a n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l e

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Volume ı ı ı Number 46 | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com

Editorial a 4A | Weather & Tides a 5A | Police Log a 5A | A&E a 2B | Sports a 5B | Real Estate a 1C | Classifi eds a 3C

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Rates unchanged from 1998

DOUBLE-DIGIT SEWER HIKES COULD BE NEAR

CITY RATES UNCHANGED

AFTER 11 YEARSBy Mark Noack

[ mark@hmbreview.com ]

Sewer rates in Half Moon Bay could increase more than 50 percent in the next two years, if the city follows through on a proposal to boost reve-nues for the city sanitation system.

City leaders are considering rate in-creases as high as 31 percent for next year, along with more increases in the

following years. These rate hikes are reportedly needed to make up for years of low sewer rates that did not accu-rately refl ect the costs of maintaining the sanitary facilities, city offi cials say. The city had been able to ignore the imbalance in its sewer budget since 1998 by drawing on its special sewer reserve fund, which is supposed to be used only for capital projects.

“You’re currently using capital mon-ey to pay for ongoing costs,” said City Engineer Mo Sharma, speaking to the council on March 2. “There are liabili-ties if you don’t maintain this system. You could expose citizens to hazards if

the sewer system backs up, or the EPA could issue fi nes.”

Built more than 50 years ago, the city’s sewer system is antiquated and frequently suffers blockages, Sharma said. Public works employees have found many spots where tree roots have found their way into holes in the pipes, but an accurate survey of the subterranean system remains unavail-able.

“We don’t know the exact condition of the pipes because no one has ever tested them,” Sharma said, indicating that more money was needed to locate

Half Moon Bay sewer rates

Graphic courtesy of Half Moon Bay Public Works Department

City offi cials kept sewer rates the same for 11 years even though expenses con-tinued to rise. Public Works offi cials are proposing steep rate increases to make up for years of low fees. The graph shows the cost of sewer rates for each hun-dred cubic feet (HCF). The average single-family home uses 27 HCF each year.

Miramar neighbors move to protect scenic stripNO SIMPLE FIX IN

SIGHT FOR CRUMBLING FRONTAGE ROAD

By Greg Thomas[ greg@hmbreview.com ]

The weathered frontage road paralleling Mi-ramar Beach has long been a source of pride for the business owners and residents lining the lo-cally popular strip. As it constitutes a short sec-tion of the disjointed Coastal Trail and passes between the beach and a row of visitor-friend-ly businesses, the bumpy roadway is a pillar of commerce and a keystone of Miramar, they say.

But Mirada Road is less than stable, and resi-dents say it’s begun a dangerous decline. Late-ly, El Niño storms have scraped away the thor-oughfare’s coastal charm and left a tattered li-ability in their wake.

“It’s sinking,” says Linda Montalto Patterson, who owns the Hastings House seaside wedding chapel on Mirada Road with her husband. “If it fails, what happens then?”

Patterson and her neighbors aren’t waiting

around to fi nd out. Hoping to stay ahead of the curve, about 25 of them banded together last month and are making a push to draw atten-tion from decision-makers to the site. They call themselves the Miramar Beach Alliance.

“We’re saying this is a scenic corridor, a con-tinuation of the bike trail, and a boon to every-one — commercial and residential,” says Pat-terson, group founder. “Miramar Beach is part of why people come to the coast. … This is not a place that you want to see fail.”

Mirada Road was once a stretch of Highway 1. Then in 1964 the outer breakwater was built on the south side of Pillar Point Harbor, chang-ing beach dynamics for miles south.

“There’s probably a million issues complicating the area. It’s a diffi cult site.”

— Joe LoCoco, San Mateo County Public Works deputy director of road maintenance

Lars Howlett / Review

Neighbors, from left, Dwight and Susan Pate, and Michael and Marika Powers, walk along Mirada Road, discussing their newly formed Alliance to Save Miramar Beach. The community is concerned that ultimately the road may wash away.

Parents vie for spot in Spanish programMANY STUDENTS, FEW

SEATS IN HATCH SPANISH IMMERSION

By Mark Noack[ mark@hmbreview.com ]

Good schools can be competitive, but at Hatch Elementary it’s the parents who are jostling for classroom attention.

In what has become a winter tradition, the incoming group of kindergarten par-ents are crossing their fi ngers in hopes their children can get in Spanish Immer-sion — a lauded program that gives stu-dents a bilingual education that starts in kindergarten and continues all the way through high school.

The immersion program has a track record of producing students who are fl uent in both Spanish and English, a

skill that carries a lot of weight, especial-ly among parents beginning their child’s education.

Students typically can join the program only during kindergarten, and there’s never enough room. Hatch can only sup-port two classes each year, not enough for the 80-some parents who annually apply for the program.

And that short supply can make par-

Lars Howlett / Review

Hatch Elementary School teacher Joyce Hodges has been an integral part of the Spanish Immersion Program since its inception in the 1990s. The program is always popular, and this time of year parents angle to get their young students into the classes.

[ e d u c a t i o n ][ s o u t h c o a s t ]

Pescadero school on list

of state’s worst

By Clay Lambert[ clay@hmbreview.com ]

Pescadero Elementary and Middle School got some un-wanted attention on Monday when the rural South Coast campus was included on a list of 188 of the state’s worst schools. As a result, school ad-ministrators face some hard choices that include fi ring most of the staff or closing en-tirely — as well as the promise of a windfall.

The list was devised by the California Department of Ed-ucation in an effort to grab some of the second round of so-called Race to the Top fed-eral funding and hundreds of millions of dollars in School Improvement Grants. Initially, California schools were locked out of such funding, in part because the state hadn’t iden-tifi ed its most needy schools. A second round of federal funding is in the offi ng. Tier 1 schools such as Pescadero El-

ementary and Middle could re-ceive as much as $2 million in additional federal funding an-nually for three years — if they consent to one of four draconi-an reforms.

The Turnaround Model mandates major changes in-cluding replacing the princi-pal and fi ring at least half of the school’s staff. The Restart Model requires closing and reopening as a charter school. The School Closure mod-el calls for closing and send-ing students to other schools in the district. The Transfor-mation Model requires a new principal and increased in-structional time.

Three other San Mateo County schools — all part of the Ravenswood district on the bayside — are included on the list.

“Well, absolutely, it’s disap-pointing,” said LHPUSD Pres-ident Andy Wilson, who noted district offi cials were not terri-

STATE CALLS FOR MAJOR IMMEDIATE REFORMS

See PESCADERO a 6A See SPANISH a 6A

See MIRAMAR a 6A

See SEWER a 6A

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Volume ı ı ı Number 46 | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com

GETTING THEIR KICKSTOOLS AND TREATSWinter league all-stars named > Sports 6BEclectic store creates one-of-a-kind vibe > 1B