Over the month of April 100 more pear trees will be removed from Pocket Road as the second phase of the Ornamental Pear Tree Replacement Project gets underway. The replacement project will begin at Silva Ranch Way and end at Backwater Way. One hundred were removed late last fall. Nearly all of the ornamental pear trees are infected with mistletoe.

According to City Councilmember Darrell Fong’s office, the removal will take about 10 days and new trees will be planted by April 30.  The trees will be replaced with 15 gallon Emerald Sunshine Elms.  The Emerald Sunshine is a vase-shaped shade tree, highly resistant to disease and insect attack, and adapts to varied growing conditions. It provides a cool green canopy, retaining a green appearance through the hot days of summer. The trees fall color is rich yellow, sometimes with purple tints on the tips and along the margins.

Several years ago a campaign was launched to trim the mistletoe. The campaign was successful, but much of the mistletoe returned. Ornamental pear trees are a susceptible species to mistletoe and other disease. Mistletoe attaches to the branches of a tree and eventually kills the host tree.  The City’s Arborist, the Riverlake Community Association, and Fong believe this will provide a long-term solution to restore the canopy along Pocket Road.

For questions contact: Noah Painter, District Director at: npainter@cityofsacramento.org or 916 808-7338

Pocket Little League is the local little league for the Pocket/Greenhaven area. To play in the league you have to be a resident or a recent resident of the Pocket/Greenhaven area. Our team was a pure 9-10 year old team. The teams we played against were allowed to have 11-12 year olds per Little League rules. We faced two teams that featured older kids (11 and 12 year olds) as their premier/star players.

Our team, the Yankees, won a 6 team league at Pocket Little League. The Pocket Little team with the best record after 20 inter-league games is crowned Pocket Little League champions and is sent to a tournament to represent Pocket Little League. The tournament is made up of 9 league champions primarily from the South Sacramento area. The leagues represented are Land Park, Oak Park, Florin, Cosumnes, East Sac, Airport, Parkway, Tahoe Tallac, and Pocket Little League. The tournament is called the Tournament of Champions (TOC).

In the Championship game, Vicente Lamera pitched 4 solid innings, striking out 9 batters. AJ Wallace stayed hot and went 3 for 3 at the plate, scoring 3 runs, and 1 RBI for us. Adrienne Lott came up with a huge 2 RBI hit in the top of the 6th that gave Branson Ferengel some cushion for the Save. We had a huge defensive play at the bottom of the 6th inning. Cosumnes hit a hard ball to the fence with a runner on first. Antonio Jacobo retrieved the ball and started a Championship relay to Vicente Lamera at the cut-off. Vicente spun and threw a dart to a perfectly positioned Nathyn Brown, who made solid catch and tag on a disappointed Cosumnes player. Pocket LL came out on top 6 to 4 over Cosumnes LL.

This was the first District 7 Championship win for Pocket Little League since 2005. We broke the 7-year Championship drought, including All-star tournaments. We beat Land Park in the first round. It was the first time in recent memory (7 years) that a Pocket Little League team, in any scenario, has beaten a team from Land Park. In our second game we beat East Sacramento. The Championship was against the reigning TOC Champion, Cosumnes.

We received the banner as shown in the picture that will be displayed at the new Conlin field during the playing season. It is the first championship banner won since Pocket Little League moved to the new Conlin fields. We are working on placing the player names on the banner that will be displayed at the Pocket Little League fields for years to come.

Our District 7 City Council member, Darrell Fong, congratulated the Yankees on winning the Pocket Little League and Tournament of Champions games.

An informal ceremony to celebrate the reopening of the Pocket Bike Trail near Freeport Bend was held July 15 at 8 a.m.

THE FREEPORT WATER INTAKE FACILITY, now complete, necessitated the closure of the Pocket Bike Trail for some four years. The facility is designed to look like a fish, and has “reflective” sentiments written on the walls. The popular bike trail re-opened last Friday. / Valley Community Newspapers photo, Sally King

The path at Freeport Bend was closed approximately four years ago to build the Freeport Water Intake Facility. Sacramento Council Member Darrell Fong and a small crowd attending the ceremony were excited to see this part of the path reopened.

“This anchors the pathway,” Fong said. “There are great views and it adds value to the area.”

The new facility will use up to 85 million gallons of water per day to service its customers in central Sacramento County.

Cynthia Orr, a Pocket resident who grew up in Sacramento, said she is looking forward to using the path again.

“With the path, I don’t have to use busy streets to ride my bike,” Orr said. “This will be a nice ride.”

Public outreach director for the Freeport facility, Cecelia Curry, said she believes the project was successful because they had community input into how the building should be designed. She said they also made sure the facility features were maintenance free.

“The building was designed to look like a fish,” Curry said. “There are water drops etched on each side of the building.”

Fong commented he thought it was aesthetically pleasing to look out at the river from the new facility that has a special feature where water cascades down the sides of the building.

RESIDENTS AND BIKE ENTHUSIASTS joined Sacramento Council Member Darrell Fong and Freeport Regional Water Authority officials at the grand re-opening of the Pocket Bike Trail on July 15. / Valley Community Newspapers photo, Sally King

Ray Schwartz from Geremia Pools, who attended the ceremony, said he is part of the Sacramento River Greenway Coalition that is working on completing a continuous public trail on the levee.

“We also want to see the trail from the American River Parkway completed,” Schwartz said. “We would like to see a river excursion train coming out here from Old Sacramento.”

Within minutes, folks were once again riding on the newly opened path.

Sacramento City Council Member Darrell Fong / Photo courtesy

The Budget proposes laying-off 98 police officers. As retired police captain, with nearly 30 years of service, I cannot recall our City ever laying-off police officers.

Cities across our state are facing similar challenges. The one shared challenge is a diminishing source of revenue. The three major sources of revenue – which the City uses to pay for police, fire, parks, code enforcement, libraries, and community centers – are property taxes, utility user taxes and the sales tax. Over the past four years, we have seen substantial declines in two out of the three sources of revenue. Since 2008, the City has lost over $100 million in services. The question I have is: “Are we still a ‘Full Service City?’”

We have reduced our public safety budget by more than $55 million dollars since 2008. Our parks, as many of us are aware, are not maintained the way they were several years ago. Our community centers are proposed to be shuttered.

Bad policy

Over the past several years, the city has used one-time funding, the equivalent of our savings account, to fix our budget problem. This is bad policy; because it only delays dealing with the problems. The assumption for using one-time funding was that the economy would recover and we could continue the level of service we enjoy. That assumption has not proven to be correct. Our property and sales tax revenue has remained essentially flat.

The City needs to prioritize what the community feels is most important. When I held a series of Community Connection meetings earlier this year, I asked attendees to prioritize what they felt was important. The general consensus was: public safety, garbage collection and parks were the top priorities in our City. We will have to develop solutions that are fair for our community and the employees that work to keep our City safe and clean.

Please, if you have questions contact my office. My mailing address is: City Hall, 915 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. Phone is (916) 808-7007. Email is dfong@cityofsacramento.org.

Those are mighty big shears…Sacramento City Council Member Darrell Fong prepares to cut the ribbon to the Pocket’s newest senior care facility, The Meadows. Left to right, Sara White, Bill White, Rangi Giner, Billy McBroom, Debbie Ebbitt, Council Member Darrell Fong, Greg Leuterio and John Cimino, Jr. / Valley Community Newspapers, Linda Pohl

The facility is beautifully furnished so residents will feel comfortable and at home.

Services that will be offered include Alzheimer/dementia care; temporary care for seniors recovering from elective surgery; temporary care for families that will be traveling but who need to know that their loved one will receive proper care; hospice care; non-medical assistance with daily activities (grooming, dressing, etc.); and more.

The Meadows at Country Place is located at the corner of Country Place and Florin Road, at 10 Country Place in Sacramento. Interested parties can call for a private tour of the facility at (916) 706-3949.

Sacramento City Council Member Darrell Fong / Photo courtesy

What have we accomplished in a little over three months?

My staff and I have responded to 206 constituent affairs phone calls, attended six neighborhood watch meetings, held four community meetings, and hosted two office hours.

Our office hours have been a great opportunity to sit down and have one-on-one conversations with community members. At our community connections meetings, various City departments, including Sacramento Regional Transit, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency, and the Sacramento Regional Sanitation District, all provided presentations on topics that ranged from the City budget and code enforcement, to the potential costs of a new retrofit to the water treatment plant may have on the City.

Work continues on the City of Sacramento website. The goal of the website is to give you an insight not only to your city council member’s office, but also a view of what the City as a whole does on a daily basis.

Below are the remaining office hours my staff and I will host this year at the Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library Community Room:

Office Hours

Sat., Feb. 19          10 a.m.–11 a.m.

Wed., April 13       6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

Wed., June 8         6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

Thurs., Aug. 18      6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

Sat., Oct. 15          10 a.m.–11 a.m.

Thurs., Dec. 1        6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

The staff and I are currently working on our special events calendar. We want to keep many of the special events that Council Member Robbie Waters had, such as the Spring Egg Hunt and the 4th of July Parade. We also have a few new events we are going to try.

Upcoming special events

Saturday, April 16, at 2 p.m., District 7 will host the Pocket/Greenhaven Spring Egg Hunt at Seymour Park, which is located across the street from the former School of Science and Engineering at 6627 Gloria Drive.

Monday, July 4, come celebrate with us at the July 4th Parade. The event will start at 10 a.m. at the Yav Pem Suab Academy Charter School (formerly Lisbon Elementary School).

Please, if you have questions contact my office. My mailing address is: City Hall, 915 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. Phone is (916) 808-7007. Email is dfong@cityofsacramento.org.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson

When: Thursday, March 10  

5 p.m. – 6 p.m.:  The Mayor’s office will host an open office hours to answer questions and concerns. 

6 p.m. – 7 p.m.: The Mayor’s Office, Chief Braziel, and Council Member Fong will host a town hall discussion focused on public safety in District Seven.

Where: Didion School, Multi Purpose Room, 6490 Harmon Drive, Sacramento

Sacramento City Council Member Darrell Fong, District 7 / Photo courtesy

With the completion of the 2010 Census, the City Council has started discussing how the redistricting process will be handled.

On Feb. 8, the Council decided to create a Redistricting Citizens Advisory Committee (RCAC). This Committee will work on a parallel timeline with community groups, City staff, and the Council. The RCAC, once formed, will host numerous community meetings; I encourage everyone to attend. My office is working to schedule separate meetings that will allow you to provide your ideas on how the new boundaries should be drawn directly to our office.

Important considerations

As community members, we should consider, when we discuss developing a new boundary for our District, the following: (1) Districts that are equal populations; (2) Topography; (3) Geography; (4) Cohesiveness of districts; (5) Continuity; (6) Integrity and compactness of territory; (7) Communities of interest; and (8) Existing neighborhoods and community boundaries.

The Council will finalize new district boundaries by the end of September this year. The proposed timeline for the redistricting process is currently:

February – March: Community Education on Process

April: Census Data, Tools, and Community Outreach/Training

May: Proposals due to the City

June – July: Receive and Consider Redistricting Comments and Proposals

July – August: Council Selection Process

September: Adopt Final Boundaries

Office hours

We will be holding office hours on Saturday Feb. 19 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Community Room at the Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library, located at 7335 Gloria Drive in Sacramento. These office hours are to provide you with an opportunity to discuss your concerns and ideas.

Please, if you have questions, contact my office. My mailing address is City Hall, 915 I Street, Sacramento CA 95814 and my phone number is (916) 808-7007. You can email me at dfong@cityofsacramento.org.

dfong@cityofsacramento.org

Anxious parents filled the gymnasium at Genevieve F. Didion K-8 School on Jan. 27. They wanted to find out what the future holds for their childrens’ school. The meeting left many with a sense of unease.

Kathy Windheim, whose children once attended Didion, organized the meeting because a rumor of school closure was going around her neighborhood.

City Councilmember Darrell Fong, Sacramento City Unified School District Board Member Darrel Woo and SCUSD Superintendent Jonathan Raymond were present to address parent concerns.

Committee to determine potential closure of schools

Woo said that the last SCUSD board meeting discussed possible school closure in the district. He announced the creation of a new district advisory committee, known as the 7-11 Committee, to determine which schools might close. Woo said the new team would be established by Feb. 2. The Didion School community was invited to send one person to join the committee. Woo said the commitment for that individual would be one year.

According to Woo and Raymond, the criteria for school closure would not be based on academic performance, but on the condition of school facilities, vehicle traffic patterns (busy streets) and on attendance numbers at each school.

Raymond said that recommendations from the committee would be “rolled out” to parents sometime in late summer or early fall.

Academic performance off the table

Parents asked know why academic performance was being left out of the decision-making process. Raymond’s response was that he did not want emotional issues to be a part of this process.

“Academic performance is a hotbed issue,” Raymond said. “We want clean, clear decisions to be made.”

Glenn Takeda, who has two children at Didion, said his main concern about the 7-11 Committee is not including academic performance in the study.

“The last 7-11 group could not come up with solutions,” Takeda said. “If academic performance is not included in this groups decision-making process, one of the best schools in the city could wind up closed.”

SCUSD funding a key concern

Woo said the future of all schools is dependent on whether a vote of the people is allowed this June.

“The budget right now has $20 million less than what was originally budgeted,” Woo said.

No plan to close – for now

Raymond said Didion would not close this year and that there are no plans in place at this time to close grades seven and eight – another rumor upsetting to parents.

Dan O’Donnell, parent of a child in grade five attending Didion, said he was uncertain about the future of Didion.

“I appreciate they came here to discuss the issues,” O’Donnell said. “Hopefully they will see how committed we are and how much we care about this school and keep it open.”

Raymond said the overcrowding at Didion is the first item on his agenda that he will address. At present, there are three full third grade classes that at the end of the year will have to merge into two fourth grade classes. Raymond asked for parental input for solutions to resolve this issue.

Raymond said needed money for the schools depends on the tax extension for schools that relies on voters passing a June ballot measure and he too voiced concern about the lack of money in the current budget.

Keeping Didion School open is very important to Councilmember Fong, as his children attended this school and he knows the parents are very engaged.

Fong said there are two kinds of junior high schools for children to choose from at SCUSD. One example is Sutter Middle School, which has a true seventh and eighth grade junior high school. The other example is Didion, which offers children from kindergarten to grade eight both continuity and security.

A school like Sutter, according to Fong, can have more organized sports and a larger variety of classes to offer students.

Better communication promised

Fong assured parents there would be better communication on what is happening in the school district. Raymond encouraged all parents to sign up for the school’s weekly newsletter.

Raymond said the 7-11 Committee would review all K-8 programs. He said that parents will be informed before any decisions are made.