Protect and Improve our Environment

By Bill Widmer

Maintain our safe, quiet, rural community. Improve and re-invigorate our park.

On the traffic and street safety front, I am stressing to our State representatives that we need visible action to improve safety on El Camino (which is a State Highway). Whilst some action has been taken since, as Mayor in late 2012, I got the CalTrans Director to begin working with us, we need a quicker resolution to the accidents which are occurring more and more regularly.

Our only park is a respite from the noise and traffic. Over the years it was ignored and minimally maintained. Last year, I, with the support of my colleagues added over $135K to the Park budget to repair the jogging path, clear over-grown bushes and remove dead trees. I also highlighted in my Council report, the sad state of our facilities and will press to update them over the coming years.

This year, the Council has agreed to spend close to$600K in the park in operational costs and capital improvements. Additionally, the HP-P Foundation, which I am part of, is donating $200K for the development of a beautiful new event garden, while the Atherton Dames are initiating a fundraising effort to restore the historic Carriage House to its original beauty-both projects I openly advocate for and support.

Finally, you may recall, it was my initiative to help fund the HSR lawsuit which was filed in Central California claiming the ballot measure was not being followed and that the financial projections for the HSR project were greatly flawed. The case is now being appealed to the California Supreme Court. We need to continue to support this effort as well as continue to object to CalTrains's proposal to cut down over 20,000 heritage trees in the area for their poorly thought out electrification plan. It is not that electrification is wrong, but rather their ill thought out implementation plan. We have responded to the agency's draft EIR and await their response.