September 25, 2019 | $1.50 special section inside Living small Contemporary remodel TIBURON • BELVEDERE • STRAWBERRY HOME Named the nation’s best also inside FALL 2019 BRIDGING CULTURES Tiburon resident’s small-batch hot sauce small community weekly honors generations-old family recipe Pro Tennis tourney begins Page 8 2018 & 2019 winner, 2014-2017 finalist General Excellence, National Newspaper Association Investment banker by day, Marin Designer’s Volume 47, Issue 39 | thearknewspaper.com symphony violist by NIght Page 27 first-open Investigation Tiburon babysitter gets 13 years for continues in checklist: boating death producing, distributing child porn of 11-year-old identical charges. Man had faced 30 years, but agreed to help police Bryan Petersen, a 26-year-old Red with arrest and conviction of Aptos co-defendant Hill Circle resident, was sentenced Belvedere boy Sept. 18 in San Francisco’s U.S. District By HANNAH WEIKEL ing it with another man online has been Court on five felony charges after he By HANNAH WEIKEL [email protected] sentenced to 13 years in federal prison admitted to producing, distributing, [email protected] Find&Replace ——— followed by a 20-year supervised re- receiving and possessing child pornog- ——— A Tiburon babysitter convicted of lease — a significantly lighter punish- ——— Police officials say they’re still producing child pornography and trad- ment than his co-defendant for nearly See Prison, pAgE 24 Petersen investigating the boating death of dates on the 11-year-old son of a high-profile land developer and media heir who was arrested in the incident, but the Marin District Attorney’s Of- Low bid Master Pages fice says it has not yet determined whether the father will be charged. for library Tiburon police say Javier A. Bu- rillo, 58, who lives on the Belvedere construction side of Corinthian Island, was oper- ating his boat while drunk on Sept. 15 when his two sons, 27 and 11, comes in at were thrown off and severely cut by the propellers of the twin en- $12.63 mil gines, killing the 11-year-old and injuring the other. By DEIRDRE McCROHAN Burillo, who police say had a [email protected] blood-alcohol concentration of at ——— least 0.08 at the time of his arrest, The lowest of four submitted bids ——— for construction of the Belvedere- See Boat, pAgE 20 Tiburon Library’s planned expan- sion has come in at $12.63 million, leaving library officials cautiously CLARA LU / FOR THE ARK optimistic the $18 million in fund- Three Bel Aire Nate MacDonald helps Del Mar Middle School seventh-graders Ellen Hock (left) and Lilly Chin work on a ing they’ve already secured will be water fountains get self-powered car built using Legos and Circuit Cubes, electronic building blocks that build circuits and add enough to cover the entire cost of the movement to gadgets. MacDonald created the cubes some four years ago and has since sold the product to project. a Chinese manufacturer. fixes after testing Richmond-based Alten Construc- shows traces of lead tion was declared the apparent low bidder in the field. Other offers By EMILY LAVIN Del Mar teacher uses included a $16.11-million bid from [email protected] Petaluma-based Midstate Construc- ——— tion, a $14.34-million bid from Con- Three drinking fountains at Bel own creation to teach cord-based Sausal Corporation and Aire Elementary School are getting a $12.92-million bid from Novato- new pipes and fixtures after test- based Thompson Builders. ing revealed the water contained kids basic circuitry Alten won’t be declared the of- traces of lead — but the county’s ficial low bidder and awarded the top public-health official said the By EMILY LAVIN blocks called Circuit Cubes. contract until its bid and support- levels hover right around the En- [email protected] The small cubes — a motor, a battery, an ing documents are thoroughly vet- vironmental Protection Agency’s ——— LED, a switch and more — can be combined ted by the project architects, BRA threshold for taking corrective ac- One of the first projects students tackled magnetically or with wires to create simple cir- Architects of San Francisco, said tion and are not a cause for alarm. this year in Nate MacDonald’s Del Mar Middle cuits that power gadgets. Glenn Isaacson, the expansion proj- In a Sept. 16 email to parents, School design lab was building self-moving ——— ect manager. The vetting process ——— Lego cars with the help of electronic building See Circuits, pAgE 23 ——— See Fountains, pAgE 22 See Library, pAgE 21 Top News 5 | Home Sales 6 | Education 15 | Police Logs 19 | ArkBeat 25 | Classifieds 27 Weekend Weather | H Friday 67° 55° | H Saturday 69° 56° | H Sunday 65° 52° $8,950,000233Roundhillestate.com DRE #01863705 | C 415.419.4510 2 THE ARK • SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 thearknewspaper.com The Jampolskys NEW ON MARKET 110 Las Lomas Ln., Tiburon 3 Bedroom / 3.5 Baths $2,750,000 Charming, beau;fully updated home in prime “Old Tiburon” neighborhood. Views of the City, Bay, Belvedere Cove, and Corinthian Yacht Club. Lower level room with private entrance & bath. The best of Tiburon at your finger;ps, Main Street, ferry, restaurants, shops, cinema, Ark Row, Shoreline Park….proximity is everything! 110LasLomasLane.com Tiburon View Estate 2457 Mar East St., Tiburon 1677 Lucas Valley Rd., 5 Bedrooms / 4.5 Baths 6 Bedrooms / 4.5 Baths 10 Acre View Estate $5,275,000 $3,750,000 6 Bedrooms / 6 Baths Main Home Pending Off Market Sale Bay View Home 1 Bed / 1 Bath Guest Cottage ExpcetionaltTburonViewEstate.com 2457MarEast.com $6,350,000 1677lucasValleyRoad.com David Jampolsky Associate Broker 415-308-5126 1 Portsmouth Cv., San Rafael Off Market, Vineyard Potential [email protected] 3 Bedrooms / 2 Baths Westside Rd., Healdsburg Camille Jampolsky Associate Broker $875,000 40 Acre Estate, 2 Homes, Guest Cottage, Barn 415-310-0236 1PortsmouthCove.com [email protected] $10,500,000 JampolskyRealEstate.com facebook.com/thearknewspaper September 25, 2019 • THE ARK 3 LETTER TO THE EDITOR SINCE NOVEMBER 15, 1972 Idea to move anchor-outs here understand that in a winter storm, the farther east one goes Office: 415-435-2652 Display ads: 415-435-1190 on Richardson Bay, the bigger and more violent the waves. Ad deadlines: 5 p.m. Wednesday; camera-ready, noon Thursday reveals government incompetence I gather he assumes that Belvedere residents will build an anchorage for rowboats and a shuttle service so the anchor- Owner: AMMI Publishing Co. Inc. As a 20-year observer/experiencer of the Richardson Bay outs can get to shore and go wherever they want to go. I also publishers: Alison T. Gray and Arthur H. Kern anchor-our problem, the incompetence and lack of financial Director of Business & Advertising imagine he believes we will be paying for a sewage pump Henriette Corn, [email protected] stewardship of local government never ceases to amaze me. boat so we don’t see or smell buckets being dumped in the Executive Editor The hiring of world-renowned environment consultant Keith bay as we currently do. Every year, residents of these di- Kevin Hessel, [email protected] Merkel for $140,000 to tell us that the best place for a perma- lapidated wrecks die because they are ill-equipped to handle Assistant & Special Sections Editor nent anchorage is 600 feet off of the coast of Belvedere’s west the winter storms. Because there is a bit more eelgrass in Emily Lavin, [email protected] shore (“Best place for mooring field is off Belvedere,” Sept. Calendar & Copy Editor Sausalito, Belvedere is the solution? Diana Goodman, [email protected] 18, pg. 1) is incredible! What a great example of taxpayer Where is the oversight and governance of our public Accounts Manager waste and governmental tail-covering. funds? Follow the current laws, and the problem will end Leigh Pagan, [email protected] Obviously, Keith has never experienced a full year on — like it has in Alameda, Oakland, Redwood Shores, Santa Staff reporters Richardson Bay, or he would know that there is a tremen- Barbara, San Diego … Deirdre McCrohan, [email protected] Hannah Weikel, [email protected] dous amount of eelgrass along Belvedere too. Nor does he — Jim Robertson, Belvedere Contributing writers Michelle Aschwald, Joan Bekins, Carol Benet, SUBMIT YOUR LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The Ark welcomes letters to the editor. They should be 350 words or fewer and submitted electroni- Marybeth Bond-Sheppard, Hillary Don, Gretchen Lang, cally. The Ark reserves the right to edit all letters for clarity and will not knowingly publish those containing false or misleading informa- Heather Lobdell, Diane Lynch, Ann Mizel, Rosine Reynolds, tion. Legally objectionable letters, those of a commercial/promotional nature or news announcements will be rejected. Letters should be Cynthia Shaver, Diane Smith, Robin Scott Wray sent only to The Ark, must be original, and they must include your first and last name as you are known in the community, your city of Contributing photographers residence, occupation if relevant and a telephone number for verification. The deadline is noon the Friday preceding Wednesday’s publica- Frank Fennema, Elliot Karlan, Jocelyn Knight, Diane Smith tion. Email your letter to [email protected] or submit it online at thearknewspaper.com under the “Contact” tab. Layout & Design | Digital Content: Kevin Hessel The Ark is an adjudicated newspaper of general circulation by the Marin County Superior Court on Dec. 19, 1973, case No. 69007. Published and delivered by mail on Wednesdays. All rights reserved. MEETINgS & Agendas Copyright © 2019 AMMI Publishing Co. Inc. public meetings Tiburon Town Hall, 1505 Tiburon Blvd. board of directors: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 8, first- The Ark (USPS012310) is published Wednesdays and is delivered 7:30 p.m.