Point Reyes Light - September 23, 2004
BPUD and Land Trust sign water agreement
By Jacob Resneck
Bolinas Public Utility District directors last week appointed Bobbi Kimball, a retired health-care executive, to replace Director Joan Bertsch. The board president’s resignation became effective this month.
Directors voted unanimously to appoint Kimball over candidate Joel Braverman after candidate Matt Lewis withdrew his name at the last minute, citing personal reasons.
"I’m really honored to be a director, and I’m looking forward to getting to know a broader cross-section of people in the community," Kimball told The Light. Her term will expire on Nov. 30, 2005.
Following Bertsch’s departure, Vice President Jack Siedman automatically became the BPUD’s new president. Director Vic Amoroso was named vice president. In other utility district news:
• Directors last week voted to establish a 12-member ad-hoc Beach Committee to propose solutions to illegal camping and fires on Bolinas Beach. Members of the beach committee include: Magi Barror, Bruce Bowser, Joel Braverman, Baraca Broek, Lou and Jeffrey Commons, John Glavis, Mary Patterson, Jesse McCullum, Susannah Mills, and Rick Sherman. The committee will select its chairperson Sunday afternoon.
• BPUD also approved a conditional-use water agreement with the Bolinas Community Land Trust’s affordable-housing project. Alethea Patton, a design consultant for the project, said the agreement does not allow for any increase in use for the site, a former automotive-repair garage.
"We are going to use very strict water-conservation measures," she said. "There won’t be any irrigation for plants because they’ll all be native." Patton noted the agreement caps water use at 9,000 cubic feet per quarter.
If the housing project were to house 19 residents, this would allow each person 39 gallons per day. While the garage has closed, the gas pumps are still in operation under the ownership of the land trust. Patton predicted the gas station will use very little water.
The project’s program director, Gail Reitano, said calculations of how many gallons a resident can use are not currently meaningful because the final number of residents has not been determined; in addition, many of the occupants will be children who use less water.
Reitano added that water use "will be monitored by BPUD over the next two years."