PHOTO BY JIM KNOWLES

Steve Bilodeau (left), Lance Taylor (right) and other volunteers dig into a compost pile to spread around the garden.

By Jim Knowles

San Leandro Times

A couple hundred people came down to San Lorenzo Community Park in Saturday – to work.

But it was a fun kind of work as neighbors cleaned up litter, tended the garden and made the park a nicer place to play.

“I’ve been coming to this park since I was a kid,” said Mary Nunez who came with her daughter, Ruby, and her husband, Jason. “We all like the park and we want it to improve.”

The big park (also known as The Duck Pond), includes softball diamonds where Nunez’s daughter plays. The acres of parkland stretch from the San Lorenzo neighborhood out to the marshlands by the bay.

Meanwhile, Ruby Nunez pained a tile, one of hundreds that will be fired in a kiln to make a permanent image and then the tiles will be mounted on the walls in the entrance to the community center at the park. So everybody who makes a tile can have their own painting or message on permanent display.

The Hayward Area Recreation and Park District operates two kilns in its ceramics program where the tiles made by the kids in San Lorenzo will be fired.

The Sulphur Creek Nature Center – another HARD program on D Street in Hayward – displayed some of their critters, including a tarantula. The nature center offers classes and programs in wildlife education, activities for kids and the whole family.

HARD is working on a new master plan for the park and is asking for public comments for ideas. They held a public meeting yesterday (Wednesday) at the park’s community center and more meetings will be coming up.

The dog runs will be fixed up on a later weekend, said Brenda Carr, an advocate with the San Lorenzo Neighborhood Community Forum.

The community group co-sponsored the cleanup day at the park, along with HARD, the San Lorenzo Homeowners Association and the Church of Latter Day Saints.

“So we’re all working together as a group,” Carr said.

By Amy Sylvestri

San Leandro Times

Dozens of Ashland families got together Monday afternoon to celebrate the placing of the last beam on the frame of what will be a new Ashland youth center.

Parents, teachers, children, and local politicians gathered to sign the last 30-foot beam that will be a part of the $23 million center’s framework.

The two-story, 31,500-square-foot building is currently under construction at 16335 East 14th Street, near Edendale Middle School, and is expected to open its doors by the end of the year.

The building will house a recreation center, a cafe, a career center, and a youth health clinic. There are plans for the building to be called the REACH Youth Center, REACH being an acronym for Recreation, Education, Art, Careers, and Health.

Pedro Naranjo, the center’s executive director said the center will be a blessing for a community that lacks positive activities for youth ages 11 to 24.

“We needed a place where we can honor our youth and honor their power,” said Naranjo. “Today’s event is a huge milestone, it honors the work of the past eight years that made this possible.”

Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley spoke at the dedication and invited the children in the crowd to come up to the stage.

“This is a great day,” said Miley, “This is the culmination of a dream. It wasn’t my dream, it was their dream.”

Michael Rose, a 10-year-old who came to the ceremony with his mom, said that he can’t wait to hang out there.

“It seems like it will be pretty cool,” said Rose. “Plus, it’s right next to the park.”

PHOTOS BY JIM KNOWLES

Pacific High cheerleaders from the class of 1978 Celia (Gallegos) Samarripa and Tina Rivera lead the crowd at the Pacific vs. San Leandro alumni flag football game, the final game before the old bleachers are torn down and the new Burrell Field and Pacific Sports Complex is built. Below, Pacific grad Manuel Franko dons his Vikings helmet.

By Jim Knowles

San Leandro Times

The rain held off for the afternoon just in time for the reunion and final game at Burrell Field on Saturday.

Football players, cheerleaders and alumni from Pacific High and San Leandro High had a ball at Burrell Field and played the final game on the gridiron before the stands are demolished. Then school officials broke ground for the new field and sports complex.

Even some of the cheerleaders arrived to lead the yells in front of the bleachers. Celia (Gallegos) Samarripa and Tina Rivera, both Pacific High class of 1978, came in their original cheerleader uniforms. A few guys wore their Vikings helmets, and Pacific’s green and gold balloons decked the stands across from San Leandro’s red and blue.

Samarripa remembers the year Pacific played San Leandro and a helicopter landed in the middle of the field at halftime and the Pacific mascot, the Viking, jumped out of the chopper.

“Our mascot came out of the helicopter and everybody went crazy,” she said.

Players from the ’60s through the ’80s warmed up on the field and lined up for the National Anthem. Former Pirates quarterback Kevin Sullivan, who was later quarterback at Cal, took the helm for San Leandro, and Brad White took the snaps for Pacific.

White struck first with a long bomb on the opening series to receiver Randy Kerr for a touchdown. Sullivan came back later with a touchdown pass to receiver Scott Kruger.

On the sideline, Mike Talbot (SLHS) class of 1968 recalls the rivalry.

“My life almost went to hell because I was on the team in 1966, the first year that San Leandro lost to Pacific,” he said. “But the next year we game them such a butt-whoopin’ that it made it all better.”

As the game commenced, Channel 2 sports anchor Fred Inglis provided the play-by-play, commentary and quips to make it an entertaining afternoon.

The game was organized by the San Leandro Sports Foundation, which raises funds for school sports.

“These guys coming back 30 years later and having a good time – it’s all because of their time in sports, their camaraderie. We can’t lose that,” said Martin Capron, president of the San Leandro Sports Foundation, which organized the event.

Right after the game, school officials held a groundbreaking for the new field.

School board members and Superintendent Cindy Cathey dug into the field with shovels near the 50-yard line to mark the beginning of the construction of the new Burrell Field and Pacific Sports Complex.

Construction is on schedule and set to begin the middle of this month, according to Cathey.

The Pirates will play football on the new field in the fall of 2013. The team will shuffle between other local fields for their home games in the 2012 season, but it will all be worth the while once the new Burrell Field opens, Cathey said.

“It was fantastic to see all the people come to this friendly rivalry,” Cathey said.

A video of the game on DVD is available from Dave Pullman with a $10 donation to the San Leandro Sports Foundation Inc. To order a DVD go to the foundation’s website: www.SLSFI.org.

Burrell Field Pop Quiz:

1.  Who was Burrell Field named after and what was his connection?

2.  Who was Pacific High’s first and only varsity football coach?

3. What pro AFL football team practiced at Burrell Field in 1960’s?

4.  What SL police chief played quarterback and defensive back at Burrell Field?

5.  Pacific’s first varsity win was against what school?

Answers:

1: SL Superintendent Clarence Burrell

2. Tom Gunnari (only head varsity football coach in Pacific High history)

3. Oakland Raiders and other AFL teams.

4. Chief Joe Kitchen during the 1960s.

5. DeAnza High School in 1962.

Thanks to Les Nardine, who gathered the quiz information from Pacific High yearbooks.

PHOTO BY JIM KNOWLES

The Filarmonica Artesta Amadora de San Leandro played at the annual ceremony at the Statue of the Portuguese Immigrant at Root Park.

By Jim Knowles

San Leandro Times

Who hasn’t passed the statue in Root Park where East 14th Street crosses San Leandro Creek?

But not everyone knows that the Statue of the Portuguese Immigrant was sculpted in Portugal by Numidico Bessone and shipped to America.

Joanne Camara remembers the statue dedication in 1965, and she’s attended the annual ceremony ever since. She joined the crowd in front of the statue on Saturday, March 10, to commemorate Portuguese Heritage Week, held since 1967 when then-Governor Ronald Reagan proclaimed the second week of March in honor of Portuguese immigrants in California.

With wreaths adorning the statue, the band played the American and Portuguese national anthems. The Filarmonica Artesta Amadora de San Leandro plays at Portuguese events and other occasions. They have practices on Friday nights that are open to musicians who would like to stop by or join the band. Their website is FAASL.org.

After the ceremony, organized this year by Joe and Jackie Flynn, the crowd walked across the street to the Portuguese Cultural Center where a table waited with a spread of delicious Portuguese hor d’oeuvres – including St. George cheese, salpicao, linguisa and Portuguese sweetbread.

The center also houses the J.A. Freitas Library, one of the largest collections of Portuguese history and literature in the United States with 12,000 books. The library is used by UC Berkeley researchers and it’s open to the public from 9 a.m to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Bernadette Kuper said that when she heard about the ceremony, she and her husband Craig had to come. Bernadette came to American with her family (Ferreira was the family name) when she was 6 years old, exactly 50 years ago, in 1962.

Her dad had already started working here and he sent money for new clothes and airline tickets for the family to come to America. Bernadette says she remembers walking down the long aisles at San Francisco Airport.

“We lived on the island of Madeira which didn’t even have an airport – I had never seen anything like it,” she said.

The family settled in Oakland. Today, the kids have all grown up, married and moved all across California. But her mother and sister Susie now live back in Madeira.

Growing up, the family always took trips to the ocean, Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay, Bernadette recalls. They liked being by the sea, since they were from the island of Madeira.

Today, Bernadette and her husband have just moved back to San Leandro from Dublin.

“We just bought a house in Bay-O-Vista,” Bernadette says. “Where you can look out and see the bay.”

PHOTOS BY JIM KNOWLES

Students protested school budget cuts in front of San Leandro High last week.

By Jim Knowles

San Leandro Times

San Leandro High students rallied on Bancroft Avenue in front of the school last Thursday to protest budget cuts to education.

“Now now, Jerry Brown! What what, no budget cuts!” the students chanted at the after-school rally.

The governor has a tax increases on the November ballot. If those don’t pass, state education funding will be cut, including a $2.5 million reduction in the San Leandro school district.

Some of the San Leandro High students attended the rally on Monday at the state capitol in Sacramento. The crowd favors the proposed millionaires’ tax and a tax on oil extracted from wells in California.

“After we found out about Governor Brown’s budget proposal we don’t feel it’s right,” said San Leandro High senior Bianca Luna. “It’s a lose-lose. It’s bad for all of California society. Not just us, but the state colleges and UC.”

The students say nothing at the schools should be cut because all the programs are important.

“We’re here to protest budget cuts made to our schools,” said Luna. “Don’t cut sports. Don’t cut music. We have reserves. Why don’t we use them?”

The students have been following the state’s budget developments on the website AgainstCuts.org.

Enrique Carpio, a senior, said it would really hurt to cut sports programs.

“For me, probably it’s sports,” Carpio said. “But I’m not doing this for myself. For some, it’s music.”

The crowd cheered as passing drivers tooted their horns in support. Luna led a cheer on a bullhorn, calling out, “Show me what democracy looks like,” and the crowd replied, “This is what democracy looks like.”

Another student Deen Ahamed watched the rally with a friend.

“We want to keep music and sports,” said Ahamed, a junior. “We want them. We want to be educated.”

TIMES FILE PHOTO

Since 2007, the San Leandro school district budget has been reduced by $11 million, and more budget cuts may become necessary.

By Amy Sylvestri

San Leandro Times

A standing-room only crowd packed City Hall to listen to the School Board make a contingency plan if more budget cuts become necessary.

The San Leandro school district might have to cut as much as $2.5 million from next year’s budget if Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed half-cent state sales tax and an increase on income tax on people who make over $250,000 a year tax don’t pass on the November 2012 ballot.

Over two dozen speakers took the microphone asking the board not to chop their programs.

San Leandro High junior Emily Fishbaugh asked that school sports be spared.

“I honestly can’t tell you where I’d be without them,” said Fishbaugh.

Her father, teacher Rich Fishbaugh, said that cutting programs is reversing the progress made by the Measure M and Measure B bonds that have passed in recent years. Fishbaugh asked what good is a new football field without a team, or a new library without a librarian, or a performing arts center with no music program?

John Muir Principal Belen Majers held up a poster of an average student she named “John Bancroft”  (a combination of San Leandro’s two middle schools) and then literally made cuts on him with a scissors – chopping off arms and legs as she named off potential programs to be cut.

The school board must decide a worst case scenario plan now because, legally, layoff notices have to be sent out before March 15.

In past years, teachers have gotten notices that they wouldn’t be working for the district for the next school year, but the notices didn’t turn out to be necessary because other cuts were made and the teachers kept their jobs.

The staff has been saved by reducing other programs, such as P.E., art, and music, but now the budget for salaries looks like it must be trimmed as well. Assistant Superintendent Song Chin-Bendib estimated that 90 percent of the budget is “people” and positions are in jeopardy.

Since 2007, the district’s budget has gone down by $11 million. The district’s budget for this year is $54 million. And now the school board has to have a contingency plan in place for the additional potential $2.5 million reduction, to be decided in the next two weeks.

Possible cuts include:

• Increasing class sizes in kindergarten through third grade from 28-to-1 student to teacher ratio to 32-to-1.

• Eliminating middle school counselors.

• Reducing the instrumental music program by 50 percent.

• Reducing the Lighthouse independent study program.

• Reduce campus supervisors.

• Eliminate elementary library staff.

• Reduce middle and elementary school vice principals.

• Reduce custodial staff and maintenance supervisor.

• Eliminate a coaching program.

• Reduce school year by up to five days, which would require the consent of employee unions.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GINA CENTONI

Gina Centoni, Mike Alioto and their crew pose for a photo at one of their projects.

By Amy Sylvestri

San Leandro Times

San Leandro native Gina Centoni spent several years and thousands of dollars restoring her 1907 Craftsman home in San Francisco. But one week after her renovations were complete, a fire that started in her neighbor’s garage burned down about half of her place.

“After the fire, I called all the contractors out again and they came over around 11 at night,” said Centoni. “No one could believe it. It was everyone’s worst nightmare, but my dog got out okay and no one was hurt. I thought, ‘everything else can be replaced.’”

So, instead of cursing at the heavens, Centoni took the disaster as a sign. She’d enjoyed her time working on the house far more than her tech career at Apple, so she decided to start over on her home and eventually was inspired to switch careers and become a contractor.

“I really got more out of the experience than anyone could have planned,” said Centoni. “I fell in love with restoration. It took me a while to get the nerve to leave a 20-year career, but it struck me on that day that I really want to do something that I love.”

It didn’t happen overnight, but over the next few years Centoni went back to school at Cal for construction management and at local vocational schools for hands-on experience. After getting her license, she became partners with Mike Alioto, the contractor that did the original work at her home and they started their own business.

Today, Centoni, 47, mostly runs the business side of things, but she does occasionally get her hands dirty, doing things like laying tile.

Currently, she’s working on a 100-year-old home in San Francisco and figuring out how to modernize the bathroom and kitchen, while maintaining authenticity.

“We want to make it up-to-date, but keep a really natural feel,” said Centoni. “It’s fun to strike a balance.”

Centoni –  who went to Assumption School, Bancoft Middle School, and San Leandro High – has brought her new talents back to her hometown, doing extensive work on her parents’ Tudor home on Cary Drive.

“We just did some exterior renovations, painting in historically correct colors,” said Centoni.

And, though the fire damage was repaired years ago, she’s still constantly upgrading her own home.

“I just did some work on a new front porch, I’ll never be done,” said Centoni with a laugh. “This work gets in your blood, it gets to be a part of you.”

Art made by Japanese Americans at the internment camp in Topaz, Utah will be on display, including the painting above, “Where Would We Go?” Thomas Ryosaku Matsuok.

The art of Japanese Americans held in an internment camp in Utah will go on display at the San Leandro History Museum & Art Gallery, 320 W. Estudillo Ave., beginning on Saturday.

Topaz: Artists in Interment is a traveling display from the Topaz Museum of the art of the people held in the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah.

The exhibit will be open on weekends from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. through the end of March. A special opening reception will be held on Saturday, Feb. 25, from 2 to 5 p.m. Poet Lawson Inada, a poet-musician in the tradition of Walt Whitman and James A. Wright, will be reading excerpts from his book Legends from Camp, a masterwork of American poetry.

A series of special activities will be held in conjunction with Topaz: Artists in Internment including a discussion of the Art of Gaman by Delphine Hirasuna (date to be announced). On Sunday afternoons in March, Japanese American documentary filmed stories of internment and Nisei WWII veterans, produced by San Leandro Library staff, will be shown from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. in the museum auditorium.

The traveling exhibit is made possible by funding from the Western States Arts Federation, Utah Arts & Museums, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Art of Topaz: Calendar of Events

• Opening Reception with readings by poet-musician Lawson Inada on Saturday, Feb. 25, from 2 to 5 p.m.

• Guest speaker Delphine Hirasuna (curator/author of The Art of Gaman) on Sunday, March 4, at 2 p.m.

• California of the Past: Stories of Japanese American Internment Series I , film showing on Sunday, March 11, from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

• California of the Past: Stories of Japanese American Internment Series II , film showing Sunday, March 18, from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

• Legacy of the Nisei Veterans film showing on Sunday, March 25, from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

PHOTO BY AMY SYLVESTRI

Fire broke out Tuesday morning at this Marcella Street four-unit building in Ashland, leaving at least a dozen people homeless.

By Amy Sylvestri

San Leandro Times

A two-alarm fire damaged an apartment building and left at least a dozen people homeless in Ashland on Tuesday morning.

The fire started just after 7 a.m. in a four-unit building on the 15900 block of Marcella Street, just across the street from Hillside Elementary School.

No one was injured in the blaze, but six adults and at least five children were evacuated and are now being cared for by the Red Cross, according to an ACFD dispatcher who wouldn’t give her name. (The regular fire department spokesperson was off this week and other people at the fire department didn’t want their name used.)

The fire was put out in under 20 minutes, but the apartments suffered extensive fire and smoke damage and were largely gutted, according to the fire department.

A woman on the second story lowered her child to firefighters on the ground before being rescued herself. Firefighters evacuated about a half-dozen of the victims and the others escaped on their own.The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

TIMES FILE PHOTO BY JIM KNOWLES

The referees enjoyed the limelight one night at halftime at a game at Burrell Field, which will be torn down after 50 years of hosting high school football to be replaced by a brand new field.

By Jim Knowles

San Leandro Times

Graduates of San Leandro High and Pacific High take note: the Pirates and Vikings are going to have one last showdown.

Before the old Burrell Field is torn down to build a new one, a friendly flag football game and a day of shared memories and camaraderie is planned on the gridiron on Teagarden Street on Saturday, March 31.

“It will be kind of an alumni fest to play one last game on the old ball field,” says Martin Capron, a board member of the San Leandro Sports Foundation, which promotes and raises funds for San Leandro school sports.

The SLSF is planning an “old-timers” flag football game for grads of both high schools, along with memorabilia from the schools, yearbooks, photos, and barbecued tri-tip sandwiches.

Band members and cheerleaders are encouraged to attend, too. Bring your instruments and cheer on the team.

Don’t worry about being at the speed your were in your high school days, says Capron.

“This is for the old timers who might walk their route, they don’t have to run it,” he says.

Burrell Field was built as part of Pacific High in 1963 and the Vikings played there for 20 years until the school was closed, then San Leandro High began playing its football games at Burrell.

In April, the beloved field will be torn down to build a new field for future generations of San Leandro students.

The flag football game and celebration will be held from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 31.

Capron says it’s important to get people signed up early to make the day a success, so the deadline to sign up is the end of February.

If you’re interested in volunteering or participating as either a coach, player or a cheerleader, call Martin Capron at 895-1980 or email Kathy Neisse at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Four suspects were arrested a day after police sent out this sketch of the female robbery suspect.

By Amy Sylvestri

San Leandro Times

Four people have been arrested for the series of street muggings that plagued the Bancroft and Estudillo avenues area these past few weeks.

The suspects – one woman and three men – are believed to have committed eight robberies that occurred between Dec. 26 and Jan. 7, according to Lt. Jeff Tudor or the San Leandro police.

In each case, the female suspect would approach a person walking alone and tell them that she had a gun in her purse and demand their money. She and a male accomplice that was hiding nearby would then run off together.

The robberies occurred at different times of the day and the victims were both men and women of a variety of races and ages, Tudor said.

The suspects names haven’t been released yet, but three were arrested for the robberies and the fourth was arrested on a warrant.

Police say they collared the suspects when an officer patrolling Joaquin Avenue saw a male and female pair that matched the descriptions of the suspects given by previous victims.

A gun that the female is believed to have discarded was found on the side of the road nearby and evidence from previous robberies was found in their possession.

The armed robbery case was sent to the Alameda County District Attorney’s office on Wednesday.