Featured - page 39

Caltrain Hillsdale Station will close on May 16 for up to six months as part of the 25th Avenue Grade Separation Project.

The project will make way for a new elevated Hillsdale Station located at E. 28th Avenue. The station will have additional shelters, new landscaping, and a center-boarding platform for riders to access both north and southbound trains. A new east-west connection at 28th Avenue will also be built.

During the closure, Caltrain will provide free bus/shuttle connections between Hillsdale and Belmont stations to help riders access Caltrain.

On Thursday at noon, the public is invited to a live online presentation about the project on Caltrain’s YouTube page. The link will be made available 10 minutes before the event begins.

The $180 million project will raise tracks and lower the road at 25th avenue, reducing horn noise and improving traffic flow, and there will be new east-west connections at both 28th and 31st avenues. Construction began in 2017 and is expected to finalize in Spring 2021, according to the project information page.

Seniors are considered at-risk to the COVID-19 pandemic in more ways than the threat of severe illness. Self-isolating seniors are also battling loneliness, isolation and boredom, which can be harmful to their health.

The Hummingbird Project by Burlingame-based Sage Elder Care Solutions has launched a virtual therapy program that provides face-to-face interaction for seniors, not just locally but nationwide. The Virtual Therapeutic Activity Sessions provide face-to-face interaction with an activity specialist and engagement in activities tailored to seniors.

“We’ve shed our geographical ties and are now reaching older adults around the country,” said Kari Rogenski, director of The Hummingbird Project. “In doing so, we are uplifting the spirits of our older adult clients and the adult children who are worried about the effects of their isolation.”

For more information on how older adults and caregivers can utilize the new, reach out to The Hummingbird Project at (415) 948-0496 or Hummingbird@SageEldercare.com.

Just one week after announcing its COVID-19 fundraising efforts, the Redwood City Police Activities League (PAL) has reached its goal of raising $10,000 to help provide “Shelter-in-Place Family Care Packages” to local families in need.

PAL thanked the SAGA Foundation for their partnership and the Premia Capital for their generous donation of $5,000.

The care packages will include supplies such as children’s books, art materials, board games, and other learning playtime supplies to help equip kids for learning at home. and bring the family together through fun activities. Such supplies include children’s books, art materials, board games, and other learning playtime supplies.

Packages will be delivered to homes by PAL staff, with appropriate measures taken to ensure everyone’s safe, according to the PAL fundraiser.

Craving a Shake Shack burger? Here’s how you can make one in your home.

The popular burger chain, which recently opened a location at the Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo, has partnered with Oakland’s Cream Co. Meats, the natural meat supplier, to create a do-it-yourself (DIY) kit for burger lovers maintaining social distancing.

The DIY ShackBurger Kit ($49) includes eight patties of Shake Shack’s custom, Angus beef blend from Cream Co. Meats, non-GMO Martin’s Potato Rolls, American cheese, and ShackSauce. All you need from your kitchen is butter, salt & pepper, lettuce, and tomato (or any other toppings you love).

Bay Area burger lovers can choose from a variety of kit sizes such as the Bunker Box ($175), which feeds two people for two weeks, and the Family Bunker Box ($299), which feeds family of four for up to three weeks.

The kits are available only on Uber Eats from the following locations: San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo, Palo Alto and Oakland.

Check out this link to order your own burger kit.

San Mateo County Treasurer/Tax Collector Sandie Arnott announced today the extension of the second installment of property taxes from April 10 to May 4, when her offices is set to reopen to the public following the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order that runs until May 3.

“Payments would need to be made in the office on this date no later than 5 p.m. to avoid a penalty,” Arnott said in a statement today.

Despite the extension, Arnott urged taxpayers to submit their second installment by the April 10 deadline, noting that cities, counties, school districts and special districts need the timely payments of tax dollars to fund critical services, such as healthcare, public safety, social services and sanitation.

“It is vital that we ensure the funding they require to continue providing these services is collected on time to enable the County to apportion these much-needed dollars to them in April,” Arnott said. “Additionally, it is important that we have the funds required to pay debt service on school bonds due in April and May in order to prevent a negative credit rating that could impact future bond issues.”

On March 24, Arnott submitted a resolution to the County Board of Supervisors to extend the deadline to the next business day that offices reopen following the April 10 deadline. Since the decision was made to keep the Treasurer-Tax Collector offices closed for public health reasons on April 10, the next possible business day is Monday, May 4.

San Francisco also decided to extend its property tax deadline to May 4.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA), which represents homeowners, has called on Gav. Gavin Newsom to extend the deadline to July 15, the date by which state and federal income tax payments have been extended.  Representatives of local governments have conversely called on the governor to retain the April 10 deadline and to forgive penalties for those who can’t pay them due to the pandemic.

According to CalMatters, property tax deadlines are set by state law, and changing them must be done either by legislative act, which can’t happen due to lawmakers sheltering in place, or by executive order.

For San Mateo County residents who still need to pay the second installment, they can do so online, via mail, by automated phone system at 866-220-0308, or by using the drop box located at 555 County Center in Redwood City.

Photo of 555 County Center, home of San Mateo Tax Collector’s office, courtesy of the County of San Mateo.

UPDATE: The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 7, approved banning the evictions of small business commercial tenants impacted by COVID-19 for non-payment of rent, effective immediately. Details follow.

San Mateo County this week banned evictions of small businesses that can’t pay rent due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed moratorium, which the County Board of Supervisors will consider at its meeting Tuesday, applies only to businesses in unincorporated areas of the County that have annual gross receipts of under $2.5 million.

Under the ordinance, qualifying commercial tenants would need to pay back rent up to 180 days after the local emergency declaration ends in the County. Also, before landlords can pursue an eviction during this period, they would need to provide a County form to commercial tenants notifying them of their rights under the ordinance.

The ordinance is effective immediately and remains in effect through May 31, unless extended by the Board.

Qualifications for relief under the emergency regulation include:

• a reduction in operating hours
• available workforce or consumer demand
• reduced business income due to illness
• increases in the tenant’s health care expenses or employee health care expenses for which the tenant is responsible
• increased costs of supplies or other overhead expenses
• temporary closure of the tenant’s business.

“Commercial tenants, just like all of us in this county and this world, did not ask for this pandemic and the health and financial uncertainties it brings,” Supervisor Warren Slocum, who co-sponsored the ordinance with Supervisor Dave Pine. “As leaders of this county, we must do everything we can to help our community and that includes protecting our businesses for their own sake as well as the community that relies on them.”

The County noted cities could enact similar moratoriums. Two weeks ago, the Board of Supervisors banned the eviction of residential renters countywide, including both incorporated and unincorporated areas, for nonpayment of rent due to COVID-19.

Peninsula Clean Energy recently announced it provide roughly 30,000 low-income customers with $100 credit that will appear on their bills this month.

This one-time credit, approved by PCE’s board on March 26, will be automatically applied to the bills of County residents who are covered under the California alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) or Family Electric Rate Assistance (FERA) rate plans as of March 20. The grants will provide about $3 million in short-term relief to those affected by Coronavirus induced business shutdowns.

“With many of our customers facing shuttered workplaces and heightened anxiety about paying their bills, we hope this can provide some support during this difficult time,” Peninsula Clean Energy CEO Jan Pepper said.

Customers on CARE or FERA rate plans as of March 20 do not need to take further action, and will automatically receive this credit. Community members who want to learn to qualify for CARE’s monthly discount of at least 20 percent on gas and electricity or FERA’s monthly discount of 18 percent on electricity can click here for more information.

Photo of the 200-MW Wright Solar, posted on the Peninsula Clean Energy Facbeook page.

San Mateo County pet owners in need can receive donations, and even delivery, of pet food from the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“This service is for residents who are low-income or for those who are high-risk and in self-isolation.,” the organization said. “We will not be requiring income or health verification, but we do hope people will be honest and not access the food bank unless needed.”

For those who can’t visit the food bank in person, the PHS/SPCA can deliver within a limited area.

Call 650-988-5280 or email Brian@PHS-SPCA.org to register.

The San Mateo County Event Center is now a 250-bed Federal Medical Station that aims to take on patients in the event that the area’s nine hospitals reach capacity due to the COVID-19 surge.

Beds are placed 6 feet apart, each with linens and pillows and supplies. The county hopes the “diligence of its residents” to follow guidelines on preventing the spread of the virus means this large pop-up medical facility will never have to used.

If it does, the medical resources from the National Strategic stockpile will provide “sub-acute, non-traumatic, non-surgical treatment when hospital bed capacity has been exceeded, as well as care for displaced persons with chronic diseases, limited mobility, or behavioral health requirements,” according to County officials.

Patients accepted at the site will not be suffering from severe illness, as the intention will be to free up space for those with urgent conditions at local hospitals.

Members of the California Air National Guard Cots set up the cots and other equipment early this week.  Some of those resources could be moved to local hospitals if the need arises, officials said. Similar medical centers have also been set up in Santa Clara County, Los Angeles, Coachella and Richmond.

San Mateo County is now looking to staff the Event Center with retired medical professionals, nursing students and  paramedics and volunteers.

Anyone interested in volunteering or donating to the effort can do so at www.smcgov.org.

“This is the challenge of our generation,” County Manager Mike Callagy said. “Every generation has a challenge in some way and this is ours. And this is a great example, this medical station here, of what we can do when we all work together.”

San Mateo County health officials are asking the community for any unused N-95 respirators, surgical mask and unopened packages of disposable gloves, as well as unopened containers of hand sanitizer, any unopened containers of disinfectants or disinfecting wipes or any package to our unused protective goggles.

If you have these items, drop them off at the Maple Street Correction Facility at 1300 Maple Street in Redwood City.

Photos courtesy of the County of San Mateo