Parks and Recreation Commission · meeting of Thursday, Jan. 15
Piper Park's 'wild west' bounce house Sundays get rules — four clusters, one vendor, and a fee fight
The week's liveliest civic argument was about inflatables. Recreation Director Nick Stone came to the Parks and Recreation Commission Thursday with a plan to bring order to the picnic areas at Piper Park: get bounce houses off gas generators and onto the park's electrical system, contract with a single approved vendor, Astro Jumps, to handle insurance, scheduling and enforcement, charge a $50 administrative and electrical fee, and expand allowable bounce house spots from two clusters to five.
“Surrounded by five bounce houses and five air blowers with 100 screaming children—you couldn't pay me to rent that.”— a commissioner, arguing against expanding to five bounce house clusters
Stone was candid about why: "We do allow bounce houses right now," he said. "One of the vendors has referred to it as the wild west sometimes on Sundays out there." Commissioners took the electricity and the sole vendor, but not comfortably. "If we have one vendor, does that mean we have to have a competitive bidding process for that one?" one asked. Another went further: "I'm very uneasy with just picking a vendor without a big process as a municipality... someone's going to come back to us and say, I have my brother-in-law runs bouncy house, why can't I use them? We just created a problem."
The count was the real sticking point — specifically what five bounce houses would do to everyone else in the park. One commissioner said an adult party "would not want to be in that area ever." On money, commissioners thought $50 was cheap; one floated $200 earmarked for parks and public works projects, and another asked, "Why would I not be charged more if I'm monopolizing more of the park? We're gonna make money." Stone pushed back: "One of my concerns would honestly be pricing ourselves out of this business."
The commission approved the policy by voice vote, all in favor, with four clusters instead of five, no bounce houses in the adults-only area up top, and a directive that staff return with a look at differentiated half-day versus full-day electrical fees. The meeting opened with the installation of officers — Reed Baxter as chair, Jean Fidell as vice chair, approved unanimously.
Larkspur Library Board · meeting of Monday, Jan. 12
The new library has power and a target date: occupancy permit around Feb. 11, books carried over by hand
The new library building is powered, its HVAC and lighting are working, and the network is the last big install, Library Director Damon told the Library Board Monday. He is aiming for a certificate of occupancy around February 11 — with the honest caveat that "a few things could still fall apart on that." Furniture arrives after the permit, during a four-to-six-week punch-list process.
“Nothing to the library related. The library is actually on strong clay soil, which is very fortunate.”— Library Director Damon, asked about storm damage at the new building
Asked whether the winter's run of storms had touched the new roof or the creek behind the site, Damon was reassuring: "Nothing to the library related. The library is actually on strong clay soil, which is very fortunate."
Programming at the current library will be scaled back through February and March ahead of the move, ending with a send-off event — lion dancers on Saturday, February 21. And the move itself is getting a ceremony: Friends of the Larkspur Library is organizing a "book brigade" to hand-carry roughly 800 to 1,000 books along a route from Magnolia to Rose Lane, coordinated with police and fire and likely on a Saturday. A commissioner told the Parks and Recreation Commission Thursday that a volunteer signup is coming.
The board decided not to take ownership of opening-day logistics, agreeing instead to tell the Friends, the Commons, the Foundation and organizers Catherine Wei and a council member that it is standing by. Members did ask for a short speaking slot at the ceremony to thank staff, council, city staff, support groups and patrons — by group, not by name. "If we start calling out individual names we get into trouble," one member said.
Larkspur Library Board · meeting of Monday, Jan. 12
Tutoring rules for the new library: four study rooms, two students max, and no money changing hands
Anticipating that the new building's study rooms will fill up fast, the board worked through a draft tutoring policy Monday — a response to tutors increasingly using library tables as a de facto classroom. Damon proposed confining tutoring to four reservable study rooms and three non-reservable booth areas, capping sessions at two students, requiring a library card to book a room, and ending sessions 15 minutes before closing.
“No financial transactions umbrella regardless of whether it's cash or electronic and anything like that needs to be done outside of the library.”— a Library Board member, on the draft tutoring policy
The sharpest line in the draft was financial. "No financial transactions umbrella regardless of whether it's cash or electronic and anything like that needs to be done outside of the library," one board member said. Damon framed the posture as supportive but hands-off: the library wants to encourage education, he said, but is not responsible for liability or for supervising anyone's session.
Members also wanted the policy tied explicitly to the library's unattended-children rules, so a paid tutor can't serve as a stand-in guardian for a young child. The draft borrows from Marin County's policy but drops any residency or student-status requirement and tightens the county's three-student cap to two — because, as Damon put it, "we don't want to support classes."
No vote was taken. Staff will return with a formal policy for adoption, with acknowledgment handled as a checkbox in the online reservation system and backed by posted signage rather than a long written contract.