Fred Castro and wife Lorraine now live in Las Vegas, Nevada. He came to the Decoto area in July of 1959, moved in their home in December of 1959 and lived there for 37 years. He reminisced that when he first visited Union City, there was no Union City. There were two separate communities named Decoto and Alvarado and two separate school districts. The first City Council was starting to operate with an incorporated city. In 1964, the city council decided it was time to start forming City Commissions to help in advising the City Council the needs of a new incorporated city. The first commission that was formed was the Park and Recreation Commission.

Fred said that he was fortunate to have been living in Union City to see the Holly Sugar Plant and its outstanding smoke stake just prior to the start of phasing the plant out. The Holly Sugar Company Mansion was the home of the General Manager of the Holly Sugar Company. It is still there and is located in the corner of Smith Street and Vallejo Street in the Alvarado area. When the sugar plant closed, they gave Union City the opportunity to buy the mansion at a reasonable cost as long as it would be used for some form of city activity. The city used it as a Community Center as at that time the city was in dire need of a recreation center. It is now the Filipino Community Center.

When Fred and family moved to Union City to their new home at 13th and F Streets, there were no sidewalks, curb or gutter. It was just a beautiful 40 acres fruit orchard that ran from 12th & F Streets and to what is now the expanded Searles Elementary School playground on 15th Street. Mr. and Mrs. Al George owned the orchard, located between ``F'' Street on the south side and ``Dry Creek'' on the north side and ran from ``12th Street on the east end to ``15th'' Street on the west end, part of what is now the playground of Searles Elementary School. At that time, Mrs. George was the postmistress of the Union City Post Office. Mr. and Mrs. George lived in a home located on the orchard grounds. It was a beautiful old home, probably as old as the orchard or older, but it was really kept up. Mr. & Mrs. George finally had to sell their orchard due to the rising costs of maintaining an orchard in a growing community and being surrounded by new homes development. It was a shame that our city fathers or the developers for that area did not make an attempt to preserve that home as a landmark

Also during that period of time, the city did not even own an acre of land for a city park and did not have the finances to fund it. In later years, a park bond was presented to the residents of the Union City, but was voted down. They tried again a couple years later, and they were better prepared and made a better presentation to citizens and it passed. After the bond issue passed and after many discussions, it was decided that the best area for a community center would be on Decoto Road going east from Alvarado-Niles road. That land, which belonged to the Meyer sisters, was a large vegetable patch. After many discussions with the Meyer sisters and many months passed, they finally agreed to sell Union City approximately 10 acres of land which still left them a very large portion of land, but the city was happy to get that much so that we could start building Kennedy Center which was named after Union City's first Director of Parks and Recreation.

A park located at 10th and ``G'' Streets in the Decoto District was named after Fred Castro as a tribute to this very energetic pillar of Union City. It was dedicated on April 26, 1997. Fred served as a Park and Recreation Commissioner for 32 years. He was instrumental in the acquisition and the development of Union City's seventeen parks. The Fred Castro Park honors his dedication to Union City Youth. Fred represents the finest example of the citizen volunteer and what can be accomplished.

Fred Castro and wife Lorraine send their good luck to us and told us to keep up this outstanding work for Union City. He said, ``We might not be living in Union City but it will always be part of our lives as all our kids went to school in Union City.''