Issue date: February 24, 1999
By JENNIFER DESAI
At a community meeting this week, Atherton will put its residents to work -- to help prioritize town building projects and find creative ways to finance them.
City Manager Don Guluzzy invites residents to offer ideas and suggestions on a number of capital improvement projects under consideration. They include a new police building, a major renovation of town administrative offices, a new arts center, and new road and drainage projects.
At a meeting on Thursday, February 25, town staff will make short presentations on these projects, and take questions from residents, said Mr. Don Guluzzy.
The meeting will be held at Las Lomitas School, 299 Alameda de las Pulgas, from 7 to 9 p.m.
For those who cannot attend, a second meeting will be held Thursday, March 18, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Pavilion at Holbrook-Palmer Park, 150 Watkins Ave.
At the meetings, Finance Director Starla Jerome-Robinson will report on the town's five-year financial picture, which is a matter of concern to the town staff because of growing expenditures and relatively flat projected revenues. In the past five years, she said, spending has grown an average of 14 percent a year.
To show residents how crowded town offices are, the city manager is holding an open house from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 10, when residents can tour police and administrative offices on Ashfield Road.
Later, residents may be surveyed on these projects, officials said.
Meanwhile, the town is counting on the financial acumen of Athertonians. "We know the town has residents who have vast financial experience and we are looking to them for possible creative ways of finding solutions to future funding needs," said Mr. Guluzzy.
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