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Mayors from the Tri-Valley returned yesterday from a five-day trip to Washington D.C. where they met with California legislators and several agency leaders to bid for more federal funding for an area-wide communications system and improvements to I-680, I-580 and Highway 84.

Pleasanton Mayor Jerry Thorne joined mayors from Dublin, San Ramon, Danville and Livermore in making the annual trip with his agenda "packed" with meetings with legislators representing the Tri-Valley, as well as meetings with various federal agency representatives, he told the City Council last week before leaving Wednesday.

This was Thorne's first trip with the mayoral contingent and the first meeting for the mayors, themselves, in the nation's capital with former Dublin Councilman Eric Swalwell, who is now the newly-elected congressman from the 15th Congressional District that represents the five cities.

While in Washington, the mayors attended the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and also the inauguration Monday of President Barack Obama to his second term in office.

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