How to Make Your Christmas Tree Work for the Earth

SUISUN CITY - Now that Christmas is officially over, a lot of people want to get their live tree out of the house. If it is tender dry and dropping its needles, you need to get it out of your home to eliminate a fire hazard.

Rather than have the tree hauled to the landfill, here is how to make sure your tree is converted in reusable mulch for use in landscaping and other beneficial uses that eventually returns it to the soil.

First, remove all the decorations, nails and spikes from the tree.

Once you have a bare tree, you may cut it up into branches and sections that fit into your green waste cart. Make sure your cart lid closes. Solano Garbage will pick it up on your next regular refuse collection day. For more info, call Solano Garbage at 707-437-8900.

Another option is to call the Boy Scouts to schedule a special collection pickup on January 2 or January 9. They ask for a donation of $5 for trees under 6 feet, $10 for taller trees, and $10 for flocked or tinseled trees. Call the Boy Scouts at 707-421-5308.

For more information on household recycling, visit www.recycle-guide.com.

Suisun City Police Launch Program to Combat DUI Deaths and Injuries

New enforcement measures to combat impaired driving are coming in 2010 as a result of the Suisun City Police Department being awarded a $97,827 traffic safety grant for a year-long anti-DUI program aimed at preventing deaths and injuries on our roadways.

“Keeping our streets safe from drunk drivers is one of the Department’s top priorities this year. Our officers will be on patrols looking for drunk drivers and we will have a zero tolerance,” Suisun City Police Chief Ed Dadisho said.

The special DUI Enforcement and Awareness grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety will assist in efforts to reduce the number of persons killed and injured in collisions related to alcohol and other drugs.

Grant activities will specifically target impaired driving offenders as well as educate the public on the dangers of impaired driving. This will be done through the use of DUI/driver’s license checkpoints, warrant searches and stakeouts for repeat DUI offenders, saturation patrols, and court stings targeting DUI offenders with suspended or revoked driver licenses who get behind the wheel after leaving court.

During a recent DUI/driver's license checkpoint operation, the Suisun City Police Department

• Screened 964 vehicles
• Conducted 4 field sobriety tests resulting in one arrest
• Issued 12 non-DUI related citations
• Towed 12 vehicles
  

Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes. In 2008, over 11,700 people died in highway crashes involving a driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher.

“Last year in California 1,029 died in alcohol impaired crashes, a 9 percent reduction in deaths from 2007,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the Office of Traffic Safety. “This grant will help keep that trend going by getting drunk drivers off the roadways of Suisun City, making it safer for everyone.”

New this year is the addition of special Motorcycle Safety Enforcement Operations. Motorcycle fatalities have been on the rise in California, increasing 175 percent statewide in the last decade, from 204 killed in 1998 to 560 killed in 2008.

Suisun City police officers will be conducting specialized enforcement efforts throughout the course of the next year. Extra officers will be on duty patrolling areas frequented by motorcycles. Officers will be cracking down on traffic violations made by motorcyclists, and other vehicle drivers, that result in far too many motorcycle collisions, injuries and deaths.

Funding for the grant comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Travis AFB Plans Mass Launch Drill for Monday

TRAVIS AFB, Calif. – It won’t be Santa’s reindeer streaking across Northern California skies Dec. 21 but tankers and cargo aircraft from Travis. The base will conduct its first-ever “mass” aircraft launch starting around 10 a.m.

Travis will be launching up to six KC-10s, two C-17 Globemasters and a C-5 Galaxy cargo aircraft in succession. Once airborne, the aircraft will fly in formation then separate to fly normal low-level and air refueling routes. At that point, residents should not notice anything different than on a normal day of flying, said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Cooper, 60th Operations Squadron commander.

"This ‘mass’ launch will give the 60th and 349th Air Mobility Wing’s operations, maintenance and support folks a chance to train together on a larger scale than normal,” said Colonel Cooper. The maintenance squadron rarely gets the opportunity to generate, launch and recover so many aircraft at one time, he said.

More than 330 training events will be conducted during the flights. The 615th Contingency Response Wing at Travis will control the C-17 aircraft during landing exercises.

The 60th AMW is the largest air mobility organization in the Air Force and handles more cargo and passengers than any other U.S. military terminal. The wing operates and maintains C-5 and C-17 transport aircraft along with KC-10 aerial refueling aircraft that can fly peacetime and combat support missions anywhere in the world as directed by the Department of Defense.