A fireplace on the Martinez Raffining Company on February 1 released chemicals published that may cause cancer and heart and lung diseases, but strong winds have deported most of the harmful smoke from populated areas, so Contra Costa County Health Services.

In a press release, the contra Costa County Health Officer Dr. Ori TziVeii on Tuesday how glad the Martinez community was this afternoon and the way close the refinerie fire was to develop into a crisis in public healthcare after a flag of carbon water led to a high flags of Rauch, which was kilometer in regards to the Martinez Raffinerie was seen.

“That could have been much worse,” said Tzierti. “We were lucky this time. But our community shouldn't need to depend on luck. “

On February 1st at 1:30 p.m., refinery workers opened the equipment for the planned maintenance of a processing unit that had been closed at the beginning of the week when they ray. A hydrocarbon losing from the devices inflamed. Six refinery workers were evaluated and released by the medical staff.

“Air quality measurements that were taken by the Hazmat employees of Contra Costa Health in the course of the incident showed that the concentrations of chemicals within the air in the course of the event were largely under the brink,” said the agency.

There was a short time in which the smoke of the fire remained closer to the ground and the measurements of dangerous particles – including benzene, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and xylol – were measured at a high level, said the agency. Health officials believe that the short time of increased levels will not have a significant effect on the health of the public.

Another update about the incident is expected in March as part of a 30-day follow-up report, which is prescribed by Contra Costa County Health. The district is hiring an independent company to carry out a root complaint analysis to determine why the accident happened and how future incidents can be prevented in the future.

The Contra Costa County Supervisor Shanelle Scales Preston said that it was concerned about the release of chemicals and combustion nonsense products for the health of its district, which includes the area around the refinery.

“I’ll work to be sure that all reports and analyzes carried out by MRC, CCH and the Air District are released completely and immediately,” said Scales-Preston. “My top priority remains to be the health and security of the community.”

CLAYTON – One person suffered third-degree burns to 60% of their body after a Toyota Prius caught fire near Marsh Creek Road Sunday afternoon.

Within an hour, the burn victim was stabilized and flown from Clayton Community Park by a medical helicopter.

It's unclear what began the single-vehicle fire just before 1 p.m., which was not reported as a part of a collision or other incident near Divide Reservoir in unincorporated Contra Costa County.

Emergency responders and medical personnel haven’t confirmed the fireplace victim's age or gender because of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District's ongoing investigation, based on Capt. Victor Daniel.

First responders quickly stabilized themselves and transported the fireplace victim by ambulance to Clayton Community Park, which is about 2.5 miles west of the fireplace scene identified in a PulsePoint report. A Reach Air Medical Services helicopter was later cleared for transport to UC Davis, home of the Firefighters Burn Institute Regional Burn Center.

However, as of Sunday evening, neither CCCFPD nor UC Davis Health officials could confirm the burn victim's location or his condition.

Emergency responders from the California Highway Patrol and Clayton Police Department were also on the scene Sunday afternoon, and Cal Fire quickly extinguished the vehicle fire that had ignited about 200 feet of grass on Marsh Creek Road.

MARTINEZ – Falling prices for a lot of industrial properties, comparable to office buildings, have undermined property values ​​in Contra Costa County, an annual government report shows.

While property values ​​in Contra Costa County are rising, their increase has been at its slowest pace in three years, reflecting weakness in sectors comparable to industrial real estate.

The sluggish increase in property values ​​could lead on to a decline in property tax revenues for municipal, regional and county governments in Contra Costa County.

According to a report released by the County Assessor's Office, the full value of real estate in Contra Costa County for the 2024-2025 tax rolls was $278.84 billion.

Contra Costa County real estate values ​​increased 4.2%, or $11.16 billion, as of January 1, 2024, in comparison with the previous 12 months. The current assessment represents a record high for real estate values ​​within the county.

Still, Contra Costa County is showing some signs of weakness, as a review of the county's assessment reports from recent years shows.

The 4.2% increase was the bottom annual rate of increase in property values ​​in Contra Costa County because the 2021-2022 assessment period three years ago, which applied to property values ​​starting in January 2021.

The sluggish increase in real estate values ​​on this a part of the East Bay follows on the heels of a tricky environment for office constructing prices within the Bay Area.

Contra Costa County was also not spared from the brutal trends within the industrial real estate sector.

“The office building business has dropped dramatically,” said Gus Kramer, Contra Costa County tax assessor.

The values ​​of residential and industrial properties also began to falter.

Here are some examples of real estate transactions in 2023 that indicate weaker values ​​for industrial real estate:

– The Concord Corporate Center in Concord was purchased for $20 million, a staggering 68.5% drop from the office constructing complex’s value in 2017.

– A Concord Centre in Concord was purchased in August 2023 for $40.5 million, a 42.6% decrease from its 2017 value.

– The NoMa Apartments in downtown Walnut Creek were returned to the residential property lender after the apartment complex’s developer defaulted on a $79.8 million loan.

Concord, Walnut Creek and San Ramon saw the smallest increases in assessed values, the report shows.

In Walnut Creek, estimated values ​​rose by 1.5%, in Concord by 1.7% and in San Ramon by almost 3%.

According to the County Assessor's Office report, the cities with the biggest increases in value included Martinez, Oakley, Antioch and Richmond.

This is how the cities with the biggest increases in unit values ​​performed:

– Martinez, up 6.1%

— Oakley, up 5.2%

– Antioch, plus 5%

– Richmond, up 4.7%

The revenue from property tax will depend on the assessed value of the properties in query.

This implies that a slow pace of appreciation could also result in a decline in tax revenues going to the federal government and native authorities in Contra Costa County and surrounding cities.

“This could have an impact on the budgets of cities and counties,” Kramer said. “It has a significant impact on the services that cities and counties provide.”

RICHMOND — A brand new ominous Civil Grand Jury Report found Contra Costa County's municipal warning system inadequate, claiming that the voluntary opt-in network may fail to quickly and accurately notify as much as 70% of residents within the event of a wildfire, earthquake, or other major disaster.

Across the United States, alerts are sent in the shape of quite a lot of text messages, phone alerts, calls, social media posts, and other media broadcasts—vital tools for informing people about wildfires, earthquakes, floods, and other life-threatening disasters.

But these warnings often cannot fully contain the consequences of devastation, because the worst forest fire within the United States in a century recently demonstrated. swept through Maui last Augustas a result of slow response times from emergency responders, disruptions in internal communications, limited internal communications, non-functioning cell towers, and an overloaded operations center.

One of the largest concerns of the Civil Court is the reliance on a single on-call sheriff's office officer to reply to alarms and connect with the alert system network. Except for alarms related to refineries and chemical plants, Contra Costa County is the one county within the Bay Area that doesn’t train dispatchers to observe and activate alarms during emergencies, in keeping with a 2018 survey.

In addition, the report found that no independent, comprehensive risk evaluation of the present warning system has been conducted for the reason that county took over operations in 2001.

“Contra Costa County should not wait to identify risks when part of its warning system fails in an actual emergency,” the report says. “The success of any given warning system depends to a large extent on the redundancies built into the system to ensure that warnings reach as many people as possible.”

The June 3 report confirmed several concerns that had been raised for years without success. Among them was Richmond City Council member Soheila Bana, who founded the West Contra Costa Fire Safe Council in 2022 and wrote a letter to the grand jury last 12 months after repeatedly trying in vain to contact the Board of Supervisors, Sheriff's Office and other staff to take motion on projects which will have previously been deemed too expensive, unnecessary or not definitely worth the effort.

“I think we need to be more active than we have been so far – and make sure that the recommendations are implemented as intended,” Bana said on Tuesday. “I don't know why no one has paid attention to this so far, but it is obvious that (the existing municipal warning system) is not working as it should, or not optimally.”

Officials with the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

According to spokeswoman Kristi Jourdan, “Contra Costa County does not comment on grand jury reports until the Board of Supervisors has reviewed the document and had an opportunity to respond.”

But time is running out and the specter of disaster is looming – especially in a region stuffed with oil refineries, densely populated urban areas, vast open spaces with high potential for danger, fault lines and a network of pipelines for transporting hazardous materials.

In the case of disasters corresponding to fast-spreading wildfires, emergency experts advocate for warning messages to be written and sent to the general public inside 20 minutes, in keeping with the June 3 grand jury report, while other drills emphasize a 10-minute response time – an urgency that “can mean the difference between life and death,” in keeping with the report.

Failure to warn has killed or injured many people in California and across the country. Delayed notification contributed to the deaths of 85 people when the Camp Fire ravaged the town of Paradise in 2018. A series of fires in Wine Country in 2017 also killed 44 people.

The warnings also got here too late for a whole bunch of residents, who needed to be rescued after Coyote Creek overflowed its banks in February 2017 consequently of severe river storms. 14,000 people needed to be evacuated and the damage was estimated at $100 million.

Bana hopes the report will force local officials to take their concerns concerning the current CWS system more seriously, especially after town of Richmond conducted two evacuation drills in 2022 and 2023 that exposed half of the participants either received no warnings or weren’t notified until hours after the drill was accomplished. According to the grand jury report, the county didn’t review, query or investigate these issues.

Because the chance of multiple system failures continues to exist in Contra Costa County, the grand jury really useful that county agencies robotically enroll all county residents and businesses within the county's Community Warning System (CWS), deploy long-range acoustic devices that may transmit audible messages up to at least one mile, train sheriff's office dispatchers in operating the CWS, and certify first responder training in any respect local agencies.

In addition, the report calls on the county to ascertain an advisory board of county warning system and emergency response experts to guide the design and operation of the CWS and to commission a third-party risk evaluation of the CWS processes, procedures, hardware and software.

The grand jury required that every of the eight recommendations be implemented by 2025 and suggested that county officials use funds from Measure X – a countywide, 20-year, half-cent emergency response sales tax that voters approved in 2020 – to ascertain an opt-out alert system, acoustic studies for LRAD deployment, mobile apps for evacuation information and risk analyses of the present CWS.

In the meantime, Bana said he hopes Contra Costa County officials will take the time to work with local city and advocacy groups who’ve already begun researching the present risks and issues facing their communities.

“We've raised all of these issues before, but the response from the sheriff's office was, 'Everything is working fine, as it should,'” Bana said. “We don't have to go to the grand jury to make them aware that something needs to be fixed.”

MARTINEZ — Pedestrians and cyclists within the Bay Area will soon be 4 miles closer to having the ability to explore a continuous coastal path through nine counties and 47 cities, thanks to almost $2 million in recent federal funding for the San Francisco Bay Trail.

Congressman John Garamendi recently awarded Contra Costa County $1 million for improvements along a 3.2-mile stretch of San Pablo Avenue. The plan is to convert one in all the 4 lanes right into a “complete street” with a protected path between Rodeo and Crockett, a project currently estimated to cost $13.7 million.

Garmendi also distributed $900,000 to the East Bay Regional Park District to fill a half-mile gap between the present George Miller Regional Trail and the Amtrak Intermodal Station in downtown Martinez with a continuous, paved trail. Once the project, estimated to cost greater than $4 million, is accomplished, Regional Trail users may have uninterrupted access to Vallejo, Benicia, Crockett and Martinez.

Garamendi, who represents California’s eighth District, said this Federal funds for joint projects were included in the primary budget package for 2024, which was finalized in March.

“These projects will make previously underinvested communities more livable, with safer, less congested streets and better options for walking, biking or taking the train to work or school,” Garamendi said. “This has all been made possible by the dedication and passion of dozens of local leaders.”

Jeff Valeros, a senior civil engineer within the Contra Costa County Department of Public Works, estimates that after construction begins, crews may not begin constructing on the San Pablo Avenue section until 2027. He said the project will likely take two years due to must bypass existing traffic interchanges on the busy road.

“We want to make sure that pedestrians and cyclists do not find themselves in a situation where they have to move in a really uncomfortable and inconvenient way next to the trucks and vehicles that are driving there,” said Valeros.

For nearly 4 many years, Bay Area officials have worked to finish the 500-mile trail, which was the brainchild of State Senator Bill Lockyer in 1986.

Colin Coffey, a member of the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) board of directors that represents the northern shoreline from Hercules to Brentwood, said that along with the challenges of addressing the complex geography and terrain along this stretch in Contra Costa County, the gap-filling project between Berrellesa Street in downtown Martinez and the hills of the George Miller Regional Trail has been delayed by regulatory issues, largely related to the railroad tracks that Amtrak and Union Pacific trains run on.

“The easy parts of the Bay Trail are done,” Coffey said. “When you look at the system of trails and parks in the East Bay, it's just remarkable that we have leaders and community members who are really supportive of dedicating time and money to this work.”

In June 2018, the EBRD concluded a 13.2 million dollars, 335 meter long bridge over the railroad tracks in Pinole along the Bay Trail – a one-fifth-mile project that was one in all the agency’s costliest and sophisticated in recent memory. A one-mile extension of the trail behind the now-closed Golden Gate Fields race track – stretching from Gilman Street in Berkeley to Albany Beach – was accomplished in July 2020. Built over two years, the $18.9 million project filled one in all the biggest gaps on the 18 miles from Richmond to Oakland.

Contra Costa County Executive John Gioia, who lives on Bay Trail in Richmond, said he’s pleased to see the progress of those projects, which can positively impact the health and equity of historically low-income, disadvantaged communities.

“These are expensive projects, but they're about health, equity and providing access to the bay and a means of transportation,” Gioia said. “I see every day the variety of uses this trail has – people of all ages, races and ethnicities, people fishing, walking their dogs, taking their kids out and about… Without federal funding, we often can't really complete these projects.”

ORINDA – When parents confer with their teens about Internet safety and the hazards of online encounters with strangers, the topic of bondage and tickling probably doesn't come up.

But that's exactly what happened to a handful of teenagers in downtown Contra Costa, based on authorities.

Police in Moraga and Orinda are investigating a tip that at the very least a half-dozen boys were contacted via social media by a mysterious tickler with a proposal. People who met him described him as a polite and “businesslike” middle-aged man who offered the boys $600 to be tied up, tickled and filmed at a predetermined, discreet location, authorities said.

Some of the boys gave in. And the videos soon began circulating on social media, police said.

At least 4 boys from a Lamorinda-area highschool reportedly arranged to satisfy the person at an Alameda County hotel. When they entered the room, he was already waiting for them with cameras. They chatted briefly, then the boys were tied hand and foot, separately, and tickled on a bed for 30 to 45 seconds. The boys were fully clothed and the person stopped occasionally to ask if every thing was OK and allowed them breaks between tickling sessions, authorities said.

The man allegedly told the kids the videos were for his “personal collection” after which paid the boys in money. This meeting took place last yr, police said.

Police became aware of the disturbing encounter last month when the person allegedly made contact with two other teenagers within the Lamorinda area.

This time, the person said he desired to pay $600 to boys willing to undergo the identical treatment and $100 for referrals to other boys. He added that he hoped to seek out subjects who were “very ticklish,” authorities said. The offer was accompanied by a video of teenagers being tickled, and the videos reportedly began circulating soon after at Miramonte High School in Orinda and Campolindo High School in Moraga.

Police have launched an investigation. While California's penal code doesn’t specifically prohibit tickling teenagers, if the tickling or filming was done for sexual reasons, it could violate various federal and state laws. So far, police haven’t announced any arrests or said whether or not they have identified the tickler.

When voters approved a well-liked initiative, Expand Pittsburg's growth boundaries With the two,400-acre expansion in 2005, the door opened for a developer who had had his eye on the southwestern hills on the outskirts of town for years and envisioned hundreds of homes along the expansive vistas.

But for nearly 20 years, plans to construct single-family homes on a part of that land have been fraught with zoning disputes and environmental challenges.

That battle could end Wednesday if county officials comply with cede control of 606 acres to Pittsburg – potentially clearing the ultimate hurdle to approval of the project.

The Faria/Southwest Hills project goals to accumulate to 1,500 latest single-family homes across the Los Medanos Ridgeline. Proposed by Discovery Builders – an affiliate of Concord-based developer Albert Seeno III – the project has already been approved twice by the Pittsburg City Council.

But Farias’s forward movement has stalled as he waits for the annexation of a agricultural protection area without legal personalityowned by Discovery Builders, throughout the city limits of Pittsburg and the service areas of Contra Costa Water and Delta Diablo Sanitation counties. The Contra Costa – Commission to determine a neighborhood agency (LAFCO), which monitors such border changes, is Vote on annexation Wednesday.

That decision was delayed in April on account of growing opposition, including a whole bunch of letters from members and supporters of the nonprofit Save Mount Diablo – a land trust and conservation organization – urging their supporters to assist “Save the Ridge.” They say the Albert Seeno III construction project is “disastrous” and threatens to “level the tops of Pittsburg's hills.” Opponents say Discovery Builders “never conducted a project-level environmental impact assessment, as LAFCO has repeatedly required,” nor has it provided an in depth site design plan or a subdivision plan with home lots and streets.”

For more than a decade, Seth Adams, Director of Land Conservation at Save Mount Diablofought to protect the hills of Pittsburg from development by Seeno and questioned the developer’s motives because they want to speed up approvals before the public can see detailed plans. At the same time, Albert Seeno III tried to distance himself from a history of family quarrels and Environmental violations overshadows the developments led by other members of his family's construction empire within the hills of Contra Costa County.

In addition to a youth recreation center and mountain climbing trails connecting to Thurgood Marshall Regional Park, plans for the opposite half of the Faria/Southwest Hills project include 265 acres of open space and greenbelt along the ridge as a buffer from the East Bay Regional Park District site, which in turn sits between a billion-dollar, 12,200-unit housing complex to be built across the hill on the previous Concord Naval Weapons Station.

Adams is urging the commission to require more green space – as much as 150 meters – since the regional park and surrounding habitats, access to nature, neighborhood traffic and fire risk are in danger. In addition, the community's scenic views may very well be affected by heavy grading during construction.

“I believe a complete host of problems might be solved by making a larger buffer zone between development and the Concord border on this unincorporated county area,” he said in April.

Farias' vision for the southwest hills of Pittsburg has been discussed for years.

The first application for the Project was submitted in 2010but a premature Annexation offer was quickly withdrawn in 2011. The developers modified the proposal in 2014 and again in 2017, then the plans revived in 2020. After Obtain Council approval in 2021A lawsuit alleging that the project would destroy the hills and habitat then forced Discovery Builders to rewrite environmental assessments, which the Pittsburg City Council re-approved in April 2023 – against the recommendation of the Pittsburg Planning Commissioners.

Elected politicians have increasingly pointed to the pressure not only to spend millions of dollars in urgently needed tax revenuebut also meet state-mandated housing goals to keep pace with the above-average growth rate in Contra Costa County. Pittsburg's population is expected to grow by 77,500 to around 91,600 inhabitants by 2040, in keeping with town previous housing elementand the present plan of town was already not in accordance with applicable national laws until March 1st.

“I actually have called on town, the developer and Save Mount Diablo to work together to preserve everlasting open space on this area — that's one of the best thing I can do legally,” Texeira said before Wednesday's meeting. “It's been a difficult process, but I believe I actually have all the data I want to bring this forward (for approval). I hope this moves forward with none issues.”

Louis Parsons, president of Discovery Builders and a former project manager for the Faria project, has long called Save Mount Diablo's lawsuit “meritless.” In April, he said the environmental group was “unclear about Contra Costa LAFCO's role or is attempting to confuse the general public and decision makers.”

“The fact is that the shape and scope of the project has already been approved by the City of Pittsburg,” Parsons wrote in an email. The proposed development “meets all environmental regulations, including vital habitat protection guidelines adopted by various surrounding cities and the Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy.”

PITTSBURG — He's been called every thing from a fighter for justice to a tireless advocate, inspirational mentor and civil rights warrior. When Willie Mims walked through the door, wearing his colourful African kufi hat and dashiki top, carrying his carved traditional walking stick, heads turned and everybody knew he had something to say.

An ally to those whose voices often went unheard, Mims never wanted to depart the political battlefield and fought to the top for the causes he believed in. The longtime Pittbsurg resident, a legend within the East Contra Costa County community and beyond, lost his battle with cancer on May 22. He was 79.

“Willie was important to all aspects of the community,” said Contra Costa County Supervisor Federal Glover. “Willie will be remembered for always being there. Bringing people together and making sure policymakers were aware of the issues.”

A lifelong educator and longtime East County NAACP education officer, Mims advocated for college students and families from across the NAACP district, including Solano County, where he had worked as an English teacher. That meant advocating for college students and bringing larger discrimination issues to light, reminiscent of in 2015 when he helped negotiate a groundbreaking agreement with the Antioch Unified School District and the local NAACP to handle the disparity in suspensions and expulsions of black and disabled students.

In 2013, he began working with Antioch schools on the African-American Male Achievement Initiative, with the goal of eliminating achievement gaps between black students and their peers.

“He was all about standing up for people, and one of the things he really stood up for was equity in education,” Glover said.

NAACP President Odessa Lefrancois said Mims was “highly respected” and willing to research and pursue any issue he thought was essential, and ultimately “always had a solution.”

“We have lost a great civil rights activist and friend who always fought for justice and equality for all,” said Lefrancois, who had been friends with him for greater than 25 years. “It didn't matter who you were.”

Marcus Mims said his father's passion was helping people and he believed he could try this in politics “by trying to put the right people in the right places.”

He added that his father was an excellent male role model who helped hundreds of college children and families over time, advocated for them and attended education planning meetings – all in his spare time.

“They (the parents) called my dad for help and he always answered,” he said. “He was still selling dinners and donating to fundraisers (until shortly before his death).”

Marcus Mims said his father taught him to “be a good person” and was a loyal husband to his wife, Darlene. An avid reader – especially about African history – Mims at all times gave his children puzzles to resolve once they were young.

“He wanted to make people think,” he said.

“His quote was 'They want us to forget,'” Mims' daughter Dana Mims said of her father. “And that's why he always fought so hard.”

Although education was his passion, Mims also took on city councils, county supervisors, and others—anywhere he believed he could make a difference.

“He was a fighter,” said Merl Craft, a former Pittsburg City Councilwoman. “He was all over East County, but his biggest impact was here in Pittsburg.”

Pittsburg City Councilwoman Shanelle Scales-Preston said she was like an “adopted daughter” to Mims, having grown up within the neighborhood where he lived. She recalled that Mims was a key voice against the WesPac crude oil project in Pittsburg in 2015 because “he thought it was unsafe.”

“This is our living legend,” she said of the black civil rights activist. “He is the one who stands up against injustice and makes sure that he fights for the freedom of all people.”

In 2020, Mims, then 75, participated in all six Black Lives Matter marches in Pittsburg, including walking the five miles from Antioch City Hall to Pittsburg City Hall, refusing to just accept a ride despite the warmth, Scales-Preston said.

Mims is a native of McCaul, Louisiana, grew up in West Pittsburg, and graduated from Pacifica High School in 1963. He entered the political scene on the age of 17, distributing leaflets in support of the Rumford Fair Housing Act to combat racial discrimination within the California housing market.

After graduating from Diablo Valley College and San Francisco State, he earned his teaching certificate and later his master's in English and artistic writing. But he couldn't discover a full-time teaching job and as an alternative worked instead teacher and part-time in food service on the VA hospital to support his family, Dana Mims said. He was eventually hired by the Vallejo City Unified School District, where he remained until his retirement in 2009.

Mims co-founded the Black Political Association in Pittsburg and the East Contra Costa County NAACP branch, was a former mentor of the Safe In My Brother's Arms program, and a former board member of the East County Boys and Girls Club.

For his work for racial justice and equality, he was honored with the Dr. Martin Luther King Freedom Fighter Award in 2008, received the Key to the City of Antioch in February, and was named Contra Costa Humanitarian of the Year in January, amongst other honors.

Mims has also volunteered for the Greater Faith Food Pantry, is a former representative on the Hiring Policy Review Committee for Contra Costa Community College, a member of the Equity & Disproportionality Committee for Mt. Diablo Unified School District, and the LCAP and LCFF committees for Vallejo Unified School District.

He is predeceased by his wife of 52 years, Darlene Lea-Mims, his parents, Edward and Lillie Mims, his sisters, Wilma Douglas and Isabel Medford, and his brothers, Melvin Mims, Mack Mims and Walter Mims. He is survived by his two children, Dana and Marcus (Cassandra) Mims, his sisters, Hilda Murdoch of Pittsburg, Nancy Mims-Burt of Pittsburg, Ruth Mims-Jemerson of Oakland and Melodye Montgomery of Alameda, his brother-in-law, Larry Harold, six grandchildren and various other members of the family.

The service can be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Delta Bay Community Church, 1020 E. Tregallas Road in Antioch. To watch online, visit Zoom link ID: 740 600 9196, password: 2024. Donations in his name for the Willie J. Mims Education Scholarship for East County Youth are being accepted at www.obituare.com/willie-james-mims-obituary-133141/.