The Burlingame Voice

Welcome "Di" to BHS

When Chris Holleran announced his departure from BHS back in February search began.  The DJ has the blurb on the new principal

Pyongduk “Di” Yim was selected as Burlingame High School’s new principal, effective July 1.

Yim’s career in education reflects a unique combination of experience as a teacher, assistant principal and chief academic officer. As an assistant principal, prior to her tenure at Fremont, she served in a variety of academic/program capacities at East Boston High School. At Boston Latin Academy, she taught courses in Latin and she was an advisor for various student clubs.

A graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard University, Yim lives in Santa Clara.

You may recall that BHS recently ranked 91st in California and 471st in the nation for academics.  The details are here.  Welcome Ms. Yim!  In the grand scheme of things BHS is a pretty good gig.

Water Rate$ and Ratings

Water is on many people's minds given the 17% of normal snowpack and the fire danger that ensues.  In the meantime, the City of Burlingame has received an "AA+" rating (stable outlook) from Standard & Poor's in connection with its 2013 Water & Wastewater Revenue Refunding Bonds.  That is a pretty good rating and S&P notes a variety of good management practices that drove it.  But looking at the glass as half empty, one might ask, "Why not AAA?"  The answer is

The primary credit weakness cited was "susceptibility to future increases in wholesale water purchase rates from the SFPUC."

Today's Daily Journal has a piece that talks about declining water demand

Demands for most water companies in California have dropped significantly the last few years for a variety of reasons but the bills keep going up and will climb by up to 17.3 percent next year for California Water Service Company customers in San Mateo, San Carlos and South San Francisco, called the Bayshore District.

I'm just using this as an example since we get our water from San Francisco Water priced in five tiers of usage show on the City's site here.  Our main risk is San Fran keeps jacking up our rates especially for Hetch Hetchy repairs as we discussed here.

 

Fire Season? When Isn't It?

This little blurb in today's Daily Journal got me thinking

A fire in Hillsborough damaged five homes Friday evening, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.  Central County firefighters received a report of a structure fire in the 1800 block of Black Mountain Road at about 4:53 p.m., according to sheriff’s deputies.  Two homes were fully involved in the fire and three nearby homes were also damaged.

Every year we hear one of two things:  it was a wet year and there is more underbrush that will be fuel in the summer or it's a drought year and the dry conditions are a fire danger.  Seems every year is a fire danger and perhaps the larger lots up on Black Mountain Rd. provide more fuel and more danger.  But maybe we all need to pay more attention this summer...........even in the flat lands. 

Art & Jazz on (Howard) Avenue

I still cannot get used to the new name for the Art & Jazz on the Avenue (it's ArtzFest) but I look forward to it nonetheless.  With the Avenew redevelopment project going great guns like this

I was thinking the Chamber will have to move it.  Turns out the plan is to use Howard Ave. for the August 10-11 festivities.  That should be interesting since the vibe is quite a bit different on Howard Ave.  Maybe that will focus more of the attention on the vendors and stages than the stores.

 

Saying Goodbye to the Fire Chief

I was not able to make the retirement celebration for Central County Fire Chief Don Dornell last night but Mayor Keighran and my lovely wife, Councilmember Cathy Baylock, were there along with a sizeable crowd to send Don off to retirement.  From the program we learn that Don was

Hired with the City of Burlingame Fire Department as a firefighter in 1977.  Promoted to Fire Captain in 1985 and Assistant Chief in 1997.  Appointed to be the second Fire Chief of the Central County Fire Department in 2006 and the shared Fire Chief for the CCFD, Millbrae Fire Department and San Bruno Fire Department in 2012.

You will recall from this post about the Screaming Eagles that Don

Served as the first Chairman of the Burlingame Adopt-a-Unit Program since 2004 which as sponsored the adopted soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division through 5 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

I hope Don enjoys his retirement and welcome to new CCFD Fire Chief Mark Ladas.  Here's Cathy Baylock wishing Don well last night.