General News
Council to clarify intent in Dunivan waiver, considers new fee schedule tonight
MARTINEZ, Calif. – When the Martinez City Council decided last year to waive annexation application fees for 10 acres owned by the Dunivan Family Trust, did that include the costs of a plat map and a legal description of the property? Or should the applicant pick up those costs? City employees will ask the Council […]
Second city cannabis business workshop Thursday
The second of two cannabis workshops, at which residents can tell city officials what type of licensed commercial cannabis operations they want to open in Martinez, takes place Thursday. At the first workshop last week, residents heard Matt Eaton, HdL Companies’ cannabis compliance manager, told attendees that the city could decide to prohibit all commercial […]
MUSD teachers, support staff of year honored
MARTINEZ, Calif. – Martinez Unified School District has honored both its teachers of the year as well as support staff, or classified employees, of the year. Andrea Salas is Alhambra High School’s teacher of the year, recommended by the school after she developed a plan for courses in computer science. Three years ago, the school […]
Planning commission rules land by complies with General Plan
MARTINEZ, Calif. – The city’s proposal to purchase of a building on Escobar Street that would be demolished so the site could be used for parking complies with the Martinez General Plan, the Martinez Planning Commission decided Tuesday. The building sits at 821 to 825 Escobar St., and is surrounded by a parking lot. Its […]
CHP investigating highway shootings
California Highway Patrol is investigating two apparently unrelated highway shootings reported Wednesday in Contra Costa County. In neither case was anyone hurt. The first took place about 9:45 p.m. on North Interstate-680 near Treat Boulevard, Walnut Creek. A driver’s car window broke, and he originally thought perhaps someone had thrown a bottle at his vehicle. […]
Community Focus
Martinez Business Beat, April 17, 2018
Chamber Of Commerce ‘Lunch And Learn’ Seminar Today A “Lunch and Learn” workshop designed to teach people how to motivate others to help them eet their goals will take place at noon today at SWS Credit Union, 1700 Pacheco Boulevard. Admission ios free for Martinez Chamber of Commerce members and $10 for others. The seminar […]
Martinez Area Community Emergency Response Team announces donations
Martinez Area Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is proud to announce the receipt of multiple donations from supportive community companies. “It is amazing what a few newly certified members can do for CERT. They requested grant donations that resulted in over $3000 in donations to date,” noted Gwenda Webster, CERT’s new volunteer Class & Training […]
At Home With Vivian: Bingo!
“How would you like to go out for dinner tonight?” my normally thrifty husband Jeff asked on Saturday afternoon. What? Jeff is actually willing to pay for dinner? You bet I’m going! Then I found out it was at St. Catherine of Sienna’s Bingo night. Three dollar hot dogs, four dollar hamburgers. I shouldn’t have […]
Park It by Ned MacKay: Meet the people who take care of the parks
From office staff to park rangers, from police and firefighters to nature educators, almost 800 dedicated employees – even more in the summer — keep the East Bay Regional Parks open and safe for the public to enjoy. You can meet some of them and find out more about what they do during “Rangers and […]
Message from the Chief of Police: Information sharing for a safer community
Collaborative partnerships are an invaluable way to leverage resources and effectively solve problems. As you may be aware, we entered into a collaborative partnership with Contra Costa County and the Pleasant Hill Police Department to focus on homelessness. The approach entails using outreach through the County CORE (Coordinated Outreach Referral and Engagement) Team. One of […]
History
Our Town: The Gazette moves to Pacheco
By HARRIETT BURT Martinez News-Gazette Contributor Happy New Year 1859 to readers of the Contra Costa Gazette/Martinez News-Gazette. 1859’s first news is about the establishment of an annual County event now beginning its 160th year. January 1, 1859 – Contra Costa Agricultural Society formed at Lafayette. First County Fair was inaugurated October 11, 1859, and […]
Underground Echoes: Rice’s grow in Napa
By JOSEPH & JUDIE PALMER Special to the Gazette To recap Aaron Rice and his family’s story since they gained their freedom, we created a list of the important events we have covered to date. We started with their first Holidays as free people in 1860, the loss of their son Lewis in 1862, the […]
Our Town: Headlines from the earliest issues of the Gazette
By HARRIETT BURT Martinez News-Gazette Contributor “The establishment of a newspaper in Contra Costa County was an important factor in its upbuilding and development,” stated the publisher of the Historic Record’s 1926 History of Contra Costa County. He was introducing Chapter XVIII, entitled “Gleanings from the Files of the Contra Costa Gazette, 1858-1926”. Not only […]
Underground Echoes: Citizenship finally acquired
By JOSEPH & JUDIE PALMER Special to the Gazette Picking up where we left off with Aaron Rice’s story, we had discussed how he and his family along with others had founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Not only did it serve as a place for worship, but it also served as their community center […]
Our Town: Headlines from the Past – From the 19th century to the 20th
By HARRIETT BURT Martinez News-Gazette Contributor Thank you for the good feedback about the ‘headlines’ series we started a month ago. When it was a five-day a week ‘daily’, the Gazette had a column called the “Good Old Days” featuring small bits of news on that date going back several decades. My editor, Bob Osmond, […]
Sports
Alhambra Boys Volleyball vs Ygnacio Valley
An action photo gallery of the boys volleyball match between Alhambra and Ygnacio Valley. Alhambra won the first three games, winning the match. Names and numbers: #24 Ozzy Bagno MB Jr. #0 Vincent Smith S So. #16 Roshan Kumar L […]
Warriors take game 2 over Spurs
Reigning NBA Champs head to Antonio with a 2-0 series lead By Felicia D. Purcell Martinez News Gazette Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said he knew that the Spurs would make the necessary adjustments to compete with his team in Game 2 of the Western Conference Playoffs and they did just that. The Spurs would […]
Photo Gallery: Alhambra Boy’s Lacrosse vs Miramonte Matadors
26 Phillip Sansone G Jr. 29 Cole Kendall M Jr. 13 Josh Bigness DM Jr. 11 Johnathan Griffin A Jr. 25 Patrick Blas D Jr. 12. Nathanial Graves A Jr. 9 Christian Rucki DM Jr. 30 Julian Wright M So. 7 Manny Rodriguez DM Jr. 36. Hayden Witt M So. Photos by Mark […]
Golden State Warriors vs San Antonio Spurs
Golden State Warriors dominated the San Antonio Spurs 113-92 to to win game one. The teams square off again on Monday, 7:30 p.m. at Oracle Arena. Photos by Gerome Wright
Alhambra vs Casa Grande girls Lacrosse
Alhambra and Casa Grande High of Petaluma (the Gaucho’s). Casa Grande won 16 – 6. Photos by Mark Fierner
Opinion
Message from the Mayor: Let’s play ball
By ROB SCHRODER Mayor of Martinez At a special meeting of the Martinez City Council, the license agreement between the city and the Martinez Clippers, LLC was approved. Professional baseball is coming to Martinez, and opening day is Thursday, May 31. The Martinez Clippers will host the Sonoma Stompers at the newly rebuilt Joe DiMaggio […]
Noralea Gipner: Information on Marin Clean Energy (MCE) program
Today I am going to write about the benefits of the MCE program as I understand it. In 2006, the California legislature passed the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), which set the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. In 2015, Governor Brown issued an executive order that further requires […]
Letter to the Editor: Stevens positioning for mayoral run?
As I picked a copy of the Gazette at a friend of mine’s house I came upon John Stevens’ article. It’s rather disturbing because it certainly sounds like he is positioning himself to run for Mayor while downplaying the accomplishments that have made by Rob Schroder and the council (past and present) for building the […]
Column 1: Falling is a word
By BILL SHARKEY III Martinez News-Gazette Columnist FALLING IS A WORD we use for a number of activities, each one denoting some movement, some good, some not so good. Thus, when adding ‘ down’, as in falling down, it conjures up some ugly pictures in the mind. It can become very personal. Such was the […]
MPD pay and retention issue
This is not as simple as some are making it out to be. Police are a top priority, but money voted for parks years ago cannot just be given to police. Even if the council could give that money to the police, they would be breaking rules doing it and be in trouble. From what […]
Arts & Entertainment
Entertainers from Martinez, Benicia perform at Rakkasah West
Rakkasah West, one of the largest belly dance festivals in the world, featured performers from multiple countries from around the globe as well as from as close as Martinez and Benicia. A longtime celebration of Middle Eastern and North African dance and music, the festival features both dancers and musicians. Its workshops give practitioners a […]
Finding owls …
While I was out hiking after our last major storm I came across two downed owls, the one pictured a Great Horned Owl and the other a Barn owl. Heavy rain can be hard on them. Interesting fact: Owl flight feathers have comb-like fringed edges, making them feel much softer, that enable these hunters to […]
Martinez students engage at Eugene O’Neill Studio Retreat
By CHARLIE JARRETT Special to the Martinez Gazette Between March 10 and 17, five gifted and inspired students from Alhambra High and Briones High took up the challenge offered by the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, in partnership with the Eugene O’Neill National Park, to express themselves in a free artistic enrichment program for high school students. […]
Artu4ia’s final show to be its ‘Last Hurrah’
Artu4ia will have its final exhibit at its downtown area workshop and gallery, and its award-winning owners John Kleber and Carol Ludwig Kleber are calling it the “Last Hurrah” Art Show. Artu4ia will be closing at the end of the month, and the Klebers will be moving to Pennsylvania. Open for the past five years, […]
Poison Apple garners awards at junior theater festival
Poison Apple Productions, the theater company that provides performing arts experiences to youth and young adults, has earned five awards from the Junior Theater Festival, said Gina Roth, managing director and secretary of the company’s board of directors. The awards are the New Works Showcase for the West Coast premiere of “The Children of Eden” […]
