Blog # 65 The Spirit of Thanksgiving: Donate a Turkey to Ritter Center

What is the Ritter Center?

The Ritter Center was established in 1980 to respond to the needs of Marin County’s low-income residents. All agency programs focus on providing highly professional services with respect and compassion. The agency employs a comprehensive case management model to assess each client’s immediate and long-term needs. A case plan is then developed to help stabilize clients and lead them back towards self-sufficiency. Ritter Center’s main outcomes are transitioning people into housing, employment, and health, mental health and substance abuse treatment as well as improving people’s day to day living conditions.

Donate a Turkey to a needy family for Thanksgiving

The Ritter Center holds an annual “Thanksgiving Turkey Drive”. This year is particularly difficult with the economy and number of jobless and homeless families. Currently there are 191 families down on their luck hoping for a Thanksgiving Turkey, but The Ritter Center has only received 22 turkeys to fill the need so far. Turkeys normally run $8.00 - $10.00 each depending upon the size of the bird at Safeway.

Your gift of a turkey or gift cards from grocery stores and department stores will help make this program a success. Please bring your donations to Ritter Center between November 11 and November 22, 2010; Ritter Center is open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm to accept these donations at:

16 Ritter St, PO Box 3517, San Rafael 94912 - 415.457.8182

Many thanks for all your support!

The Ritter Center has done some great work for the needy here in Marin County for many years, providing food, clothing and shelter for literally thousands of people. I think our holiday meal may taste just a little bit better knowing we were generous and compassionate with our less fortunate families here in Marin.

Blog # 64 - Fiscal Sustainability Workshop-Special Council Meeting on Wednesday, November 17th

The Town Council will meet this Wednesday, November 17th to discuss the long term fiscal sustainability of the Town. With the slowdown in the economy and a very slow recovery period expected, the Town will have to continue to reduce expenditures and look for new revenues to tackle the structural deficit that has developed over the last several years. See the agenda below and to read all the agenda items click this link: http://town-of-fairfax.org/html/council_packet.html

Blog #63 Council Actions from November 3, 2010 Meeting

The Town Council after interviewing four applicants for one position appointed Morgan Hall (Architect, President of the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce and Chair of the Design Review Board) to the Planning Commission. After more than one hour of interviewing the four applicants the Council collectively agreed it was a difficult decision based on the high caliber of applicants. One of the applicants for the Planning Commission, Roxanne Ezzet-Lofstrom, was appointed to the Affordable Housing Committee. She had applied for both positions. The other candidates were Ryan O’Neil and Barbara Coler.

Other actions taken at the Regular Meeting on November 3, 2010:

• Accepted the Quarterly Report from the Town Treasurer, Barbara Petty.

• Adopted a Resolution creating a Town Theater Director and appointing Sam Parry to the position.

• Approved changing the regular Town Council meeting date to January 12, 2011.

• Adopted a Resolution to allocate funds ($100,000) for the Citizens Option for Public Safety (COPS) Program for 2010-11.

• Agreed to an amendment to the contract between the County of Marin and the Marin Human Society to forgo the scheduled four percent increase to the contract for the 2010-11 fiscal year and to extend the current contract to June 30, 2012 and to provide a two percent contract increase in fiscal year 2011-12.

• Adopted Ordinance 755 changing the regular time of the Town Council meetings from 7:30 PM to 7:00 PM.

• Directed staff to work with Marin Community Food Bank and the San Geronimo Community Center on locating a food pantry in Fairfax.

• Approved a resolution to send a letter to the five major banks in the United States requesting mortgage lenders to amend their home loan modification programs to better serve Fairfax homeowners

The Town Council will be holding a Fiscal Sustainability Workshop on November 17, 2010 to discuss eliminating the structural deficit in the budget which will include further cuts to the budget through a reorganization of the Town staff. This Council Workshop will include a discussion of escalating retirement and health care costs and the possibility of a further partnership with employees to share the burden with the Town to pay for these escalating costs. A discussion of new revenue sources will also factor into the five year fiscal sustainability plan.

Blog #62 - How to Design and Build a Rain Garden

SPAWN and MMWD in collaboration with Sustainable Fairfax are hosting a hands-on workshop on November 7, 2010 exploring the principles of harvesting and storing rainwater to disconnect from the storm drains and protect precious water resources! See detailed information below: