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Atherton meets on library issue
• Should town survey residents on where to put library?

by Barbara Wood

Atherton's City Council will hold a meeting Wednesday, Nov. 16, that includes the topic that has split the town: the location of a new library in the town's only park. And the meeting will be held at the park, itself: Holbrook-Palmer Park at 150 Watkins Ave.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the Jennings Pavilion.

On the agenda is approval to start a report on the environmental impacts of putting the library in the park. The council also will discuss a recommendation by the town's Park and Recreation Committee to survey residents on whether to put a new library in the park.

Rate hikes for garbage and recycling pickup are also on the agenda. Rates rose an average of 45 percent in July and residents started paying for green waste carts after the first two. All green waste carts had previously been free.

At the October council meeting, a report by Councilman Bill Widmer proposed rates of: $29 for a 20-gallon can, a 45 percent increase; $57 for a 32-gallon can, a 30 percent increase; $115 for a 64-gallon can, a 39 percent increase; and $170 for a 96-gallon can, a 36 percent increase.

The first two green waste carts would remain free. After that, they would cost $10 each for third and fourth carts and $15 each for five carts or more. A slightly higher rate increase had been proposed originally in a mailing to residents.