Utility Crews Rebuilding Degraded Manhole in Pac Heights

Utility crews began rebuilding a 125-year-old, nine-foot-deep, brick-lined manhole today in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood
because its bottom is degraded, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission officials said.
Construction started this morning on the manhole in the 3100 block of Sacramento Street between Baker and Lyon streets.
Crews decided to repair the manhole following a final inspection of a repaired sewer main at the same location. The broken main caused a sinkhole on April 21 that has since been filled.
Officials with the SFPUC said the decision to rebuild the manhole has nothing to do with the broken sewer main.
One block of Sacramento Street between Baker and Lyon streets will be closed to traffic from about 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day until the work is done, but crews will give residents and businesses access to driveways and garages.
SFPUC spokeswoman Jean Walsh said the work may be done Saturday but may take until Monday.
Parking along the street will be affected since crews need access to the area, Walsh said.
Crews will rebuild the manhole with concrete. Sewer service will be unaffected.
Walsh said the cost to rebuild the manhole is about $5,000.

Woman Killed in Embarcadero Crash Identified

A 56-year-old woman killed in a two-vehicle collision on The Embarcadero in San Francisco on Wednesday has been identified as Napa resident Janet Gelow, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Three people were transported to the hospital after the crash on The Embarcadero and Bryant Street, which was first reported at 12:09 p.m., according to fire officials.
Police reported Gelow’s death on Twitter at 2:43 p.m. Police today described the injuries of the other two people injured, men ages 59 and 22, as life-threatening.

Mayor Approves $1.8M for Legal Defense of Immigrant Children

An additional $1.8 million has been approved by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee to provide for the legal defense of unaccompanied immigrant minors facing deportation, the mayor’s office announced Wednesday.
The money will be given to a group of organizations called the San Francisco Immigrant Legal Defense Collaborative, which consists of
organizations such as the San Francisco Bar Association, the Central American Resource Center of Northern California, or CARECEN, and the Immigrant Legal
Resource Center.
Lee said in a statement that as a son of immigrant parents, the success of immigrant families is a personal issue.
“I am committed to working together with my partners throughout the Bay Area to support families forced to flee war-torn countries,” he said.
SFILDC staff provides legal representation and help to unaccompanied minors and their families living in San Francisco who have fled their home countries because of war or abuse and are facing expedited deportation proceedings in San Francisco Immigration Court, according to the website for the group.
Lee and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors gave initial money in 2014 for two years of representation through the SFILDC. That funding
provided legal representation for 414 children.
The new $1.8 million will provide funding for the next two years, SFILDC legal director Avantika Shastri said.
Shastri said because immigration court is a civil court, defendants are not entitled to a public defender as in criminal court, so the
money for legal representation is vital.
A surge of immigrant families — mainly women and children — to the U.S. Southwest from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico began in
the spring and summer of 2014, according to the SFILDC.
“Children fleeing Central America and Mexico are forced to migrate due to extreme poverty and violence in the region,” CARECEN executive
director Lariza Dugan-Cuadra said in a statement.
The money will also allows immigrant children to enroll in school and obtain social services, according to the mayor’s office.

(News by Bay City News)