Tri-Valley Unity
-Matt Spring

September 25^th was the annual Tri-Valley Mayors Summit held at the Pleasanton Hilton. This luncheon allowed for all five mayors from Dublin , Pleasanton , San Ramon, Livermore and Danville to get together and talk about what is going on in their city or town.

The summit was led by a moderator who asked a question and each mayor would have to answer. Also, a community member from each city was allowed to videotape a question to be played for their mayor whom had to answer it.

The first question from the moderator was, “What brought them to being a mayor?”  Each mayor agreed they had some kind of passion for politics and their community that drove them to their current position. Mayor Jennifer Hosterman from Pleasanton said she ran for mayor because she felt she needed to give back to the place that she raised her family.

Another question was whether they thought BART would ever make it to Livermore or from Dublin to Walnut Creek . Most all agreed that our local traffic situation particularly on 580 needs to be fixed and extending BART to Livermore will definitely lighten the congestion. Mayor Marshall Kamena from Livermore was also excited about the idea of Light Rail transit possibly coming to Livermore which would take you from Livermore to Los Angeles in only a couple of hours.

The community member from Dublin directed their question to Mayor Lockhart about the main issues teen face in the Tri-Valley and asked what Dublin is doing to solve them. Her response was that the city has looked into having some sort of “teen space” or a place for young adults to hang out. She also commented on how the city is working with the school district to make the Dublin High pool a competitive pool which would greatly benefit DHS students in the future.

Furthering the issue about schools, a popular question from the summit was how each city was working with their local schools. Mayor Lockhart was proud to talk about our Dublin Pride Integrity in Action program in our schools. The focus was not only on K-12 schools, but on great opportunities Las Positas provides for the communities.

Overall, the event was very informative and provided a great way for each mayor to talk about the issues the entire Tri-Valley faces and how each of them can work together in making the Tri-Valley the best place to live!