New twist in
Novato
mobile home
park sale
The Novato City Council has entered into negotiations to sell the Marin Valley Mobile Country Club to the mobile park’s residents. After declining a $30 million bid from a developer to purchase the mobile home park following an uproar from residents, the city authorized City Manager Adam McGill to explore selling to the residents.
McGill reported the idea is in the “open discussion” stage.
Ex-Mayor Jim Wickham
Changing
of the guard
At the first meeting of October, outgoing Mayor Jim Wickham passed the baton to new Mayor Urban Carmel. In Mill Valley, Council members are typically elected to serve as mayor for a one-year term during their tenure. During the meeting, members of the community, city staff, and fellow city councilmembers shared their reflections on the past year and their hopes for the year ahead. Mayor Wickham received an abundance of praise for his leadership during a year filled with significant events, including a local election, the addition of Councilmember Caroline Joachim, and key appointments like City Manager Todd Cusimano and Arts & Recreation Director Ashley Howe.
“We recognize that in the next 10 to 15 years there’s a lot of infrastructure issues we need to address in Mill Valley that are way beyond our current budget,” the outgoing mayor said. “Where do we want to be in 10 to 15 years from now, and how are we going to pay for it? We can’t just put our head in the sand and pretend things are not going to happen down the line.”
At the last meeting in September, Mill Valley tweaked its City Council terms to bring town elections more in line with national elections. Councilmember Carmel’s term was extended from March to November 2024. The council decided to move his seat’s re-election from March to November 2024. It also extended the election cycles for the seats now held by Councilmembers Caroline Joachim, Stephen Burke, Max Perrey and former mayor Wickham. Cities are allowed to establish dates for elections.
Crime spate
The Fairfax Police Department has its hands full with a rash of vehicle thefts, riflings of unlocked vehicles, stolen vehicles, fraud and embezzlement in the Manor Hill area. The department said: “We seek assistance from our community to review their home residential and doorbell cameras for any recording evidence they can share with our investigators.”
Highway 37
The beginning of a long-range plan to elevate the portion of Highway 37 that connects Novato with Solano County will begin with a $1.6 billion project at the Atherton Avenue interchange. Caltrans officials made the announcement recently. When completed, it will rebuild a 2.5 mile section of the 21-mile stretch of commuter road. It will take 20-plus years to complete this phase of the project.
Foodware law
Mill Valley and Tiburon will host a virtual meeting on Nov. 10 explaining the new law mandating the use of reusable foodware at certain restaurants. The meeting will answer questions people may have. Sign up on links on the City of Mill Valley website.
Pay bump
To make it easier for county workers to afford a whopping 17.1% increase in Kaiser health care premiums, the Marin County supervisors agreed to increase benefit pay by about 9 to 13%. Staff told the supervisors that Kaiser annual increases have historically been in the 5-6% increase. The new health benefit increase, the staff said, will make it hard on workers and make it more difficult for the county to be competitive in hiring. About 10% of the county’s positions are unfilled.
Migrants sent
to the Bay Area
A dozen South American migrants arrived in San Jose by bus last week. It is the first batch of people to be sent to the Bay Area by border state governors during the ongoing migration crisis.
The Mercury News reported that the Biden administration’s “loosening of border restrictions has led to a surge of migrants crossing the southern border … Republican governors in Texas, Arizona and Florida critical of the Democratic president’s policies have transported border crossers to Democrat-led cities and states where ‘sanctuary’ policies limit cooperation with immigration enforcement.”
The Santa Clara County Office of Immigrant Relations said they don’t know what state sent them yet. No migrants in this episode of the border crisis have been sent to Marin County.
Train derailed
There will be no historic train in front of the Mill Valley city hall. That’s the latest decision from town leaders. Early last summer, the City Council elected to explore the idea, but changed its position recently after receiving some opposition. Citizens in favor of displaying the locomotive somewhere prominently in Mill Valley said they are “regrouping.” More information on the locomotive can be found here: friendsofno9.org/.
New health
center open
Over 170 Marin City leaders, community members, donors, and elected officials celebrated the completion of a new Health and Wellness Center on Sept. 21.
The new center, a major project for the not-for-profit Marin City Health and Wellness Center (MCHWC) organization, is a replacement facility for a much smaller clinic in Marin City and a ”dream come true” for the community. Located at 100 Phillips Drive in Marin City. It will double the capacity of the former clinic and expand services to meet the growing need of this historically underserved community.
MCHWC also opened a new Women’s Health Center in San Rafael in August.
Patients from all walks of life are welcome at both centers, including individuals who are under- or uninsured as well as Medi-Cal and Medicare patients, those with private insurance, and self-pay. Special emphasis will continue to be on increasing access for African Americans.
“The opening of these two new centers is consistent with MCHWC’s mission of providing innovative health and wellness services to all, with the goal of African American health equity. They are key components of our overall expansion plan, which included the previous opening of the Bayview Clinic in San Francisco,” said Nancy Johnson, Chair MCHWC’s Board of Directors.
“Now, after 17 years providing care at Drake Avenue, we have reached two more key milestones – these new centers in Marin,” she said, “it’s a dream come true.”
“The Drake Avenue site had its limitations,” CEO Harold Wallace said. “Because of its size, we were limited in adding new staff, services, and technologies and were unable to meet the growing need for services. Patient flow was challenging; the facility didn’t have sufficient amenities, and there were some infrastructure issues. We were doing a great job with what we had, but it was time for a change.”
Hate speech
Two public bodies in Marin were recently targeted for hate speech during the public comment period of their meetings. It’s a new trend in bad form experienced during public meetings. Larkspur and Tiburon have reported such incidents recently. In both of those instances, the callers used the time to make bigoted statements about Jews.
Larkspur City Manager Dan Schwartz told the Independent Journal newspaper that the statements were “awful” and “jarring for all of us.” In Marin, the disruptions follow a recent spate of hate flyers delivered to doorsteps of homes.
Leave a Reply