60 years ago

Supervisors Will Tour Proposed Boys Camp Site Here: On June 13 the county board of supervisors will visit Brentwood to tour the old O’Meara ranch as a possible site for a county boys rehabilitation center.

The 85 acres off Eureka avenue a mile west of Walnut Boulevard has been under consideration for some time along with one near Byron. County Probation Officer John A. Davis reactivated interest in the rehabilitation center project by urging the supervisors not to delay selection of a site and expressing his preference for the O’Meara ranch.

The supervisors have indicated that if they approve of the location the county may take an option on the land and a test well will be drilled to see if sufficient water is available.

Previous overtures to locate the rehabilitation camp for juvenile offenders in this area have drawn some protests from residents.

20 years ago

Antioch to hold hearings for new, increased budget: The city budget will grow by 3.4 percent next year under a proposal from City Manager Dave Rowlands.

Rowlands proposes spending $68.6 million in 1997-98, up $2.2 million from 1996-97.

The budget would add nearly 11 full-time employees, step up efforts to repair streets and enforce neighborhood codes, and pay for a promotional campaign for economic development.

Much of the increase can be attributed to a $1.4 million increase in capital projects, and nearly $1 million in Community Development Block Grant Funds.

The budget also absorbs more than $800,000 in lighting and landscaping taxes the city may no longer collect under Proposition 218. The taxes paid for certain street lights, parks and median landscaping considered “general benefits” to all taxpayers. Under Proposition 218, the city may only assess such taxes for “special benefits.”

The City Council will hold four public meetings on the budget over the next two weeks.

At the first meeting, the council will get a budget presentation from Finance Director John Tasker. Subsequent meetings will focus on specific portions of it.

Rowlands’ budget assumes the mail-in elections for lighting and landscaping taxes, which would bring in $2.6 million, will pass in all districts.

“The City Council has already decided it will not backfill money for districts where it doesn’t pass, ” Rowlands said. “But I give it a good chance of passing in most of the city.”

Rowlands is also confident a majority of council members will agree with his new budget.

“The historical pattern of fiscal responsibility is evident, ” Rowlands wrote in his budget message. “The City Council’s policy for cost containment has been achieved.”

Property tax revenues are expected to increase 2.5 percent in 1997-98, to $3.5 million. The city receives 8.9 cents for every dollar of property tax paid by Antioch residents and businesses.

Rowlands estimates that sales taxes will increase 5 percent to $6.2 million. Sales tax revenues grew by 8.5 percent this year, but Rowlands made a conservative estimate in the 1997-98 budget due to the closure of J.C. Penney at County East Mall.

The city’s general fund, 72 percent of which pays for police services, will grow by $744,000, to $19.8 million.

Rowlands will ask the council to add five police officers, a pipefitter, four maintenance workers, two employees to expand neighborhood code enforcement, and a secretary for the senior citizen program. He will eliminate a deputy director of public works position and a director of leisure services and its clerical support.

Total employment at the city would be the equivalent of 318.6 full-time workers.

— From Ledger Dispatch and Brentwood News archives