The Bird Rock Community Council (BRCC) met Aug. 7 during the group’s usually dark month to fill locals in on all the happenings. • First and foremost among them was the revitalized BirdStock community street fair benefiting Bird Rock Elementary. It’s been such an eventful summer that the BRCC felt compelled to call a special meeting held Saturday afternoon Aug. 11, following the street fair. “This being a first-time event, a combination of (the former) Taste of Bird Rock and BirdStock coming back to [La Jolla] Boulevard after three years … It was a real success,” said BRCC president Joe Parker. “It had a real local feeling to it with people from Bird Rock.” Parker said warm temperatures probably drove a few people indoors but added that was a positive development as “a good majority of people were actually in the stores shopping, visiting the restaurants. Our intent to support the merchants worked out.” Parker credited co-chairs Pamela Garvey and Felicia Parker for organizing and carrying off a successful streetfest. “This is an opportunity for the BRCC to consider doing this event next year,” he said. • Parker told Bird Rock residents they’ll be seeing things much more clearly now that the median lighting project, meant to bring nighttime illumination to La Jolla Boulevard’s commercial strip, is nearly finished. “Infrastructure is now complete,” he said. “We’re waiting for SDG&E to light the project.” Noting 12 light standards were originally requested, Parker added, “We ended up with nine because that’s all we had money for.” Asked whether funding was available to extend median lighting to CVS pharmacy at 5495 La Jolla Blvd. and further south, BRCC board member Barbara Dawson said she didn’t think there were funds available. “If that’s something the community really wants, it will take us probably a number of years to accumulate enough money to continue further,” said Parker. “But it’s something that can be addressed.” Parker also noted a commissioning ceremony to mark completion of the median lighting project will be held at a date yet to be determined, when the family of the late George Sutton, who was instrumental in spearheading the lighting project, can be present to see it dedicated in his memory. “We’ll probably see the project lit up in advance of that,” he said. • Realtor Justin Brennan gave a presentation at the meeting asking his neighbors to join him in a project aimed at making local communities like Bird Rock more safe during catastrophic events like fires or earthquakes. “Who remembers the [September 2011] blackout?” Brennan asked. “That got me thinking how ill prepared I was.” Brennan filled local residents in on Neighborhood Safety Net, a disaster-relief plan. He brought along Brett Oliver who, along with his wife, Hilde, founded Safety Net in 2004. Oliver explained the program is designed to get neighbors to network, exchanging contact information and getting better acquainted, so they can work together more cooperatively in an emergency to evacuate or take whatever other action might be necessary. “The idea we came up with was to create a safety team in every neighborhood,” Oliver said, noting experience has shown 100 families is the optimum number for such teams. “That’s a good number, big enough to have enough resources, i.e. retired nurses, people with generators, etc.,” he said. “But small enough for you to know everybody. “We found out 10 percent of people are really concerned about disasters, and 70 percent of people will go along with the program,” Oliver said of past experience with the disaster safety program. “We started knocking on doors to get neighbors involved,” said Brennan. “We’re here at BRCC to get some interest in it.” A full website with a video on the program is available at www.neighbor-hoodsafety.net. • In other matters, Parker cautioned neighbors that on-again, off-again problems involving unleashed dogs at Calumet Park are on again of late. “The police department will be writing tickets to people with unleashed dogs,” he warned. “Hopefully, we’ll get the problem under control.” Parker did have some good news. “We have a new website to be unveiled, done with microbid funds to do what we’ve done before in a better way,” Parker said, adding another new idea — that of issuing membership cards to BRCC members offering merchant discounts — is also in the works. Parker said BRCC’s current membership of 300 to 400 people out of a total of approximately 1,600 residents is “actually very high membership for a community our size. I’m proud of that.” • The Bird Rock community picnic is Wednesday, Aug. 29 at 6 p.m. at Calumet Park. For more information, visit birdrock-.org.