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| City Manager's Weekly Report for the Week Ending July 6th, 2012 July 7, 2012 |
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Mayor and Councilmembers: This is the weekly report for the week ending July 6th, 2012.
The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 10th, beginning with a Closed Session at 5:00 PM, and followed by the regular agenda at 6:30 PM. For planning purposes, it should be noted that the City Council will meet every Tuesday in July (the 10th, the 17th, the 24th, and the 31st) prior to its hiatus in August.
Edric Kwan has notified me that he is accepting a new position as Public Works Director/Town Engineer for the Town of Moraga. His last day in Richmond will be Friday, July 13th. In his new job, Edric will be managing the operations and maintenance of Moraga’s infrastructure and facilities and creating its new building department, as well as continuing duties similar to those that he did in Richmond as City Engineer. He is currently working to prepare a transition plan to ensure seamless, continued engineering services after his departure. Edric has done a great job as City Engineer for Richmond and we wish him well in his new position.
The Grand Opening of the Richmond Main Street Farmers’ Market on Wednesday, June 27th featured more than 25 vendors offering seasonal fruits and vegetables, gourmet foods, local honey, fresh cut flowers, baked goods, orchids, and live music. More than 600 residents, employees, and visitors attended the market and reveled in the bounty that the farmers had to offer.
In 2009, Kathy L. Haug, Administrative Librarian for Children’s & Extension services, won the Demco $10,000 Makeover grant for her redesign of the computer use area of the Children’s Room. The Richmond Public Library Foundation added a matching grant of $10,000, and the Friends of the Richmond Public Library provided over $3,500 to purchase the Big Cozy Books sofa and to provide paint and supplies for the art student who painted the mural. The use of the characters for the mural was donated by well-known artist-illustrator Ashley Woolf, a big savings in licensing fees. The East Bay Community Foundation also provided $7,000 for the purchase of a Peek-A-Book Station (animated book reviews and stories) and a three-year subscription to the review service. The project was completed in 2011, but the photo shoot did not occur until later. Our Library’s Children’s Room is now prominently featured in Demco Interiors’ newest brochure. The project manager from Demco Interiors, Randy Korte, recently said that other libraries are asking for the double-curve design with alternating tables and bookshelves that we created. The design includes a boomerang-shaped computer area, with Literacy Stations, parenting books, toddler books in the inner curve, audio books, picture books for older readers, and public PC stations with internet access for older children and their parents on the outer curve.
The City of Richmond working with its consultants Holland & Knight, was successful in engaging with the Congressional Senate Banking Committee to broaden a research and development (R&D) grant authorization provision under the recently enacted Federal Transportation Bill. The provision, which authorizes funding of up to approximately $35 million over two years (up to a total of $70 million), could fund aspects of the research and development, and deployment, of the Richmond-based CyberTran project. As you may recall, CyberTran is an ultra light rail technology-based start-up that is currently located at the Richmond Field Station, and for which the Richmond City Council has passed a resolution of support. Entities eligible for funding will include both organizations applying alone and consortia, including state and local government, Federal laboratories, transportation providers, private and non-profit entities, universities and colleges. The City and its partners will continue to work on this project.
In preparation for development of their Climate Action Plan, Contra Costa County will host a community open house in Richmond this Thursday, July 12th from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM at 440 Civic Center Plaza. The open house will provide attendees with an opportunity to learn about the planning process, learn how a Climate Action Plan can support local businesses and community health, and provide input on possible actions that may apply to individuals, homes, and businesses.
The United Heckathorn Superfund site is located in the Richmond Harbor inlet of San Francisco Bay. It includes five acres of land and about 15 acres of marine sediments in two channels (Lauritzen and Parr). In 1980, the California Department of Health Services inspected and sampled soil from the site and detected chlorinated pesticides and metals. The area was designated a State Superfund site in March 1982. Although actions were taken to reduce the risk from the pesticides found on the site, sediments and the water in the Lauritzen Channel are still contaminated with pesticides, primarily DDT and dieldrin. Levels are high enough to pose a threat to wildlife who feed in or around the water. Since these pesticides bioaccumulate in fish, people who subsistence fish in the area run the risk of exposure to unacceptably high levels of DDT and dieldrin. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is renewing efforts to clean up the United Heckathorn Superfund Site, and is inviting the public to participate in a Technical Assistance Workshop this Monday, July 9th from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM in the Richmond BUILD III Facility at 500 23rd Street in Richmond. At the workshop, EPA staff will:
For more information on the site cleanup, contact Penny Reddy, EPA Remedial Project Manager, at (415) 972-3108 or email her at reddy.penny@epa.gov. For more site information, go to EPA web page at: www.epa.gov/region09/UnitedHeckathorn.
The I-80 Integrated Corridor Mobility (ICM) Project will integrate the transportation management systems of the I-80 corridor and the San Pablo Avenue corridor in Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties. The project will employ state-of the-practice intelligent transportation systems (ITS) tools to improve safety, mobility, and trip reliability for all users. Main project components will be I-80 incident management, I-80 adaptive ramp metering (ARM), traffic and transit information, improvements to San Pablo Avenue, and arterials connecting with mainline I-80. The project is divided into 7 sub-projects. Sub-project #4 (adaptive ramp metering or ARM) and sub-project #5 (active traffic management or ATM) were recently advertised on June 18, 2012 with scheduled bid-openings on August 1, 2012 and August 7, 2012, respectively. Sub-project #4 (ARM) will have the following improvements in the City of Richmond:
Sub-project #5 (ATM) will have the following improvements in the City of Richmond:
The mandatory pre-bid meeting for these 2 Caltrans projects will be held in the Richmond City Council Chambers on Monday, July 16th from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM in an effort to increase small local business participation in its contracts. Prime contractors and subcontractors are invited to meet one another, exchange information about a specific project, and have the opportunity to meet staff. Please visit the following link for more information about the projects: http://www.alamedactc.org/files/managed/Document/4646/CMA7910_I80ICM_factsheet.pdf
Facilities Maintenance Division: Carpenters repaired the ceiling in the dorm of Fire Station 68, insulated walls at Fire Station 67, removed and replaced the concrete approach at Fire Station 68, the roof repair for Fire Station 61 has been completed, and ergonomic installation requests for City staff have been performed. Utility staff cleaned the carpets within the Main Library, Nevin, and Booker T. Anderson Community Centers. The electrical shop completed safety concerns within the Main Library, replaced knocked down park lighting poles at Marina Green Park, tested the malfunctioning traffic signal at Richmond Parkway and Hensley Avenue, and continued with the re-lamping of street lights around the City. Parks and Landscaping Division: Parks crews provided support services for the Third of July Celebration at Marina Green Park, irrigation repairs and landscaping at the Memorial Youth Center, performed set up and provided support for the Tennis Event to be held at Nicholl Park, irrigation repairs at the North Richmond Ball Field, Parchester Community Park, and Hilltop Park. The Tree Crew trimmed and pruned trees along the I-80 and Hilltop Drive off ramp as well as Burg Park. Streets Division: Pavement Maintenance performed guardrail repairs on San Pablo Dam Road by Kennedy Grove Regional Park, crews also set up for the Third of July Celebration, paved a portion of Hilltop Drive, and worked from the outstanding pot hole list.
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Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments about these or any other items of interest to you. Have a great week! You can sign up to receive the City Manager’s weekly report and other information from the City of Richmond by visiting: www.ci.richmond.ca.us/list.aspx
Bill Lindsay
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