Menlo Watch: Community day aims to improve Belle Haven Menlo Watch: Community day aims to improve Belle Haven (March 03, 2004)

A city effort to improve Menlo Park's Belle Haven neighborhood will continue Saturday, March 6, with a "Community Building Day" open to adults and children.

The event is scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Belle Haven Elementary School, 415 Ivy Drive. The program will include group discussions on problems and possible solutions in a number of areas, including neighborhood beautification, education, community-building and traffic, said Mara Mintzer, Belle Haven family services manager for the city. The goal is to come up with recommendations to bring to the City Council.

The event will also focus on the area's strengths, spotlighting local teen poets, Children of the Sunset (a Pacific Islander dance group), and other young dancers. Free breakfast and lunch will be provided, along with free children's activities and child care.

The Belle Haven Community Life Initiative, a city-community effort to improve the area, is coordinating the event. For more information, call 330-2285.
Council approves city manager's pay raise

The members of the Menlo Park City Council have unanimously voted to give City Manager David Boesch a 5 percent raise, retroactive to July 30, 2003.

The council made that decision, which increases Mr. Boesch's annual salary from $151,668 to $159,251, at its February 24 meeting. Mr. Boesch also has a $400 monthly car allowance from the city, along with health benefits and life insurance.

At the meeting, Councilman Paul Collacchi said he "wholeheartedly" approves of the raise. But, he added, he wanted to state for the public's benefit that the council had also agreed in a February 3 closed session to forgive about $7,000 of interest on one of Mr. Boesch's home loans from the city.
Study session planned on Park Theatre

The empty Park Theatre will be the focus of discussion during a 6 p.m. study session by the Menlo Park City Council on Tuesday, March 2.

Owner Howard Crittenden is seeking the city's financial help in reopening the old El Camino Real movie theater he shut down in 2002. One possibility would be to ask the council to allow him to sell his unused building capacity on the site to another property owner, he said. Another would be an annual city subsidy of $91,000.

The meeting takes place in Room 112 of the Burgess Recreation Center at 700 Alma St. It is a study session, so the council can take no formal action.

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