By Donna Beth Weilenman Martinez News-Gazette The booms you may hear Saturday and Sunday will be cannonfire. But there’s no need to worry. It’s just pirates and their ship to shore battles at the Northern California Pirate Festival in Vallejo’s Waterfront Park. The Northern California Pirate Festival is one of the few entertaining events that […]
School board OKs 18-19 budget
The Governing Board of the Benicia Unified School District approved the budget for the 2018-19 school year at the final school board meeting of the 2017-18 year on Wednesday. Chief Business Official Tim Rahill noted there were no changes to the budget from the May 31 meeting when a public hearing was held. Rahill said […]
Fire Department distributes child ID kits to kindergarten families
No parent ever wants experience having a child go missing, but should that happen, the Benicia Fire Department has acquired a resource to assist in bringing lost children home safely. City firefighters have partnered with the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and California Fire Foundation as well as the Benicia Unified School District to distribute […]
Photo: Traffic box gets new design
‘Rosie’ in audience at Betty Reid Soskin’s talk
By Donna Beth Weilenman Martinez News-Gazette Among those in the audience Saturday for Betty Reid Soskin’s book reading and talk was Agnes Moore, who came to California from Arkansas and worked at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond during World War II as one of the female workers later called “Rosie the Riveters. But Agnes didn’t […]
Oldest park ranger, who influenced ‘Rosie’ museum, speaks in Martinez
By Donna Beth Weilenman Martinez News-Gazette Although Betty Reid Soskin’s work in Richmond during World War II helped the Allied cause, she doesn’t consider herself a “Rosie,” even though other women who helped assemble Victory ships would welcome her into their fold. She secured no rivets. She welded no metal seams. She built no war […]
Tossed materials become art in Gallery 621 exhibit
Benicia artist Robert Nelson has a knack for turning trash into art— literally. The discarded items that line the shores of the Carquinez Strait often end up in the hands of Nelson, who takes littered materials like wooden objects and tin cans and uses them to create three-dimensional sculptures of rabbits, sharks and more. How […]
Proposed in-law unit regulation changes to go before Planning Commission
Following approval by the Historic Preservation Review Commission at its May 24 meeting, the Planning Commission will be the next governmental body to take up the issue of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) at its Thursday meeting. ADUs, also called secondary or in-law units, are additional units added on the same property as regular residential units. […]
School board to vote on LCAP Wednesday
Following a public hearing at the May 31 school board meeting, a discussion on the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) is up for the trustees’ approval for the last meeting of the 2017-18 school year Wednesday— a day earlier than when school board meetings are usually held. The LCAP is a tool for all school […]