Can You Picture It?

The 200 block of King Rd. Steep topography of the downhill slope. An 80-ft. guardrail which looks like it's lived through its glory days. If a vehicle strikes it one more time, will the guardrail serve its purpose and prevent the vehicle from careening over the side? The City is not willing to take the chance to find out.

One of the items on the agenda for this Monday's (3/2) City Council meeting is for staff to obtain fiscal authority to repair the mentioned guardrail. After consulting with a geotechnical engineer, it was recommended that the depth of the guardrail piers be doubled to account for the steep topography of the slope beyond the railing. This is what staff will be recommending to the Council, as the project falls in line with Brisbane's high regard for safety and care for its residents.

Then, there are some areas where pushing the limit proves beneficial. If you'd like to move beyond the Auto setting on your digital camera, the class "The Camera, the Technology, and Capturing the Image" is perfect for you. The class meets Wednesday evenings from 7:30pm - 9:30pm starting on March 4th. Call Russ Carmick at (415) 208-2143 for more details or just stop by City Hall and get signed up (Parks & Recreation is located on the 2nd floor).

With that, have a great weekend - enjoy the sun while it's out, and make plans to spend a wet Sunday safely indoors!

Blogworthy Matters

A couple weeks ago we blogged on a planned electric service interruption taking place in the area surrounding the Marina. PG&E, however, did NOT end up conducting their maintenance work during that time and have rescheduled that work to instead be done tomorrow morning, between 5:00am - 6:00am. The affected areas will still be Sierra Pt. Pkwy, Marina Blvd., and Shoreline Ct. PG&E and the City apologize for this inconvenience.

And a helpful tidbit: if ever you want to check the status of an electric outage, you may phone PG&E's outage hotline at: 1-800-743-5000. Thank you again for your patience and cooperation!

More news related to Sierra Point Pkwy. Public Works dept. got a call this afternoon from the Fire Dept. asking their assistance concerning a small oil spill that occurred on Sierra Point Pkwy. When they arrived, it appeared that a small amount of oil had made its way into the Lagoon, entering by way of a catch basin (which a vee ditch on Sierra Point Pkwy is connected to). Fortunately, the affected area in the Lagoon was small enough for oil booms to be quickly placed around the site. Storms drains were also soon blocked off to prevent any oil from flowing to the Bay. An environmental contractor is on site doing the last of the clean-up, along with several from the City's Public Works crew.

A Time for Enjoyment

Mark your calendars for March 7th as this is the return of Brisbane's annual community fundraiser, Monte Carlo Night! Back for its 8th year, the evening includes dancing, a full beer and wine no-host bar, a sumptuous buffet meal throughout the evening, just to name a few items. And of course, the night would not be complete without exciting games of chance!

Pre-sale tickets are now on sale for $20 in the Parks and Recreation Dept., located upstairs at City Hall ($25 at the door). This ticket includes playing chips, a drink ticket, and a pass to great, live music and delectable food!

The event takes place from 7:00pm - 11:00pm at Mission Blue Center. Prizes such as gift certificates will also be raffled off, so come out and enjoy yourself...because who knows...it just may be your lucky night!

What Do You Stand For?

When it comes to our nation's 1st and 16th presidents, there is no doubt the value of Honesty ranked supreme. We can recall, somewhat fancifully, how both Washington and Lincoln personified this noble trait. As a refresher, Washington is known as having never told a lie (confessing to his father that, yes, it was he who had used his brand-new hatchet to cut down his father's cherry tree), and Lincoln was given the nickname "Honest Abe" when, closing out the cash drawer at the general store he worked at, realized he hadn't given a woman enough change (upon closing, he walked six miles to return the change that was owed her...all 31 cents).

When faced with difficult circumstances, these men didn't opt for the easy way out. Instead, they did what they knew to be right. They let their high regard for honesty guide their actions.

The community needs to rely upon a core set of values to help direct our actions. The values of a Safe community, one that is Environmentally-Progressive, with an Informed, Involved, and Interconnected citizenry, who shows Care to one another and the natural environment will be the ones that steer decisions.

And as these two former presidents demonstrated, it's not enough to just state your values. You need to live them out. That is the hope of the City, recognizing that doing so isn't going to be easy...but as Washington and Lincoln have demonstrated, doing so will pay off. Fancifully, or not.

Happy Presidents' weekend! City Hall will be closed Monday 2/16, but we'll be back to serve you on Tuesday, the 17th. Also, a reminder there will be a City Hall meeting that evening. Click here to see the agenda.

Planned Electric Service Interruption

Sierra Pt. Pkwy., Marina Blvd., & Shoreline Ct. will be without power from 5:00am - 6:00am tomorrow (2/10). PG&E will be utilizing the hour for maintenance operations and will be doing their best to minimize the length of the service interruption.

A word of caution - if you have a permanently installed or portable generator, please do not connect it to another power source, or the utility electric system. This should not be done during an outage or at any other time, unless specialized switching, testing, and approval has been obtained from PG&E. This is to make sure that electricity from your unit cannot "backfeed" or flow into PG&E's power lines. For more information, visit www.pge.com/generator.

And for the rest of the community, if ever you want information on the status of an outage, please call PG&E at 1-800-743-5000. Their system provides current outage information based upon the phone number that's entered. Thank you in advance for all your cooperation and patience!

Striking that Balance

Trees are a far cry from an afterthought in Brisbane. We are fortunate to still have native tree species such as the California Bay, Coast Live Oak, and California Buckeye (as shown below) residing in town. Because they make up such a wide portion of Brisbane's natural landscape, there are great efforts on the part of the community and the City to ensure that proper measures are taken to ensure for their preservation and enjoyment.



It should be of no much surprise, then, that in Brisbane, it is necessary to obtain a permit for removal or severe trimming of large trees or "Protected Trees" within the City. ("Severe trimming" is the removal of more than 50% of the foliage crown or more than 30% of the height of the tree; a permit is now required for trimming more that these amounts.)

As for Protected Trees, they include any of the three shown above, which are primary native tree species on San Bruno Mtn., but also include ones that:

• City Council has determined as being a unique a contributor to the scenic beauty of the City


• provide a special benefit to the natural environment or wildlife


• are greater than 30" in circumference (approx. 10" in diameter) at 24" above grade level, with there being 3 or more of them on a single property


• the City maintains (could include Street Trees like the Brisbane Box, or those required by the City to be planted as a replacement tree for an unlawfully removed tree)

So, it isn't impossible to have a Protected Tree removed, but doing so without a permit would be unlawful and you could incur an infraction. And again, if you're thinking about doing some severe cutting, say to that overgrown pine in your backyard, a permit to do so MUST be obtained first.

To download an Application for Tree Removal, click here and submit it to Fred Smith, Assistant to the City Manager, 50 Park Place, Brisbane. If you have any questions you can contact Fred at 508-2110 or send him an email at fsmith@ci.brisbane.ca.us.

Brisbane’s trees contribute to the quality of life in the community and protection of trees enhances property values as well as the environment. It is also understood that, as property owners, individuals should be able to determine what kinds of trees should be maintained on their respective properties. That is where the City's Tree Regulations seeks to strike a balance. Thanks for doing your part to ensure that gets done!