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As of yesterday, Wednesday, March 17, San Mateo County entered the less-restrictive orange tier of the state's color-coded reopening plan due to falling positivity and health equity metrics. The shift to the orange tier occurred one year to the day of the Bay Area’s first stay-at-home order. The county was last in the orange tier in October 2020. Click here to read the announcement.

On Wednesday, March 24, BHM Construction will pour concrete at the Community Center project construction site.

Here's what you can expect:

During this time, traffic control will be in effect on Burlingame Avenue and, as necessary, on Carolan Avenue if there is an overflow of trucks. The route to follow will be the same as previous concrete pours, via Carolan Avenue to the site and back, and further on to U.S. 101.

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you. If you have questions or concerns, please contact BHM representative Paul Ubaldi at 707-337-0318, or construction manager George Sanen at 415-858-8582.

The City of Burlingame is currently accepting applications for two vacancies on the Storm Drain Citizens Oversight Committee.

In May 2009, voters approved the storm drain fee ballot measure to upgrade the storm drainage system to alleviate chronic flooding and to protect public health and safety. The ballot measure included a citizens oversight committee to ensure funds collected from the storm drain fees are spent only on the storm drainage program.

The Storm Drain Citizens Oversight Committee is composed of three members and generally meets once a year. Click here to access and complete the application and supplemental questionnaire.

Completed applications must be received by April 26, 2021. Applications can be emailed to sbrewer@burlingame.org, or sent via USPS to the Department of Public Works, Attn: Stephanie Brewer, 501 Primrose Road, Burlingame, CA 94010. Applications post-marked by April 26, 2021, will be accepted for review.

The wait is almost over! Ray Park field will open soon. The natural grass field at Ray Park needed several months to root and grow to be ready for community use, particularly during the dormant and wet winter months.

The original timeline and estimated opening date for Ray Park field was the end of February. When the Parks & Recreation project team tested the roots in mid-February, however, they found that they roots were not sufficiently established to withstand community use. The City has invested significant resources to refurbish this beautiful field, and it could too easily be destroyed if the grass hadn't had time to properly root.

While it has been very difficult to wait, Ray Park will be open by the last weekend in March. Thank for your patience – we can’t wait to see the community back using this beautiful field!

Thanks to funds from the Proposition 68 per capita grant, the grand re-opening of Primrose Playground (formerly J Lot Playground) took place last Thursday. The new playground is now open for use! We hope you enjoy Burlingame's newest play space! Click here for a video of the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Renters and landlords who have experienced financial hardship due to COVID-19, have past due rent or utilities, and have a household income that is not more than 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI), may be eligible to receive financial assistance.

Eligibility information and applications can be found at HousingIsKey.com, or by calling 833-430-2122.

Pictured in the photo below, shared by one happy Burlingame resident, are thriving City-planted trees. In this instance, the City provided one free tree and the resident opted to pay to have additional trees planted.

Did you know that if you do not have a City tree in front of your house the City will plant one 15 gallon tree at no charge? Contact the Parks Division office at 650-558-7330 for more information, or if you would like the City to plant additional street trees or larger street trees for a fee.

San Mateo County’s Great Plates Delivered program provides 18 free meals each week - from local restaurants - straight to your front door.

Safe, contactless delivery of fresh and healthy meals is available to seniors aged 65 or older, or seniors aged 60-64 at high-risk from COVID-19. Call 800-675-8437 and speak to multi-lingual County staff to apply for meal delivery services.

Please complete the interest form in your choice of English, Spanish, or Chinese. As noted on the FAQ website, "...filling out the interest form is no guarantee of selection."

Wednesday, March 17, 2021 marked the one-year anniversary of the first shelter-in-place order due to COVID-19 in San Mateo County. The pandemic has since altered the course of all of our lives with milestone events cancelled, working from home, learning from home, lives lost, uncertainty, and fear.

Yet the COVID-19 pandemic, and other trials over the past 12 months, also brought out the best in our community. Click here to view the County of San Mateo's "Crisis. Community. Comeback." feature.

Riders can purchase an April Pass starting March 21.Caltrain is providing this discount to encourage people returning to work to take advantage of transit, while also providing some financial relief for those that have been riding regularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fiserv announced its Back2Business grant program to jump-start Black- and minority-owned small businesses in hard-hit communities.

The Back2Business program is designed to help stabilize and grow small businesses, with business consulting services and financial support for employee payroll, rent or lease payments, operations equipment, and other resources.

Please note, small businesses located in San Mateo County are eligible. The application period ends on Monday, March 29.

Please continue to follow these important tips for shopping the Fresh Market:

For more information, visit burlingamechamber.org.

This workshop will teach you listening skills to navigate conversations that are triggering and can backfire, despite your best intentions. You will learn to shift from an attitude of grit, which involves defensively powering through difficult encounters, to a mindset of resilience, where you redirect the arc of the conversation towards a collaborative dialog by bringing empathetic listening and curiosity to understand the needs and perspectives of those you are engaging with.

This workshop will provide you with space to try out these skills with a practice partner in a facilitated, safe environment, and receive feedback before trying them out in the real world.

This week, Burlingame's High School Correspondents Ella & Ava checked out a few places to get a bowl of ramen. With the colder temperatures and rain, we couldn’t think of a better thing to warm your belly and make you feel good. What type of ramen you order is a very personal choice. How do you like your ramen? Vegetarian? Miso Broth? Spicy? Shoyu? Tonkotsu? Chashu pork? So many options and so little time! #SmallBusinessWednesday #BurlingameSupportsSmallBusinesses #BurlingameShopsLocal

Wondering what you can do during spring for a healthy and pest-free garden? Join Flows to Bay for a free online webinar with an expert instructor who will discuss spring maintenance tips for your garden and how to manage spring pests in ways that don't harm our waterways. There will also be a Q&A session, so bring your questions! Also, one lucky attendee will win a $100 gift card to a local hardware store of their choice! Click here to register for this free webinar.

How can you make sure your important documents and data are safely stored before a disaster strikes, and accessible when you need them?

At a Burlingame Neighborhood Network (BNN) program on Zoom called “Stepping into the Cloud” from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 20, two experts will show how to prepare documents for safekeeping. They’ll present several storage options, including hard drives and online/cloud storage services.

Bryce Martens, Computer and Information Science faculty member at the College of San Mateo, will discuss the security of cloud services and demonstrate how to use them. BNN Board Member and emergency preparedness expert Suzanne Tateosian will explain the benefits of storing documents remotely and show some popular apps for saving documents, including one that allows you to scan documents with your cell phone.

The program is free, but pre-registration is required at https://tinyurl.com/BNNcloud.

This meeting is the first in a series of meetings throughout the county to introduce the Housing Element update – a once-in-a-decade chance to shape the future of our communities.

There will be four countywide meetings, with an introduction about the update process, then time to talk with your city or town. This meeting will include Burlingame, East Palo Alto, Hillsborough, Millbrae, and San Mateo City. The other cities and towns will join Meetings 2, 3 and 4.

Learn more at letstalkhousing.org.

Housing Elements are housing plans that are one part of the General Plan – a guide to all the ways each city, town, or county is planned and managed, from our roads and sidewalks, to our parks and neighborhoods. With an update required every eight years by the State of California, this Housing Element update will create a foundation for all the policies and programs related to housing.

While city governments don’t build housing themselves, they create the rules that affect where housing can be built, how much can be built, and how it gets approved. Each jurisdiction’s housing plan needs to help ensure that there will be enough capacity and supportive policies to meet projected housing needs over the next 10 years.

The Burlingame School District (BSD) is currently seeking substitute teachers for its K-8 program. A Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree and a substitute permit are required. To learn more, visit the Burlingame School District's website, or contact Alison Bell at abell@burlingameschools.org, or by calling 650-259-3800.