Week in review

deal nears end

There is an option to purchase the historic Benjamin Franklin Hotel, at 44 E. Third Ave., in the heart of downtown San Mateo. The option is good through the end of the month and the word around town is that the deal could close before the new year.

That is good news for the city, whose officials say the 79-year-old building should end its years of vacancy by re-opening as a hotel.

The 99-room hotel will likely be converted to a number of suites aimed at business travelers. The idea was to create a unique hotel aimed at regular business travelers and out-of-town family visitors.

Hetch Hetchy plans

to disrupt residents

A $4.3 billion plan to rebuild the 167-mile Hetch Hetchy aqueduct over the next decade will cause upheavals to main roads along the Peninsula and could frustrate homeowners whose land falls on the pipeline’s right of way.

While residents in 2002 voted in favor of upgrading the pipeline, dams and tunnels along the aqueduct, they may not have realized the extent of construction needed to complete the project, said Julie Labonte, director of the water system improvement program for SFPUC. The upgrade, involving 70 projects in seven counties, includes 16 ventures in San Mateo County.

Ninety percent of San Mateo County households and businesses receive water from the Hetch Hetchy system, leaving many fences, sidewalks, parking lots and roads sharing space with the aqueduct.

The county’s projects, which will cost more than $1 billion, include a new Crystal Springs bypass tunnel, an upgrade to the bay division pipeline and improvements to the lower San Mateo dam.

Each project has its own challenges, according to Labonte, such as the dam needing the county to rebuild a bridge before the SFPUC can begin work.

Mom pleads no contest

in baby dumping case

A Redwood City mother charged with involuntary manslaughter after her dead baby girl was found wrapped in plastic inside a trash dumpster more than a year ago pleaded no contest Wednesday to child endangerment.

Hilda J. Figueroa, 30, changed her plea in return for no more than a year in the county jail when sentenced Jan. 24.

Figueroa told San Mateo Medical Center staff Nov. 30 she was several months pregnant but miscarried at her home. Figueroa claimed she flushed the stillborn and premature fetus down the toilet. After an exam proved Figueroa was likely lying, Redwood City police detectives went to her home in the 600 block of Buckeye Street and discovered her plastic-wrapped child in the trash dumpster.

Fatal fire claims 87-year-old Daly City woman

A two-alarm fire in Daly City Wednesday claimed an 87-year-old woman and hospitalized another.

Firefighters called to the blaze at 79 Castleton Ave. in Daly City found Dorothy Wissing dead in a back bedroom. Another resident of the home was hospitalized.

Arriving at the home, firefighters found heavy smoke and flames coming from the second floor, but they were able to confine the fire to a front bedroom. The fire was under control in 20 minutes and extinguished in two-and-a-half hours, the fire authority reported.

County to disband controversial design committee

County officials may disband the Emerald Lake Hills Design Review Committee immediately after next Tuesday to prevent the controversial group from making any more decisions before the group is revamped.

The decision is welcome to outspoken critics of the committee who have fought its regulations on house size, shape and appearance.

Emerald Hills includes more than 1,700 property owners in unincorporated Redwood City. The homeowner’s association spent two years promoting 32 pages of new design and building guidelines, including types of plants to acceptable exterior colors. Design guidelines are not law, but offer a strict direction for the committee.