an internment camp in Jerome, Ark.

After 11 months in prison, Grace's father was reunited with his family at the camp. Grace was able to leave after his return, when Quaker benefactors arranged a live-in job for her with a family in Minnesota. Her parents remained at the camp until it closed, in March 1946. The couple had $41 between them when they were released.
Because Grace's father now had a criminal record, the only work he could find was as a housecleaner. Her mother took a job as a cook.

Grant's story was similar. He was detained with his mother (his father had died) and siblings, first at an "assembly center" in Merced, then at a relocation camp in Amache, Colo.

Grant and Grace met after the war when he was working as a research scientist at UC Berkeley and she was teaching elementary school in Richmond. The couple moved to Davis in 1958 when Grant accepted a position in the UC Davis Department of Botany (now the Department of Plant Sciences). While Grant managed the department's laboratory by day and studied real estate at night, Grace raised the couple's two daughters, volunteered for many community organizations and was active in the peace movement, from protesting nuclear weapons (she was arrested at a Nevada test site in the early 1990s) to marching against the Vietnam War. She has also been engaged in local politics, recently working to name the Davis Joint Unified School District's newest elementary school after Fred Korematsu, a San Leandro man whose arrest and conviction for refusing to report to a relocation camp during World War II was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court's decision was explored in a 2001 documentary, "Of Civil Wrongs and Rights."

After his 1985 retirement from the university, Grant devoted himself full time to the real estate business he had been building for more than two decades.

"That guy works as hard as any human being I've ever known," said Takemoto, the nephew. "He's done very well, and they've basically devoted their lives to helping other people."

The family supported the creation of a mural at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind. -- Grant's alma mater -- that memorializes the Japanese American internment experience. The Nodas have also given to an opera program for young people in San Francisco, donated to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, contributed to local Democratic candidates and, before their gift to the recital hall, had donated more than $100,000 to UC Davis over the years in support of the arts, ethical studies and the sciences.

Music has been central to their lives. For Grace, it was a bright spot during the war years, when she taught rote singing to children in the internment camp. Since the war, she has been a loyal patron of the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony and local performing arts.

"Music has been my life," she said in a recent interview, "so I wanted to leave something when I am gone."

Tanya says her mother sees "something very generous about music. Rich or poor, everyone has access to it. It transcends race, social status. It is apolitical. It has been a constant in my mother's life, through everything."

Although the Nodas make philanthropic decisions as a family, the latest major gift to the music department was especially important to Grace, Tanya added.

Anna Maria Busse Berger, professor and chair of the Department of Music, said the Noda Family Courtyard "will be a wonderful place for student and patron gatherings, and will long honor the Noda family's generosity."

Berger also said she hopes that the Nodas' gift will inspire others to contribute to the recital hall. "A music performance building is the primary need for the continued success of the music program," she said. "It is very much needed to accommodate the expansive growth in the quality and size of the program."

The University of California Regents approved the project last November and authorized the plan to seek $16.1 million in bond financing for its construction. The regents are expected to approve the plan for supplemental private funding when they vote later this year on the final design.

Media contact(s):
* Claudia Morain, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu


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FAIRFIELD, CA CENTER OF SUPPORT FOR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WINE INDUSTRY

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA’S FAIRFIELD, CA CENTER OF SUPPORT FOR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WINE INDUSTRY

http://www.fairfield4business.com

FAIRFIELD, Calif., January 22, 2008 — From beverage packaging solutions to glass container manufacturing companies, the city of Fairfield, CA is home to a myriad of companies that support Northern California’s wine industry. Located halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento, at the gateway to the Napa Valley, Fairfield offers a strategic location and value-priced real estate opportunities.
Wine-industry related businesses located in Fairfield include Saint-Gobain Containers, Owens-Brockway, ACI Cork USA, Biagi Brothers, Demptos Glass, Diablo Valley Packaging, Saury USA, and the Grateful Palate.

Reasons for Choosing Fairfield
Reasons for locating in Fairfield include: an accessible location with easy access to the heart of wine country in Napa and Sonoma, proximity to ports, freeways, airports, and rail lines, available land with room to expand, and an accessible and responsive city government.

Accessibility to Transportation
Fairfield is located halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento, approximately 15 miles from Napa and 27 from Sonoma County. It has easy access to four ports (Benicia, Oakland, San Francisco and West Sacramento), three international airports (San Francisco, Oakland, and Sacramento), passenger rail lines, rapid transit, and freight lines.

Three years ago Diablo Valley Packaging, http://www.dvpackaging.com, a family-owned packaging company, outgrew its facilities in Benicia, and moved its headquarters to a 100,000-square foot facility at 2373 North Watney Way in Fairfield. The company provides a wide range of packaging solutions for the food, beverage, and wine industries, from customized packaging programs to low-cost, commodity-grade-container options. One-third of the company’s business is related to the wine industry. Its products specific to the wine industry are glass packaging, wine bottles, the capsule, and in some cases, corks.

Easy access to the heart of California’s wine industry— Napa and Sonoma--was one of the main reasons the company chose to locate in Fairfield. Other factors included good warehousing capacity at a reasonable price and accessibility to transportation with good trucking rates into and out of the area.

“Fairfield has good geographics and demographics,” says Pete Reno, president of Diablo Valley Packaging. “Its freeway access is well-suited to receiving in-bound shipments as well as sending shipments out to our customers. Its location also benefits us because it provides access to a solid workforce from throughout the Bay Area and Sacramento.”

Saury USA, http://www.sauryusa.com, represents a French barrel manufacturer in business since 1993. It sells and markets French oak wine barrels to the wine industry and has its main office in Napa Valley’s Oakville, CA. The company is leasing a 25,875-square foot Fairfield warehouse located at 2345 South Watney Way. Future plans are being considered to house an American-Oak-production facility at the site, but no timeline has been established.

“Our reasons for opening a location in Fairfield were due to the fact that Fairfield is strategically located close to the Interstate,” says Bayard Fox, general manager of Saury USA.

Available and Responsive City Government

Saint-Gobain Containers is the second-largest glass container manufacturer in the nation. In 2006, the company relocated its wine-sector headquarters, warehouse, distribution facilities and operations in Fairfield from two buildings that had been in the city since 1995 into one new facility approximately 10 miles from the previous location. This new location provides a centralized office for the company’s wine-sector sales, operations management, and customer service.
The new facility, which has more than one million square feet of storage and warehouse space, located at 2600 Stanford Court, was built to serve the glass container distribution needs of California’s wine and food industry. It operates 24-hours a day, five days a week with a staff of approximately 80 people.
"The city of Fairfield worked diligently to support our vision of a state-of-the-art distribution center that we all could be proud of," said Peter Walters, Vice President, Purchasing and Distribution for Saint-Gobain Containers.

Access to Wine Country

Grateful Palate Imports, http://www.gratefulpalateimports.com, a wine importer and distributor, headquartered in Oxnard, CA since 1997, imports Australian wines and sells them through a distributor network. It also sells online, shipping to states that allow direct shipment of wine. The company has opened a warehouse and offices in a 60,000-square-foot space at 2449 South Watney Way in Fairfield.

“The Fairfield location provides us with accessibility to our distributors in Northern California’s wine regions,” says Ben DeSantis, controller of Grateful Palate Imports.

Since 2003, ACI Cork USA has been in Fairfield in a 30,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art processing plant at 2870 Cordelia Road. It imports and wholesales natural wine corks from Portugal where its parent company, Alvaro Coelho, Irmaos, S.A. is located. The Fairfield site, which has nine employees, provides the American wine market with top-quality natural and technical cork closures. Approximately 65 million corks are processed annually by the company, who sells them to wineries throughout North America.

“We chose Fairfield as our location because it is centrally located between two important wine regions—Napa and Sonoma counties and the Central Valley and the price was right,” says Armando Andrade, ACI Cork’s General Manager.

Fairfield Offers Important Business Benefits

There are many reasons Fairfield continues to appeal to manufacturing and commercial entities seeking to grow their businesses: an accessible Bay Area location, abundant space, value-priced real estate, a diverse workforce, and a unique set of regional amenities. For additional information on the city of Fairfield, visit http://www.Fairfield4Business.com.


###
For Media Information, contact:
Miriam Schaffer
The Placemaking Group
510-835-7900 ext. 207
mschaffer@PlacemakingGroup.com

Planners Get 500-Megawatt Rower Project

Planners Get 500-Megawatt Rower Project
By Jennifer Gentile/Staff Writer
Article Launched: 03/04/2008

The Planning Commission could recommend changes to city code tonight that would allow a 500-megawatt power facility to be built in Vacaville.

The changes, which would be made to the city's Land Use and Development Code, must be completed before a proposed natural gas-powered peaker plant could be built on 25 acres of the site of the Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant. In December, the City Council granted Washington, D.C.-based Competitive Power Ventures, Inc., a three-year-option to lease the acreage.

"In order to proceed with the proposed project, the proposed use must be consistent with the city's zoning for the site," city planner Fred Buderi explained in a written staff report. The existing zoning, he added, "does not list thermal power plants as either a permitted or a conditionally permitted use."

The site is zoned for community facilities, Buderi pointed out, accommodating utility buildings, hospitals, libraries and other uses that provide a community benefit. Staff is recommending that thermal power plants be added to the list.

"A power-generating facility, under the authority of state approval, would be consistent with the purpose of the (community facilities) zone, the staff report said.

If the amendment is approved, the report continued, "the type of power-generating facility allowed ... would be only those that are regulated by the state of California." The state's oversight is very rigorous, Buderi said, and "wouldn't really allow these things to pop up anywhere."

Another requirement under the amendment, according to the report, is that proposed sites must be within "a reasonable distance" from the infrastructure needed for a plant to operate. Staff has said that natural gas, water and power lines all are readily accessible at the Easterly site.

Even with the city's support, the plant has a number of hurdles to clear and has an estimated completion date of 2012. Competitive Power Ventures intends to compete for a contract with PG&E, which is expected to issue a request for proposals in the coming months.

The commission's vote serves as a recommendation to the City Council. The panel meets at 7 p.m. in the Council Chamber at City Hall.

Jennifer Gentile can be reached at vacaville@thereporter.com.

Discovery Kingdom To Open 40th Season

Discovery Kingdom To Open 40th Season
Times-Herald staff report
Article Launched: 03/04/2008

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom begins its 40th year when it opens to the public on Saturday, park officials said.

This season also marks the park's second year with its Land, Sea and Sky areas. Last year's park transformation included a name change that better reflects the park's unique offerings as a wildlife, oceanarium and theme park, officials said.

Plans for the 2008 season include:

• The opening of Tony Hawk's Big Spin, a roller coaster based on professional skateboarder Tony Hawk. • A new bounty-themed sea lion show, "Pinnipeds of the Caribbean." • A new bird show, "Bird Drop Inn." • A "digital revolution" parkwide, with mounted plasma TVs airing Six Flags-related content, advertisements and highlights from some of Dick Clark Productions' shows; Six Flags Radio plays music and content throughout the park, along with ambient Land, Sea and Sky-themed music; cell phone charging stations throughout the park, and for the second year, a Nintendo Wii Station. • Johnny Rockets, a franchise restaurant offers classic American food and a special Six Flags-branded milkshake. • Odin, the white Bengal tiger, starring in Odin's Tiger Splash Show. • A revamped killer whale show and a Caribbean-themed showcase for the park's Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. • Thomas Town, a kids' area devoted to the characters from the Thomas the Tank Engine series. For more information call 643-6722 or visit www.sixflags.com/discoverykingdom.

Travis Backs Wind Farm

Travis Backs Wind Farm
By Danny Bernardini/Staff Writer
Article Launched: 03/04/2008

Officials at Travis Air Force Base have withdrawn their objections to a proposal to install up to 88 additional wind turbines in the Montezuma Hills - turbines, that some believe may affect radar systems at the base.

A letter to Solano County, written Monday by Travis Wing Commander Col. Steven Arquiette, states that Travis no longer would stand in the way of the project after being informed by superiors that there were no "reasonable expectations" of problems with a new radar system currently being installed at the base.

There are currently more than 700 wind turbines in the Montezuma Hills. Travis officials have said the newest batch potentially would cause a problem since the blades of the turbines may make it seem like smaller planes drop off the radar screens while images of others appear when they aren't actually there.

The latest project, titled Shiloh II Wind Project, proposes to build up to 88 turbines, but has been delayed for more than a year after Arquiette informed the county that the base was concerned about the project. The issue now will head to the Solano County Airport Land Use Commission on March 13 and to the Solano County Planning Commission on March 20.

Another letter, written by Gen. Arthur J. Lichte - Commander of the Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois - was sent to the turbine's producers, enXco last month.

It stated that the Air Force Flight Standards Agency had concluded the proposed turbines would not be an issue with Travis' new radar system. The letter also informed enXco that Travis would be telling the county of this revelation.

"Although the wind turbines currently operating in the wind resource area do adversely impact our radar coverage, we believe opportunities will soon arise both to improve overall radar performance and to work with enXco to mitigate that impact," the Lichte letter read.

Neither the Air Force nor enXco could say whether that mitigation effort will include a gift to Travis of up to $1 million that was offered by enXco at a Feb. 21 Solano County Planning Commission meeting. That money was offered to improve the radar system anyway Travis chose.

Sgt. Matt McGovern, with Travis public affairs, said Monday that the base had no comment on the money offer. Gregory Blue, regional manager of external affairs for enXco, said he was aware the situation had been resolved, but didn't know if the gift would be accepted.

Blue did say that the two sides are setting up a joint committee to study any possible effects and come up with a way to solve those issues.

"We were trying to help them enhance their radar and we're doing it in the form of a gift," Blue said from his San Ramon office. "It's all about enhancing the radar so we can co-exist. We are continuing to work together as good neighbors."

Blue said that if the project gains approval by the county's planning commission, his company likely would apply for permits the next day and hopefully be done with construction by the end of the year.

Danny Bernardini can be reached at county@thereporter.com.

PG&E Begins Work To Meet Growing Needs

PG&E Begins Work To Meet Growing Needs
By Ben Antonius | Daily Republic | March 03, 2008



The PG&E substation at Union Avenue and Ohio Street will be getting equipment upgrades over the next two weeks. Photo by Brad Zweerink

FAIRFIELD - To keep pace with a booming population, PG&E plans to launch an overhaul of its Fairfield substation today.

The three-month, $2.9 million project is part of a larger effort to improve the company's infrastructure statewide, PG&E officials said.

'As our communities grow, we constantly grow,' PG&E spokeswoman Jennifer Ramp said.

The project is expected to be completed by the beginning of June and will likely involve occasional outages for residents in certain areas. The outages will be planned and announced in advance, but no plans were available Monday.

The project itself will involve replacing approximately 750 feet of underground high-voltage cable exiting the substation at Broadway and Ohio streets and crossing under Union Street to Jefferson Street.

The company will also be replacing the transformer bank at the facility. The new giant transformer bank will be delivered to the substation March 17, at which point outages are likely.

The additional capacity is necessary to meet the continued increase of electrical demand in the area, especially during the hot summer months when electric consumption is at its highest, the company stated.

The new equipment will provide an additional 13.4 megawatts of capacity, enough to serve 2,680 residential customers in the Fairfield area.

Ramp said the company typically projects what its capacity needs will be 10 years in advance.

'This project was approved a few years ago and construction's now getting started,' she said.

The Fairfield project is one part of an approximately $2.8 billion effort by PG&E to improve the reliability and capacity of its infrastructure across Northern California, Ramp said.

Reach Ben Antonius at 427-6977 or bantonius@dailyrepublic.net.

Travis Commander To Speak At Solano EDC Luncheon

Travis Commander To Speak At Solano EDC Luncheon
Daily Republic Staff | | March 03, 2008

FAIRFIELD - Col. Steven Arquiette, commander of Travis Air Force Base, will be the keynote speaker at the Solano Economic Development Corp. luncheon March 12.

The luncheon will be 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Travis Credit Union, One Travis Way in Vacaville. Tickets are $25 for Solano EDC members and $35 for non-members.

To purchase tickets or for more information, call 864-1855 or send an e-mail to pat@solanoedc.org.

Energy Measures Could Bring Business

Energy measures could bring business to San Joaquin County
By Hank Shaw
February 29, 2008
Capitol Bureau Chief

SACRAMENTO - Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento are setting the stage for a renewable energy boom that will reach into San Joaquin County.

The House of Representatives passed a measure 236-182 Wednesday that would extend a tax credit for renewable energy companies focusing on solar, wind or biofuels.

On Thursday in Sacramento, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata unveiled a series of state measures to boost renewable energy research and development, including a $3 billion bond proposal intended to expand solar and wind energy in California.

Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, was a wind energy expert before he came to Congress in 2006, and he helped craft the congressional bill, which was also supported by Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater. The Mother Lode's congressman, Dan Lungren, did not vote on the measure.

McNerney hailed the measure as a key step in developing a critical mass of renewable energy companies in and around San Joaquin County. His goal is to make the region a clean-energy hub.

"If we can get a few more of these companies to set down roots here, it will build synergy and attract other companies," McNerney said. "We're beating the bushes to make something happen.

McNerney said he's been approached by four clean-energy firms that want to relocate to San Joaquin County. He says they could decide as early as this summer.

If San Joaquin County is to be a hub of a renewable energy boom, the Port of Stockton will be its center.

Jim Walker, vice chairman of the board of the wind energy firm enXco - which has an office in Tracy and operates wind turbines throughout the area - said the Port of Stockton is one of the few places where the massive turbines and towers can be shipped in by sea. Stockton specializes in bulk cargo, not the boxcar containers that dominate most other California ports.

Indeed, Sacramento-based Pacific Ethanol is planning to build a refinery at the port, as is USBioDiesel Group LLC. Another firm, Community Fuels, is planning to install biodiesel production equipment at the port.

In addition, Akeena Solar has an office in Manteca.

Walker said enXco plans to build about 100 new wind turbines around Rio Vista that would generate enough power to supply more than 36,000 homes. Without the tax credit passed by Congress, that would not have happened.

Both Walker and McNerney said that the relatively young solar and wind industries live - or die - on federal and state research and development tax credits. But those credits are subject to the whim of Congress.

"It's a long-term industry supported by a short-term policy," Walker said.

McNerney said he's uncertain of the measure's fate in the Senate.

"It's going to be close," he said. "They're going to do what they're going to do. We have to do what we think is right."

Many Republicans don't like the proposal because Democrats would pay for it by ending an existing tax break for oil and gas companies.

Contact Capitol Bureau Chief Hank Shaw at (916) 441-4078 or sacto@recordnet.com.

Wines Are Winners

Wines Are Winners

Ledgewood Creek Winery in the Suisun Valley received three silver medals for its locally produced wines recently.

The recognition adds to a long list of awards received by the winery since its first vintage in 2001.

The series of silver awards were received in the 2008 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and awards went to the winery's 2005 Estate Syrah, 2006 PicNique Red Cuvee, and its 2006 PicNique Chardonnay.

Ledgewood Creek is located just off Interstate 80 at 4589 Abernathy Road. For more information, call 426-4424.

Environmental Studies

Environmental Studies
Park to add Nature Center complex
By Danny Bernardini/Staff Writer
Article Launched: 03/03/2008



Mel Hargis, of Rio Linda, walks his dog along a trail Saturday at Lake Solano park, which is getting a $3 million nature center. (Ryan Chalk/The Reporter)

Plans are in motion to build the Lake Solano Nature Center, which county officials hope will become a hub of activity for the area.

A call for bids for the project will go out in March and construction hopefully will start in the summer, said Dan Sykes, Solano County Parks Services manager. Plans are to have the center opened by February 2009.

The 5,000-square-foot building, estimated to cost $3 million, is pegged to be built near the entrance of the campground and would house 4,000 square feet of exhibit space, along with offices for the park rangers and storage space, Sykes said.

Sykes and others hope the center will become an anchor for the area, including Lake Berryessa, and will attract many to the park that is often overlooked.

"It's a project that has been dreamed about at least the last 10 years," Sykes said. "It's a really good moment for Solano County parks."

The center will offer a wide variety of educational components, Sykes said, including an aquarium featuring native species and even help toward water safety. Sykes said he also hopes the center will become a meeting place for volunteers, park stewards and field trips to the area. He said they may also may be able to rent out the area to make some money for the parks.

The collaborative effort between the county, the Bureau of Reclamation and community groups like the Putah Creek Discovery Corridor Collaborative did take some time, but after construction and design questions have been worked out, Sykes said it's all starting to come together.

"We're ready to get this project done. Part of it was getting a consensus on design - that took several years," he said. "It really will raise the profile of Lake Solano Park."

Just because plans are moving forward, it hasn't stopped the county from seeking more funds. Tuesday's county supervisors meeting featured the board going ahead with applying for a $150,000 grant to go toward educational aspects of the center.

Besides the educational portion, Sykes said he was excited for the rangers at the park to finally have a top-of-the-line facility.

"The rangers are really working out of a sub-standard space," he said. "We want to give them a new home."



The Lake Solano Nature Center will become a meeting place for volunteers, park stewards and school field trips. (Artist's rendering/Courtesy image)

Danny Bernardini can be reached at county@thereporter.com.

British Coming With 37 Regional Stores

British Coming With 37 Regional Stores
By Reporter Staff
Article Launched: 02/29/2008

A British firm that announced earlier this month its plans to build 18 stores in the Bay Area, including Fairfield, announced Thursday that it will build an additional 19 stores in the Sacramento region, including two in Vacaville.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will begin opening its stores across the region in 2009, pending final negotiations, said company CEO Tim Mason.

In Vacaville, the two stores will set up in long-vacant storefronts including the former Ralphs at Nut Tree and Elmira and the former SaveMax site on Alamo Drive at Butcher Road.

Other locations in the Sacramento region will include several in Sacramento, Oak Park, Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom Rancho Cordova and Rocklin.

"The Sacramento region is a great fit for us - it is vibrant, fast-growing and widely known as having one of the most diverse populations in the U.S.," said Mason. "We're looking forward to bringing fresh, wholesome food at affordable prices to all types of neighborhoods throughout the Sacramento area."

The company announced earlier that it would also be building in Fairfield, Vallejo, Napa, Antioch, Concord, Danville, Mountain View, Oakland, San Jose, Walnut Creek, Hayward and San Francisco.

Mason said the company has "been very encouraged by the response to our stores thus far. Every single week brings more good news as sales, customer numbers and repeat visits are all growing."

Fresh & Easy currently has 55 grocery markets open throughout Southern California and in Nevada and Arizona. The company is a subsidiary of U.K.-based Tesco, one of the world's largest international retailers.

The stores are a new concept in grocery retailing. They measure up to about one-fifth the size of a typical grocery store, but shoppers can buy all of their groceries there.

And the chain prides itself on carrying products that don't contain added transfats, artificial flavors and contain as few preservatives as possible. It also carries a variety of organic produce and natural foods such as cage-free eggs and hormone-free meats.

Each store employs approximately 20 to 30 people. All Fresh & Easy employees work a minimum of 20 hours per week, which ensures everyone is eligible for comprehensive and affordable health care. Entry-level positions pay well over the minimum wage, starting at $10 an hour in California, and offer a quarterly bonus of up to 10 percent.

State Planning Investments In Green Business

State Planning Investments In Green Business
By Mike Zapler/MediaNews Sacramento Bureau
Article Launched: 02/29/2008

SACRAMENTO - State lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a package of bills designed to spur investment in clean energy research and help California compete with other states and nations for green jobs.

Several of the bills, however, are costly or would involve incurring billions in debt, which could hurt their prospects as the Legislature grapples with what is a now estimated $8 billion deficit. (The governor and lawmakers took action earlier this month that is expected to cut in half what was then a projected $16 billion deficit).

Still, legislators and green tech company representatives said that state government can play an important role in boosting a fledgling but potentially lucrative industry for California.

"The digital revolution was heavily subsidized," said Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, D-San Diego, who is pitching a $2 billion bond measure (AB 2003) to invest in solar, wind and other alternative energy technologies. "And it was a very smart investment by the federal government."

Two senators are proposing similar bond measures, one also for $2 billion and another for $3 billion. And Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, has a bill (SB 1760) calling on state agencies to craft a plan to spend $200 million on green energy research.

The bond measures and other proposals come as state regulators work to implement AB 32, the ambitious 2006 initiative to slash state greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020. On Thursday, a committee of businesses executives, many in the green technology field, presented a report outlining ways to streamline government regulations and use technology to meet the bill's mandate.

The full report is available online at www.arb.ca.gov/cc/etaac/etaac.htm.

Solar Energy Will Give Dixon High New Boost

Solar Energy Will Give Dixon High New Boost
By Melissa Murphy/Staff Writer
Article Launched: 02/29/2008

The sun will be shining brightly on Dixon High School despite the gloom-and-doom news of the district's million-dollar deficit.

Dixon Unified School Board President Shana Levine announced Thursday morning during the "State of the City" address that the district will be working with Honeywell International to construct a massive solar energy facility adjacent to the new school campus.

Last year, the district applied for a tax rebate from the state for solar energy projects. The rebate awarded to the district will be given to Honeywell to construct the three-acre, 700 Kilowatt facility. That facility will generate more than enough to provide 90 percent of the school's energy needs.

The building of the new solar farm in the next few months will cost the district absolutely nothing.

Levine explained that the facility will be floor-mounted, with a tilt access to allow the screens to move with the sunlight.

"As it rotates it will get the maximum amount of sunlight possible," she said.

Levine explained that it will also have an educational component as well. Honeywell plans on building a kiosk on campus that would monitor and track usage for students to see.

"I imagine the elementary students will benefit educationally as well," she said. "They can take a trip to the high school to learn about solar energy."

Levine said that teaching the younger students will play a crucial part in their future.

"We're doing our best to set an example and trying to be good stewards," she said. "These young kids will have to look at prices in a different way when they're older."

Honeywell already is known in Solano County for working with the county's Board of Supervisors, which approved a 746,000-watt solar array project to reduce power costs at the Claybank Adult Detention Facility. The solar array will also serve as shade structures for the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District buses, which currently are using the old missile magazine site as a parking lot.

Another benefit of generating solar energy is that the Dixon Unified School District will have a set cost, which will be less than the regular rate PG&E charges.

"We're doing what we can to save the environment," said Ed Eusebio, retired director of facilities. Eusebio is now working with Schools Facility Services as a consultant. "One thing is for sure, we will be using a renewable energy and less fossil fuels. It has the potential of saving us millions of dollars."

Melissa Murphy can be reached at dixon@thereporter.com.

Dixon Sees Good Signs On Horizon

Dixon Sees Good Signs On Horizon
By Melissa Murphy/Staff Writer
Article Launched: 02/29/2008

From Pepper the sheep, to a racetrack proposal, to a Mediterranean fruit fly invasion, to the opening of a new high school, Dixon has been through interesting times recently.

"We rode a wave of optimism during a time of an unsteady economy," said Mayor Mary Ann Courville Thursday during her annual "State of the City" address.

• Pepper the sheep caught worldwide attention when a neighbor complained about her living in a residential back yard, however the sheep was allowed to stay.

• Dixon voters were able to voice their opposition to a proposed horse racetrack.

• Unwanted visitors arrived late last year in the form of Mediterranean fruit flies, forcing a quarantine that could be lifted this spring.

• A deteriorating high school on East A Street finally was replaced with a brand new high school just outside of downtown.

The city has had some major ups and downs, but there are bright spots on the horizon, the mayor said.

Courville highlighted that Genentech will be building a research facility in Dixon, a $75 million project. Dixon is also inching closer to having a train stop in the city and recently received a $1.33 million grant to improve its railroad tracks and pedestrian platform.

One downside is that the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board has fined the city $220,000 for noncompliance of a Cease and Desist Order. The city is in the process of appealing that fine.

There was also a tragic homicide that shook the city.

Police Chief Don Mort, however, reassured residents that Dixon is still a safe city. Christina Baxley, 41, was gunned down in November just outside the apartment complex where she lived.

Mort said Baxley's murder was the sixth in the city in 17 years.

"We're not immune to crime," he said. "We are still a safe community."

This year, Mort has challenged, teachers, parents, students and the rest of the community to help the city have an incident-free prom night.

In the near future, residents will be receiving blue collection bins for Dixon's first curbside recycling service. The city will also celebrate the 95th anniversary of public library service. District Librarian Gregg Atkins said he continues to explore options of moving the library to a newer and more spacious facility.

Meanwhile, Dixon is still sitting pretty good financially and is economically outperforming other cities in the state and locally outperforming the trends, according to Economic Development Director Mark Heckey. And, the city is still looking into ways it can develop its Northeast Quadrant to bring in more revenue for the city, he said.

Courville reassured the city that financially the city is doing OK, but that staff is proceeding with caution.

"The city is never completely safe," she said. "But know the City Council is always committed to serving the community. To have the quality of life here that we love and enjoy, our strength lies in our unity to make Dixon the best it can be."

Melissa Murphy can be reached at dixon@thereporter.com.

Vacaville's Vitality

Vacaville's Vitality
City bursting with reasons for optimism
By Jennifer Gentile/Staff Writer
Article Launched: 02/29/2008



Vacaville City Manager David Van Kirk reviews highlights of the past year in the "State of the City" address Thursday. (Rick Roach/The Reporter)

While factors like the economy weigh heavily on communities statewide, city leaders on Thursday said there is much to be optimistic about in Vacaville.

Community leaders gathered Thursday morning at the Hampton Inn and Suites to hear Mayor Len Augustine and City Manager David Van Kirk deliver the annual "State of the City" address. They took the opportunity to make a few announcements, including a 13.4 percent drop in serious crime and the addition of businesses like Circuit City and Camping World to the community.

The pair's presentation followed the outline of the city's strategic plan, which is based on the goals of ensuring public safety, strengthening the local economy, promoting community viability and maintaining effective and efficient city services.

Kicking off their report with public safety, the presenters said staffing in the police department's patrol division grew to 46 officers in December and monthly sweeps have led to hundreds of arrests.

The audience applauded the latest crime statistics, prompting Augustine to respond, "We're really proud of that. I think (Chief) Richard Word and his staff have done a great job."

Revitalizing struggling shopping centers is one way to bolster the local economy,
Augustine said. He described an overhaul planned for Alamo Plaza and announced that a Circuit City will move in to the former CompUSA building at Nut Tree Parkway and Helen Power Drive. Camping World, which had a location in Cordelia, now plans to open a location on Quinn Road.

Referring to the County Square Asian Market, which is set to open in April at the beleaguered Peabody Shopping Center, the mayor said, "This one's going to be a regional draw, I believe."

As for the new Nut Tree, Van Kirk said, "There's a lot of activity going on" although there have been "some growing pains for the village area." A full-service Thai restaurant plans to move in next to Amici's, he said, while the Elephant Bar also has signed a lease.

Downtown, Augustine said the vacancy rate is less than 1 percent, "which is really quite phenomenal." The Opportunity Hill project, aimed at creating a mixed-use extension of downtown, will move forward with approval of a two-story office building.

Other downtown projects on the horizon include an extension of the CreekWalk to McClellan Street, which should proceed this spring, and reconstruction of the Great Wonders playground this fall.

The ever-important billion-dollar-plus triangle, bordered by Interstates 80 and 505, will bring thousands of jobs to the city in the coming years, the pair said. Kaiser Permanente's Medical Center opens in 2009, and employees should start to occupy the 159,000-square-foot State Compensation Insurance Fund campus next year.

Amid a nationwide slump in the housing market, Van Kirk said, "there is good news and bad news on the residential side." He noted the city's annual allocation in 2007 for building permits was 1,327, while only 327 were actually issued.

The good news, he said, is that Vacaville has not had the foreclosure rate of some other Bay Area cities, and that the city has some residential activity in difficult economic times.

Opponents of development in the Lagoon Valley have exhausted their legal avenues, and Van Kirk said the city is looking to receive a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers for the project this summer.

More than 10,000 signatures were submitted earlier this year in support of an urban growth boundary, which was part of the city's agreement with the Greenbelt Alliance for the Lagoon Valley development.

The City Council can approve the boundary outright this spring, study it further or allow voters to decide.

"It's a reasonable thing, it sets parameters," Van Kirk said, adding the boundary is "adequate to meet our needs over the next 20 years."

The presenters listed a number of accomplishments toward promoting community viability, from the city's upcoming youth and senior summits to energy-efficient initiatives like a compressed natural gas vehicle program and a 1-megawatt solar panel project at Alza.

Fiscally, Vacaville has not been immune to the challenges facing its neighbors. The city has had to scale back its sales tax growth projections and also implement a hiring freeze.

"The way you don't get into deep problems is to recognize problems early on," Van Kirk said, adding, "all in all, we're hanging in there."

Like cities throughout California, however, Vacaville could be impacted by the state's budget deficit.

"That's our concern, quite frankly, are outside influences on the city," the mayor said. Without unforeseen circumstances, the city expects to finish the year with a 15 percent reserve.



Work continues on Vacaville's Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, set to open near I-80 and Leisure Town Road in 2009. (Joel Rosenbaum/The Reporter)

Jennifer Gentile can be reached at vacaville@thereporter.com.

Vacaville Leaders Say City Is Making Ends Meet

Vacaville Leaders Say City Is Making Ends Meet
By Ian Thompson | DAILY REPUBLIC | February 28, 2008

VACAVILLE - Times may be tough, but Vacaville has been fortunate and will continue to be so in 2008.

That was the message that Mayor Len Augustine and City Manager David Van Kirk gave to a gathering of civic leaders Thursday morning at the Hampton Inn.

Local leaders were told Vacaville faces tight times, but that won't affect city services and the city is continuing to see more commercial development.

Augustine's biggest concern is how California's budget problems may affect Vacaville when the state attempts to deal with its $16 million deficit.

The sales tax revenues on which Vacaville depends dropped from a predicted 6 percent increase to a 1 percent increase, which cost the city $1.7 million in income.

A $700,000 increase in property tax revenue softened the blow. Van Kirk also instituted a hiring freeze and dipped into city reserves to make ends meet.

'All in all, we are hanging in there, but we have to be very vigilant,' Van Kirk said.

'Our philosophy is that you can't spend more than you take in,' Augustine said.

Augustine then lauded just-released crime statistics that show serious crime in Vacaville dropped by 13.4 percent in 2007.

Vacaville is moving forward in its efforts to be ready for potential disasters, especially flooding.

Last year, the city started its Vacaville Emergency Response Team to train residents to help deal with emergencies in their neighborhoods.

It is also building the first two of four planned floodwater detention basins this year along Alamo Creek. The third is planned for 2010, and a local developer has promised to build a fourth.

'A lot of progress has been made,' Van Kirk said.

On the economic front, the city is seeing some of its older shopping centers revived, Augustine said.

The center on Peabody Road will soon have Country Square Market open its doors, and the owners of Alamo Plaza are planning to renovate the shopping center on Alamo Drive and Merchant Street.

The city has also seen a lot of activity in what Van Kirk called 'the $1 billion triangle,' between interstates 80 and 505 in northeast Vacaville.

He specifically pointed out Kaiser's hospital expansion, the construction of the State Compensation Insurance Fund building and the Koll Company office project.

Some businesses are also relocating from western Fairfield to Vacaville, such as Camping World, which is moving out of Cordelia.

Portions of the Nut Tree shopping center have 'experienced some growing pains,' according to Van Kirk, but the city is looking forward to seeing more businesses such as The Elephant Bar move in there.

Augustine applauded the economic good fortune of the downtown area, which has 99 percent of its businesses occupied.

That is 'phenomenal in this day and age,' the mayor said.

Vacaville's next big redevelopment project, Opportunity Hill on the east side of the downtown, is the negotiation process with developers to create mixed-use office, retail and senior housing projects, Augustine said.

The nearby Creekwalk along Ulatis Creek is slated to be repaired and open to pedestrians by May, and renovation of the aging Great Wonders playground will be done in October.

The city's residential housing growth has been 'a mixed bag,' according to Van Kirk, 'but we are faring a lot better than the rest of the Bay Area.'

Vacaville is issuing fewer housing permits than before, but still more than neighboring cities. The city's foreclosure rate is 'a lot less than elsewhere,' Van Kirk said.

Van Kirk described a proposed growth boundary ballot initiative as one the city can live with, adding it will be 'adequate to handle the city's growth for the next 20 years.'

Persistent lobbying of the state Department of Transportation to fix I-80 through Vacaville has paid off, Augustine said. Plans to repair the highway has been moved up two years and will start this spring.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or at ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.

Vacaville Crime Drops By 13.4 Percent In 2007

Vacaville Crime Drops By 13.4 Percent In 2007
By Audrey Wong | DAILY REPUBLIC | February 28, 2008

VACAVILLE - Thirteen may be a lucky number for Vacaville, which experienced a 13.4 percent decrease in serious crimes in 2007.

This is the second year in a row that the city experienced a drop in crime, said police Chief Richard Word. In 2006, Part I crimes fell 4.2 percent, according to city spokesman Mark Mazzaferro. Part I crimes include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, vehicle theft and arson.

The biggest drops from 2006 to 2007 occurred in robberies (112 to 83), vehicle thefts (331 to 274) and thefts (1,733 to 1,473). Homicides increased by four cases and rapes by three cases last year.

One of the homicides was a 2006 attack in which the victim died in 2007, said Word, who added that four of the homicide suspects are in custody. The chief attributed the increase in rapes to sexual assaults by acquaintances.

Vacaville's efforts to combat crime last year were buoyed by the addition of 10 patrol officers, increasing the total to 46. A second Crime Suppression Team was also added in 2007.

The department has two vacant patrol officer positions it can't fill because of a city hiring freeze. But two officers are undergoing training in the field, and another two are attending the academy.

'In terms of staffing, I still think we're in an upswing,' Word said.

Other reasons for the drop in crime are more parole and probation sweeps, and residents willing to report suspicious activity. Word cited a recent incident in which someone reported a person trying to open car doors. Police later caught a parolee in connection with two automobile burglaries.

'We encourage (the public) to call,' Word said. 'It makes our job so much easier and makes Vacaville safe.'

Although Word is pleased with the statistics, he added that work needs to be done in gangs, drugs and recidivism among juvenile criminals.

'We're still arresting kids 11 to 17 years old about 30 to 40 times,' he said.

Many of those young people are repeat offenders. Police often meet with probation officers and school officials to address the needs of juveniles.

One solution to divert young people from crime is providing good mentors. The city has a Police Activities League and Vacaville Area Boys and Girls Club. The department also has a social worker for young people involved with gangs.

Reach Audrey Wong at 427-6951 or awong@dailyrepublic.net.

Cajun Cooking Comes To Fairfield

Cajun Cooking Comes To Fairfield
By Ben Antonius | Daily Republic | February 28, 2008



Darrell and James Gambrell enjoy a meal at the new Huckleberry's restaurant, a cajun-themed restaurant that opened Wednesday in Fairfield. Photo by Chris Jordan

FAIRFIELD - Not exactly a traditional home of Cajun cuisine, the city nevertheless landed the second site for a new 'Bayou-themed' restaurant.

Huckleberry's opened Wednesday near the corner of Travis Boulevard and Oliver Road, a site previously occupied by Original Mel's diner. Huckleberry's, a new chain of franchised restaurants, opened its first location in October 2007 in Exeter, near Visalia.

'It's basically California cooking with a Cajun flair,' said Randy Brooks, owner of the restaurant and founder of the parent company, Fresno-based Dynaco Inc. 'We have a lot of items on the menu that you see in California, but they have a Cajun flair.'

Huckleberry's claimed the spot after an aggressive marketing effort by the city after Mel's closed.

The location and the fact it was already equipped as a restaurant made it a desirable spot for the company to take over, said Curt Johnston, the city's assistant director of economic development. And the city was happy to land a brand unique to Northern California.

'We actually prefer the new concept because we know that it's going to be a restaurant that isn't in this immediate market area,' he said.

And although Huckleberry's is new, parent company Dynaco is well-established as a restaurateur, noted Lorraine Hernandez, who was the city liaison to the company.

Dynaco is also the parent company of Country Waffles and Perko's Cafe and Grill, and has other new restaurants in Yukon Jack's and Cool Hand Luke's Steakhouse.

'All of our concepts are kind of intertwined,' Brooks said. 'We try to make them noncompetitive with each other.'

The restaurant is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., serving breakfast and lunch only. Its breakfast menu includes items such as a southern quiche and a Cajun breakfast burrito. For lunch, Brooks said the menu includes Cajun-inspired menu items such as catfish and mushroom-smothered skirt steak.

Reach Ben Antonius at 427-6977 or bantonius@dailyrepublic.net.

UC research to focus on biofuel from plants

UC research to focus on biofuel from plants
Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Harnessing the sun through solar panels is a great idea in principle, but harvesting stored solar energy from plants is a more promising and economical approach to help meet global energy needs, a UC Berkeley biosciences expert said Wednesday.

Former Stanford biologist Chris Somerville, who recently moved to the Berkeley campus to head the new Energy Biosciences Institute funded with half a billion dollars from BP, said the potential of photovoltaic technology for meeting the world's rapidly growing energy needs hasn't panned out in the 87 years since Einstein won the Nobel Prize for discovering the photoelectric effect.

A better bet, Somerville told a packed audience on campus, is to lay microscopic siege to the Earth's abundant plant cells, break down their walls and extract their sugars to produce alcohol for fuel.

It was the second public bruising of solar panels by a prominent UC Berkeley researcher within a few days.

Last week, the campus released a report by energy expert Severin Borenstein saying the costs of today's solar panels far outweigh the benefits. He said the money now spent on putting photovoltaic panels on homes and businesses would be better spent on research into improving them.

Somerville agreed that "direct solar" is too expensive.

"I certainly think direct solar would be better if the cost could be brought down," he said in a lecture explaining why Berkeley and its academic partners, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, are joining with BP to fashion biological keys for unlocking solar energy stored in plants.

Meeting U.S. energy needs would require 26,000 square kilometers of solar panels operating at their current efficiency of 15 to 20 percent, an unlikely prospect given that only about 4 square kilometers of photovoltaic panels have been built in the world, he said.

The institute will not focus on the main method of biofuel production in the United States today - which is fermentation of corn mash to produce ethanol, known also to backwoods distillers as moonshine - but on second- and third-generation biofuels that don't have the same environmentally damaging effects as heavy reliance on corn, Somerville said.

By pioneering ways to break down cell fibers, the institute's researchers hope to be able to convert any plant material - including fallen trees, lawn trimmings, food waste and especially fast-growing dense plants like miscanthus - into practical sources of biofuel. See article at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/28/BAKQV9QAF.DTL


Online resource
Information about research at the Energy Biosciences Institute:

www.energybiosciencesinstitute.org


E-mail Charles Burress at cburress@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/28/BAKQV9QAF.DTL
This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Vacaville City's flood control takes step forward

City's flood control takes step forward

The Reporter:
City's flood control takes step forward> By Jennifer Gentile/Staff Writer
Article Launched: 02/27/2008 06:14:05 AM PST

The City Council advanced Vacaville's flood-control efforts Tuesday night,
approving a basin project in the northeastern part of the city.

The council approved the design concept and environmental assessment for the
Encinosa Detention Basins project, which the city plans to build on 60 acres
northeast of the Pleasants Valley Road and Foothill Drive intersection. The
project involves two additional basins, which would give the city another
140 acre-feet of storm-water storage capacity.


The Encinosa basin north is the larger basin and will be situated on the
north side of Encinosa Creek at the end of Edgewater Drive, providing
storage capacity of 107 acre feet. The Encinosa basin south will be built on
the south side of Encinosa Creek adjacent to Foothill Drive and have 33-acre
feet of storage capacity.


In a report, staff said that "the presence of wetland areas and other
environmental issues were identified at the project site." Staff has been
working with state and federal agencies, according to the report, to modify
the project and reduce environmental impacts.


A declaration, which the council approved along with the project design,
indicates that environmental impacts from the project could be reduced to a
less-than-significant level. The declaration circulated through the State
Clearinghouse for 30 days, and notices were sent to residents within 600
feet of the project site.

Staff explained that Encinosa Creek drains into Alamo Creek, which has been
known to spill over its banks during heavy rainfall and cause widespread
flooding. The Ulatis Drainage System Study, which was released in the fall
of 2007, recommended that Vacaville build upstream basins as a flood-control
measure.


"This is an important step in resolving the issues pointed out in (staff's)
presentation," said Councilman Steve Wilkins. He also praised staff for its
work on the project, including "identifying where we need to situate the
basins" so they would have the greatest impact.


In addition to City Council, several agencies like the California Department
of Fish and Game, the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Department of
Fish and Wildlife must also sign off on the project. The Department of Water
Resources, Division of Safety of Dams, will have oversight of the design and
construction of the Encinosa north basin because of its size.


The city is looking to obtain all permits by May and award the project in
June. Construction could begin as early as July and be completed this fall.
The $2 million project is being funded by a combination of grants and
development impact fees, according to the public works director.


Jennifer Gentile can be reached at vacaville@thereporter.com.