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Thursday, 23 May 2013 07:41 |
PHOTO BY JIM KNOWLES
Oakland A’s infielder Adam Rosales shows Washington Manor players how to step on second base when making a double play at Stenzel Field on Saturday.
By Jim Knowles
San Leandro Times
Baseball fans flocked to Stenzel Field on Saturday with their cameras and pens.
They must have been on their way to get the autograph of Ezra Garrett, who’s having a heck of a year as vice president of PG&E.
On the other hand, the fans might have been there to see Adam Rosales, the Oakland A’s infielder who hit a game-winning home run the night before to beat the Kansas City Royals.
In either case, the fans got their money’s worth. The A’s and PG&E teamed up to showcase the new field they provided for the Washington Manor Baseball League.
Now the grass on the main field at Stenzel is just as immaculate as the A’s home field at the Coliseum.
The fun part of the day came after brief speeches by Garrett, A’s president Michael Crowley, Mayor Stephen Cassidy and Councilman Michael Gregory – when Adam Rosales took the young players out by second base to teach them a little about fielding and base running.
The A’s infielder showed the players how to step on the bag when making a double play, how to take a lead when running the bases, and how to field a ground ball.
“He told me not to let the ball come to me, but to extend your hand out and reach for the ball,” said Cory Kelly, who plays for the Washington Manor Angels, a 14- and 15-year-old Babe Ruth League team.
The A’s brought along a whole team of media people who filmed the ceremony and fielding lesson. Other City Council members in attendance were Benny Lee, Ursula Reed and Jim Prola. The politicians should have stuck around for the fielding lessons, since that might have helped them at one of those press conferences.
Rosales’ next lesson for the youngsters was helpful in both baseball and politics. He taught the kids how to steal. He had them all take turns leading off first and taking off at the right time to steal second.
And then a Washington Manor coach came over and ordered the kids to one side of the first base line, while the A’s people whisked Rosales off in the other direction to a waiting car.
The kids clamored for more, not wanting Rosales to leave. The cheerful A’s player turned back once more and wished them well.
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Thursday, 16 May 2013 11:15 |
PHOTO BY AMY SYLVESTRI
Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan announced Tuesday that the county has struck a deal to keep San Leandro Hospital running with an emergency room.
By Amy Sylvestri
San Leandro Times
After more than five years of wrangling, countless meetings, rallies and a lawsuit, a deal has been struck to keep San Leandro Hospital open and running with an emergency room.
Under the new deal, Sutter Health will donate the hospital, its equipment, and a $22 million subsidy to the Alameda County Healthcare System and the county will own the hospital.
In addition, the county and the City of San Leandro will give $1 million a year for at least the next three years to keep the emergency room open.
The hospital has been losing $15 million to $22 million annually.
After $22 million in transition money is spent, it will be up to the county to find a way to keep San Leandro Hospital from losing money.
“We are very pleased to announce a successful deal,” said Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan at a press conference outside the hospital Tuesday afternoon.
Chan, Mayor Stephen Cassidy, and other officials were all in high spirits as they announced the plan.
“This is a great day,” said Cassidy. “Today’s deal will preserve lives in San Leandro.”
A similar deal that would have had the hospital run by the county collapsed in February, but negotiations continued.
“Our deal was pretty much dead,” said Cassidy, who credited Chan’s persistence with making the new agreement happen.
The hospital had been losing money for Sutter, which had planned on closing the emergency room and turning the facility into a rehabilitation center but that plan was met with public outcry.
Chan says that with the $22 million and the city and county money, she believes that they can restore services such as orthopedics which have been cut in the past and make the hospital financially sustainable.
Chan says the $22 million transition fund will give the new management at least a year to get the hospital on its feet.
“The long-term success of the hospital rests on several things,” said Chan.
She says the ability to rebuild those services, the continued support of the community and the extension of Measure A are all necessary.
Measure A is a one-half cent sales tax that was approved by county voters in 2004, which largely goes to fund healthcare for the uninsured. Measure A generates $100 annually and will last through 2019. Chan said that having it renewed past that date will be vital to San Leandro Hospital.
Eden CEO George Bischalaney, representing Sutter, called the agreement, “A very good thing, a long time in coming.”
State Senator Ellen Corbett wasn’t there for the announcement, but in a written statement, she said how pleased she was to see the hospital continue to run with an emergency room – a cause she has been involved in for years.
“I thank everyone that has been involved over the past many years to ensure that this important community asset continues to serve the residents of the East Bay,” Corbett wrote. “Ever since I served as mayor of San Leandro, I’ve known the true importance of San Leandro Hospital, including its emergency room that serves those in need of medical treatment.”
Dr. Vin Sawhney, who practices at San Leandro Hospital, said that the agreement is a relief for the hospital’s doctors and nurses, who have long been in doubt about their futures.
“Finally the day has come when we can be assured what our course is going to be,” said Sawhney.
The transfer of San Leandro Hospital is expected to be made final in October.
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Monday, 13 May 2013 11:32 |
PHOTO COURTESY OF EDWARD ESCOBAR
Edward Escobar, with Cynthia Hanning and their kids Hanna and Aaron, wants their condo to be free of neighbors’ tobacco and marijuana smoke.
By Jim Knowles
San Leandro Times
Edward Escobar doesn’t want cigarette smoke in his home where he lives with Cynthia Haning and their two children, Hanna and Aaron.
Nobody smokes in the residence, but the problem is that smoke drifts in from other units in their condominium in Concord, says Escobar.
Escobar, who grew up in San Leandro, has become fired up about second-hand smoke. He’s in favor of a bill in the state legislature that would ban smoking from all multi-unit buildings in California.
The bill that would ban smoking in apartments and condominiums, AB 746, didn’t pass a state assembly committee last month. But Escobar and other non-smoking advocates are still pushing for the law, which can be reintroduced, as well as similar smoking laws at the local level.
“If you have someone smoking next door to you, it can be like you’re smoking,” said Escobar. “And for kids, they’re not even allowed to buy cigarettes or marijuana, so why should they be forced to breathe it?”
While the bill in the state assembly is still in limbo, Escobar and others are encouraging cities to ban smoking in multi-unit residential buildings.
“It’s a statewide movement but we’re also trying to push it city by city,” he said. “San Leandro could pass an ordinance against it. My friend who lives near Bayfair just had to move because the person below him smoked like a chimney.”
The anti-smoking sentiment is broad-based but AB 746 is opposed by some groups because it’s not specific enough.
“The California Apartment Association agrees with the reason and rational of the bill – second-hand smoke is a nuisance to neighbors,” said Debra Carlton, spokeswoman for the California Apartment Association, which opposed the bill.
“It makes sense,” she added, “but we’re asking for clarity.”
Carlton said several questions need to be clarified: “Do we have the right to evict somebody for smoking? Even if they’ve been there 20 years? If we don’t, are we liable? If someone says their asthma is exacerbated by smoke, would we be liable?”
Carlton said the association favors a law that could be phased in, banning smoking on new buidings, and just allowing new tenants who won’t be smoking in the building.
The American Lung Association says that the young and elderly are most affected by smoke and have little ability to do anything about it. People with lower incomes are also less likely to simply have the option to move to another residence.
“It is time that California residents are free from the dangers of secondhand smoke in the places where they should feel the most safe - their own homes,” said Kimberly Amazeen, Vice President, Programs & Advocacy, American Lung Association in California.
But tenants’ rights groups also make the argument that the law would be unfair to people with low incomes who want to smoke because they couldn’t afford a single-family house.
Meanwhile, Escobar said his family still lives with smoke that drifts in from the neighbors who moved in two years ago who smoke cigarettes and marijuana. He said the homeowners’ association and the property management company haven’t been able to stop it.
“It’s not really fair,” Escobar said. “Kids are affected and adults bear the responsibility to do something about it.”
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Thursday, 02 May 2013 17:06 |
EBMUD says water rate hike needed to maintain its pipes
By Amy Sylvestri
San Leandro Times
Get ready to see your water bill go up – the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) is looking at the possibility of increasing water rates by up to nearly 20 percent over the next two years.
The EBMUD board of directors is considering a 9.75 percent increase for water rates for the 2013-14 fiscal year and another 9.5 percent increase for the 2014-15 fiscal year.
If approved by the board, the increase would be the largest in the district in over 20 years.
The nearly 20 percent increase is what is recommended by EBMUD staff, but the publicly elected board of directors can also vote to go with a different rate or not change rates at all, according to Charles Hardy, an EBMUD spokesman.
On June 11, the board will hold a public hearing on the proposed new rates. They can vote at that same meeting and the new rates could go into effect as soon as July 1.
“An increase in that amount is beyond the pale,” said Joe Springer, a San Leandro resident. “The justification seems to be that water sales go down so they need more money. But you’ve got to ask, if water sales went up, would the prices go down? Of course not.”
Hardy says that most of the money EBMUD spends goes to infrastructure – pipes and reservoirs.
“It’s not so much the water as the cost of getting that water to you in your home,” said Hardy. “The cost of service. People think they are being punished for using less water, but that is not the case.”
Hardy said that EBMUD believes the rate increases are necessary because they are coming off years of cutbacks and the system is in need of repairs. Hardy says that they have cut 150 jobs over the past several years and also had to cut back on routine maintenance.
“We have 4,200 miles of pipes in the ground, some over 100 years old. That’s $14 billion invested in infrastructure,” said Hardy. “Ideally, we want to do maintenance on eight miles a year and we haven’t been meeting that goal for the last five years, so you start to damage your system. We are looking at ways to get what it takes to run the system and not have it breakdown.,”
Hardy went on to say that the economic downturn has “stressed” EBMUD, especially the weak housing market because EBMUD depends on new “hook ups” for a lot of its revenue.
“We don’t want to pass costs along to the public, but we have to do what we can to right the district from a place of economic hardship,” said Hardy.
But Springer says the large increase is unfair and too much for the customer to bear. He says that people will use less water if the rates go up, so that EMBUD revenue will go down, which could lead to yet another rate hike.
“This is a huge increase and it’s unacceptable,” said Springer. “If the rates continue to go up, you can bet water use will continue to go down.”
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Friday, 26 April 2013 19:07 |
PHOTO BY JIM KNOWLES
The Martinez family pose for a picture at San Leandro High – Isobel and Martin with their mom and dad, Martina and Juan.
By Jim Knowles
San Leandro Times
Martin Martinez will be the class valedictorian at this year’s San Leandro High graduation and he’s been offered a full academic scholarship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), Harvard and several other pretty good colleges.
His older sister already graduated from M.I.T., his brother is currently at U.C. Davis, majoring in engineering, and his younger sister is a top student at Bancroft Middle School.
The Martinez family’s knack for education is passed down from their dad, who drives a garbage truck. He’s driven big trucks for 35 years, a garbage truck in the town of Martinez for the past 25 years.
“I grew up on a farm in Mexico,” said Juan Manuel Martinez, who had 15 brothers and sisters. “I got up at 5 in the morning and milked the cows, fed the pigs and worked the fields. My father drove me 15 miles every day so I could go to school.”
Juan and Martina Martinez are regular volunteers at the schools. The couple was named the 2004 Volunteers of the Year by the school district, and Juan was president of the English Learners Advisory Committee.
“We support parents and kids,” Martina said.
Juan Martinez said he and Martina volunteer because it helps their kids feel comfortable in school.
Martinez says he and his wife have always encouraged their kids to do well, and they taught the kids how learning can be like a game.
“I tell them to enjoy everything they do,” he said. “Everything they do well, we celebrate it.”
He doesn’t believe in punishment, but in helping the kid understand when they do something wrong.
“We’re all human beings,” he said. “When something doesn’t go right, we ask, ‘What happened?’ And they recognize it and they tell us what happened.”
Martin, the high school senior, said he learned a lot about M.I.T. on his trip two weeks ago to attend a program with other high school students thinking of attending.
“I talked to the professor who taught Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg,” Martin said. “He’s real down-to-earth.”
Martin is also going back East to visit Harvard and the following week he’ll check out Stanford, all the schools paying his travel expenses. It’s as if he’s a .300 hitting short stop that the ball clubs are all trying to sign.
Martin wants to be a computer scientist and an entrepreneur. He’s already started a small business that makes apps for iPhones and iPads. He’s created two physics games that are available, “Bounce Squirrel” and “450 Awesome Sounds.”
“I want to make a lot of money, donate a lot of money, and then when I get older go into politics,” Martin said.
Martin recently played a car crash victim in the “Every 15 Minutes” program at SLHS that teaches safe driving and avoiding crashes. Even playing the crash victim is a learning experience for Martin.
“It’s interesting to imagine what happens when you die,” he said. “It makes you think about life.”
Martin’s younger sister, Celia, who attends Bancroft Middle School said she likes all of her classes and wants to go to Harvard Medical School.
Martin and Celia’s dad was in the choir at St. Leander’s Church but his asthma has kept him out recently. But he still likes to sing, just like he did growing up on a farm.
“I’m a farm boy,” said Juan Martinez. “I can’t sing very well but I like to sing everywhere I go.”
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Saturday, 20 April 2013 08:31 |
By Amy Sylvestri
San Leandro Times
A San Lorenzo High School student was killed last week when he was struck by a train as he and some friends played on the tracks near the school.
Austin Price, 15, was described by teachers and friends as friendly and outgoing –the type of guy to go out of his way to befriend shy kids in his class.
Price was hit by an Amtrak Capitol Corridor train Thursday around 6:30 p.m., near the intersection of Lewelling Boulevard and Via Granada. Counselors were at the school this week to help the students mourn his loss.
According to Amtrak, Price and his friends were playing chicken with the train and he failed to move out of the way in time. The friends, two boys and a girl, were back in class the day after the accident, according to San Lorenzo High Principal Tovi Scruggs.
San Lorenzo High students playing on the tracks is an ongoing problem, said Scruggs. She has made announcements and sent out bulletins warning her students of the danger, but many continue to hang out around the tracks.
There were 104 deaths in California resulting from trains hitting pedestrians in 2012, up 31 percent from the year before, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. So far in 2013, there have been 12 such deaths in the state.
Scruggs hopes that students will be more cautious in the wake of Price’s death.
“Austin was well-loved and well-liked,” said Scruggs. “He was in our Leadership and Culture Academy and had a real interest in the video program. Austin befriended a lot of students who otherwise didn’t have a lot of friends.”
Price’s classmates also remembered him as a friendly and outgoing guy.
“He was a cool dude, and very funny,” said friend Darrien Jones.
San Lorenzo Superintendent Dennis Byas said that Price’s death is hard to take and that he had a bright future ahead of him.
“He was a wonderfully charming young man, loved by many,” said Byas. “He was very kind and caring and had the grades to be very successful. He was definitely on track to attend a good university and would have made us all very proud.”
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Thursday, 11 April 2013 14:56 |
PHOTO BY JIM KNOWLES
The Alchemia Theater performed Pin Pin, the tale of a student who is bullied for being different from others, at the San Leandro High Performing Arts Center on Monday.
By Jim Knowles
San Leandro Times
Students in special education classes came to the see “Adventures of Pin Pin” this week performed by a cast of young adults with special needs.
The original musical follows Pin Pin through a tough day at school, getting picked on and trying to find friendship. The Alchemia Theatre for Life Company usually performs at their playhouse in Santa Rosa but they brought their production to San Leandro on Monday for a special show at the San Leandro High Performing Arts Center.
The theater troupe is part of Alchemia, an arts and vocational program for developmentally disabled adults in Sonoma County. San Leandro High adaptive P.E. teacher Melissa Abadia saw the show and invited the theater troupe to give a performance in San Leandro.
The story is loosely based on Pinocchio. Pin Pin is bullied physically, verbally and even cyber bullied, but the hero learns how to self advocate, ask for help, and identify true friends from false ones.
The show was written and directed by Liz Jahren and the songs were written by Brett Fenex, a who plays piano, guitar and provides additional backup vocals from behind the piano.
A few missed lines don’t matter, as Jahren sits right in front of the stage and calls out the line to remind the actor. Just as any theater company, a minor mistake makes the performance more human and gives it charm.
Special needs students don’t often get a chance to perform on stage in high school, but the Alchemia Theatre gives people the chance to be the lead performers, the stars of the show, Jahren said.
The audience was invited to ask questions and then to come up to the stage to meet the cast at the end of the show.
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Thursday, 04 April 2013 07:11 |
PHOTO BY JIM KNOWLES
Owner Jim Barry started working at Porter’s Market in 1963 and his son Billy (right) started in 1975.
By Jim Knowles
San Leandro Times
Porter’s Market is about to check out.
The grocery store that’s been a fixture in Washington Manor since the days of the malt shop and the sock hop won’t be around much longer.
The market’s owners have been trying to sell the store for more than a year. They said they had a potential buyer but the deal fell through last week.
Without somebody else to buy and run the store, the market will close up for one simple reason:
“We want to retire,” said Billy Barry, who has worked at his dad’s grocery store since 1975.
Barry’s dad, Jim Barry, and Burt Vaughn own the market at the corner of Farnsworth Street and Manor Boulevard and are still working there to this day. Jim started working at Porter’s in 1963 and Burt came in about a year later.
Porter’s Market was built at the same time as the neighborhood in the decade after World War II. It opened in the late ’40s when Bill Demel and Ed Porter moved their market from 73rd Avenue in Oakland, Barry said.
Jim Barry’s life has been the grocery business. Porter’s has always been known for its meat department and that’s one of Barry’s specialties.
“I started as a bag boy at Kroger’s in Hutchinson, Kansas,” he said. “Then I wound up cutting meat.”
Jim Barry remembers the first day he worked at Porters, just after he’d gotten out of the Navy.
“I was taking classes at Chabot Jr. College – it was just some Quonset huts back then – and one Saturday my uncle Bill called me in to work the deli,” Barry said. “He knew I could do the job because I already knew this racket.”
That one-day job turned into 50 years at the market.
“It’s funny how one day can change your whole life,” Barry said.
They plan to sell the equipment – freezers, refrigerators, etc. – but they’re not going to touch the mural of California agriculture that’s adorned the wall for as long as anyone can remember.
“Everyone who comes in here since they were a kid says they always remember that mural,” said store manager Carla Hewitt.
Hewitt’s been at Porter’s for 13 years, five years as manager, and previously worked for the Nob Hill grocery chain. She says she will probably apply at another grocery after Porter’s closes.
Shopper Schatz Robideaux who lives nearby was picking up some groceries this week.
“I’ve been shopping here for about 50 years,” Robideaux said. “It’s nice to have a market nearby. I’m really going to miss it.”
Lifelong Manor resident Cindy Warner said Porter’s is one of her childhood memories like the drive-in and the roller rink at Bayfair.
“I still bike down to Porter’s when I’m cooking for that missing spice or veggie and they even let me put my bike inside sometimes,” Warner said.
The market leases the space in the small shopping center on Farnsworth. The entire building is owned by a real estate firm and the building is also for sale and is expected to be sold this week, said real estate agent Mike Ahern.
The new owners of the building are planning to open another market in Porter’s space, according to Ahern.
Jim Barry said his relatives are coming out here later in the spring and he might go back to see them and maybe stay at the family cabin in Minnesota and do some fishing.
“But I’m going to miss the customers,” he said. “I’ve worked all my life.”
Barry’s the kind of guy who sees work as a way of life, not the kind who starts looking forward to retirement at an early age.
“I always saw it as you work your butt off for whoever you work for and that’s always been my life,” he said.
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Monday, 01 April 2013 07:57 |
PHOTO BY JOHNCK MEDIA
John von Seeburg films in the Himalayas.
By Jim Knowles
San Leandro Times
Climbing a 20,000-foot mountain is a feat for anybody, but when wounded veterans make the ascent, it’s an accomplishment worth recording.
A San Leandro cinematographer did just that. John von Seeburg filmed a group of 11 wounded warriors climbing Mt. Lobuche in the Himalayas.
The veterans have injuries ranging from brain injury to amputation to blindness. How were they able to climb this snow-covered mountain?
“That’s what makes it an inspiring story,” von Seeburg said.
The project is now a documentary film called High Ground and it will be shown for free on Wednesday, April 3, at 2:30 p.m. at Oracle in Redwood Shores. The movie is free but you need to RSVP at highgroundmovie.com.
Not all of the soldiers’ injuries are physical. Some of the soldiers have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
“One thing I learned on this trip is that not all injuries are visible,” von Seeburg said. “Sometimes the injuries that are not obvious are worse.”
Von Seeburg also works as a videographer for Oracle, where the film will be shown. But this documentary film is a separate project, not part of his job at Oracle.
He hopes all vets can see the movie, which is beautifully filmed and edited. It combines the spectacular beauty of the mountains with moving personal stories of the climbers.
“We really want vets to see this film, and we want people who aren’t vets to see it too because it’s so inspiring,” von Seeburg said.
The film was produced by Don Hahn, who produced “The Lion King,” and directed by Mt. Everest climber and 3-time Emmy winner Michael Brown.
Von Seeburg has some experience on mountains. He calls himself a recreational mountain climber and said that Mt. Lobouche was within his skill set.
Battling the cold is as tough as climbing the mountain and the temperature causes problems with cameras and their related equipment. Camera batteries lose their power in the cold, so they kept them in their sleeping bags, down by their feet at night when they slept, von Seeburg said.
Von Seeburg said he learned to tell stories with a camera while working for the popular “Bay Area Back Roads” television show. His job at Oracle includes filming the Oracle Team sailboats, which will defend the America’s Cup this year on the bay.
After the movie at Oracle next Wednesday there will be a question-and-answer session with von Seeburg and several veterans.
One great thing the film gives you is a new perspective, von Seeburg said.
“You see what they do and your own problems are not as bad as you think,” he said.
The special screening of the film High Ground will be on Wednesday, April 3, at Oracle Conference Center, 350 Oracle Parkway in Redwood Shores. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. and the film starts at 3 p.m.
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Thursday, 21 March 2013 15:08 |
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PHOTO BY JIM KNOWLES
Diesel technician Joseph Junta led a tour of the shop and gave high school students the lowdown about a future in diesel mechanics at a career day held at Peterson Caterpillar in San Leandro.
By Jim Knowles
San Leandro Times
When Clint Knapp graduates from college he won’t have to wait around for the economy to recover.
Most likely, if he studies and learns his stuff in the one- or two-year program, there will be a job waiting for him — a job that pays better than most recent college grads can expect.
Knapp is going to diesel college. The current Ygnacio Valley High student will go to Universal Technical Institute (UTI) in Sacramento in June to learn to be a diesel technician.
“I graduate from high school on June 13 and I start at UTI on June 17,” said Knapp, a driven young man who works two jobs while going to high school and hopes to buy his mom a house someday.
Knapp and around 30 other students came to a career day on Saturday, March 9, at Peterson Caterpillar in San Leandro, a joint program by Peterson and UTI to show students the opportunities open to them in diesel mechanics.
Several of Peterson’s mechanics were on hand to speak and answer questions, and talk honestly about the field, both the good and the bad. It’s tough work that isn’t for everybody, but a hard working mechanic not only is well paid, but can get lots of overtime and travel.
A lot of jobs are in Antarctica, Alaska, Guam and around the South Pacific — remote places that need diesels to run generators for electricity.
“This day and age it’s all about electricity,” Peterson truck service manager Ted Fleming told the students. “All backup electricity runs off generators. If you want to work hard, you got a job.”
Even right here in the Bay Area, lot of businesses need backup generators run by diesels — hospitals, TV and radio stations, supermarkets and computer companies, any operation that can’t afford to lose power.
So not all the diesels come into the shop in trucks and tractors. Diesel mechanics have to go where the generators are — on the tops of buildings, for instance — what they call field work, which means plenty of overtime.
There’s a need for mechanics right now, and that will only grow in the future, Fleming said. For the students who were wondering, diesel technicians at Peterson start out at $36.95 an hour, which is $76,000 a year, plus medical insurance and a 401k savings plan, and that doesn’t count any overtime pay.
“As the economy comes back there will be a huge demand for people in this industry,” Fleming said.
But diesel mechanics isn’t just an old-fashioned occupation. It’s as computerized as any field these days. The first thing a technician does is hook up a computer to the diesel. Industrial-strength Dell laptops are on stands all around Peterson’s shop, ready for use.
“The technology is always advancing, so you’re constantly going to school to learn each new technology that comes out,” Fleming told the students.
Mechanics have to know how to figure it out on their own — diagnose the problem and fix it, said Joseph Junta, a technician at Peterson.
Junta later led a group through the shop where truck and tour buses sat waiting to have their engines pulled out and repaired.
All the new diesels are equipped with special filters to reduce emissions. The filters are then heated to burn off the particles, Junta explained. Of course, these new filters have problems and need repairs, but that’s more work for diesel technicians.
The pay is hourly, not a flat rate for each job, so there is no incentive to rush or cut corners – it’s more important to do the job right, Junta told the students.
The job is a combination of working with everybody as a team and being able to solve it on your own, Junta said.
“You’re not going to learn unless you figure it out on your own,” Junta said.
Junta said he did well by taking the jobs that nobody else wanted to do. Repairing RVs is tough, because the engines are hard to get to, and the owners don’t want the inside of their vehicles to get dirty. So Junta said he volunteered to take every RV that came in.
“I decided to take the jobs nobody else wanted and that paid off,” Junta said.
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Thursday, 14 March 2013 17:35 |
Marty Schmidt took this self-portrait as he climbed above the clouds.
By Reyna Garcia
Special to the Times
Marty Schmidt, a Castro Valley native and one of the world’s leading high-altitude climbers, will return to his hometown to tell tales of his adventures and share his photography.
The Castro Valley Arts Foundation is presenting “An Evening with Marty Schmidt” this Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts at Castro Valley High School.
“The mountains are a good calling for many of us. We all must find the deepest meanings to what this calling is,” Schmidt said. “And when you do, you know what to do and why you are heading to the hills year after year. These experiences are what we are living for and looking forward to each and every day.”
Schmidt, a 1978 graduate of Castro Valley High School, has climbed some of the world’s greatest peaks, including many higher than 8,000 meters.
As a guide, Schmidt prefers to lead small groups without Sherpas, supplemental oxygen, huts or helicopters. “This brings real adventure back into mountaineering and my clients want to experience the mountains in this way, climbing the mountain on their own,” he said.
Tickets are $10, though admission is free for students. For more information go to www.cvartsfoundation.org or call 889-8961.
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Monday, 11 March 2013 08:27 |
PHOTO BY JIM KNOWLES
Tracey Herron noticed something was wrong and brought help to a woman who had suffered a stroke.
By Jim Knowles
San Leandro Times
Letter carrier Tracey Herron knows the neighborhood where she delivers mail every day.
One day last month, Herron noticed that an elderly lady on Cleveland Street hadn’t picked up her mail for a few days. That was unusual, Herron thought, since the woman is always home.
“Some people you pay attention to because they’re old,” Herron said. “When she wasn’t picking up the mail I thought there might be something wrong.”
So Herron began looking around for a neighbor.
“I started knocking on doors,” she said.
She found a nearby neighbor at home and they decided to call the police to go inside and check on the woman’s welfare.
It’s a good thing Herron did that. The woman had suffered a stroke and she was on the floor. A pot was on the stove, completely melted.
The woman is still in the hospital, but she’s alive due to the observant letter carrier.
“We’re proud of our letter carriers,” said Postmaster Dina Flotte. “They do more than deliver the mail.”
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