San Rafael Snapshot - August 15, 2013

K9 Swearing In

On Monday night, we will have a very special swearing in ceremony for our Police Departments’ newest recruits – Ares and Faro. After an eleven year hiatus, the Police K9 unit is being reestablished with two German Shepherds. Police canines are trained to find missing or wanted people, locate evidence, identify drugs and explosives, and protect their handlers. Often times they can do certain tasks much more quickly and more safely than a human, such as conducting quick searches. For more information about the K9 unit, click here.

Labor Agreements on Council Agenda

Employee contracts for most City of San Rafael employees will be considered by the City Council on Monday evening.  The employee groups on the agenda include the Firefighters’ Association, Police Association, Local 1 Confidential, Western Council of Engineers, and various management groups.  Most City employees have experienced four years of pay reductions. These one-year contracts include no pay increases, modest benefit improvements with an average net cost of approximately 0.6% of total compensation, and increased employee pension contributions meaning that employees will pay a greater share of pension costs.  As a provider of services, our employees are our greatest resource and I’m pleased to recommend renewal of these agreements. 

City Wins Beacon Award for Leadership in Climate Change

San Rafael will be the first city ever to achieve the Institute of Local Government’s “Beacon Award for Local Leadership Towards Solving Climate Change.” The City signed up for the Beacon Award program in 2010. Since then, we’ve achieved interim awards twice. We have won the award based on our recent Greenhouse Gas inventory, Greenhouse Gas reductions, and best practices activities. This is a strong validation of our sustainability efforts. Click here to learn more about our sustainability programs and check out our Green Initiatives on Facebook!

Summer Programs Wrap Up

To all the residents and friends of San Rafael who enjoyed and supported the programs, facilities and services provided by the Community Services Department, thank you for your patronage this summer season.  We had a blast teaching your children to swim, helping them catch their first fish, watching them sing and perform in The King and I, organizing your volleyball tournaments, softball and basketball leagues, showing your skateboarder how to pump and groove, hosting your hometown baseball team, the San Rafael Pacifics, cooling you off on hot days at the Terra Linda and Hamilton Community Pools, playing bingo, launching rockets, activating robots, working on the forehand smash, and enjoying your smiles and happy recount of summer fun. Don’t be strangers.  Look for our Fall Winter Activity Guide on line and in your mail box next week. Check out the new, expanded Fall Swim Schedule. For those with school age children, your schedule of afterschool enrichment courses will be waiting for you on your first day of school, where our eight Children’s Centers will welcome them back.  Thanks for a great summer.  We hope to serve you again, soon.

It Can Absolutely Wait

Texting and driving is extremely dangerous and has led to far too many preventable accidents. According to the National Highway Association, texting while driving is the same as driving after 4 beers, and a person is 6 times more likely to cause an accident driving while texting than while intoxicated. Click here to watch Werner Herzog’s documentary “From One Second to the Next” on the dangers of texting and driving. Please talk to your teenagers about the dangers of distracted driving. The age group with the greatest proportion of distracted drivers is the under-20 age group – 16 percent of all drivers younger than 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported to have been distracted while driving. No text, tweet, or status update is worth it. Please don’t text and drive.

Electric Vehicle Chargers in San Rafael

The City of San Rafael has electrical vehicle chargers available to the public in our two public parking garages – with more chargers to come. The EV chargers, located in our parking facilities at 3rd & A Streets and 3rd & C Streets, are available for free to any of our parking customers. Customers utilizing a downtown business are encouraged to use the vehicle chargers, which are part of San Rafael’s continuing commitment to reduce greenhouse emissions. Additional information, including links showing station location, availability and cost, is available on the parking map page of the city’s website.  There are many on-line resources to see all the EV stations in San Rafael and beyond.  Here is one example: www.carstations.com.

Conservation Assistance Programs

Marin Municipal Water District offers several free services to our community to assist with conservation. MMWD offers free, indoor/outdoor water efficiency surveys through their Conservation Assistance Program (CAP). Knowledgeable conservation experts will make an onsite visit to help customers identify ways to reduce their water use and water bill. Customized CAP surveys are available for residential, commercial and large landscapes. Consultations typically take one to two hours, depending on the size of the site. MMWD also partners Marin Master Gardeners will provide a free, residential garden evaluation. Lastly, MMWD partners with California Youth Energy Services to provide free "green house calls." CYES staff will provide an indoor efficiency evaluation plus free installation of energy- and water-saving equipment. More information about these and other conservation programs is available here.

EVENTS

Free Class on Wildland Fire Prevention and Preparation for San Rafael Residents

In response to the high risk of a catastrophic wildfire, the Fire Department will be offering a free, 2 hour class for residents on why the city is at risk and what homeowners living in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Areas can do about it. The class will be offered on Saturday, August 17 at the San Rafael Corporate Center, 750 Lindaro Ave. from 10 a.m. to noon. San Rafael residents may register for the free class by email at: FireinSR@comcast.net or by calling 383-2631. Click here for more information.

Huge Book Sale of Art Books and Books on the Arts