Pierce Road area spruce-up Pierce Road area spruce-up (December 22, 2004)

Cars parked on the lawn. Broken windows, damaged building foundations, boxes of junk.

Would you want this on your street? Residents of the Pierce Road area in Menlo Park's Belle Haven neighborhood sure didn't.

But since the city created a task force to clean up the area in January, many of these problems have been removed, Menlo Park Police Cmdr. Terri Molakides said in a staff report. The City Council allocated $19,167 toward the effort, and it has been spent, she said.

Code enforcement officers from the Menlo Park Police Department inspected properties in the spring and issued 14 citations to property owners, Cmdr. Molakides said. Most of the violations were cleaned up within a month or two.

Some work is still being done, she said. For example, the Macedonia Baptist Church and the Cummings Park Methodist Church are still being repainted.

The staff report was presented to the City Council on December 14. To read it, go to www.menlopark.org, click on "City Council," and go to that night's meeting agenda.
Several commission seats available

Menlo Park residents have many opportunities to influence their City Council. One is by serving on a city commission, which advises the council.

Currently, there is one vacancy each on the housing, parks and recreation, planning and transportation commissions.

There is also an opening on the Las Pulgas Committee, which advises the council on activities and programs in the Belle Haven and nearby industrial and commercial areas. This opening must be filled by a member of the area's business community.

The deadline for applying for the Transportation Commission is January 11; for the other commissions, it's December 27. For more information, call City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden at 330-6620.

There is still no city Arts Commission after all the commissioners resigned in protest earlier this year over the council's repealing the public art law. Recruitment is on hold until the council decides whether to seek new members or pursue other options such as disbanding the group, City Manager David Boesch said.

Council members have not indicated when that could happen, he added..
City Hall closed

You'll have to hold off on getting that building permit or visiting Menlo Park's top city officials this week. City Hall is closed for holiday frivolity, reopening on Monday, December 27. Then it closes again on Friday, December 31, for New Year's Eve.

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