Passengers traveling on BART’s Richmond line experienced delays in service Wednesday night after BART officials responded to reports of a fire at the North Berkeley BART station.

The fire was reported at approximately 6:47 p.m., however officials found no evidence that a fire occurred, according to BART spokesperson Lynton Johnson.

Service from the North Berkeley to El Cerrito Del Norte stations was shut down until approximately 7:54 p.m., with BART passengers experiencing delays of 20 to 30 minutes.

A few hours after two protesters ascended a tree in the oak grove near Memorial Stadium on Wednesday with food supplies in tow, campus officials and ground supporters of the tree-sitters reached an agreement regarding food and safety issues at the grove.

Under the agreement, one ground supporter will be allowed to send up one bag of food to the sitters each day, after it is inspected by UCPD officers.

It’s been more than a month since the campus sent in arborists to take down the sitters’ supplies.

Since then, the campus has provided the sitters daily with water and energy bars. Ground supporters have attempted to resupply the sitters by a variety of means, oftentimes clashing with UCPD officers.

The agreement, which was reached by unofficial protest leader Ayr, UCPD Police Chief Victoria Harrison and Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya, would help eliminate potentially unsafe conditions at the grove that arise when ground supporters attempt to resupply the sitters, according to Dan Mogulof, UC Berkeley executive director of public affairs.

Campus officials also agreed to give at least 72 hours of prior notice if they plan to end the agreement or remove the tree-sitters from the grove.

The agreement was made on the condition that the tree-sitters send down their human waste on a daily basis, including the waste they have stored, to avoid having it used as ammunition.

Additionally, protesters have agreed to cut down lines that span the grove.

Five ground supporters of the tree-sitters in the oak grove near UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium were arrested July 20 after planting a tree in front of Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s residence.

The protesters, part of a larger group of about 30 people, marched from the grove at approximately 3:30 p.m. Sunday to the chancellor’s residence on the northwest side of campus. Six of the protesters dug a hole in the chancellor’s front yard before five of them were arrested by UCPD for vandalizing the yard, said UCPD Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya.

The sixth person involved in the planting has not yet been apprehended by police, Celaya said.

According to unofficial tree-sit protest leader Zachary RunningWolf, the acorn sapling was meant to be an olive branch for the chancellor.

“We went down … and planted a tree on his lawn, basically giving him a gift of kindness and an offering from the grove,” RunningWolf said. “If I was a public servant … I would welcome that, and say thank you for giving us a new life, especially during global warming.”

The five individuals who were arrested were charged with trespassing with attempt to injure, vandalism and conspiracy, Celaya said. One was additionally charged with battery for hitting a UCPD officer in the head with a wooden pole, and another was additionally charged with resisting arrest, he said.

Even before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement of a statewide drought on Wednesday, officials at the East Bay Municipal Utility District and environmental organizations throughout the city have some tips to minimize water usage.

Here are a few of their tips:

-Don’t start any new landscaping
-Wait until the fall to plant or start new landscapes
-Add compost to soil to increase its water-holding capacity
-Add a 2-3 inch layer of recycled mulches to prevent the evaporation of water
-Use efficient irrigation systems, use self-adjusting timers
-When watering, use drip irrigation instead of sprayers
-Fix any leaks in irrigation system
-Invest in ways to harvest rain water
-Only water lawns that you use
-Water landscapes at dawn, dusk or in the middle of the night
-Fix leaky toilets

Source: EBMUD spokesperson Jeff Becerra and Teresa Eade, senior program manager with the Bay-Friendly Landscaping Program at stopwaste.org

Measure F was approved by voters in Tuesday’s primary elections, but some have cited the system by which taxes are classified does not give affected residents a fair voice.

Approximately 64.85 percent of voters approved the tax in the primary, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, which includes voters who are not directly affected by the tax.

While the text of the measure itself does not indicate how the revenues from the utility tax on residents of unincorporated areas must be spent, the measure historically provided revenues to be set aside to fund county services in unincorporated areas, such as law enforcement and libraries, among other things.

Some residents of the unincorporated areas have cited that Measure F does not make these specifications intentionally, in order for it to be classified as a “general tax” instead of a “special tax.”

As per Proposition 218, the 1996 initiative that addressed taxation, the power to raise local funds through taxes shifted from local governing boards to local residents and property owners. This, combined with the vote requirements of Proposition 13, requires that Measure F only gain a simple 50 plus one majority through a county-wide vote in order to continue taxing residents of the county’s unincorporated areas. This is in contrast to a “special tax,” which, although could have given the residents affected by the tax sole control over the issue, requires a 2/3 vote in order to pass.