Christmas & Christmas Eve free of fumes?

   POINT RICHMOND - The air is likely to smell sweeter Christmas Eve and Christmas.
      Republic Services announced late Wednesday afternoon that it will halt its compost-gone-bad removal project for the two days.
     A spokeswoman for the company said Republic would halt removal of collected raw composting material from its Parr Road site on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Crews will work at the site Saturday on a project, but will not be disturbing the compost.
    The suspension should ensure the noxious foul smells that have been flooding Point Richmond won't spoil the holiday, Bielle Moore said.
   
    The company is in the process of removing a large pile of raw compost material on site, digging into mounds and loading it onto trucks to take off site to a Republic-owned landfill.
     Over last weekend the company removed the final loads of compost material that the company said it was sure had gone "sour." The material currently being removed - believed to be the source of the past six days of foul odors - was in line to be routinely composted/processed. But the company opted to remove it instead, hoping to avoid further complaints of foul-smelling fumes.
   City of Richmond code enforcement officials were scheduled to visit the Republic site Wednesday and review the situation.
   
    Republic expects by early next year to have a new composting system in place that company officials believe will minimize any foul odors drifting to Point Richmond - and other communities around the area.
    The company is also scheduled to give the Point Richmond Neighborhood Council an update on its activities at the PRNC meeting Wednesday, Jan. 25.

    The PRNC heard a presentation about Republic's continuing noxious smell problems at its December meeting from Joe Doser, a supervising environmental health specialist with Contra Costa County. Doser presented the group with a detailed 13-page official county memo/report about the ongoing problems at Republic.
     The PRNC that evening also heard from representatives of Bay Area Air Quality Management and the City of Richmond Code enforcement office about their efforts to deal with the wafting noxious fumes that have prompted hundreds of complaints to the agencies and sparked concerns about the effect the fumes might be having on residents' health.
   
   
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Contra Costa County's Lori Braunesreither, Department of Health: Lori Braunesreither. 

Nicole Ewing, Richmond Code Enforcement (510-621-1591)

Bielle Moore, Republic Services community affairs manager (510-262-7547)

WANTED: 100 writer-coaches for schools

POINT RICHMOND - The WriterCoach connection is looking for a few good writer-coaches.

     OK, they are actually seeking to add 100 coaches who - after some training - will join the 650-plus volunteers already working in schools in Richmond, El Cerrito, Albany and Berkeley, helping more than 2,000 middle and high school age students.

     In Richmond, the writer-coaches work in English classes at Lovonya DeJean Middle School, Richmond High, and a new college-readiness program for juniors at Kennedy High.

     The program is also operating at El Cerrito High and Korematsu Middle School.

     Program director Kirsten Cross says the writer-coaches help build the students' academic confidence and improve critical thinking skills - in addition to simply helping them also be better writers.

     The time commitment is about two hours per week per 12-week semester, Cross says.

Steve Early

Rita Gardner

     Two well-known Point Richmond authors, Rita Gardner (The Coconut Latitudes) and Steve Early (Save Our Unions and Refinery Town) are currently writer-coaches with the program - both of whom highly recommend joining the ranks of the writer-coaches.

  LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Writer-Coach training

Writer-Coach requirements

Writer-Coach profiles 

Writer-Coach Registration  

Foul odor creeps back into Point Richmond

   POINT RICHMOND - Even as Republic Services was reporting Saturday that it was done cleaning up the compost-gone-sour at its Parr Road facility, Point Richmond residents were filing complaints of odors wafting over the village and out into the Brickyard Landing area.

     Saturday afternoon, Sunday and again this morning - Point residents have been reporting they were smelling an all-too-familiar odor that has plagued the area on and off since September. Longtime Point residents say it's actually been an on-again, off-again problem for several years.

     A Republic Services representative said this morning that while the original pile of composting material - believed to be the cause of the bad odor  - had been completely removed by 1:30 p.m. Saturday, it may take until Dec. 30 to haul the balance of other composting material still on the site to another location.

     That material - which is not considered 'sour' by Republic - had been scheduled for normal composting. But Republic opted to truck it out rather than chance any further odor incidents, the spokesman said. This morning the trucks began hauling off that material.

     This weekend and today's incidents of malodorous odors come after two back-to-back meetings about the problem earlier this month.

     In the first, held Tuesday. Dec. 6 at Kaleidoscope Coffee, Republic representatives made a presentation about a new, more efficient composting system the company will start using which it believes will result in virtually no odors.

Doser

     The following night at the Point Richmond Neighborhood Council meeting, Joe Doser, a supervising environmental health specialist with Contra Costa County gave the PRNC copies of a detailed 13-page report about county actions relative to Republic. The report talks about fires at the Republic facility, air pollution issues, citizen complaints and a history of the most recent odor problems.

     At that meeting Doser said in July the county discovered that Republic had amassed more than 360,000 cubic yards of composting material on site - more than 10 times the company's permitted volume of 32,000 cubic yards.

     The Contra Costa County report was also circulated over the weekend via the website Nextdoor by a Point Richmond resident.

Michael J. Fitzgerald

Smaller crowd at Sunday Craneway Fair

POINT RICHMOND - The Sunday edition of the weekend-long Craneway Crafts Fair - a benefit for KPFA radio - was a little less crowded than Saturday's opening.

But there were still hundreds of people attending, shopping, eating and listening to the music.

Parking was also appreciably easier Sunday, with spots very close to the entrance on the east side of the Craneway Pavilion, 1414 Harbor Way South.

The crafts fair is open until 5 p.m. today. Admission is $12 for adults, $8 for seniors, children can come in for free.

Below are some photos from today's fair of exhibits and exhibitors.

Junkyard fire grabs media coverage

     POINT RICHMOND - A fire at a vehicle wrecking yard broke out about 7 a.m. grabbing plenty of attention from Bay Area media as well as reports from local residents about the huge cloud of smoke, visible for miles.

     Fire officials reported that about 40 vehicles were involved in the blaze at Deal Auto Wrecking on West Gertrude.


     For about two hours, officials had a "shelter in place" order in effect, which essentially tells people to stay put - and indoors - for their safety.

     They were concerned about the health of people breathing whatever substances were being carried in the foul black plume.

     Richmond Parkway was shut down completely between West Gertrude and Pittsburg Avenues.

     Shortly after the fire broke out, a representative of Republic Services - the Richmond disposal company - contacted The Point to say that the blaze was not at the transfer station or its composting operation.

     The composting operation has been the center of residents' complaints and blamed for a foul odor that has wafted over the area on numerous occasions since early fall.

     Here's a link to the East Bay Times story, which is being updated as the fire and cleanup progress: WRECKING YARD FIRE.

And here are links to other media:

CBS local news

SFGate story, photo, and videos

ABC - KGO TV reports

STILL Christmas shopping? Check this out

POINT RICHMOND - Crafts, food and music.

What else do you need to shake yourself loose this weekend to come to the Craneway Crafts Fair Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. - a benefit for KPFA radio

General admission is $12 for adults, seniors and disabled persons $8, children are free.

This is the 46th such fair in the Bay Area, with about 200 artists and craftspeople showing original work at the Craneway Pavilion, 1414 Harbor Way South.

Organizers promise a food court with different foods each day. Sunday will also feature a brunch.

Art glass by Shawn Tsai

Music will be provided by local musicians with a performance by the World Harmony Chorus at 10 a.m. Sunday.

If you're coming via BART to the fair, you can jump on a free shuttle.

And if you are driving? Parking is free.

Richmond-to-SF ferry coming in 2018

   POINT RICHMOND - The Hydrus is coming to Richmond in early 2018.

     That's the name of the under-construction, 400-plus passenger ferry that the San Francisco Bay Ferry company will be using to start its Richmond-to-San Francisco (and back, of course) service.

     That piece of news was delivered to the Point Richmond Neighborhood Council Wed. Dec. 7 by Ernest Sanchez, manager of public information and marketing for the company.

     Hydrus, by the way, means water snake.

      At the outset, the ferry service will run Monday-Friday with three morning departures and four afternoon return trips. Although the Hydrus is nominally the official Richmond ferry, because of scheduling other ferries will be providing service from the Richmond Ferry Landing, too.

     The ferry will leave and return from a pier near the Ford Craneway building, Sanchez said. Parking for about 360 vehicles in planned on the Richmond side. A shuttle to take passengers to-and-from the ferry terminal area is also possible.

     "For now, this will be a peak commute service," he said. "Initially, there won't be any weekend or midday service."

     The ferry will be landing on the San Francisco side at the SF Ferry Building, where construction is planned to make room for additional Bay Area ferries.

     In addition to 400 passengers, the ferry will also have room for 50 bicycles, offer food and beverage service and make the Richmond-to-SF run in about 30 minutes. The new ferry is one of seven under construction by the company for use in the Bay Area, all of which are scheduled to be in service by 2019.

    The Hydrus will initially be doing Vallejo-to-San Francisco trips - as well as other break-in voyages - before being put into service for the Richmond run.