Dolores Degnan's Memories of Eight Decades in the Town She Loved
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THE HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER FOR MENLO PARK, ATHERTON, PORTOLA VALLEY AND WOODSIDE MARCH 13, 2019 | VOL. 54 NO. 28 WWW.ALMANACNEWS.COM Remembering Woodside | Page 16 Dolores Degnan's memories of eight decades in the town she loved A death on the tracks: What happened? | Page 5 Council sets priorities for 2019 | Page 5 Woodside loses a champion | Page 18 THE ADDRESS IS THE PENINSU THE EXPERIENCE IS AIN PINEL MENLO PARK $3,698,000 MENLO PARK $3,198,000 MENLO PARK $2,995,000 2240 Avy Avenue | 4bd/2ba 1081 Sierra Drive | 3bd/2.5ba 739 Fremont Street | 3bd/3.5ba Brad Verma | 650.665.0894 Maggie Heilman | 650.888.9315 Caitlin Darke | 650.388.8449 License # 02033592 License # 01206292 License # 01332161 OPEN SAT & SUN 2:00-4:00 OPEN SAT & SUN 1:00-4:00 BY APPOINTMENT MENLO PARK $2,598,000 SAN CARLOS $2,499,000 SAN MATEO $1,850,000 1326 Hoover Street Unit 5 | 3bd/2.5ba 10 Shratton Avenue | 3bd/3ba 430 26th Avenue | 3bd/2bd Liz Daschbach | 650.207.0781 Steve & Julie Quattrone | 650.505.4900 M. 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If important to buyers, buyers should conduct their own investigation. 2QThe AlmanacQAlmanacNews.comQMarch 13, 2019 A WORLD CLASS DESTINATION CENTRAL WOODSIDE | $27,900,000 650.888.8199 [email protected] License# 00868362 March 13, 2019QAlmanacNews.comQThe AlmanacQ3 Advances in Colon Cancer Prevention A Talk for Our Community Colon cancer is the third most common FREE COMMUNITY TALK cancer and second leading cause of Saturday, March 23, 2019 cancer-related death in men and women 9:30am – 11:30am in the US. It is also one of the most Mitchell Community Center 3700 Middlefield Road treatable cancers if caught early. Palo Alto, CA 94303 Now, thanks to advanced screening methods and innovative This event is free (including free parking) and open to the public, treatments, our tools to fight colon cancer are the best though seating is limited. Be sure they’ve ever been. Screening saves lives! to encourage the people you love to attend this special talk. We invite you to join Stanford Health Care experts at a Please register at special community event to discuss the latest screening, stanfordhealthcare.org/events diagnostic, and treatment options. or call: 650.736.6555. #CheckYourColon Speakers Sigurdis Haraldsdottir, MD Medical Oncology Uri Ladabaum, MD Gastroenterology Courtney Rowe-Teeter, MS, LCGC Cancer Genetics 4QThe AlmanacQAlmanacNews.comQMarch 13, 2019 Local News M ENLO PARK | ATHERTON | WOODSIDE | PORTOLA V ALLEY Menlo Park council picks its top five priorities for 2019 By Kate Bradshaw problem. If a project isn’t added Almanac Staff Writer to the work plan, then it can be difficult mid-year to allocate t’s become a tradition for the staff resources and funding Menlo Park City Council to to pursue it and do commu- Inarrow down its list of top nity outreach; if it is added, then projects for the year into a top people assume it is a done deal five do-or-die list. before they’ve been permitted Those items, as identified the opportunity to weigh in. by the council on March 5, are That’s what happened with the to: complete the transportation topic of sidewalks on Sharon master plan and establish a Road, he argued. He added that transportation impact fee; cre- efforts to begin public outreach ate separate bike and pedestrian on the possibility of sidewalks pathways and other improve- on Sharon Road are scheduled ments to Chilco Street; pursue to begin later this year. Photo by Federica Armstrong work on a pedestrian and bike Creating ‘hope and joy’ Caltrain crossing at Middle Merge school districts? Florence de Bretagne, in photo, has painted more than 100 murals in the Bay Area, including four Avenue; update the city’s heri- Mueller asked that a study at Oak Knoll School last year. She is starting on a mural project at Selby School in Atherton this tage tree ordinance; and move session already scheduled to be month, and launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $20,000 toward that and two other area school full-steam ahead with efforts to held in June about an “Equity in projects. Read the story on Page 21. build a new Belle Haven Branch Education Joint Powers Author- Library. ity” — an initiative he’s pursued Other items added to the work in the past to get stakeholders plan for 2019 are to: form a trans- from other jurisdictions to find portation management associa- ways to commit funding to meet A death on the tracks tion, update the city’s El Camino the capital needs of the under- Real/Downtown Specific Plan resourced Ravenswood City Months after a young man is killed in a Menlo Park (which Community Develop- School District in East Palo Alto ment Director Mark Muenzer and eastern Menlo Park — to be Caltrain incident, questions remain announced is scheduled to come just about equity in education. By Kate Bradshaw with the last train of the night. the dearth of answers about before the council March 12), He tentatively presented a new Almanac Staff Writer Caltrain generally defers to the what happened that night is far preserve affordable housing, idea: having the Sequoia Union county coroner’s office to handle from satisfying. pass a short-term rental ordi- High School District absorb the obody saw what hap- fatalities unless there are train “It makes it difficult to move nance, review and potentially Ravenswood City School Dis- pened to 22-year-old delays, he said, but noted that on and progress without having streamline the approval pro- trict to create a K-12 district. NConnor McElroy late this was the only fatality during closure,” his mother, Antoinette cess for single-family residential Mueller added that for years last year between the time he his tenure that has not required McElroy, told The Almanac. projects, develop and implement the success and graduation rates stepped off the train at the Men- public notification. near-term downtown parking of Ravenswood students in the lo Park Caltrain Station at about For McElroy’s family, however, See DEATH, page 8 and access strategies, implement Sequoia district have been of 1:06 a.m. and the time the train the zero-waste plan, and imple- concern. left the station, when he was run ment the city’s IT master plan, “It may be, perhaps, that a over and killed by a rear car of including transitioning to new K-12 district, with (the Sequoia the train land management software. district’s) resources, might be It was Nov. 24, and the death Exploring the possibility of able to help address that, and of the young Redwood City developing affordable teacher also provide some stability to man might have stayed under housing at the former Flood the district,” he said. the radar, quietly marking the School site was originally among “I’m not saying we are fully tenth train fatality of the year on the items on that list. The prop- committed,” he added. the tracks, because Caltrain did erty belongs to the Ravenswood The plan would be to talk to not publicly report the death, City School District. According the East Palo Alto and Raven- as it does at other times when a to Mayor Ray Mueller, former swood district communities, person is struck and the train is district superintendent Gloria and to come up with a mutually delayed. Hernandez-Goff had requested acceptable plan, he said. The Palo Alto Daily Post that the topic be added to the Vice Mayor Cecilia Taylor reported McElroy’s death after city’s work plan before she was added that she’d like to see finding out about it in a report put on paid leave Feb. 27. Menlo Park’s schools in the from the San Mateo Coun- Councilman Drew Combs Ravenswood district — Belle ty Coroner’s Office. Caltrain said he opposed adding the topic Haven Elementary and Willow spokesperson Dan Lieberman to the work plan without prior Oaks Elementary — included explained to The Almanac that outreach to the surrounding in meetings with those com- the agency did not report the neighborhood. munities, as well families fac- fatality because there had not Photo by Dean Eichelmen The challenge of the work plan ing homelessness attending been a disruption in train ser- Connor McElroy, 22, shown here about a week before his death at process, Mueller argued, is that vice since the incident occurred his family’s lake house in Clearlake. it creates a “chicken and egg” See PRIORITIES, page 13 March 13, 2019QAlmanacNews.comQThe AlmanacQ5 NEWS Fire, city officials join forces for better emergency response By Kate Bradshaw subcommittee to discuss ways Almanac Staff Writer to resolve the issue.