Atherton Mayor Rick DeGolia is back in the mayor's seat for his second time amid the pandemic.

DeGolia, who was last mayor in 2020, has a list of priorities for the City Council in 2022. So far, these include: examining options for improving pedestrian and bike safety; reviewing the water drainage plans; extending a quiet zone along Watkins Avenue; and addressing the town’s long-term financial liabilities.

DeGolia is up for reelection next fall and said he plans to run when his term is up.

"Continuity (on the council) is extremely important," he said. "It takes a long time to learn the ins and outs of how a municipality works."

He plans to host weekly office hours with residents, which he has done during his past terms as mayor. They will take place, in-person, at the new Town Hall from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, beginning Jan. 4.

Atherton's newest councilman Bob Polito's eight years of experience on the town audit and finance committee will provide an "enormous benefit" to the council. The town faces pension liabilities and has to pay off $7 million it borrowed to fund the new civic center. The pensions come at a 7% interest rate, while the civic center loan is for 3%, so DeGolia said he would like to prioritize paying off the pensions first.

In terms of pedestrian and bike safety, DeGolia would like the council to review its master plan and identify one or two projects to target. The town hasn't examined the plan in several years, and reviewing it will help the three of the five council members new to the council get up to speed on the plan.

"Atherton has no sidewalks, so it’s an issue of people being safe on the streets that are shared with cars, traffic and congestion," he said.

DeGolia said he would like to reexamine the town's storm drainage master plan, which it hasn't reviewed in about five years. He'd then like to identify one or two priority projects.

Caltrain is in the design phase of extending the existing "quiet zone" at the Fair Oaks Lane railroad crossing to include the crossing at Watkins Avenue. DeGolia expects designs for the estimated $5 million project, that's funded by the rail service, to be completed by the end of the first quarter and he's hopeful they can move to construction in 2022. Caltrain's target completion date is December 2023, said Town Manager George Rodericks in an email.

"It's very hard to really be able to do things on a City Council that materially benefits the quality of people's lives," DeGolia said. "There's nothing I've received more positive comments for than setting it up so we could declare a quiet zone at Fair Oaks. The lack of the horn significantly improved the quality of their lives."

The parking area at the Caltrain station that the town leases from the rail service will be turned into parking, DeGolia noted.

"It's greatly needed by the new town center," he said.

In October, the town began to seek bids to refurbish the train station building and turn it into a museum, he noted. The museum will likely feature the history of the train in Atherton, he said. The proposed budget for the interior displays and video is approximately $50,000 to $150,000

An initial concept of the museum involves three areas. The first is a free standing displays that tell the story of pre-train Atherton, including Native Americans, settlers and the stagecoach days. The second is a center display that features a train track with model trains that show the history and evolution of the trains, the station and the riders over time, and the third is a video screen with seating that will show a short video, according to a town staff report. There are also two wall spaces that can be used for mounted displays or memorabilia cases.

DeGolia said he looks forward to hosting hybrid meetings as a council (it is still meeting on Zoom) once Council Chambers are complete and ready to use around February 2022.

Rodericks said the town doesn't plan to use the chambers until staff has tested all of the new IT systems and knows that they will function for hybrid meetings.