New this year is a Softball and Pizza Clinic for the u6 and u8 players in Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade. Don’t miss out!

Please be advised that registration officially closes December 18, 2009. There is a late fee of $30 assessed for registrants after December 18th, 2009—so please register your daughters early!

Once we have teams formed in late January, your daughter’s coach will notify you of team placement. Also, around that time we will be hosting our first of multiple skill development clinics through the season, so be on the lookout for an announcement from us in January about our first clinic.

Register Now!

Piedmont Softball & Pizza Clinic

Softball & Pizza Clinic for kindergarten, 1st grade & 2nd grade GIRLS (bring your friends!)

Come join us on Sunday, November 8th! Time: 3-5pm Locations: Coaches Field, Moraga Avenue, Piedmont

Are you new to softball or ‘graduating’ from tee ball? Then this is an event not to be missed! We encourage all K-2 players, interested in finding out more about this fun sport, to come to our clinic on Nov. 8th at Coaches Field. The clinic will be run by Sharon Perkins, a talented coach from the Alameda Blaze tournament program, along with several PHS varsity softball players. We will offer fun drills, contests, and a little scrimmage play. Pizza and ice cream will be served at the end.

Please RSVP to Lisa Reynolds lisareynolds440@comcast.net if you plan to attend—this is a great preview to see if your daughters are interested in playing softball during the Spring 2010 season. Participation is free of charge.

I’m not talking about the World Series here, but Piedmont’s hometown youth baseball program, PBF.

Priority registration for Piedmont residents and PUSD-students for our Spring 2010 Baseball Season is underway now, and closes on November 6th. Residents and PUSD students should register now to secure a spot. If any division nears capacity, waitlisting will automatically begin, even for residents and PUSD-students.

Please review important dates and instructions below before registering. We encourage all families to register early in the proper registration window to improve your chances of securing a spot. To register, go to www.piedmontbaseball.org and follow links to Register.

PIEDMONT-ONLY REGISTRATION: Wed, October 14 – Fri, November 6

Piedmont residency or enrollment in a PUSD school is required. Residents are strongly encouraged to register and pay fees during this window to secure spots. Spots fill on a first-come, first served basis. Waitlisting will occur when enrollment in any age group approaches capacity. Non-resident, non-PUSD registrations received during this time will be canceled by our registrar, and a $25 fee will be assessed.

The PUSD board is meeting Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 7:00 pm in the City Hall Council Chambers

Topics include Measure E. For more information, see http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/board-of-education/meeting-materials

Dear Piedmont Friends and Neighbors,

The Piedmont Appreciating Diversity Committee (PADC) invites you to attend

The Inaugural PADC Family Picnic

Sunday, October 18, 2009

4:00 – 6:00pm at

The Piedmont Recreation Department

358 Hillside Avenue, Piedmont

PADC members are hosting their first Piedmont Family Picnic, promoting a culture of diversity and inclusiveness within Piedmont.

Bring your family, meet new people, have a great time!

Please bring a side dish or a dessert to share with others and your picnic blanket or chairs to sit on.  PADC will be grilling hot dogs, hamburgers, and vegetarian fare.

For planning purposes, we kindly request that you RSVP to:

Lisa Gardner – hawaiianlion5@sbcglobal.net or

Wilma Wallace – rgmwbw@comcast.net

on or before Thursday, October 15^th, 2009

The SF Bike Coalition really started this going in the Bay Area, but the East Bay can get in on the fun. Grab your bike and a friend or co-worker and pedal to work on Fridays. Encourage more people to substitute one short car trip with a bicycle trip on Fridays in October.

It’s easier than you think, half of all driving trips in the Bay Area are under two miles in length—a distance easily travelled by bicycle.

Heading to Piedmont Grocery? Peets? Gaylords? Grand Lake Ace? Trader Joe’s? Grand Lake Farmers Market? Try it on a bike!

East Bay Bicycle Coalition: http://ebbc.org
WOBO: http://walkoaklandbikeoakland.org
Bike Route Maps: http://bikely.com

ACTIA is an acronym for the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority.

Two Vacancies on ACTIA’s Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee

Would you or someone you know like to be on the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC)?

The BPAC, which meets six to eight times per year, advises ACTIA on the development and implementation of countywide bicycle and pedestrian programs and plans. Beginning this fall, the BPAC will start reviewing and providing input on the updates to the Countywide Strategic Pedestrian Plan and the Countywide Bicycle Plan. One of the most cherished responsibilities of the BPAC is advising the ACTIA Board on the allocation of Measure B bicycle/pedestrian grant funds. To date 41 projects, totaling $9.5 million, have been funded.

More information about the BPAC, application requirements, and bylaws, can be found on the ACTIA website. www.actia2022.com

Bicycle and Pedestrian Plans Working Group

ACCMA and ACTIA are beginning the process to update the Alameda Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plans. We would like to invite you to participate in the first meeting of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plans Working Group, which will be on Wednesday, October 21 from 9:30 to 11:30am at the ACTIA offices (1333 Broadway, Suite 300 , Downtown Oakland). Please save this date. The main objective will be to review the draft scope of work for the updates of the two plans. We will send an agenda packet closer to the meeting date.

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Plans Working Group is an advisory group that will provide input to the Alameda County Technical Advisory Committee (ACTAC) and the ACTIA Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) prior to approval of the Plans by the ACTIA and ACCMA Boards. T  This joint group, which is expected to meet up to eight times over 1.5 years, will provide an opportunity to coordinate the updates of both plans.  This coordination includes creating one Request for Proposals, which is expected to be released December 2009. By April 2010, one consultant team will be hired for both plans, and the plans are expected to be adopted by early 2011.

From the League of American Bicyclist newsletter:

43 Percent Increase in Bicycle Commuting

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey (ACS), released today, 0.55 percent of American workers use a bicycle as their primary means of getting to work. This is up 14 percent since 2007, 36 percent from the first ACS in 2005, and 43 percent since the 2000 Census. The League of American Bicyclists is analyzing the numbers for various locations, including League Bicycle Friendly Communities. In the meantime, you can look up this information for hundreds of communities and all of the states using the American Fact Finder.

Learn more at the LoAB’s blog.

East Bay Bike Resources

Did you know we have two great East Bay bicycle organization? Check them out for events, actions you can take to improve bike and pedestrian access, and general info.

East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC)
http://ebbc.org/

Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO)
http://walkoaklandbikeoakland.org

The city of Oakland also has great info on biking and pedestrain information at www.oaklandbikes.info

As many of you know, the School Board is reconsidering what the surface for the playfield at the new Havens School should be.  The plan had been (and currently still is) for a synthetic turf field, but, in light of concerns about the health and environmental safety of the crumb rubber infill in most synthetic turf, as well as neighbors’ concerns about use issues, the School Board is considering the possibility of changing the surface to something else (grass or an infill alternative).

We know this is an issue many of you care about and want to learn more about. This Thursday, Sept  24, 7:00-8:30 p.m., the “Green Forum on Synthetic Turf,” sponsored by the PUSD Green Committee, at the Piedmont Middle School Multipurpose Room (740 Magnolia Ave) provides the opportunity to do so.  The district is hiring a facilitator for this, and there will be breakout groups so we’ll all have the opportunity to engage in discussion and learn more about this very important issue.

At a later date this fall, the School Board will hold a full hearing on the field surface issues for the Havens Playfield and the decision will be made by December when the “change order’ would have to get in to Webcor (the builder).  Now is the time to understand the issue.  Please come to the meeting so you can learn as well as voice your opinion.

The Havens and Beach Green Committees believe this is an important issue from an environmental perspective, involving big questions about whether or not the precautionary principle should apply.  Other school districts and cities across the country are debating these same issues, and some – most prominently, New York City and the Los Angeles Unified School District – have decided to stop installing more fields with crumb rubber infill.

Independent scientists are urging thorough evaluations before more synthetic fields with recycled tire crumb are installed.  For example, the editors of The Journal of Exposure Science and Epidemiology (from the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School ) argue that:

At the present time, we believe that the million dollar + expense to produce and install a synthetic field by communities and athletic facilities demands a much more thorough understanding of the environmental impacts, human exposure and health risk implications associated with all synthetic turf products available on the market.  This calls for a comprehensive evaluation of artificial turf by exposure scientists, and others in environmental science and environmental health sciences.

For your edification, below are a few of the health and environmental issues associated with rubber infill playing fields. We’re also attaching a letter Margaret sent to the School Board earlier this year.  It describes the issues and contains many links to independent studies.  If you only have time to read something shorter, there are links to some informational flyers on the issue at the very end of this message.

Sincerely,

Jill Lindenbaum
Heather Clapp
Havens Green Committee

Margaret Ovenden
Beach Green Committee

======================================

What are the health and environmental issues?

TOXICITY: Crumb rubber from waste tires contains toxic chemicals and heavy metals with documented links to harmful health effects.  These include toluene (developmental toxicant), benzene (carcinogen, developmental and reproductive toxicant), styrene (neurotoxic), butadiene (carcinogen), butylated hydroxyanisole (carcinogen).  Tire rubber contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phthalates, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as zinc, lead, cadmium and other metals.

INHALATION, INGESTION: There is potential for all of these toxins to be inhaled, absorbed through the skin, and even swallowed by children who play on these fields.

MIGRATION: Rubber pellets can be tracked into the classroom, car and home, where exposure continues.

RUN-OFF: A number of the chemicals in crumb rubber are soluble in water and might leach from the fields to contaminate ground water and soil.

HEAT: These fields can get very hot when temperatures are high, posing a risk of heat stress or heat stroke.  Manufacturers readily admit that a synthetic field can run 10-30 degrees F hotter than a grass field.  Synthetic fields contribute to the “urban heat island”effect.

INFECTION: Abrasion injuries (“rug burn”) that occur on synthetic turf create “pathways” for bacterial infections, including MRSA.  Properly maintained synthetic fields require regular disinfection.

INJURIES: Synthetic turf may cause more sports injuries (e.g. “turf toe”) than grass.  The jury is out on this.  Professional sports players prefer grass.

DISPOSAL: Synthetic fields wear out and must be replaced every 8-15 years.  How to dispose of the crumb rubber is especially a problem, because it contains toxins and carcinogens.

Better alternatives:

NATURAL GRASS

-          PUSD successfully maintains Witter Baseball and Softball fields as natural grass fields with very little pesticide and herbicide use (and plans to use even less of these in the future).

-          Grass helps decrease CO2, provides a habitat for many living organisms, and cools the surrounding area.

-          Newer varieties of grass exist which require less water and mowing.

-          Soils in grass fields contain bacteria which decompose body fluids, algae and animal and bird droppings.

SYNTHETIC TURF WITH ORGANIC INFILL

-          Organic infill made from crushed cork and coconut husks does not have the issues with chemicals that crumb rubber infill has.

-          Does not retain heat the way crumb rubber does; may have a cooling effect.

-          At the end of the lifecycle, the organic infill can be recycled.

What you can do:

ATTEND the September 24 “Green Forum on Synthetic Turf” sponsored by the PUSD Green Initiative (7:00-8:30 p.m., Piedmont Middle School Multipurpose Room, 740 Magnolia Ave) to gain a better understanding of what are the health and environmental issues that need to be considered in making a choice between synthetic turf and grass.

WRITE the Board of Education expressing your opinion.  Attend any Board meetings on the issue.  (Sometime before December, the Board will make a decision.) School Board e-mails: rgadbois@piedmont.k12.ca.us, rtolles@piedmont.k12.ca.us, jmonach@piedmont.k12.ca.us, mjones@piedmont.k12.ca.us, rraushenbush@piedmont.k12.ca.us

DISCUSS this issue with your friends, teammates, others you think would be concerned.

READ UP ON THE ISSUE: Some places to start:

SHORT FLYER: What to Know About Turf Fields? From Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center .

http://www.mountsinai.org/img/vgn_lnk/Regular%20Content/File/Patient%20Care/Children/turf_fact_sheet.pdf

SHORT FLYER: Common Exposures: Synthetic Turf.  From Grassroots Environmental Education.  http://www.grassrootsinfo.org/syntheticturf.html

SHORT FLYER: “Grass playing fields vs. synthetic turf: How will your district decide?” New Jersey Education Association http://www.njea.org/pdfs/HS_GrassTurf_May08.pdf

“Synthetic Turf: Health Debate Takes Root,” March 2008 Environmental Health Perspectives, published by the National Institute of Environmental Health  Sciences http://www.ehponline.org/members/2008/116-3/EHP116pa116PDF.PDF

“Artificial Turf: Exposures to Ground-Up Rubber Tires,” 2007 Environment and Human Health, Inc., www.ehhi.org/reports/turf/

On October 7th, schools around the world will celebrate International Walk to School Day. Whether your school is celebrating it or not, the day provides a great opportunity to “find another way to school”. Whether walking, biking, on the bus, or carpooling, the trip gives you the chance to have a conversation with kids about transportation options, safety, the environment… or maybe you’ll just enjoy the extra bonding time.

For more information on Walk to School Day, contact Nora Cody – Director of Alameda County’s Safe Routes to Schools program – at SR2S@transformca.org or call (510) 740-3150.