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Kiosk In This Issue MONARCH COUNT 14,000 IN THE SANCTUARY ON 02/01/14 • Mon. Feb. 24 Sustainable PG Presents: “Chasing Ice” National Geographic Documentary At the Canterbury Woods Auditorium 651 Sinex Ave. Pacific Grove New champ - Page 4 Yummy soup- Page 9 Electric vehicles - Page 18 Free & Open to the Public RSVP 657-4193 3:30 PM • •Tues. Feb. 25 Pacific Grove’s The Pacific Grove Young Entrepreneur Awards Presentation 5:30pm - 7:30PM Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, Pacific Grove • Thurs. Feb. 27 The Stuff Cure Book Talk Pacific Grove Public Library $10 suggested donation 7:30 p.m. Times • Feb. 21-27, 2014 Your Community NEWSpaper Vol. VI, Issue 24 Sat. March 1 First Saturday Book Sale Pacific Grove Library Go, Home Girl, Go! • City contracts Sat. March 1 Student Composer Workshop 20 Ryan Ranch Rd., Monterey out Golf Links Must pre-register at http://www. composersandschools.com/ events/a-day-in-the-life-of-a- management, composer/. Information www. composersandschools.com other services or (916) 248-5541 • With OK of unions • With the last-minute agreement of the Wed. March 5 General Employees Association (GEA) and Boomer Education 101 Management Employees Association (ME), Monterey Library the City Council voted Wed., Feb. 19 to ap- 5:30-7:30 PM 646-3933 FREE prove a contract with CourseCo to manage • the Pacific Grove Golf Links. A 10-year Thurs. March 6 lease with two five-year options will be CERT Training starts signed. 7 week course CourseCo, according to the agenda FREE report, played a significant role in gaining 600 Pacific St. Monterey the agreement of the unions to support their • lease. Important parts included: Fri. March 7 All Saints’ students have been following the excitement of alumna Brita Sigorney’s • City employees impacted by any City International Women’s Day way to Sochi through her dad’s stories and reports during morning Chapel. agreement with CourseCo and with any Celebration and Potluck Dinner of the other service providers in the Pub- 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. “Having an All Saints’ Alum compete in Sochi makes these Olympics very personal lic Works arena, have a smooth transi- Unitarian Universalist Church, for the All Saints’ community. This is the first time free skiing is a discipline at the 490 Aguajito Rd. tion. Olympics, and we are thrilled for Brita and her family,” said Michele Rench, All • Other City employees and operations are 831-594-6696 Saints’ Head of School. • not subjected to the uncertainly, stress, Mon. March 10 All Saints’ Athletic Director Thad Sigourney and his wife Julie are in Sochi, Russia, and chaos that the extensive exercise of Book Publishing 1-2-3 to cheer on their daughter Brita in the XXII Olympic Winter Games. Brita qualified bumping rights would create. Bookworks (667 Lighthouse Ave.) third in halfpipe skiing behind Marie Martinod of France and just ahead of her • CourseCo has the services of current Cost: $15 teammate, Maddie Bowman. In the medal round, Brita took a hard fall in her first City employees, to ensure that there is Information, contact Laurie run but came back with an impressive sixth place finish while Maddie took gold. no break in Pro Shop, marketing, and at (831) 646-4507 or A 2004 graduate of All Saints’ Day School, Brita skied the Women’s Halfpipe event. maintenance services during the transi- [email protected]. tion between City operation and mainte- 5:30 p.m. nance of the Golf Links and the assump- • Tue. March 11 tion by CourseCo of the operation and City Employee of the Year maintenance of the Golf Links, expected Passionfish in April, 2014. 701 Lighthouse $21,000 Reward Offered for • Costs of the transition are all recouped 5-6:30 PM in less than one year (i.e., a less than Free of charge one-year payback) for the Golf Fund • Info on Sea Otter Shootings and the General Fund. The total fiscal Sun. March 23 year 2013-14 savings are estimated at Great Taste of PG, 21+ only Shootings took place in September, 2013 approximately $103,100. In 2014-15, 4-7 PM A group of public and private entities and concerned citizens is offering a reward of yearly savings will be approximately Inn at Spanish Bay $21,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible $454,000. $50 before March 1 for the shooting deaths of three sea otters on the Monterey Peninsula in September 2013, Part of the agreement reached with the $55 after March 1 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced. [email protected] unions requires that they withdraw their Three male sea otters, two sub-adults and one adult, were found dead in the vicinity recent PERB complaint against the City. of Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove. One was found dead on September 3, 2013, and Without costing any jobs, the City two were found dead on September 5, 2013. Fish and Wildlife officer Rebecca Roca, the Council agreed to outsource certain duties Inside contact person for Fish and Wildlife – the lead agency on the case in Sacramento – did not which have been borne by City staff to date. know how they were found and local officials were unavailable to answer the question. These include sewer maintenance, which 100 Years Ago in Pacific Grove .......... 6 “Necropsies revealed that all three otters had been killed by coated lead bullets. Two will be contracted to Green Line Waste Animal Tales of the otters were shot in the head, and the third was shot through the back,” said Roca. Hauler. The work to be done under this & Other Random Thoughts .............. 17 The animals were killed between September 1, 2013 and September 5, 2013. Cop Log ............................................. 5 contract consists of cleaning City sanitary Financial ..................................... 9, 15 The question on the minds of members of the public is why it took so long for Fish sewer mains and removing tree roots in Food .................................................. 9 and Wildlife to advise the media and the public, especially since five months after the fact various locations throughout the City, as Green Page ...................................... 18 memories could have gone cold. directed by the Project Manager. The work Health ............................................. 13 “We have been working on it since the incident,” said Roca. “Now we’re looking for will also include the removal and disposal Marriage Can Be Funny ................... 16 corroboration and to substantiate information we already have.” Otter Views ...................................... 17 of tree roots, solids, sludge, grit, grease, Peeps ............................................... 11 A number of NGOs have come up with the reward. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is Seniors ............................................ 12 Sports ................................................ 8 See OTTERS Page 2 See CONTRACTING Page 2 Page 2 • CEDAR STREET Times • February 21, 2014 P CONTRACTING From Page 1 Skillshots Joan Skillman sand, pieces of broken pipe, and any other debris from the sanitary sewer lines and sanitary manholes. Daniel Gho pointed out that the City does not own modern, spe- cialized equipment to do many of these jobs. Again, the city does not own specialized equipment so street striping will be contracted to Mike Harvey’s Concrete and Asphalt Services. Under this contract, the work would include traffic striping, pavement markings/markers, and thermoplastic crosswalks on City streets, striping and marking/marker removal by grinding. Gho also pointed out that the work could be done at night by an outside contractor and provide less disruption on city streets. The contract for park and turf mowing of all City parks and ball fields was awarded to Gachina Landscape Management but does not include the cemetery. CourseCo, which will take over the job at the next-door Golf Links, will also per- form mowing and turf management at the cemetery. There were objections from a member of the public to staff’s choice of arbor- ist, based on experiences in another city. That portion of the contracting was tabled pending further due diligence. Gho advised that janitorial services, which includes the library and the museum, will remain in-house, as an evaluation of the responses to the request for proposals revealed that city staff can do the job at the lowest cost. No City jobs will be lost. Work now performed by a number of employees in the City would be shifted to the contractors, which will bear all associated costs, according to the agenda report. While the contracts would reduce the necessary number of FTEs in Public Works, the City has held off from filling authorized and vacant positions. Several employees will be taking advantage of the City’s offers for a smooth transition for staff, enabling their “soft landing.” As a result, there is no need for a reduction in force associated with these contracts. “There would be no impacts on members of the Management Employees As- sociation as a result of these contracts. There would be changes in responsibilities and assignments to members of the GEA, however, and to employees in some of the part-time positions (who are not represented),” according to the agenda report. Savings by contracting out the sewer positions will be $125,000 per year. Sav- ings for turf mowing amount to $58,000 annually, while cost to use CourseCo for mowing the cemetery is part of their lease of the Golf Links and is at no additional costs, There is an expected $75,000 savings in equipment and staff by contracting out street striping. A decision on the tree trimming position is expected by the next city Council meeting of March 5. With these agreements and the pending tree trimming one, City Manager Tom Frutchey says that all of the contracting to outside providers that can be done is finished.