A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

President’s letter for September

By Doug Crisman

It’s time to join RSCA, your Community Association!

Our many activities are made possible by your support, and the larger our membership the more effective we can be as advocates for Redwood Shores.

For example, for the past several months RCSA has made sure that Redwood City understands how critical the levee situation is to us, and the City has responded by developing a plan to improve and have our levees certified by FEMA in advance of the deadline in September 2010. We recently hosted a meeting at the Library where City engineers presented details of their plans for the levees and a schedule for completing the work. RSCA will stay on top of these issues for the duration of the project and keep you posted.

Meanwhile, many Shores music students have had the pleasure of performing in recitals held at the new Library at the new grand piano for which RSCA helped with start-up costs. Many of you have also enjoyed the outstanding collections at our new Library, for which RSCA donated more than $65,000.

Every Easter, we hold our ever-popular Eggstavaganza for hundreds of Shores children, and this summer we co-sponsored a series of concerts in Marlin Park. Each August we “Clean up the Shores” with the annual levee cleanup. This September 10 RSCA is bringing the five candidates for the three open Redwood City City Council seats to you for a Candidates Forum so that you can meet and question the candidates.

Each October we hold the Shores Halloween Parade for your children, and we support Santa Comes to the Shores in December. We do all of this as community volunteers.

You can play your part and support RSCA’s activities by becoming a member for only $35.00, which is a great value. There is a membership form in this issue of the Pilot, and we’ll also be starting our membership drive in late fall.

RSCA is also keeping an eye on the possible use of a site at 345 Shoreway in San Carlos (on the Shores side of 101) as the location for a new County jail housing hundreds of inmates. This is a gateway location to Redwood Shores so we are paying attention to how this develops. It appears that a decision on a list of final site candidates will be made in August or September and a single site selected in March, 2010. Right now, the Shoreway site is ranked fourth among seven short-listed candidate sites.

Please plan to attend the Candidates Forum on September 10 at the Redwood Shores Library. Come meet the candidates vying for three open City Council seats and ask your questions. We in Redwood Shores can play a major role in Redwood City and the School District if we make our voices heard and turn out to vote. This has a direct bearing on how issues we care about are resolved, from levee certification to the opening of levee paths at the end of the Shores to development plans that will impact the Shores.

For updates on these issues, please visit our new web site at www.rsca.org.

By Doug Crisman