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Health & Fitness

Police Dispatch Services, Food Waste, Volunteer and Town Council News

Read about changes to our Police dispatch system, food waste rules, and news on volunteers and the Town Council.

 

Police Dispatch Services 

As part of the town’s efforts to , our dispatch center is scheduled to move to the the last week of February. There will be no interruption of service to our residents during the move. One dispatcher will remain at the San Anselmo Police Department dispatch center during the switch over process to ensure that service is uninterrupted. All the current phone numbers for San Anselmo Police will remain unchanged.

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Callers to the 911 line will see no change in response. Officers are currently dispatched immediately from San Anselmo to calls for service and that will not change. Medical aid calls, as has always been the case, are immediately routed to the County Fire Dispatch system for paramedic and fire department response, as well as police response. 

The front counter of the Police Department will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and staffed by the Police Records Manager, Rebecca Demastus. Services provided at the San Anselmo front counter include the following: 

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  • Provide copies of reports (crime, accident, property, etc.)
  • Provide documents (order after hearing, found property, etc.)
  • Assist with parking permits (hardship, parking, visitor, Town public lots, construction and merchant).
  • Perform public information services.

Access to Town Hall after regular business hours has been provided for as well. The telephone installed outside the San Anselmo Police Department front lobby will directly connect the caller with our dispatcher in Twin Cities. The dispatcher will have the ability to admit the caller immediately into the lobby. Once in the lobby, on-screen technology will allow the person to interact visually with the dispatcher.

Once our dispatchers have moved to Twin Cities, the dispatch consoles currently in use will either be utilized at Twin Cities or placed into storage for future use as backups. The San Anselmo dispatch area will be reconfigured for records management and public reception.

The sharing of dispatch space began in 2010 when Twin Cities began construction of their new facility. Twin Cities dispatchers moved into our facility and the opportunities for sharing became apparent almost immediately as dispatchers began backing one another up. Anticipated cost savings for San Anselmo in the next fiscal year are about $160,000, as the total number of dispatchers needed in the two agencies will be reduced by attrition.

Green Waste and Food Composting

Our green waste carts are picked up weekly by our refuse and recycling provider, Marin Sanitary. Included in the green waste program is food scrap composting. Here are five easy steps to food scrap composting in the green cart. 

  1. Design a “Food Compost” container for your kitchen. You can buy a compost pail at most home improvement and kitchen stores or you can reuse an old coffee can. It is helpful to have a tight lid to keep smells contained.
  2. Post, past or tape the list of acceptable food scraps in an easily visible place near or on the container.
  3. Fill it up!
  4. Empty it often into your green can to avoid smells and attracting pests. It is helpful to start with the bottom of the green can filled with leaves or other green waste.
  5. Remember to put your green can out by the curb every week.

The list of acceptable food scraps can be found on MSS's website.

Volunteer News 

At the meeting of Tuesday, Jan. 24, the Quality of Life Green Award was presented to , for helping organize cleanup crews for town parks and medians and for her previous leadership on the Quality of Life Commission.

Also at the Town Council meeting, Leonard Charles, Linda Hoch and Barbara Dwyer were reappointed to the Open Space Committee. 

Many thanks to Anna, Leonard, Linda and Barbara for their service to the community.

Town Council News 

At the meeting of Tuesday, Feb. 14, the Town Council will review the ideas for goals that were discussed at the all-day Strategic Planning meeting of Jan. 13. The next step in this process is to receive community input on the ideas that were presented. That will take place in March at a Saturday morning workshop, tentatively scheduled for Saturday, March 10, from 10 a.m. to noon.

San Anselmo News, published weekly on Fridays, is available at the San Anselmo Town Hall, Library, on the Public Notice Bulletin Board. It is also available on the Town’s website, www.townofsananselmo.org, and by email subscription.

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