Next time you’re driving down Willow Lake Road or any other south-facing street in Discovery Bay, check out the community’s new blue and white street signs (shown here by General Manager Virgil Koehne). Due to sun erosion, more than 50 signs in town are in the process of being replaced by signs made of a graphite-like material designed to outlast the damaging Delta sun. If there’s a street sign in your neighborhood that was missed and needs replacing, call the town offices at 925-634-1131.

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Look for an update next week in Bob Taylor’s The Mayor is a Turkey fundraiser for the Brentwood Regional Community Chest. He originally set his goal at 300 $8 donations, but quickly flew past that and upped his goal to 500 birds. He’s likely to surpass that pretty soon, too, as contributions have continued to pour in. Now the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District has challenged the Brentwood Police Officers Association to see which can raise the most donations, and Taylor said each has sworn to outdo the other. Meanwhile, the turkey suit he promised to wear in public as a payoff has arrived and is being fit. Said Gobbler Bob upon seeing it: “This is going to be a spectacle.” Word is that First Lady Pam Taylor took one look at the suit and ponied up eight bucks of her own.

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We assume the guy meant well, but … a resident of Shady Willow Lane recently called the Brentwood Police Department and reported that his neighbor’s garage door was open and someone was roaming around inside the residence. When the homeowner was contacted, he confirmed the observation – the person was his daughter. Conclusion: if you’re gonna leave your garage door open and tempt a Neighborhood Watch observer to call it in, at least make it look like you belong in your own house.

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You might have seen Citizen of the Year Gene Clare around town these days, crooning “God Bless America” at Cortona Park Senior Living Center, or perhaps at last weekend’s Christmas Tree Lighting downtown. If you did, you no doubt noticed his arm is in a sling again. It’s been almost exactly a year since he hurt himself falling off his roof while hanging Christmas decorations. The answer to the obvious question is no, he didn’t do it again. He’s just recovering from surgery to help heal his shoulder, which it apparently didn’t do properly on its own. Oh, and if you’d like to see Gene’s performance on Veterans Day, check out the You Tube video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=95zEydq_hL8.