Golden Gate National Recreation Area last week told
directors of Muir Beach Community Services District it will restore
part of the federal beach’s picnic area to floodplain. In addition:
• District water rates are on the rise
because customers have been so diligent in conserving water that water
sales no longer provide sufficient revenue to operate the water system.
• Muir Beach Volunteer Fire Department
Chief John John Sward announced that a new Disaster Commission will
be formed via the fire department.
• District directors last week listened
sympathetically to complaints from a town resident unhappy with GGNRA
tree cutting in town.
Park undergoing facelift
The Park Service this month will excavate part of
the federal beach’s picnic area to widen the Redwood Creek floodplain
by 46 feet, Carolyn Shoulders, co-manager of the project, told directors.
The project will restore part of the floodplain that
was filled in during the 1980s with debris from a landslide on Muir
Woods Road.
Parking will not be affected during the project, which
Shoulders said should take no more than five days. "We have to
accommodate picnickers sent from Muir Woods," she explained.
At the request of Muir Beach resident Karla Andersdatter,
Shoulders agreed to post signs announcing when work will take place.
The Park Service representative said the GGNRA will eventually add a
few more grills and a couple of tables to the picnic area but she didn’t
know when.
Water rates rising
Ironically, Muir Beach residents have done
such a good job of conserving water they will now have to pay more for
it. District Manager Leighton Hills told The Light that the board
will vote on rate increases Oct. 19.
The increase will help to bring revenues back to where
they were before the district began encouraging water users to conserve
last year. Hills said that it has been a couple of years since rates
increased. The lowest users will have a flat rate increase of $4 a month.
One of the district’s heaviest users, in contrast,
is the Pelican Inn. "The rate increases will certainly impact us,"
general manager Katrinka McKay told The Light.
McKay said that the inn has already made efforts to conserve
water but added, "there’s always more we can do."
As for energy conservation, the Muir Beach Community
Center is now equipped with solar panels. Sun First of San Rafael installed
the panels, which Hills hopes will reduce the center’s PG&E
bill to almost zero. The $10,000 installation was paid for with $3,000
from the district, $500 from county government, and various donations
and grants.
Disaster Commission rebirth
Fire Chief Sward, in announcing that a new
Disaster Commission would be formed, said the fire department "has
no problem doing it."
The chief noted Muir Beach once had a disaster commission,
but it eventually dissolved. He stressed that the key to disaster preparedness
is "to have a backup and a backup."
Old trees felled
Resident Andersdatter of Muir Beach, who in
a letter to The Light last week criticized the Park Service’s
felling an ancient stand of eucalyptus at Highway 1 and Pacific Way,
asked why trees are being cut down, the stumps left, and the roots then
sprayed with herbicide – all without public notice. "I want
to be notified," Andersdatter.
Board Vice President Peter Rudnick said he would support
Andersdatter when she writes the GGNRA about these concerns.