City Manager's Weekly Update
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March 14, 2014 | City of Belmont | City Manager’s Weekly Contents Executive Summary Opening and Unveiling of Update “Monument Park” A Clear View for Belmont-Old County Rd Utilities Undergrounding District Infrastructure Update Public Works Weekly Maintenance Highlights Liter on Lyall? Other Agency Reports • Peninsula Corridor Contact us: Electrification . State of the City – Mayor PW Facebook P&R Facebook PW Twitter Lieberman . Transportation Authority PD Twitter Nextdoor Seeks Community Volunteers T: 650-595-7408 E: [email protected] . “Get Healthy”-Bi-Annual Meeting Click to receive Weekly Updates . Earth Day in the Park – April 19th . Free Homeowner Workshop – Energy Upgrade . Transportation Authority Progress Report . Caltrain Notices In Every Issue Upcoming Events Twin Pines Center Calendar March 18 th Planning Commission Meeting (Agenda) March 18th City Council Special Meeting (Agenda) Belmont Public Library Calendar March 19th State of the City (see flyer below) March 25th City Council Meeting April 19th Earth Day in the Park (see flyer below) City Manager’s Weekly Update March 14, 2014 Executive Summary Application Process for Filling City Council Vacancy At noon today the application period for the vacated Council seat closed. The City Council will now take steps to consider the process of ultimately appointing someone to the City Council term which runs until November 2015. The twelve applicants are as follows: Thomas Sailers Michael Verdone David Bauer Michael Malekos Amanda Greco Joyce Montgomery Tom McCune Gladwyn d’Souza Charles Williams Lee Rosenduft Cathy Wright Gina Latimerlo Here is a link to the Special Meeting agenda for Tuesday, March 18, 2014, 5:00 p.m. in Suite 360 of City Hall. The City Council will meet to discuss the next steps in the process. This meeting is open to the public but will not be televised. Belmont Police Caution of an IRS Telephone Scam Belmont Police want to caution residents of an Internal Revenue Service telephone scam. A Recently a Belmont resident received a phone call from an individual who identified himself as calling from the IRS. He told her that she owed the IRS money and only had a limited time to pay or would be arrested. He instructed the victim to go to a store and purchase $3,000 worth of gift cards and call back with the card numbers. The victim did as she was instructed, but then became worried and called Belmont Police. If you receive calls unexpectedly from anyone claiming to be from the IRS and threatening arrest, or other action including deportation or license revocation if you don't pay immediately, that is an indication that is not from the IRS. IRS agents do not ask taxpayers for confidential PIN numbers, passwords or access information to credit card, bank or other financial accounts. Anyone who owes taxes or has a payment issue should call the IRS directly at (800) 829-1040. If you feel you have been the victim of this or any other scam, contact Belmont Police at 650-595-7400. Employment Opportunities With the City of Belmont Parks and Recreation Department Recruitments are underway for Senior Recreation Leader, Senior Lifeguard and Lifeguard. Please visit CalOpps or contact Human Resources at (650) 595-7452 for more information. The Parks and Recreation is also accepting applications for a Van Driver please contact the Human Resources Department for more information. City Manager’s Weekly Update March 14, 2014 Opening Day and Unveiling of “Monument Park” On Saturday, March 8th Belmont Redwood Shores Little League Association celebrated Opening Day of the 2014 youth baseball season. Players, parents and supporters gathered at the Marina Field to cheer on the kids as they paraded onto the field. The League announced Belmont’s new “Monument Park” built by Parks and Recreation staff which is located adjacent to the field. Monument Park consists of two flag poles and a Monument in the center which displays the names of the players on last year’s historic All-Star team. The flag poles now fly the banners won by this squad. Parks and Recreation staff also installed bicycle racks at the Sports Complex the week prior to the ceremony and it didn’t take long for them be used. City Manager’s Weekly Update March 14, 2014 A Clear View For Belmont – Old County Road Utilities Undergrounding District On Tuesday March 11, 2014, the City Council approved the Third Amendment to the Old County Road Utilities Undergrounding District boundary. The parcels located within the boundary shown in the report are proposed to be included in an underground utility district with the purpose of converting electrical, phone, and cable services to an underground trench and removing the existing joint poles and overhead electrical lines. Through a program called “Rule 20A,” the California Public Utilities Commission requires Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to annually set aside funds for financing the undergrounding of overhead distribution facilities located on public streets and roads. The purpose of undergrounding the utilities is to improve aesthetics and remove exposure of the utilities to the uncertainty of weather or vehicle collisions. The Old County Road Utility Undergrounding Project is one of the steps towards creating a more aesthetic downtown village district by relocating existing overhead electrical and communication lines to an underground trench. The project will consist of digging a trench within the travel lanes through the extent of the project limits and having the respective overhead utility companies re- route the utilities into the trench. Likewise, the individual service lines will also be installed underground, extending from the main trench to the individual properties within the District Boundary. It is the legal responsibility of the property owner to underground from the street to their house or business. However, the utility companies will perform this work at no cost to the property owner as long as the property owner signs an agreement to allow utility companies on to their property. Otherwise, property owners are required to perform this work at their own cost. Prior to PG&E performing this work, a “Permission to Enter Form” must be signed by the property owner. At the end of the project, the corresponding utility poles will then be removed, improving the appearance of the commercial/residential area of downtown along the Old County Road Corridor. Some parcels within the proposed District Boundary (such as at an apartment complex or a more recent subdivision) may already receive service from an underground source. There will be no change to these individual service lines. There are four main phases of construction: 1. Trenching involves digging a trench within the travel lanes through the extent of the project limits and in each individual property to place conduits that will eventually house the new underground lines. Panel conversion requires the program contractor to prepare each electric meter panel to accept the new underground service. 2. Cabling and placement of equipment involves running utility lines through the newly placed underground conduits. Once cabling is complete, the new underground system will be energized for use. 3. Cutover involves taking residents off the old overhead system and converting them to the new underground system. 4. Removal involves taking down the overhead lines and utility poles. This portion of work happens at the end of construction. City Manager’s Weekly Update March 14, 2014 The amendment of the boundary map will now allow PG&E to complete their final design and right-of- way clearance. The construction of the project is tentatively scheduled to begin in the summer of 2015 which will take approximately 18 months to complete. The estimated construction cost is approximately $8 million. To date the credit allocated to the City is $5,177,105 including a negotiated transfer of $1.7 million Rule 20A funds from the City of Foster City to the City of Belmont. In addition, the Rule 20A typically allows borrowing of five years future allocation only. Although the estimated total construction cost exceeds the allocated credit plus the five years borrowing, the project is grandfathered before the 2011 work credit allocation changed. This means PG&E has agreed to complete the project even if the City must borrow out more than five years of future Rule 20A work credits. ***************************************************************************** Infrastructure Update In the previous Manager’s Weekly Updates we have reported the start of work by an ad-hoc Council Committee reviewing the state of the City’s infrastructure needs. In the coming weeks we will provide the community with some background on the City’s infrastructure, what we are doing to maintain those infrastructure, and the needs to keep them in best shape possible. This week’s update is about the City’s storm water and water pollution control facilities, which is typically not a visible part of our infrastructure to our citizens, but none the less an important one. City’s Storm Water and Water Pollution Control Facilities The City of Belmont’s storm water program can essentially be divided into three components: maintenance and operation of storm drainage infrastructure, storm water pollution prevention and Permit compliance, and street sweeping. The 1972 Clean Water Act established the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program to regulate the discharge of point source pollution into US waters. Until 1987, non-point source pollution from storm water runoff was largely unregulated. However, the 1987 amendments to the Clean Water Act extended the NPDES permit program to storm water runoff, effectively prohibiting non-storm water discharges to municipal separate storm sewer systems, and implementing controls to reduce storm water pollution to the maximum extent practicable. The NPDES Permit requires jurisdictions to implement programs and activities to reduce pollutants in storm water and urban runoff.