The Burlingame Voice

BESD - Approve Agreement with City

City, district close in on fee compromise (by Heather, Daily Journal)

A new agreement covering the costs of a janitor could be the first step in restoring an amicable working relationship between the city of Burlingame and its school district.

The new agreement was approved by the Burlingame Elementary School District Board of Trustees Tuesday. It outlined a fee increase for parks and recreation programs to help fund a custodian. Although the City Council approved the fee increase in July, it has yet to approve the agreement with the school district, which will be discussed at the Monday, Oct. 1 meeting. Board President Dave Pine was pleased to see the two groups come to an agreement. The agreement also outlines a process of working together in the future. This will help improve our communication and sets up a framework to work through issues,? he said.

Earlier this year, the Burlingame Elementary School District made $800,000 in cuts including a $55,000-a-year custodian. This limits the ability of the district to tidy up school property when events occur after school. In an effort to help cover the costs of these events many of which are put on through the city's Parks and Recreation Commission the City Council approved a 10 percent fee hike in July. It's been one of our priorities this year to have a good working relationship [with the school district],? said Mayor Terry Nagel. I think this is a real positive step forward.? If the hike causes a significant decrease in enrollment in programs the city and district will reassess the agreement, she said.

The full $55,000 won't be covered by the increase, however it should raise between $22,000 to $25,000 enough to cover the position for six months, said Superintendent Sonny Da Marto. Raising the fees to a level that would fully cover the custodian was felt to be too pricey by the city/district liaison committee. This plan would give the committee of district and city representatives time to explore other options such as seeking sponsors for the programs.

The council meets 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 1 at City Hall, 501 Primrose Road.

- Written by Fiona

GABRIEL MOULIN and MOULIN STUDIOS IN BURLINGAME

The Burlingame Historical Society is very pleased to announce our next Quarterly Meeting on Sunday, September 30, 2007 from 2-4 in the Alumni Room, at Burlingame High School (old library). It will feature the work of renowned photographer, Gabriel Moulin. Our very honored guest speakers will be Jean and Tom Moulin, of Moulin Studios. This is sure to be a memorable event!

Gabriel Moulin was born in San Jose in 1872, the son of German and French parents. By the age of 12, Gabriel was already apprenticing with San Francisco's leading photographer of the day, Issac W. Tabor. Shortly before 1900, he left Tabor to join in partnership with R. J. Waters and Co. This association lasted until the Great Quake, when Gabriel went out on his own, recording the devastation and rebirth of San Francisco.

A leading commercial photographer during the 20's and the 30's, he and other sought after photographers of the era were often commissioned to capture the lifestyles of the well to do, their families, homes and gardens. Included in his rich body of work are several very early images of Burlingame as it develops into a desirable suburb.

Sons Raymond and Irving joined their father's business early on, followed by grandson Tom, in 1949. Though Gabriel passed away in 1945, the tradition of excellent photography lives on through his family run business today.

Free, donations benefiting the Hillsborough Gatehouse Project and the Burlingame Hillsborough History Museum

- Written by Jen

Safeway Next Steps

It was easy to avoid getting wrapped up in the details at tonight's Safeway Working Group presentation because there were not many details. That was OK because that was the plan. Present the criteria that the Working Group have developed and seek feedback from the planning commission and the city council. The Working Group wanted to know:

--if the commissioners and council members were satisfied with the criteria so that they could move on to the design phase (answer was yes)

--if the city-owned lots (K and L) could be used in creative ways that might not include a straight trade of exact amounts of square footage and parking spaces (answer again was yes), and

--if mixed use development (including residential and/or retail) could be accepted by the commission and the council (answer appeared to be yes).

The most notable stance of the night belonged to Rosalie O'Mahony. With a firm view anchored in the past, she made it clear that she preferred a simple grocery store without any additional uses. She also wanted an exact trade for any real estate in the form of lots K and L. The stance was notable because among seven planning commissioners, five council members and the dozen or so Working Group members she was the only one with that point of view.

Ann Keighran mentioned flexibility on parking space trades and the possibility of putting the mixed use in a separate building. Charles Voltz noted that they are now working in a 3-dimensional world, not a 2-D world, since underground and rooftop parking are being considered. Cathy Baylock mentioned the attractiveness of a boutique downtown hotel to go with the retail and condo ideas and suggested the old Chevron space be considered in the project. Russ Cohen talked about the blank sheet of paper the Working Group had to start with. Terry Nagel invoked the downtown specific area plan and suggested the Working Group shoot for the moon? and design an exciting project.

If the Working Group wanted affirmation to press on with designing one or more creative solutions, they got it tonight. They also got some input that it might be time to bring in professional design expertise and some legal assistance. But mostly the whole room saw a Safeway that was as interested in listening as it was in pushing a design. And that is a good thing.

- Written by anson

Safeway - Progress Report

Burlingame officials to hear progress report on Safeway (by Mark, Daily News)

Burlingame city officials will get a progress report tonight on the effort to redevelop the Safeway site on Howard Avenue.

The Safeway Working Group has been helping craft a plan to redevelop the site since mid-April, and will update the city council and planning commission on the process at a joint meeting. The group includes downtown business owners, property owners, residents, Safeway officials and representatives from the Burlingame Chamber of Commerce. The group Citizens for a Better Burlingame is represented as well. That group helped defeat an unpopular plan to redevelop the site in 2004 -- their complaints included the proposed store's size and what they felt was a cookie-cutter design.

This time around, Safeway is making a point of getting more input from interested parties through the working group. "It creates an environment where there is much more creativity," said Candace Hathaway, the working group's facilitator. The group has come up with several design criteria and is seeking the council and commission's approval to move to the next phase, in which specific plans for the store's design will be fine-tuned, Hathaway said. Additionally, the group will help design other possible features of the site, which could include residential and office space. "The working group has been incredible," she said. "They have been exhaustively thorough."

If the working group is cleared to continue the planning process, it would meet again with the council and planning commission sometime in 2008. Once Safeway submits its plan, the approval process could take 18 months to two years, City Manager Jim Nantell has said.

The meeting is at 7 p.m. in the Burlingame Library Lane Room, 480 Primrose Road

- Written by Fiona

No Thorns just Volunteer Opportunities

Plenty of opportunities to get involved -

Beautification - 1 opening - applications due Monday

Parks and Rec - 3 openings - applications due Monday

TSP - 2 openings - applications due Oct. 15

And don't forget the opportunity of starting a tree group a la Canopy of Palo Alto to work towards more (and better?) trees for the City of Trees.

- Written by Fiona

Arrest for Burlingame Fire

Teen blamed for starting three-alarm fire - Match tossed into trash sets off blaze (by Mark in Burlingame Daily News)

Authorities are blaming a 13-year-old boy's careless action for starting a three-alarm fire that caused an estimated $1.3 million in damage to a downtown Burlingame building. The boy was arrested Friday on suspicion of trespassing and unlawfully causing the fire, police Cmdr. Mike Matteucci said. He was taken to Hillcrest Juvenile Hall in San Mateo. Juvenile hall officials would not disclose whether the boy was still in custody late Friday afternoon. "We knew right off the bat that it was suspicious," Matteucci said. "It wasn't arson. It wasn't like the kid was trying to burn down the building, but through a careless act it burned." Fire department officials said Wednesday's blaze at 1227 Burlingame Ave. was sparked when the boy lit a cigarette and tossed the match into the trash before it was out.

No one was injured in the fire at the 90-year-old building at the corner of Park Road. The fire was reported shortly before 5 p.m., when the building's alarm sounded. It took 52 firefighters, battalion chiefs and other personnel from six fire departments more than an hour to extinguish the blaze. A dispatch company that monitors the alarm reported the fire, Fire Marshal Rocque Yballa said. The city required the alarm and its monitoring when the building was remodeled a few years ago. A sprinkler system could have controlled the fire, said Yballa, noting that only the basement and one of the building's businesses had sprinklers when the blaze broke out.

The fire damaged the building's roof and second floor and disrupted three upstairs residences, nine offices and five first-floor shops. The water used to extinguish the fire damaged first-floor businesses. As of Friday, only one downstairs business had been allowed to move back into the building, Yballa said. The upstairs residences and businesses will not be allowed to reopen until the roof is shored up and the building department determines they are safe to enter.

The fire was the largest in Burlingame since the Chicken Chicken restaurant and ABC Decorative Rugs were charred by a five-alarm fire in 2005.

Additional article in Daily Journal

- Written by Fiona

$1,3 million in Fire Damage

Stores pick up pieces after downtown fire - Officials: $1.3M in damage to building (Daily News)

One by one, shoppers in downtown Burlingame slowed from their purposeful gaits Thursday and turned their attention to the pungent smell of smoke still wafting from a taped-off building. As the passersby gawked, a crew of firefighters, shop owners and tenants returned to the two-story complex at the corner of Burlingame Avenue and Park Road, the morning after a three-alarm fire torched a row of upstairs offices and shuttered the site's businesses.

The cause of the fire, which broke out at 5 p.m. Wednesday and was contained an hour later, was still under investigation, though authorities believe it was ignited by a cigarette or a match in a utility and trash area on the second floor, said Central County Fire Marshal Rocque Yballa. Fire officials estimated the damage to the building at $1.3 million but did not yet have a figure for the total losses, including tarnished merchandise. In total, 17 tenants were affected, including nine offices and three residences upstairs, and five shops downstairs.

No one was injured, though two people in the residences were displaced. The offices sustained damage from fire and smoke while downstairs businesses mostly suffered water damage. Also, depending on what the building manager decides, "There's a good chance they're going to have to re-roof the entire thing," Yballa said. While Yballa praised the response to the blaze by 52 firefighters from six departments, he said the fire would never have gotten past the trash room if the entire building had been equipped with a sprinkler system. The shops have to update their systems as they remodel, but were not in violation of city code. The fire was the largest for Burlingame since the Chicken Chicken restaurant and ABC Decorative Rugs burned in a 2005 fire that grew to five alarms in just 15 minutes, Yballa said.

All of the businesses were closed Thursday as tenants tried to salvage what they could from the burned wreckage. Some were hopeful that they would be able to reopen within days instead of weeks. "It doesn't look as bad as it did last night," said Mike Dover, who co-owns Mr. Z's Stamps, Coins & Collectibles. Dover said his store suffered mostly water damage from the efforts to put out the fire on the upper floors and lost some valuables, including signed photos of Joe Montana and Muhammad Ali. He had other items drying out at his home on Thursday.

A few tenants tracked up and down the stairs, carrying boxes of paperwork from the upstairs building. Dan Rivard, who runs Performing Arts for Youth Society from an upstairs office, said the ceiling of his office burned and he would have to work from home for a while. Others, like Sakae Sushi and Grill, one of the downstairs businesses, escaped relatively unscathed, except for some water damage. Owner Hiro Endo said he was mostly worried about the fresh fish and Kobe beef in his fridge after authorities cut off power to the buildings. He planned to reopen tonight, provided the power was back. But was he able to rescue the imperiled food? "Nope," he said, laughing, "I ate it."

- Written by Fiona

Candidates forum?

Does anyone know of any debates/forums planned for Burlingame City Council candidates in the upcoming election?

- Written by taylorcg

TSpoon Vacancies

Burlingame Traffic Safety Parking Commission Openings

Are you interested in finding a way to participate in your community? Then consider applying for appointment to the City of Burlingame Traffic Safety Parking Commission! The City invites applicants to offer their interest, experience, and enthusiasm in service of their City. Commissioners offer their ideas and recommendations to the City Council and staff in order to help them to make the finest, most informed decisions in the best interest of everyone living, working, and visiting our community. The City is seeking to fill two seats on the Traffic Safety Parking Commission.

Application Deadline is October 15, 2007.

Applications and a supplemental questionnaire is available on the City's website .

- Written by Fiona

Eco-Friendly Housing

Eco-friendly builder takes his craft home (Examiner)

Mike Kerwin, a partner in a development firm, stands in an apartment whose floor is made from recycled mine timbers. Burlingame, Calif. (Map, News) - When Mike Kerwin quit the advertising business to build a green home seven years ago, his mother asked him which shade of green he would make these houses. Now, he's a leader in a growing movement that could be here to stay thanks to thousands of eco-friendly home projects in the works across California. Kerwin a founding partner of LORAX Development, which has been building green homes in San Francisco just got approved by Burlingame City Hall to build one for himself. His will be the first in Burlingame to comply with the GreenPoint Rated system, a grade assigned by third-party organization Build it Green to tell homeowners how green their homes really are.

Kerwin's home on Margarita Avenue will feature recycled blue-jean denim insulation, wooden floors made from reclaimed mine timbers and solar panels on the roof that will heat his domestic water. Some of the nastiest products that are produced are building products,? he said. When you make the right selections up front and install them in your home, it's a much healthier living environment.?

There are already a few people living in GreenPoint Rated homes in Sonoma County; one is now for sale at 16 Sheridan Road in Oakland. The organization is only a year old, but already thousands of homes complying with their standards are in the construction pipeline and thousands more in planning stages, said Build it Green development director Bruce Mast. Only the greenest homes, like the one Kerwin is building for himself, receive the GreenPoint Rated label. They need at least a 15 percent increase in energy efficiency to be considered. Without this label you're walking into a home with no idea whether the builder is giving you accurate information,? Mast said. This way, the home has been evaluated by a trained and knowledgable green-building professional.? Mast said many developers such as Kerwin's LORAX Development are increasingly building these homes to differentiate themselves from others because of the market downturn.

The Green Building Exchange, which helps citizens in the Bay Area with their green projects from initial design to completed structure, also opened in Redwood City in July. Some real estate agencies have even begun training their agents specifically for green homes. Definitely, a lot of builders are moving in that direction,? said Debra Lee, a certified EcoBroker for Prudential California Realty. I think it could be a trend, but that definitely it's becoming more desirable.?

- Written by Fiona