From the archives

That week, Supervisor Adrienne Tissier announced she would vote in favor of a resolution to support a bill by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, that would change state law and allow gay marriage.

"It’s the right thing to do,” Tissier said.

Earlier in the week, Supervisor Jerry Hill said he had an epiphany and decided he would also support a county resolution to support Leno’s bill. Board President Rich Gordon, who has been in a same-sex relationship for nearly 23 years, was in support of the resolution and the state bill.

The vote was largely ceremonial since the county has limited influence over bills at the state level.

Scoot gets the boot

The proposal to tax San Carlos residents $59 a year to cover the costs of the city’s free shuttle service failed to capture enough votes the week of March 13, 2005 to keep it alive.

The failed measure cost the city $50,000 in special election fees and another $14,000 for a commissioned study that stated the measure would fail. SCOOT — or, the San Carlos Optimal Operational Transit — shuttled children to school, carted the elderly to appointments and got commuters to the train station without clogging city streets. The service was set to end July 1, 2005.

The tax to raise $3.25 million over the next five years only garnered 44.76 percent of the vote during that week’s special election. It needed 66 percent — or two-thirds of the votes to pass.

The controversy surrounding the tax sent an impressive 38.6 percent of registered San Carlos voters to the polls. Usually special elections only gather about 30 to 35 percent of registered voters.

Lantos nets $150 million for tunnel project

The long-awaited Devil’s Slide tunnel project between Pacifica and Half Moon Bay got a $150 million infusion of federal funds the week of March 13, 2005, according to U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo.

The Department of Transportation allocated $150,316,533 in construction money provided under the 2004 Consolidated Appropriations Act. The act gave the department’s emergency relief program funds to repair and reconstruct highways and roads on federal lands that have sustained serious damage as from natural disasters.

Devil’s Slide was the steeply eroding coastal ridge between Pacifica and Half Moon Bay that includes a portion of Pacific Highway 1. Landslides, rock slides, and mudslides have severed this transportation artery many times since its construction in 1937, according to an announcement about the new funding.

Caltrain proposes fare increase

Fares were set to jump 35 percent under a proposal by Caltrain the week of March 13, 2005 to save the troubled agency from an $11 million budget emergency.

The estimated $11 million deficit is caused in part by the state siphoning money from Proposition 42 funds, which requires gas-tax revenue be spent on transportation. Caltrain is also spending more money than it’s receiving because the counties served by the rail system froze their contributions for the previous four years to save their own budgets while costs of running trains has increased.

Caltrain increased fares in 2002 by 10 percent. In 2005, Caltrain fares were on par with other Bay Area rail systems. Caltrain fares equaled about 12 cents per mile — the same as ACE in San Jose. San Diego’s Coaster system and Los Angeles’s Metrolink charged about 13 cents a mile. However, in New York fares were as much as 23 cents a mile.

From the archives highlights stories originally printed five years ago this week. It appears in the Thursday edition of the Daily Journal.