Sean:

I recently wrote to the West Portal Weekly to correct some inaccurate information and to question several statements that were made in the article, primarily the ending comment that the LPOA had given up the battle over who is responsible for the maintenance of the Junipero Serra Greenbelt. They have corrected that misinformation in a subsequent edition.

There were several statements that were attributed to you in the article and I would like to know if the information provided in the article was accurate because beyond correcting the obvious error, they did not research the other questions I posed. I would appreciate your comments on the following questions I had:

1. In the article it states: "According to Elsbernd, The tree removal project will begin before Thanksgiving. The infusion of money will also provide for the planting of new trees to replace the old trees and a water line will be installed to assure that the newly planted trees along the west side of the boulevard will thrive." Nobody from DPW has communicated that to the neighbors, so I would like to know if it is true that the DPW will replant trees to replace trees being cut down. As I mentioned to Rae Doyle, if they had simply agreed to do that to begin with, much of the acrimony that has arisen over this would have been avoided.

2. The Water Department has installed new water lines and meters at multiple locations. However, these water meters are not hooked up to any hose bibs. As I understand it, connecting the meters to hose bibs or sprinklers has to be done by DPW and not the water department, so I would like to know what the timetable for doing that is.

3. According to the hearing findings, DPW was to prepare a planting plan. So far nobody has seen such a plan. When will a planting plan be completed?

In closing, I wanted to thank you for the help that you have provided in getting to the point where at least some water lines have been installed. However, I think that the continued insistence by the DPW that they aren't responsible for maintaining anything other than the sidewalk on the greenbelt is the worst form of legal hairsplitting. I believe that it is a matter of equity that the city should accept responsibility for the maintenance of a greenbelt fronting a major traffic corridor which is similar to Sunset Boulevard which the DPW is responsible for. For DPW to continue to play games and deny they have any responsibility and are simply doing the neighbors a favor by doing anything is certainly disparate treatment and inequitable. In the final analysis, it may make no difference if they accepted responsibility for this or not because they don't do very much with the portion that they actually do accept responsibility for. DPW's concept of maintenance is perhaps best illustrated he deplorable condition of the sidewalk that was mentioned in an e-mail that our neighbor connie Fitzgerald recently sent you.

Wolfgang Liebelt