Featured - page 30

With ticket sales down by over 95 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Caltrain is facing a devastating and uncertain future that may require a change in how the transit service is funded.

Even when the shelter-in-place orders end, the transit agency anticipates a future of fewer passengers per train, in part due to the need to promote social distancing and also because commuters nervous about riding in trains may choose other forms of transportation.

That likely won’t be sustainable for Caltrain, which currently gets 70 percent of its revenue from ticket sales. The transit agency has no dedicated source of funding and limited reserves.

Caltrain’s significant reductions in service during the shelter-in-place period have not produced enough savings to financially sustain the railroad, the transit agency’s staff said during a Board of Directors meeting last week. In March, the transit agency lost $3.3 million in revenue, and from April to June additional losses of $21.3 million are anticipated, the transit agency said. A $1 million budget deficit that was anticipated for the remainder of this fiscal year is now closer to an $11 million deficit. If service continued to run at these crisis levels, the annual deficit would be about $71 million, the transit agency said.

The COVID-19 pandemic struck at a time when Caltrain was planning for a future of vastly increased service. Building upon over a decade ridership growth, the Caltrain Business Plan’s 2040 Service Vision was approved by the agency’s Board last October with the aim of nearly tripling daily ridership to 180,000.

Today, the transit agency has shifted into triage and survival mode. Caltrain secured $49.3 million in federal CARES Funding to sustain the railroad in the very near term. But continued ridership constraints have the transit agency anticipating financial crisis through Fiscal Year 2021 and beyond. Agency staff said there is a need to reexamine Caltain’s funding structure in the long-term.

Caltrain staff is developing an initial opening plan for when the shelter in place is lifted and working to secure additional federal CARES funding. Meanwhile, it’s continuing to work on a possible sales tax ballot measure, as permitted by the signing of Senate Bill 797 in 2017. Ongoing electrification of the railroad continues, as well as the long-range plan. The agency aims to engage with local, regional, state and private sector partners in discussions about the system’s financial needs.

The Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA (PHS/SPCA) rescued a female raccoon last week that had been dangling from underneath an onramp on Highway 92 where the freeway connects 101 in San Mateo.

The incident unfolded on Wednesday, May 6, when a member of the public called the PHS/SPCA about the raccoon in distress. Rescue staff were at the scene within minutes to help the raccoon to safety. The California Highway Patrol stopped traffic on the onramp to allow PHS/SCPA staff to reach over the side of the freeway with specialized equipment to rescue the raccoon.

“The raccoon was in an extremely precarious situation and her only options were to fall from the high above the ground onramp to the ground below or attempt to survive in the oncoming traffic,” said Buffy Martin-Tarbox, Communications Manager at PHS/SPCA. “Either option would have potentially ended in tragedy for the animal.”

The raccoon was taken to the Wildlife Care Center for evaluation and was released back into the wild with a clean bill of health — and in a safe distance away from the highway.

“Hopefully she has learned her lesson and will stay far away from any onramps but rescuing wildlife as we increasingly encroach on natural habitat is a very predictable and at times very challenging part of our work,” said Tarbox.

This raccoon is just one of more than 400 animals PHS/SCPA has helped since San Mateo County instituted the shelter-in-place order.

Photo credit: PHS/SCPA

See’s Candies, the iconic candy company based in South San Francisco, has been donating heaps of its delicious product to frontline workers and community organizations across the West.

The South San Francisco-based company recently donated $125,000 worth of chocolate to the San Mateo County Health Foundation, which will be distributed to county frontline workers. Samaritan House has also received a donation, as has the Second Harvest of Silicon Valley Food Bank, which helped distribute thousands of pounds of candy, along with meals, to families in need. In recent weeks, over 100 tons of See’s Candies have gone to hospitals, schools, food banks, police and fire departments and charitable organizations.

With stores closed due to the shelter-in-place order, See’s Candies couldn’t sell its Easter-themed candies and didn’t want them to go to waste. So it decided to donate the product to various organizations, including Meals on Wheels, Ronald McDonald Houses and the YMCA.

ABC7 News’ Dan Ashley recently spoke with See’s Candies CEO Pat Egan in Walnut Creek, where the local See’s Candies store was delivering Easter-themed candies to a local hospital.

“We are so thrilled to be able to support our frontline workers and to put this to good use, and to thrill some people with our product which we absolutely love, and would love to sell, but in this case we get to give,” Egan told Ashley.

Since March, See’s Candies said it has “reconfigured how we make and sell candy,” with fewer people on its production floors. Some of its stores are testing pick-up options, where allowed. For more information and updates, visit See’s Candies’ website here.

Photo credit: See’s Candies

Is the Class of 2020 prepared for its drive-in graduation ceremony?

To facilitate graduations, San Mateo County Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow has issued a new order allowing “highly regulated” gatherings of vehicles.

Effective at 11:59 p.m. tonight, the new order impacts gatherings of ten or more vehicles. It requires occupants of each vehicle to be members of the same household, prohibits them from exiting the vehicle at the gathering except to use a restroom or to collect an item such as a diploma, and requires them to wear face coverings when windows are open. The order doesn’t permit bicycles, motorcycles, door-less vehicles or convertibles with the the top open.

Gatherings are limited to no more than 200 invited vehicles, and the event can last no more than three hours, the health order states. Hosts must implement proper social distancing protocols and also security in form of local law enforcement, a private company, or staff that provide campus security. The security must monitor social distancing, traffic, safety and other order requirements. Hosts are required to prepare a Gathering Plan as detailed in an appendix to the order here.

The text of the order is here.

As of May 10, there were 1,464 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county and 56 deaths. While the rate of increase the cumulative number of confirmed cases continues to increase, the rate of increase has slowed in recent days, the county says.

“Evidence suggests that the restrictions on mobility and the social distancing requirements of the March 16 and prior Shelter in Place orders are slowing the rate of increase in community transmission and confirmed cases,” the County said.

Happening tomorrow, May 9, the San Carlos Youth Advisory Council is hosting a Diaper Drive to help local families in need. Materials needed include diapers and wipes in all sizes that must be in the original packaging. All items collected will be donated to One Life Counseling Center.

Residents can donate materials in two different ways. A drop off bin will be located at the front of the San Carlos Youth Center from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 9 that allows for contact-free drop-off.

Secondly, residents can donate online via the One Life Counseling Diaper Drive Amazon Wish List that can be found here. All items can be shipped with Amazon Prime directly to the One Life Counseling donation center located at 1033 Laurel Street.

If you have any questions, please contact Caitlyn Matoso at cmatoso@cityofsancarlos.com.

Residents of San Mateo and Contra Costa counties can now sign up to participate in trials of drone delivery service to their backyards.

San Bruno-based Dive Delivery has obtained permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to perform deliveries. The process uses off-the-shelf drones equipped with drop mechanisms to conduct visual line of sight deliveries to residential backyards.

“The drone takes off from a predefined location via an automated waypoint mission, flies to the backyard of the residential customer, lowers into the marked location, automatically releases the package and returns to the launch location via the same flight path,” the company said.

The company is starting off with deliveries of KN95 masks and a bottle of hand sanitizer, but will update offerings as new vendors sign up and lifting capacity increases.

To sign up to take part in the trials, click here. After you’ve been pre-screened, an FAA certified drone pilot will be sent out to first conduct a test flight without any cargo. After a successful test, the pilot will affix a lightweight package to the drone and conduct the actual delivery drop flight. Customers will be notified before and immediately after the operation to ensure they do not walk under the drone at any time.

Dive Delivery said it collects video as drones descend into drop locations for “internal development and delivery confirmation purposes.” Residents can request that video not be collected during or after the sign up process, the company added. Flights are conducted using an Avision App, an iOS application typically installed on an iPad.

For more information, go here.

Photo credit: Dive Delivery