A View From Harbor Street
By David Buckingham
Summer is here! And with it, tremendous opportunities, challenges, and decisions for each of us individually and for the City of Morro Bay collectively.
From parking to recreation to water meters, we are looking forward to your thoughts and concerns.
Parking
City staff continues to keep a close eye on parking especially in the Downtown Business District. To that end, we conducted another fairly scientific assessment on June 5, a sunny pre-summer Friday in Morro Bay.
This survey included eight measurements of open parking spaces on nine downtown blocks.
Here’s what we discovered: Between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. there were an average of 60, and never less than 43, open parking spaces in those nine zones. There were an average of 5.3, and always at least two, open parking spaces in the 800 block of Main St., from Legends to Grandma’s Yogurt.
There were an average of 24.4 open spaces within a block of the middle of the Legends/Grandma’s block of Main Street.
Eight measurements were made at: 10 a.m., 10:55, 11:55, 12:55 p.m., 2, 2:55, 3:35 and 4:25. This data, combined with similar studies conducted last December and March, appear to validate the 2008 Parking Management Plan report that concluded that Downtown Morro Bay has adequate parking.
Now, we don’t want to rest on our laurels. We are considering adding at least one ADA accessible parking space on each Downtown block.
Additionally, we might consider one voluntary, “please-save-this-space-for-a-senior-citizen” space on each block. Let us know what you think! Send in an email if you have particular concerns, and don’t forget to complete our easy Downtown Revitalization Survey at: www.surveymonkey.com/s/NYM6JRK.
While making sure there is adequate parking for both locals and tourists, we also want to ensure we have tremendous recreational opportunities for our residents.
Recreation Services
The City of Morro Bay is excited to continue to improve our great recreation programming. Based on the unanimous recommendation of the Recreation and Parks Commission on Wednesday, June 3, I’ve tasked our recently arrived Deputy City Manager, Sam Taylor, to take on duties as the director of the Recreation Services Division.
Sam will oversee a stellar staff of individuals who are the heart of recreation programming in Morro Bay and are already providing wonderful services — from kids’ futsal to adult Zumba and a wonderful array of senior programs. Morro Bay offers a good range of recreation programming but we can do better.
While the City will continue to provide recreation programming through our staff, I’ve given Sam the responsibility to also look broadly at how services are delivered, so that a more diverse set of opportunities and programs can be provided through local and regional partnerships with both public and private organizations.
Automated Meter Reading
Last January, the City Council asked your City staff to investigate the pros and cons of installing “smart” water meters and contracting out the billing function of our drinking water system.
While our water meets the highest state and federal standards for purity, we still read meters by hand, receive payments by hand and tally up 4,000-plus checks per month by hand.
All those hands belong to good people but there is likely a more efficient and less expensive way to do all that work.
The City received a viable proposal from an experienced contractor to install 5,500-plus smart meters, and to provide all the billing and customer service conducted “in-house” by City staff.
We anticipate this could be a triple-bottom-line win for the City. We would all have better awareness of what water we are using, we would all use less water, and we would all save money while continuing to receive amazing customer service.
The wireless meters would allow each of us to “see,” from anywhere with an Internet connection, how much water we are using every hour. Those same wireless meters produce the same level of electromagnetic output as a typical home wireless Internet transmitter but they are located 20 to 100 feet outside the home at your water meter.
Of critical importance, the City anticipates breaking even, if not turning a small profit, on the installation of “smart” meters. Water rates, therefore, will not increase because of automated metering.
What do you think? We need to know! The “smart” water meter proposal will be presented to the Public Works Advisory Board at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 16 in the Vet’s Hall. Please come out, listen in, and let us know what you think.
As always, whether on parking, recreation or water meters, we want to hear your voice! Come to an advisory board meeting, a City Council meeting, or just send me an email at: .
David Buckingham is the Morro Bay city manager. “A View from Harbor Street” column is a regular feature of The Bay News.