YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ward Winning News al A pa
Vol. 9, No. 34
Including Nearby Communities
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Restaurant swings for the fences by Dave Roberts Staff Writer It’s taken six years and $3 million, but Terry Karp has finally opened Bases Loaded restaurant that he and the city officials who gave him $300,000 to help make it a reality hope will be a walk-off grand slam rather than another Rivertown strikeout. Located at Fourth and G streets, the restaurant opened without fanfare last week, but already has fans filing in and loading up. Customers are greeted by tributes to Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson in the vestibule before walking into a wide open space with large windows, the requisite sports memorabilia on the walls and a giant assemblage of TV screens on the back wall along with small TVs at each booth. “One thing that you never know: you can build a building and you can open it to the public, but the people kind of define what you are,” said Karp. “So far I’m just totally thrilled about the people who have come here
Photo by Dave Roberts
General Manager Randy Cross and owner Terry Karp in front of the large TV screens on the back wall of the recently opened Bases Loaded restaurant at Fourth and G streets in downtown Antioch. and are enjoying the place. The early indication is it’s going to be great. I plan to be here for a very, very long time. We don’t have any short-term goals of leaving. I want to be a mainstay in the downtown for as long as we can. I care about the downtown. I’ve always loved it down here.”
And city and business officials love the fact that a major new restaurant has opened in Antioch’s quaint, historic but economically challenged downtown area. With businesses coming and going – and mostly going lately – those officials are hoping that a popular anchor destination restaurant will
bring people downtown to not only eat and drink but also stick around and shop. “I think it’s really a wonderful project,” said Mayor Jim Davis. “What better way to capture the experience of Antioch – we have always been a sports town. I am really excited about what it can do for downtown. I think the synergy from that one corner will expand through the downtown. I am glad the city was able to participate, to provide money to jump-start the downtown. I think this is the beginning and will be good for everyone.” Ralph Garrow, Jr., chairman of the Antioch Chamber of Commerce, said his organization is also excited about the restaurant, which is opening across the street from the chamber office (until the chamber moves into the renovated Casino building on Waldie Plaza). “It has the potential to be quite successful and a big draw,” said Garrow via e-mail. “Rivertown needs quality destination see Rivertown page 18A
Demolition a knock-down, drag-out affair by Ruth Roberts Staff Writer
It took a year to build it and only six days to tear it down, but you’d never know by looking at the crumbling remains of Antioch’s Best Western Heritage Inn that the 1,700 tons of popping metal, cracking glass and snapping stucco were all part of a carefully orchestrated dance. But Brentwood resident Tony Graunstadt knows, and he’ll be the first to tell you it’s a lot harder than it looks. “It does take some planning as far as details and timetables go,” said Graunstadt, owner of Delta Demolition. “I’ve been known to lose a little sleep.” And understandably. The aging three-story hotel was put on the chopping block for exactly
the reasons it was originally built: proximity to the freeway. Once a convenient stopping point for motorists along Sommersville Road, today the impending widening of Highway 4 is slated to go where the hotel once stood. So it was Graunstadt’s job to bring down the hotel, and while no mushroom clouds or sticks of dynamite were involved, plenty of Transformer-like machines stood at the ready: excavators and bulldozers ripping open the walls of the hotel, bringing down overhangs and balconies in a single pass. From there, debris was separated into recyclable piles (“we’re required to have 50-percent recycling but I’m shooting for about 75 percent,” said Graunstadt) and see Demolition page 18A
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August 21, 2009
THIS WEEK
Canal flap floats boat
Denizens of the Delta sailed to Sacramento to protest the proposed peripheral canal.
Page 3A
Area bids icon farewell The community is mourning the passing and praising the contributions of Roy Gursky.
Page 4A
Rays fell dazed foes
The best 12U ball club in the state of California makes its home right here in East County.
Page 2B
INSIDE
Photo by Kevin Bartram
Workers from Delta Demolition raze the former Best Western Hotel on Somersville Road to make room for the expansion of Highway 4.
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