2002 - gone in a flash 2002 - gone in a flash (December 27, 2002)

Looking back at the last year in Pleasanton

Where has the year 2002 gone? That's what we are asking as we realize that in a few days we will flip our calendars to 2003. Looking over our editions from 2002 we see that much has happened in the city during the last year. Following is a monthly rundown of the news stories covered by the Pleasanton Weekly.
January € One hundred residents from different interest groups attend Bernal task force public meeting. *** € School district staff members tour sites for employee day care center including at Alisal and Donlon elementary schools and at district headquarters. € City Council sends Bernal task force back to the drawing board for a plan based on a park. € Parks and Recreation commissioners direct city staff to explore the idea of a dog exercise area at Nielsen Park. € Flyover ramp opens at the 580/680 Interchange, part of an improvement project that began in July 1998. *** € A 30-member task force begins to develop a citywide energy plan. € Ponderosa Homes gives 20-acre option to school district for potential new high school on 89-acre Busch property.
February € School district administration site chosen for employee day care. € PG&E gets court OK to start laying its high voltage lines on Vineyard Avenue. € City Council votes 3-2 to sell 14,000 square feet of surplus land on Arroyo del Valle to Phil Ciesielski, the "successor in interest." *** € Seven Pleasanton high school soccer stars have won scholarships to leading colleges and universities for the coming year. ***
March € City launches www.pleasantonjobs.com to help residents find employment close to home. € Thoratec Corp. holds tribute for Tom Burnett Jr. who was on hijacked Flight 93 on Sept. 11, and renames adjacent street in his honor. *** € City decides against running Niles Canyon excursion train downtown, after 10 years of debating the idea. *** € The 129th Rescue Wing of the National Guard visits Alisal Elementary in a helicopter with an anti-drug message. *** € Pleasanton/Tulancingo Sister City display is reassembled in renovated City Hill. *** € Amador Valley girls soccer team wins Coast Section finals, their fifth girls NCS soccer title and 10th overall NCS soccer crown.
April € Planning Commissioner starts initiative to prohibit more housing on Bernal property. € Fairlands Elementary cleans up its campus for remodeling and sends 70-90 boxes of teaching materials to the Philippines. *** € City Council votes to open six trails as soon as possible, including controversial south side Arroyo Mocho trail. € City announces low-income applicants who won the lottery for 20 homes on the Bernal property affordably priced at $199,000. € Construction begins on Applied Biosystems center on Sunol Boulevard. € Happy Valley area votes down annexation to city of Pleasanton. ***
May € Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department opens its new headquarters on Del Valle Parkway, soon to become Nevada Street. € Dr. John Casey hired as superintendent for Pleasanton Unified School District. *** € City Council votes 4-1 to give youth commissioners a $50 stipend per meeting. € Five lacrosse players from the undefeated Foothill High varsity squad named to Pacific Region team. *** € Quarry Lane School team wins first place in nationwide science contest. ***
June € Pleasanton Hotel nears completion of its renovation with a new color scheme, prompting opinionated comments by many. *** € ValleyCare opens new pediatric center, partnered with Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. *** € City holds first Poetry Fest, anticipated to be an annual event. € City breaks ground for expanded Val Vista Community Park. € Zone 7 announces it will not release water into Arroyo del Valle to keep it flowing through the hot summer months. € Alameda County Fair opens, celebrating its 90th birthday, commemorated by a book written by Pleasanton resident historian Bob and Pat Lane. ***
July € Public Works Director Randy Lum dies of a heart attack on a golf course on July 4. *** € Lynnewood Methodist opens its facility to Open Heart Kitchen to prepare meals for be distributed at other locations to the needy. € Downtown merchants begin to stay open Thursday nights after a group of businesswomen noticed sales flourishing elsewhere on that evening. € City Council OKs master plan for Downtown Parks and Trails System. € City installs pipe to pump water from well near Alisal Elementary to keep Arroyo del Valle flowing.
August € County OKs Pleasanton annexation of 576 acres of county land, but it also considers closing Happy Valley Road to block golf course traffic. € City and school district sign historic financing agreement for a $6.6 million project to realign Vineyard Avenue and provide infrastructure improvements to Neal School site. € Pleasanton Rage soccer team wins the national title in the under-17 girls competition near Washington, D.C. € City Council axes silo plans for Alviso Adobe Community Park on Foothill Road once and for all, in response to complaints of neighbors. *** € Valerie Hurst, a longtime champion of parks, trails and open space, dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 65. € City Council approves plans for the 89-acre Busch property, to include 157 senior apartments, a church site, 192 homes and a future school site, culminating five years of debate. € City tries to stop traffic jams on Sunol Boulevard in the afternoon by installing metering lights. € Hacienda Business Park celebrates its 20-year anniversary. € Pleasanton Seahawks swim team is named as a Silver Medal Team by USA Swimming. € Mitchell Katz Winery at Ruby Hill opens on Vineyard Avenue, the only one in Pleasanton for many years. ***
September € Black Avenue neighborhood says no to youth home for teenage girls moved from their homes due to neglect. € PG&E starts high voltage project on Vineyard Avenue. *** € City Council approves gasoline station complex at southeast corner of Bernal and Valley. € Pleasanton takes ownership of 318 acres on Bernal for public uses from Greenbriar Homes Communities, which had purchased the 502 acres from San Francisco two years before. € Pleasanton mourns the victims of terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, lowering the flag at the Veterans Memorial Building at 7:05 a.m. and again at 7:28 a.m., the time when each of the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed. *** € Foothill High dedicates Sweeney Athletic Complex in honor of Neil and Matt Sweeney. € McDonald's opens fourth restaurant in Pleasanton, at Bernal and Stanley. € Congregation Beth Emek breaks ground for new religious facility on Bernal at Arroyo del Valle. € Amador Valley High School celebrates its 80th anniversary. € Livermore National Laboratories turns 50. € Food Waste Pilot Program is launched in Pleasanton Meadows neighborhood, to give residents an easy way to send their scraps for composting.
October € City unveils the first painting in its new art collection - "First Street," an acrylic by Madelynn Ellis. *** € Nine-year-old Brandon James swims a mile to benefit the Women's Cancer Resource Center in Berkeley. *** € Developer seeks approval for 148 three-story townhouses and a convenience store at Vintage Hills Center at Bernal and Tawny. € Brewer Dave Heist brings home the gold from Great American Beer Festival for his "Paint the Town Red." *** € Friends of the Library net $12,844 in its semiannual book sale. The spring sale raised $12,825.
November € Foothill High's Jill Womble wins NCS golf title. € In Nov. 5 election, Tom Pico is re-elected mayor for a second term; Steve Brozosky and Jennifer Hosterman are elected to the City Council; and Measure V passes, allowing no more housing on the Bernal property. *** € Trustees OK Neal School to open in 2005 as city's 10th elementary school. € In a compromise, county Congestion Management Agency allocates $10 million for Highway 84 out of an expected $55 million from Proposition 42 funds. € City Council gives Phil Ciesielski the OK to put up a flagpole in his back yard on Stanley Boulevard after neighbors raise dissent, hitting TV news shown around the Bay Area. € City OKs first Green Building Ordinance in county. € City decides against dog exercise area at Nielsen Park after many neighbors object. € Ballistic United Soccer Club gives city $500,000 toward new lighted sports fields at Val Vista Park. € Police issue 230 citations for seatbelt violations during Thanksgiving week.
December € BART begins reserving parking spaces until 10 a.m. for $63/month. € Councilwomen Becky Dennis and Sharrell Michelotti retire from the City Council after eight years each. Brozosky and Hosterman take their places. *** € Popular Library Director Billie Dancy retires, after heading up the Pleasanton Library after it became independent from the county system in 1999. *** € Cindy McGovern is named Pleasanton Weekly's Woman of the Year. € Pleasanton has its first murder in five years, when Kristie Grzeszczak is stabbed to death in the Summerfield Suites. Her former boyfriend, Michael Purdy, was charged with the murder. € City OKs municipal energy plan, the work of a volunteer task force under the direction of the deputy director of public works. € Neighbors up in arms as St. Augustine Catholic Church on Bernal and Elder Care Alliance plan assisted living and skilled nursing care facility on the site. € Task force finishes plans for 45-acre sports park with lighted fields on Bernal property.