With rain and strong winds, the Tiburon Peninsula Chamber of Commerce’s annual Tiburon Holiday Festival was moved to Town Hall from this year’s original location at Point Tiburon Plaza. Earlier in the day, the Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society held its annual Holiday Art & Craft Sale at the Landmarks Art & Garden Center.

Pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery.

Two more candidates have officially tossed their hats into the ring to fill a single vacancy on the Tiburon Town Council, making for a three-way race on March 3’s Presidential Primary Election ballot. Planning Commission Kathleen Defever of Sugarloaf Drive and former Yellow Bus Challenge coordinator Jack Ryan of Hawthorne Terrace filed their candidacy on Dec. 5, joining Planning Commission Chair Daniel Amir of Juno Road, who filed Nov. 27. The winner of next spring’s special election will fill the seat for the remaining 2½ years — through November 2022 — vacated by former Councilmember and three-time Mayor Jim Fraser, who resigned for undisclosed personal reasons in October after a two-month leave of absence. 

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery.

Longtime Reed Union School District board member Dana Linker Steele has resigned from her position one year before her term was set to expire, creating an immediate vacancy on the five-member board. Serving as a trustee of the Reed district has been a highlight of my life — both personally and professionally — but the time has come for me to move on,” Linker Steele wrote in a letter announcing her resignation, which is effective as of today, Dec. 11. The school district is accepting applications for appointment to Linker Steele’s seat through Jan. 13. Candidates must be registered voters who live within the boundaries of the Reed district, which includes Tiburon, Belvedere, Strawberry, Paradise Cay and East Corte Madera.

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery.

When a group of dedicated sailors formed the San Francisco Yacht Club in 1869, they became the first organized group of yachtsmen to drop anchor in San Francisco Bay. The club, with some 115 members, hosted its first regatta that fall, sealing the bay’s reputation as a world-class sailing destination. As the yacht club celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, it has established itself as the oldest yacht club on the West Coast and boasts some 1,400 members, including a robust women’s auxiliary club and youth sailing team. 

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery.

Tiburon Planning Commissioner Daniel Amir has filed nomination papers for an open seat on the Town Council — the only official candidate so far as the Dec. 6 deadline approaches. However, two other potential candidates, Planning Commissioner Kathleen Defever and former Yellow Bus Challenge coordinator Jack Ryan, have taken out nomination papers, the first step toward formally announcing their candidacy for the March 3 ballot. 

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery.

The fourth annual One Day of Giving donation drive is returning to the Belvedere Community Center from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 15. The rain-or-shine event, organized by Pamela Dunn of Tiburon, makes it easy to give by bringing in nearly a dozen nonprofit groups to accept donations of clothes, toys, nonperishable food and more. Curbside drop-off is available for anyone who wants assistance. 

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery.

Six locals earned top honors in the 18th annual Belvedere Photography Contest for their stand-out snapshots of life on the Tiburon Peninsula and beyond, including a stormy view of Old St. Hilary’s Landmark and a photo of seals sunning themselves in Belvedere Cove. The winners of the contest, which is sponsored by the Belvedere Community Foundation, were chosen out of 155 entries and were honored Nov. 21 at the foundation’s annual meeting. First-place prizes were awarded in five categories: black and white, landscapes, people and events, animals and architecture. The judges also awarded a first-place prize to one photo submitted by someone ages 5-18. 

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery.

Construction is now underway on the $17.6-million one-story, 8,617-square-foot expansion of the Belvedere-Tiburon Library. The project, initially approved by the Tiburon Town Council in 2012, will bring the library to 19,117 square feet and enhance the children’s, teen and adult libraries, create new administrative areas and a larger community room, add a used bookstore and cafe, and create a new civic plaza between the library and Tiburon Town Hall. (Deirdre McCrohan photo / For The Ark)

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery.

The Strawberry Recreation District board has recommended an active community member with a background in finance be appointed to fill its vacant fifth seat, a decision that required a do-over after the board’s original vote on the candidates appeared to violate a state law that prohibits members from casting secret ballots. The need to repeat its initial Nov. 19 selection hearing is the latest in a series of troubles for the elected board, which is already facing accusations of breaking open-meetings laws by its former general manager, who is suing the district for wrongful termination. In fact, the board previously had to hold a special meeting to correct a separate apparent open-meetings-law violation as recently as May. (Elliot Karlan archive photo / For The Ark 2019)

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery.

The annual Tiburon Holiday Festival returns to downtown Tiburon on Dec. 7, but this year most events are moving across Tiburon Boulevard to Point Tiburon Plaza — and there will be no tree-lighting ceremony. The festival, hosted by the Tiburon Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, runs from 1 to 5 p.m. and will feature toddler-sized train and horse-drawn carriage rides, gingerbread-house and ornament decorating, musical performances from each of Tiburon’s four major schools and a visit from Santa.

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery.

Marin County Superior Court Judge James Chou has delayed a tentative ruling in favor of the county in a dispute over the Martha Co.’s proposed 43-home development on the Tiburon Ridge, giving both the county and plaintiffs Tiburon Open Space and the town of Tiburon time to prepare in-depth written briefs expanding on their oral arguments. Tiburon Open Space filed suit against the county of Marin in 2017 after the county Board of Supervisors approved the master plan for the subdivision, which is proposed for 110 acres of private property at the southern tip of the Tiburon Peninsula. The lawsuit sought to invalidate the developer’s environmental impact report, which the board had certified as adequate. 

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery

Residents interested in running for the Tiburon Town Council, the District 3 supervisor representing Southern Marin and a host of other seats in the March 2020 election can continue to file for candidacy through Dec. 6. Local ballots for the March 3 Presidential Primary Election will include a race for the Tiburon council seat vacated by Jim Fraser, who resigned in October. Also up for grabs on the ballot will be the four-year seat of Southern Marin Supervisor Kate Sears, who announced earlier this year she would not run again when her current term expires in January 2021. 

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery

Belvedere residents spoke out against the idea of creating a mooring field off West Shore Road, telling the Richardson Bay Regional Agency board last week it was a “shocking” idea that could endanger the whole of Belvedere Island. Members of the West Shore Homeowners Association lined up to publicly denounce the idea at the agency board’s Nov. 14 meeting in Tiburon, where the board ultimately decided to hold off on a vote on whether — and where — to establish permanent moorings on the bay.

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery.

The Tiburon Peninsula Club can once again hold weekday-evening water polo practice and expand the weekday hours of its fitness center after the Tiburon Planning Commission approved updates to the club’s conditional use permit. Earlier this year, the town’s planning division staff discovered the club hadn’t entirely been adhering to the terms of the use permit from its last big expansion, in 2005. Pool practice hours were running late, while the fitness center had been opening half an hour early, at 5:30 a.m. — though residents continued to report a number of other concerns. Last week, the club sought to reinstate its desired programming by seeking changes to the terms of the permit.

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery

Law enforcement officials say they concluded their active investigation into the September boating death of an 11-year-old Belvedere boy, and all information and evidence they’ve complied over the past two months has been handed over to the Marin District Attorney’s Office. However, it’s still undetermined whether the boy’s father, who was arrested in the incident, will face charges. Police say Javier A. Burillo, 58, a prominent land developer and Mexico media heir, was operating his boat while drunk on Sept. 15 when his two sons, 27 and 11, were thrown off and severely cut by the boat’s propellers, killing the 11-year-old and injuring the other. 

For the full story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery