A few highlights from Monday’s meeting:
1. Congratulations Chief Rothaus and Officer Ron Alberston!
San Carlos Police Chief Greg Rothaus and Officer Ron Albertson have developed an innovative program to keep first-time juvenile offenders out of trouble. The program, which Rothaus and Albertson run out of the San Carlos police station, is geared toward first-time young offenders and at-risk youth ages 12 to 18, offering them an alternative to incarceration.
Their hard work and ingenious program was recognized with the Jefferson Award. You can see a television clip describing this by clicking HERE.
The awards are administered by the American Institute for Public Service, a national foundation that honors community service.
2. Sewage…
I used to think upon concluding normal biological functions, a flush of the porcelin convenience would make stuff – well – go away. It was removed to a magical place that I don’t often think of. I found myself with a few stacks of materials preparing for the presentation to be given about sewage and found the humming Circle of Life, a song my nieces love from The Lion King, helps when you try to deal with this part of the circle..
Preamble aside – sewer systems are still pretty much what the greeks and romans envisioned with a lot more mechanics and regulation. As with all mechanical things, they age and need repair and replacement. So we bring our tale to San Carlos and the status of our systems. Simply put: They are getting older, have reached or surpassed useful life and need replacement. Costs for this are extremely significant, but extremely important.
The discussions on Monday concentrated upon the San Carlos pump station. This is the point which collects and moves the waste water to the processing plant in Redwood Shores. Several pumps exist there today at the end of useful life. The recommendation was made to add a new pump and leave the existing pumps in place as backups. The notion of redundancy has great appeal and it appears to be a fiscally reasonable way to start the project of upgrade and repair of these critical systems.
3. Storms and Flooding
The recent storms kept folks in public works busy and police blocked off several impassable streets. Citizens gave public comment about flooding they had experienced due to “intermittent creeks.” Seems like these points of stormwater runoff that were shared with the public are mostly running through private property. In these cases the creek areas were not maintained by the property owners and flooding for surrounding neighbors occurred.
There are a number of things that can be done: first is to recognize were at the beginning of the storm season and we should expect more rain. Second: how can we work together to get these creeks cleaned up? We have a number of folks who have moved to San Carlos and are not familiar with these issues. Are there groups who could help with a “creek cleanup” project?
4. Downtown use ordinance
Prior to my election to the council, an emergency ordinance was put on several blocks of our downtown area regarding the anticipated retail uses of storefronts greater than 2500 Sqft. The extention of this emergency ordinance was brought before the council on the 14th and we approved extending this emergency order for an additional year by a vote of 5-0.
A new ordinance (that will replace the emergency ordinance) was given first reading and passed on a 3-2 vote. This new ordinance will be given a second reading at the January 28 meeting. I expect a good deal of discussion to be presented at the second reading.
