“In order to provide a worst-case assessment of dog barking noise levels, the German Shepherd bark noise level of 101 [A-weighted decibels] was utilized for this assessment,” read an environmental review report prepared for San Diego County’s proposed 24,000-square-foot animal shelter in Santee.

KPBS donor sick-out

It’s been a bad year for the KPBS broadcasting stations, the public television and FM radio operation run by San Diego State University, per a newly released financial statement and report for the fiscal year ending this past June by accountant Grant Thornton. Direct “financial costs of COVID-19 for KPBS totaled approximately $835,000 and include Underwriting and Membership cancellations, operational expense increases and capital equipment expenditures,” says the November 20 report. “Such costs were partially offset by a $275,000 unrestricted grant distributed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which was signed into law on March 27, 2020.”

When KPBS’s Tom Karlon says, “We’ve experienced a drop in key revenue areas,” he means, “We’re going broke.”

Thornton reports KPBS “quickly moved to telework mid-March 2020 along with the majority of faculty and staff at the San Diego State University campus. This necessitated the Stations to purchase and install additional computer equipment and customize broadcast/production solutions, to allow staff to work remotely in an efficient manner in order to continue services to the greater San Diego community.” The report adds that despite pandemic impacts, the stations’ overall net financial position grew from $46.7 million as of June 20, 2019, to $52.4 million in June of this year. The document explains that the boost primarily relates to “realized gifts and pledges for the ongoing KPBS Capital Campaign totaling $6,250,000 and capitalized construction in progress for the planning and design phase of the Gateway Building renovation and expansion project, offset by depreciation.”

On the other hand, 2020 operating revenue plunged from $52.8 million to $33.4 million, primarily due to a falloff in contributions from $48.9 million in Fiscal 2019 to $29.6 million during the fiscal year ending this past June, the document shows. That appears consistent with a June 22, 2020, Union-Tribune account regarding three layoffs and work-time reductions for 15 other station employees. The paper quoted KPBS general manager Tom Karlo as saying, “we have experienced a drop in key revenue areas, including underwriting, membership and donor support.” The yearly financial transfer from California tax-supported San Diego State University to KPBS rose from $7.21 million to $7.72 million. Grants from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting also increased, going from $2.81 million to $3.55 million. Programming and production expenses, which were $13 million in Fiscal 2019, grew to $14.2 million in 2020, the report says.

Noisy Shepherds

How painful to the ears is a dog bark? That’s the question pursued by an environmental review document prepared for San Diego County’s proposed 24,000-square-foot animal shelter north of Riverview Parkway and west of North Magnolia Avenue in the city of Santee. “The project would consist of four separate buildings with an internal, secure and open courtyard, an outdoor livestock area, an activity yard, a staff parking lot, and a public parking lot,” says the document. The so-called Mitigated Negative Declaration was released for public comment December 15. “The project includes 72 indoor dog kennels. Since these kennels are within the building, it is not anticipated that exterior noise levels due to barking dogs within the interior kennels would be a concern.”

German Shepherd — the gold standard of dog barking.

Outside is another matter, notes the report. “There are two exterior areas where dogs could be located: a dog run area between the western parking lot and buildings, and an activity yard within a secured/fenced area between the four buildings. The primary noise source associated with outdoor activity areas would be periodic dog barking. Usually barking occurs in response to some stimuli, such as persons or other dogs entering the activity areas. The degree of barking depends largely on the experience of the staff, the number of dogs outside at a time, and the amount of stimuli.”

Adds the report, “in order to provide a worst-case assessment of dog barking noise levels, the German Shepherd bark noise level of 101 [A-weighted decibels] was utilized for this assessment.” The report then notes “this maximum noise level would not occur consistently over a 1-hour period, since there are breaks between individual barks and [Department of Animal Services] staff would not allow for consistent and continuous barking. As a worst-case analysis, maximum dog bark noise levels were modeled for 50 percent of a 1-hour period.” Concluded the report: “Noise levels would not exceed the County’s property line noise level limits for single-family residential uses. Therefore, impacts would be less than significant.” Construction is set to begin next November.

— Matt Potter (@sdmattpotter)

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