From: Sunol Community News
Save Our Sunol Column
November 1997
By: Pat Stillman

Thanksgiving is a short two weeks away and we are experiencing lovely colored falling leaves, some gentle rains and shorter hours of daylight. It seems like only yesterday we were celebrating the plans for the Water Temple restoration. The temple was especially beautiful that day. The sun was shining brightly while sounds of soft music filled the air. The food, wine, fellowship, exhibits, speeches and most of all, visions of what is to come, made that September event very memorable.

The Water Temple has been the location for some  recent field trips. Last month, Gray Brechin from the Geography Department at UC Berkeley, brought his graduate seminar class for a visit. The discussion was interrupted by a sudden rain but was resumed at the Cafe. The Newberrys were very cordial and supportive and we all enjoyed a mid-morning lunch after the class.

Two weeks ago, Barney Popkin, co-chair of the SF Hazardous Materials Advisory Committee, brought a group of fellow environmentalists to see the Water Temple. They were  quite enthusiastic about the natural setting and view of the ridgelands. We thank Rob Cyr from the Water District  who served as an excellent guide.

Tom Mooers from the Greenbelt Alliance was a speaker at our October Save Our Sunol meeting. He stressed the importance of urban limit boundary lines to prevent leap frog development where there is little infrastructure to support sprawl outside of existing cities. He noted that Clayton in Contra Costa County had once been a small rural hamlet like Sunol and is now filled with rows of houses and other urban encroachments changing its landscape forever. It must not happen here.

Bob Frillman made a report on the Ren Faire. He and others from the Castlewood and Foothill Road neighborhood groups have been busy putting up signs. Their coalition group has hired a law firm from Walnut Creek  to advise them. Although several other sites have been mentioned for the theme park, the Ren Faire Corporation seems fixated on Bonita Park in Sunol. This site is much too small and totally inappropriate for such a large scale commercial venture.

Joanne Freemire reported on the newly formed Alameda Creek Alliance. This is a group that has been organized to explore the possibilities of reintroducing steel head salmon, trout and other fish into Alameda Creek. Also, Margaret Tracy is forming a group to oppose a reverse osmosis project that would inject treated sewer water into the valley’s ground water serviced by Zone 7. This is a disturbing plan that could contaminate our drinking water. We will keep you posted on this.

We thank Jerome Engelberts, who has promised to update our web page, www.sunol.org. He will include some of the speeches and remarks from the temple celebration. We also thank Alameda County for replacing the median divider on Kilkare Road and the Kilkare Woods Association for the Sinbad Creek clean-up.

The Sunol/SF Working Group met on Monday Nov. 17 in the school cafeteria. Commissioner Dennis Normandy, Public Affairs Officer Tim Dayonot and Engineering Project Manager Lena Ch’en from the PUC attended the meeting of over 30 people. Many compliments were exchanged on the success and enjoyment of the Water Temple Celebration; the friendship between the current PUC and Sunol was enhanced immeasurably by this event.

Ms. Ch’en informed us that the wooden elements of the water temple roof are being decontaminated in preparation for their transfer to a special, climate-controlled space at the Oakland Museum, where the restoration of the frescoes will take place. All potential insect and fungus infestations must be removed before exposing the other treasures in the museum warehouse to the temple elements. We are very excited about this serious handling of one of the most beautiful sections of the temple.

Dennis Normandy emphasized the importance of maintaining the momentum we now have with the PUC in regard to funding and resources for the restoration. It is his goal to insure that succeeding commissioners will consider it their responsibility to put funding in future budgets to complete the restoration and maintain it in perpetuity. We will  keep you posted on PUC meetings we should try to attend.

Happy Holidays from Save Our Sunol!