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Repairs to the warm pool, purchase of a portable firefighting system, upgrades to the branch libraries, beautification of the University Avenue median, improving parks maintenance and lighting the streets – all could be placed before Berkeley citizens in November. 

Councilmembers voted to have the city’s legal team write ballot language for all of these items. The council will vote again next month on the question of putting the measures on the ballot. The measures will each have to garner a two-thirds majority in November to pass. 

UPGRADES TO LIBRARY BRANCHES 

All the councilmembers present at the post-midnight discussion Wednesday morning – Councilmember Polly Armstrong had excused herself early in the evening – voted to have the attorney write a $5 million library bond measure for the November ballot. 

The main library retrofit and expansion is under way, thanks to the 1996 Measure S, but the city’s branch libraries still need to be upgraded and made earthquake safe. 

If taxpayers put $5 million into the mix, the state will kick in matching funds. The state funds are a result of Proposition 14, passed by California voters in March – 87 percent of Berkeley voters cast their ballots in favor of this proposition. 

Proposition 14 was originally supposed to match municipal funds three-to-one. The libraries had hoped to get a $15 million match for the city’s $5 million bond measure. 

But Audrey Powers, branch services manager for the Berkeley library system says there is only $350 million available statewide from Proposition 14 and an estimated more-than-$2 billion of need throughout the state. So the state match will be less than anticipated, Powers said. 

The cost of the $5 million measure to the homeowner whose property’s assessed value (not market value) is $150,000 would be $6 annually; the cost to a person whose home is assessed at $400,000 would be $15. 

The purpose of the bond measure is to upgrade three of the library’s four branches. The Claremont Avenue branch recently underwent substantial remodeling, and although it still needs additional seismic work and other upgrades, the other three branches will be first in the queue for the funds, Powers said. 

The bond measure would pay for the branches’ seismic and technological upgrades. In addition, the North Branch would get a public meeting room. 

“It’s the only branch without one,” Powers noted. 

The West Branch would get expanded space for its literacy program and the South Branch tool lending library would be enlarged. 

If the local bond measure passes, the state would decide which of the projects get funded, Powers said. The library staff would then hold community meetings to refine the projects. 

RENOVATIONS TO THE WARM POOL 

Renovating the Berkeley High warm water pool, used each month by some 300 disabled and elderly clients and anyone else who wants to exercise in the 90-plus degree water, is also a popular issue with the council. It unanimously approved a resolution calling for the legal team to write a $3 million bond measure to fund the upgrades. 

Costs to repair the pool and improve water circulation is set at $2 million, with another $1 million to make the adjoining restroom completely accessible and to upgrade the locker room and dry exercise space. 

The 20-year $3 million bond will cost $3 per year for the homeowner with property assessed at $150,000 and $9 for a homeowner with property assessed at $400,000. 

FIREFIGHTING EQUIPMENT FOR EMERGENCIES 

An $8 million ballot measure to purchase emergency firefighting equipment was also sent by the unanimous council to the city attorney for ballot language. 

If approved, the parcel tax will cost homeowners $1.25 per square foot over 20 years. A person owning a 1,900-square-foot house will pay $24 annually. Low-income homeowners would be exempt. 

Citizens passed a public safety bond measure in 1992 – Measure G, which has been used to build the Public Safety Building and upgrade firehouses. If the city gets a judge’s OK, some Measure G funds will be spent on a new hills firehouse and for the purchase and retrofit of an old East Bay Municipal Utility District reservoir. 

The city had wanted to use Measure G money to purchase a firefighting system that would have pumped saltwater from the Bay underneath University Avenue or a nearby street, two miles up to Oxford Street. This plan was very unpopular with University Avenue merchants and nearby residents, it proved too costly, it was relatively untested, and a number of citizens said Measure G funds should not be spent on it because the project was not specifically named in the bond measure. 

So, after spending $2 million on planning for the project, the city set it aside. 

In place of the saltwater-firefighting project, the fire department wants the city to purchase a flexible hose/pump system for $8 million. 

Assistant Chief David Orth explains the need for the portable emergency water system. Using the city’s current firefighting capability, the city can access the necessary 10,000 gallons of water per minute to extinguish one warehouse fire, such as the five-alarm fire last week at Fourth Street and Bancroft Way. 

But in the case of an earthquake, where large fires might erupt in various parts of the city, or in a hills wildfire, the city needs to have access to more water. There is sufficient accessible water in the area, including the Bay, Lake Anza and reservoirs. To access this water, and to transport it everywhere in the city, the fire department wants to purchase pumps, eight miles of 12-inch flexible hose, and trucks to transport the equipment. 

Although this system is used infrequently in the United States, it has been used for several years in Europe and was used in Turkey with success during the major earthquake there, Orth said. 

He added that the hose and pump system would be critical after a disaster, when the East Bay Municipal Utility District water pipes could break. The department would run potable water through the hoses, he said. 

HIGHER PARKS AND LANDSCAPE TAXES 

An increase in the Parks and Landscape Taxes was more controversial with some members of the council. 

“Parks and landscape should