The Burlingame Voice

County Saving$... .5%

The Daily Journal is reporting on a County audit by Accenture of its operations

Of its $1.8 billion budget, the county spends approximately $228.5 million for goods and services across departments. Accenture’s savings were estimated from centralizing purchasing and reducing the costs of these goods and services. Other savings could come from bulk purchasing with cities although none have shown any specific interest, Jensen said.

The findings of the study indicate potential savings of a half a percent...we better keep looking

But the possibility of saving anywhere from $4.21 million to $8.24 million is nothing to sniff at and Jensen said she and fellow Deputy County Manager Reyna Farrales are currently working with Accenture to see what recommendation might be put into practice.

Some Good News about Trains

The Daily Journal is highlighting the restoration of Engine #2472 and the train museum in Millbrae

Vern Bruce, owner of Millbrae Locks and a railroad enthusiast was able to acquire the S.P.’s Millbrae Train Depot after it was declared surplus and no longer needed as a depot. With the aid of the Millbrae History Association, he opened it as a local train museum. Call Vern at (650) 333-1136 for further information.

This is a nice complement to the Burlingame-Hillsborough Historical Society museum in the Burlingame Avenue train depot.  It's funny how the stations have evolved on the Peninula!

Watch Out!

The City put out this notice via the non-emergency email system:

The City of Burlingame has experienced an increase of residential burglaries within the past two months. In over half of these burglaries, the suspect(s) gained entry through an unlocked door or window.

It goes on to suggest

Some people will leave their garage doors or front doors open while you are outside in the back. Open doors and windows are invitations to burglars. Work with your trusted neighbors to keep each other safe.  

Here are some items to consider for burglary prevention:  

• Keep doors and windows locked when you are not home.  

• Be aware of what parts of your home are locked when you are home (is your garage door open while you are mowing your back yard?)  

• Set your alarm when you leave, even on short trips during the day. Most residential burglaries happen during the day.  

• Use timers on lights and radios. Make the burglars think you are home.  

• Don’t ignore people knocking on your door. Many burglars knock first to determine if someone is home. If you don’t want to talk with them, don’t, but let them know you are there.  

• Keep shrubs trimmed back from windows and doors. Burglars like privacy.  

• Stop your mail and newspaper delivery or have someone you trust pick it up.  

• Ask your neighbor to use your driveway to park while you are gone.  

• Secure sliding doors with a pin to lock the doors together when they are closed. This prevents the door from being lifted out of the track. Most of the burglars we catch are caught because a neighbor was paying attention and called 911 to report unusual activity.

By the way, it's not just a B'game thing either!  I spoke to a friend in Belmont who said they had EIGHT burglaries in ONE week on his street!

Whose paying this time?

Back in 2001 the City of Burlingame helped fund the $640,000.00 installation of a new artificial turf field at Burlingame High School. See photo below...

Here is an excerpt from the staff report back in 2001:

In June 2001, the City Council approved the $640,000 funding for this contract from the general fund hotel tax. The district will be providing the city an annual credit of $22,000 against our rental of the cost of use for the pool as a for of repayment for the portion of the cost. That $22,000 will be increased by a cost of living index throughout the 10 year agreement.

Well, it's 10 years later, almost to the day and the turf is being replaced. See photo below.

All this leads to the simple question posed by the title of this post:

"Who is paying for this replacement and at what cost?

Classic B'game Weekend

If you decided to stay in B'game this weekend, you had some great events to choose from.  Friday night at the heart of B'game you could have seen Morty J and the Slipstream again.  The guys in the band want you to know that they are available for local charitable events--and will play for free to maximize the charitable take.

When you got up on Saturday--if you got up on Saturday--the charity Chili Fest to benefit CALL Primrose was heating up Steelhead Brewery.  Steelhead manager Domingo assembled a great line-up of 14 chili entrants on the back patio

 

When your taste buds waved the white flag, you could walk across the street to the Lion's Club Car Show and check out some fine machinery.  There was a bit of traffic going both ways until 3pm.

 
 
And if you still had some gas on Sunday, you could have caught the last Music in the Park show of the summer with "On the Road".  They were voted the best cover band in the recent KFOX contest and showed it with the vocals and the guitar

 
The essence of the Music in the Park series is that it is in Washington Park and July is almost guaranteed to be great weather on a Sunday afternoon.  Today was no exception which made it Rock, Roll and Reading weather.  Thanks to Veolia for their sponsorship again this year.