Breaking News

By Sam Richards, Mike Wood and Craig Lazzeretti

Staff writers

Wednesday, December 31 (11:30a.m.): It was a year of big changes in Rossmoor, to be sure ‒ a new pickleball building broke ground, a new restaurant operator is coming, and a new business software system that promises to make life easier for Rossmoor’s accountants, Mutuals and department heads is starting to hit its stride.

Oh, and GRF is now RWC.

There was also the unexpected ‒ lower coupon costs and insurance premiums this year, you say? ‒ and some controversy over political columns, and how they aren’t allowed in the Rossmoor News anymore.

But some things don’t change. Scam artists continue to prey on seniors, and experts both within and outside Rossmoor have ratcheted up their campaigns to protect Rossmoorians. As happens every year, three RWC Board seats were up for election, with three new members all quickly making their presence felt. And the wild boars are always out there, waiting to wreak havoc in yards and on the golf course. This was their year, too.

Below are the Top 10 stories in Rossmoor in 2025, as decided by the News staff:

1) DEDICATED PICKLEBALL STRUCTURE BREAKS GROUND  After almost seven years of planning, public meetings, noise studies, rising costs and debate over spending priorities, ground was formally broken Nov. 14 just south of the Event Center for the $4.5 million structure that will become both the center of a growing pickleball community in Rossmoor, and an amenity Rossmoor Walnut Creek leaders hope will help attract new residents.

The city of Walnut Creek’s Planning Commission reviewed plans for Rossmoor’s “hybrid” indoor-outdoor pickleball courts building, which will host six courts plus spectator bleachers, and gave its formal approval in April. The RWC Planning Committee voted in August to support it, as did the full RWC Board later that month.

Work to move underground irrigation pipes at the building site started in October. Assuming the weather is relatively cooperative, supply chains don’t break down, and the city permitting process proceeds as expected, the new building could open sometime in late spring 2026.

As the project’s cost rose from $2.8 million in July 2023 to almost $4.5 million in August 2025, there was increasing concern about spending that much money for a project that would directly benefit only pickleball players. But the project had also gained support from non-players who said a premium pickleball facility would help attract people looking to buy a home in Rossmoor. As RWC Board member Adrian Byram said in August, “It’s a lot of money, but we can afford it, and we need to do it.”

2) ROSSMOOR REBRANDING  Facing declining home sales and acknowledging what some said was confusing and/or off-point messaging, Rossmoor leaders in 2025 formally rebranded this community “Rossmoor Walnut Creek” (or “RWC”), replacing the more obscure “Golden Rain Foundation” (“GRF”) identifier.

The RWC verbiage will eventually be part of all locational signs in and around Rossmoor (including the large sign at the corner of Tice Valley Boulevard and Rossmoor Parkway), promotional materials, staff business cards and uniforms for employees who wear them, and advertising and promotional materials.

Also approved by the RWC Board was the reworking of one of RWC’s two websites into strictly a marketing device, better showing Rossmoor’s attributes and, ultimately, putting interested buyers in touch with a real estate agent.

Many of the changes, some still in process, were conceived by the RWC Marketing Task Force, its members having had careers in marketing, plus a real estate agent.

The website redesign also will include improving MyRossmoor.com’s abilities to serve Rossmoor residents with reserving golf tee times, buying event tickets and other resident services. Both sites are set to have their rollouts this spring.

3) FOOD SERVICE CHANGES  Creekside Grill and Bar is giving way to The Pear at Rossmoor in what is the first significant visible action reflecting the results of a Food and Beverage Study of Rossmoor that the Board approved two years ago.

The Pear at Rossmoor will be the newest “Pear” restaurant operated by Executive Chef Rodney Worth. It is expected to open this spring.

Worth also plans to open a coffee cart, usually stationed near the Golf Shop, this spring. A more casual dining eatery, and possibly other offerings, are planned after that.

About 15% of Rossmoor residents took part in surveys tied to the Food and Beverage Study; respondents wanted not only a formal restaurant but also a more casual dining space and more availability of coffee, other drinks, pastries and the like.

The popular Creekside Grill was set to close Dec. 23. Operated by Stan Gedeon, it first opened in early 2011. That space (both the dining room and the kitchen) is set to undergo significant interior remodeling ahead of The Pear at Rossmoor’s opening.

4) POLITICAL COLUMNS ENDED  The RWC Board vote at its Feb. 27 meeting to end the publication of political columns in the Rossmoor News followed more than two years of debate, discussion, numerous letters to the editor and protesting by residents on whether the resident-penned columns should continue. Some contended that banning them would impinge upon free speech. The vote was 6-0, with members Dwight Walker and Maxine Topper abstaining and Leanne Hamaji absent.

The columns went on a two-month hiatus in early 2023 after fact-checking of the columns by Rossmoor News editors became excessively time-consuming. Resuming in a one-column-per-issue format, the columns were put on a moratorium in July 2024 by Board president Hamaji following politically charged incidents in Rossmoor during that year’s contentious national election campaign.

In another action related to politics, in May the RWC Board approved wording changes to an existing policy covering Rossmoor TV to ensure that local elected officials or their staff “participating in non-partisan or non-election campaign meetings or events” in Rossmoor would be permitted as programming.

5) SOME GOOD INSURANCE NEWS  Rossmoor was set to pay about $6 million less in master property insurance premiums in 2025 than anticipated, partly by jettisoning earthquake insurance through May 2027, but also by improving the community’s overall fire resiliency, stricter adherence to safety rules and other measures.

In February, RWC also saved money by locking in a five-year premium for the first $5 million in property coverage, generally the most tapped-into segment of such large policies. This “alternate risk transfer,” depending on how many, or few, claims are made on the overall policy, could see Rossmoor get up to 85% of that amount back, said Ken Johnson of A.J. Gallagher, Rossmoor’s insurance broker.

RWC General Manager Jeff Matheson said Mutuals prepared their 2025 budgets planning for an 18% to 20% premium increase but actually saw a 10.2% drop ($23.8 million in 2024 to $21.3 million for 2025). That difference between higher expectations and lower reality, he said, was approximately $6 million.

The RWC Board’s decision in August to drop earthquake coverage for 2026 will save $342,731.The Board could opt to purchase coverage again after that, Matheson said.

6) NEW RWC BOARD MEMBERS  The RWC Board welcomed three new Board members this May: Adrian Byram, Susan Hildreth and Janet Seldon.

Hildreth won election to be director for District F, defeating incumbent Cheryl Hines. Seldon in District B and Byram in District G each ran unopposed and won by acclamation. Those two seats were previously held by Maxine Topper and James Lee, respectively, who each opted not to seek re-election.

At a time when topics like the pickleball facility, the status of political columns in the newspaper and changes to the room-reservation process were contentious within Rossmoor, improving transparency between the Board and residents was raised during the campaign. At April’s Candidates Forum, Byram stated that his highest priority would be finding “better ways for effective dialogue,” and both Hildreth and Seldon said transparency needed to improve.

Byram was named Board treasurer at the May 12 Annual Meeting of Members and Organizational Meeting, when he, Hildreth and Seldon were installed on the Board. All three sit on the new Community Services Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Task Force, of which Hildreth is the chair.

7) NETSUITE HITS ITS STRIDE  Earlier this month, RWC Chief Financial Officer Todd Arterburn said Rossmoor’s NetSuite business software system “turned a corner” when he gave the RWC Board its first look at the 2025 financial balance sheets and cash flow statements for both RWC and Rossmoor Property Management (RPM) budgets. It was a glimpse of what NetSuite can do with financial numbers, performing in ways its predecessor Jenark software couldn’t.

First approved by the then-GRF Board in late 2023, the $1.3 million NetSuite software (which Oracle calls an “Enterprise Resource Planning system”) was acquired to replace the 20-plus-year-old Jenark system to consolidate and manage RWC, Rossmoor’s Mutuals and RPM financials, and improve residents’ interactions with the Work Order Desk.

It took longer than expected to get NetSuite fully up and running. But at the RWC Board meeting on Dec. 4, and the RWC Finance Committee meeting two days earlier, Arterburn presented what he called “a more robust deck of numbers,” more thorough, and more up-to-the-minute, than he had before. “It’s a huge milestone,” he told the Board.

8) SCAMS DRAW CONCERN, AWARENESS   Scams and fraud schemes targeting seniors rose to the forefront as residents described in this newspaper incidents with scammers. One resident described how scammers conned her out of $12,500 in a scheme that apparently used AI voice cloning of the resident’s grandson.

Another resident described how computer malware led to her interacting with scammers posing as computer technicians, who hacked into her computer and tried to steal funds. However, her financial investment company and bank both intervened.

Someone tried to scam the Rossmoor LGBTQ+ Alliance out of $50,000 in an elaborate “donation refund scam” by posing as a donor, but that was thwarted when Alliance officials recognized red flags.

To educate and raise awareness, resident Ken Jonah, an expert in detecting scams, began writing regular Scam Alert tips in the News. Jonah also gave presentations to numerous Rossmoor clubs, organizations and Mutuals, some in tandem with Contra Costa Deputy District Attorney Mary Blumberg. In November, the Rossmoor Emergency Preparedness Organization (EPO), which Jonah is chair of, hosted a talk on scams by Walnut Creek police.

9) RESIDENTS SEE SOME COUPON RELIEF   Cost-conscious residents received a bit of good news late in the year when the RWC Board approved a $28.1 million budget for 2026 that included a roughly $3 drop in its portion of the monthly coupon – from $354.52 per month in 2025 to $351.51 in 2026.

The lower RWC coupon amount was made possible by several factors. One was the RWC Board’s August move of the annual RWC Facility and Property Maintenance budget from the RWC operating fund to its capital fund. Another was the Board’s vote, also in August, on the aforementioned drop of Rossmoor’s earthquake insurance, $5 million worth, for 2026, saving $342,731.

The RWC coupon amount is combined with those of individual Mutuals to comprise each manor owner’s total monthly assessment. Second Mutual, for example, reported a total coupon amount of $1,294 per month for 2026, an increase $36 per manor. First Mutual reported that its assessment would remain the same in 2026, though members could see a monthly change if their individual property taxes change from 2025.

10) WILD BOARS CAUSE DAMAGE  In September, wild boars damaged portions of Dollar Ranch Golf Course and some lawns around homes in Mutual 68 in southeastern Rossmoor.

Damage to fairways in the course’s holes three, four and five, which sit on the east side of Rossmoor Parkway, was first noticed by golf staff on Sept. 8. More damage was detected after the next two nights. It was determined that the damage was done by wild boars, sometimes known as feral pigs, when staff recognized their distinctive hoof marks when assessing the damage. Golf crews worked overtime to repair the damage, and because the greens were spared, Rossmoor golfers played on.

The wild boars apparently came down from the hills at night to feed, tearing up turf searching for grubs, rodents or insects. Unlike problems that skunks or raccoons might cause to turf, feral pigs can do much more extensive damage in a shorter time, said Mark Heptig, RWC director of golf.

To address damage to 15 yards within Mutual 68, the Mutual’s leadership hired a trapper, who removed five feral pigs. By early October, the problem had subsided.