Mold Remediation in Concord, CA

Established in 2022 to reignite Concord's vibrant downtown, the program brought three annual multi-day events to the city.

Maggie Fusek, Patch Staff

Press release from the City of Concord:

CONCORD, CA — The City of Concord was honored Oct. 17 with the prestigious Helen Putnam Award for Excellence in the category of Economic Development through the Arts for its Creative Concord public arts program. The League of California Cities bestowed the honor to Concord in an awards ceremony at the organization’s annual conference being held in Long Beach.

Concord Mayor Edi Birsan accepted the award on behalf of the city.

“We are grateful to be recognized for this program, which sparked public interest in the arts, spurred economic activity, and spotlighted Concord’s efforts to strengthen our community spirit through an arts and culture experience,” Birsan said.

Established in 2022 as an effort to reignite Concord’s vibrant downtown, the program brought three annual multi-day events to the city, featuring mural installations, live canvas paintings, live music, sculptures, and community involvement.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Coming out of the pandemic, Concord understood the importance of developing a strong sense of place that represented the community’s identity and spirit. Simultaneously, the City wanted to support the economic vitality of Concord by attracting visitors, supporting local businesses, and boosting tourism.

Since its inception, the program has brought together more than 100 organizations, businesses, and advocates to collaborate and help make Creative Concord thrive. The program has also given back in many forms, including paid opportunities for dozens of local artists and talent, donating artworks to local nonprofit organizations, monetary donations to charities through the sale of artworks created during the Art & Music Jam event, and more.

Creative Concord is made possible through a collaboration among the city, art-centric agency Local Edition Creative, and the tourism bureau Visit Concord.

“With a focus on highlighting diverse styles, cultures, and themes, Creative Concord has enlivened the city with a portfolio of artworks that embody a sense of welcoming and an understanding that a wonderfully diverse community can be found here,” said Sage Loring, cofounder and creative director of Local Edition Creative.

Established in 1982 by the League of California Cities, the Helen Putnam Award for Excellence program recognizes outstanding achievements by California's 483 cities. These winning cities have made unique contributions to community residents and businesses, contributions which have resulted in lower costs or more effective delivery of services. The purpose of the Helen Putnam Award for Excellence program is to recognize and promote the outstanding efforts and innovative solutions by city governments.

Watch the Cal Cities video clip.

Read the program summary.

Learn more.

This press release was produced by the City of Concord. The views expressed here are the author’s own.

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Over 700 trees and shrubs will be planted as a micro forest on the Ayers Elementary School campus thanks to a federal urban forest grant.

Posted Thu, Sep 26, 2024 at 8:59 pm PT

Press release from the City of Concord:

CONCORD, CA —Join the city of Concord on Saturday, Sept. 28 for Ayers Elementary Micro Forest Planting.

Volunteers are needed to help plant more than 700 trees and shrubs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the campus at 5120 Myrtle Drive.

The school's micro forest is made possible by an IRA-funded, U.S. Forest Service Urban and Community Forest grant.

About The Program

In 2024, the City of Concord received a $1 million grant to improve the management, condition, and education of its urban forest. As part of the grant, the City of Concord committed to collaborating with local educators at Mt. Diablo Unified School District (MDUSD) to create an educational and outreach opportunity to engage students on the value of trees in the community.

After collaborative meetings and planning with MDUSD staff, the Ayers Elementary School site was chosen as an ideal location for the micro forest based on the school's ability to facilitate the forest there, the desire of the Ayers School community to expand their Gardening Club Program, and MDUSD’s commitment to ensuring that the school staff and student body would be heavily engaged in maintaining the Micro Forest.

The City of Concord staff worked diligently over the last 8 months with a contracted Landscape Architect and MDUSD leadership to draft a Micro Forest Planting Plan suitable for the location. Through this partnership, with guidance from the City's Urban Forest program and the commitment of daily and weekly attention of the Ayers teaching staff, the student body, and MDUSD’s maintenance team; the Ayers Micro Forest will provide an amazing opportunity for students and the community to engage on the values and benefits of planting trees in urbanized areas. The City and MDUSD are excited to bring this amazing opportunity to the community and look forward to seeing the forest grow and produce a compact, environmentally friendly, and sustainable green space on an otherwise unused area of Ayer’s campus.

Download a PDF event flyer.

Complete the required waiver.

This press release was produced by the City of Concord. The views expressed here are the author’s own.

The Contra Costa County Elections Division was set to do voter outreach at over 30 local high schools and senior housing communities.

Maggie Fusek, Patch Staff

|Updated Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 8:47 pm PT

CONCORD, CA — The Contra Costa County Elections Division is ringing in the elections season by partnering with local high schools and community-based organizations—including in the Concord area —for California High School Voter Education Weeks and National Voter Registration Day.

Teams of county elections staff were scheduled to do pop-ups at over 30 locations through mid-October, bringing information about registering to vote and voting to school sites and CBOs.

County elections staff told Patch that in the Concord area, voter registration-related special events were slated for Olympic High School, Concord High School and Diablo Valley College.

"Most of our voter outreach is happening at high schools where we are doing classroom presentations as well as tabling events to promote voter registration among high school youth," said Melissa Hickok, assistant to Kristin Connelly, county clerk-recorder and registrar of voters.

National Voter Registration Day 2024 was Sept. 17, and it kicked off California High School Voter Education Weeks, which continue through the end of the month.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

National Voter Registration Day is a nonpartisan civic holiday celebrating the nation's democracy. It was first observed in 2012 and quickly gained momentum. Now, it is celebrated nationwide each year. More than 5 million voters have registered to vote on the holiday to date.

California High School Voter Education Weeks provide an opportunity for high schools and their students to partner with County Elections Officials to promote civic education and participation on campus and foster an environment that cultivates lifelong voters and active citizens.

"My promise to Contra Costa County constituents as the Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters has always been to expand access to voting by ensuring that we pre-register young people and to reach all eligible voters across our county," said Kristin B. Connelly. "Our outreach team is excited to work with local CBOs, school staff and students to help make the voting process more accessible."

Voter registration events were planned at the following sites throughout Contra Costa County:

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Six local organizations will offer a combination of temporary housing and support services to help people transition out of homelessness.

Maggie Fusek, Patch Staff

CONCORD, CA—The Concord City Council is set to divvy out $5 million to six local organizations working to combat homelessness in the city.

Council members approved the funding Tuesday and will distribute it in November so that the organizations can work on initiatives in the Homeless Strategic Plan that the Council adopted in February 2024. The organizations will offer a combination of temporary housing and comprehensive support services to help people transition out of homelessness.

Additionally, they will deliver field-based services to people in their current sheltering locations, addressing essential needs such as medical care, substance abuse treatment, food and hygiene, and workforce development.

The ultimate goal of implementing the strategies is to support individuals in successfully exiting homelessness and achieving permanent housing.

The organizations were among 17 that responded to the city's request in September for proposals from groups that offer homeless response services.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

On Sept. 20, an ad hoc committee comprised of Councilmembers Dominic Aliano and Laura Nakamura conducted public interviews with each applicant, then developed its funding recommendations based on key attributes, including community benefits, goals and objectives, partnership and funding sources, and organizational capacity.

Concord’s Homeless Strategic Plan was developed over 11 months with significant community participation. It consists of seven core strategies that prioritize addressing the immediate needs of the unsheltered by focusing on connecting them to services and expanding housing options with support services:

The City Council also approved a $126,500 agreement with Homebase for grant monitoring and reporting services. This agreement enables the city to closely track the progress of each program and gather data to measure and report on the achievement of specific outcomes and goals.

By evaluating the effectiveness of the programs and the investments made, Concord aims to be better positioned to inform future initiatives and provide valuable insights that could benefit other agencies or similar programs.

The $5 million allocated Tuesday is in addition to the approximately $1 million annually that Concord distributes to support 10 local organizations, city officials said.

The city published a fact sheet on how it has been addressing homelessness:

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CONCORD, CA – A new Chick-fil-A restaurant will begin serving the Concord community this week.

Chick-fil-A The Willows, 1981 Diamond Blvd., will open its doors to the public for the first time on Thursday, Sept. 19. The restaurant's opening hours are from 6:30 a.m. until 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It is closed on Sundays, as are all Chick-fil-A locations nationwide.

The Concord restaurant joins 24 Chick-fil-A restaurants already serving the greater Bay Area market.

Most Chick-fil-A restaurants are owned and operated by one person, which means Chick-fil-A’s local owner-operators are small business owners, not passive investors, who work in their restaurants side by side with their team members each day.

In Concord, Brent Allen was selected as the independent franchised local owner-operator. In this role, Allen is responsible for all day-to-day business activities, including employing approximately 125 full- and part-time team members, serving guests, cultivating relationships with local organizations and businesses, and tailoring philanthropic efforts to meet the Concord community’s needs.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Chick-fil-A has been in Allen’s life for as long as he can remember, as he was born and raised in the company’s hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. While growing up, Allen and his family enjoyed Chick-fil-A at least twice a week, and over time, Allen came to know Chick-fil-A, Inc. Founder, S. Truett Cathy. Allen quickly grew inspired by Truett's entrepreneurship and Chick-fil-A’s signature hospitality. Ever since, Allen felt called to introduce the brand he came to know and love to new communities.

After growing with the businesses, that is precisely what Allen did as he was eventually selected to be the local owner-operator for one of the first restaurants in the Bay Area. In 2012, Allen opened the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Walnut Creek, where he has planted roots with his wife and their two sons. He has happily operated the restaurant for more than a decade. Today, Allen takes the next step in his Chick-fil-A journey, operating a second restaurant and being the first to bring the company’s signature hospitality to Concord.

"As I reflect on my many joyful moments over Chick-fil-A meals, today represents a big moment for me," Allen said. "This opportunity to bring the same delicious food and genuine care that I fell in love with as a young boy to a new community truly energizes me. The East Bay has been my home for many years, and I look forward to further enriching Contra Costa County through unique leadership and development opportunities, as well as community giving."

Local owner-operators like Allen are empowered to support the neighborhoods they serve with a key focus on hunger, education and specific community needs. In honor of its new Concord location, Chick-fil-A, Inc. has donated $25,000 to Feeding America to support the local hunger relief efforts of Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, a Feeding America partner food bank.

Allen’s restaurant will participate in the Chick-fil-A Shared Table® program, an initiative that redirects surplus food from the restaurant to local soup kitchens, shelters, food banks and nonprofits in need. To date, more than 25 million meals have been created from Chick-fil-A Shared Table donations from over 2,000 Chick-fil-A restaurants throughout the United States and Canada.

Chick-fil-A The Willows also plans to recognize 100 local heroes who are making an impact in the Concord area by providing them with free Chick-fil-A entrées for a year.

Chick-fil-A is known for its freshly prepared food, signature hospitality and unique franchise model. Made with a real, whole, boneless breast of chicken with no added fillers, the breaded chicken is pressure-cooked in fully refined peanut oil. To complement the chicken, produce is delivered to Chick-fil-A restaurants up to six times a week for the best quality and flavor.

Guests can place an order for pickup, dine-in, delivery, drive-thru or Mobile Thru on the Chick-fil-A® App or online. See delivery options for this location.

Local Chick-fil-A owner-operators strive to hire, develop and retain top talent, help future leaders optimize their skills and provide pathways for personal and professional development in a welcoming, purpose-driven environment.

A career at Chick-fil-A offers many benefits, including hands-on training and mentoring, competitive pay and benefits, the chance to apply for scholarships to support continued education, and the flexibility to thrive in and outside of work. See career opportunities at Chick-fil-A.

The family-owned and privately held company was founded in 1967 by S. Truett Cathy and has become the third-largest quick-service restaurant company in the United States.

More than 200,000 team members are employed by independent owner-operators in more than 3,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. In 2023, the company shared plans to expand by 2030 into Europe and Asia.

The Concord Chick-fil-A has been in the works for several years. In 2019, the company sought permission to develop a franchise-operated restaurant with drive-thru service at 1400 Willow Pass Road, the former site of Lin's Buffet Chinese restaurant.

Before that, Chick-fil-A explored building a restaurant at 1225 Willow Pass Road —the former Elephant Bar restaurant—and at 1353 Willow Pass Road, which later became Gen Korean BBQ House.

The first two sites called for rezoning and city staff feared potential effects on traffic, circulation and economic development. The city had similar concerns with the former Lin's Buffet site, which was already zoned for fast food but not for drive-thru windows.

A city staff report said Chick-fil-A was encouraged to explore other areas of Concord but Chick-fil-A maintained it wanted to build near Interstate Highway 680.

In April 2022, Chick-fil-A sought approval for the current site at 1981 Diamond Blvd. It required demolishing the former Claim Jumper building.

Construction on the new Concord Chick-fil-A began Sept. 1, 2023.

A second Chick-fil-A for Walnut Creek was approved in May and a company spokesperson confirmed Tuesday it was still in the works.

"It’s our pleasure to confirm we will be opening a new Chick-fil-A restaurant in Walnut Creek," a Chick-fil-A spokesperson told Patch on Tuesday. "We look forward to positively impacting the Walnut Creek community and serving all of our Guests in the Bay Area delicious food in an environment of genuine hospitality."

The new restaurant will be at 2290 Oak Grove Road at the Citrus Marketplace Shopping Center in Walnut Creek. The new 5,300-square-foot fast-food restaurant replaces a vacant 8,200-square-foot building at the shopping center, which has seen several vacancies in recent years. It will not have a drive-thru, which is unusual for the chain. Walnut Creek City Council made the difficult decision based on an appeal by a resident of the nearby Woodlands neighborhood.

The resident cited issues with the existing Walnut Creek Chick-fil-A along North Main Street south of Geary Boulevard. One of the main concerns was that the drive-thru line often queues up onto North Main Street, impacting traffic for neighborhood residents. The City Council and Chick-fil-A agreed to move forward without a drive-thru, although Chick-fil-A has not given a date for when the new Walnut Creek location will open.

For now, locals can adjust to having a Chick-fil-A in Concord. To stay updated on happenings at the new Chick-fil-A at The Willows, fans can like and follow it on Facebook and Instagram.