Vice Mayor Pat Dando says she wants to clear up misconceptions about the McKean Road sports complex project. She then goes on to foster the biggest misconception of all—that this is a positive community project with only a few residents having concerns. This is not true.

The McKean Road sports field actually involves two communities. The first community is District 10 in the city of San Jose. This is where Dando and the members of the Almaden Youth Association live. They have unlimited city water, wide roadways, city services, and city-maintained streets and traffic control. This is the community that wants a large new sports complex.

The second community is the South Almaden Valley Urban Reserve. This community is mostly rural and is located in unincorporated county property. It has a two-lane main road, open fields that carry noise easily, and is dependent on well water from a shallow aquifer. This is the community where Pat Dando and the AYA want to put their sports fields.

When Dando says this is a "positive community project," she is referring to District 10 and the city of San Jose. And why shouldn't it be positive for them? They get all the benefits, while at the same time foisting the pollution, the hassle, the traffic congestion and the risk to resources on another community.

When Dando says there are a "few residents that have concerns," she is referring to more than a few residents. She is referring to almost all of the residents of the South Almaden Valley Urban Reserve. These residents do not have unlimited city water. They are dependent on well water for their life's blood. Their water comes from a shallow aquifer that if strained too far is at risk of running dry—leaving the residents with no water. This is a community that could see its wells destroyed if the water level falls too low. This is a community that will suffer from the large increase of traffic on its small country road.

The city of San Jose and the AYA don't have any vested interest in protecting this area's resources. Their vested interest is in land grabbing in another community so that they can build their large, noisy, water-guzzling, traffic-producing sports complex. But don't take my word for it. Read their draft environment impact report. It says there isn't enough water; it says that there is a noise problem with no solution; it says that there will be parking for almost 500 cars.

Adding 500 more cars daily on a rural two-lane road constitutes a traffic and safety problem. And to add insult to injury, the mitigation proposed by the draft EIR to this problem shows a total lack of sensitivity and a huge dose of arrogance on the part of San Jose. The recommended mitigation in the report for the safety issue is that the AYA will sign waivers so that none of the AYA children will ride their bikes in the area so that they will not be at risk of being hit by a car. What about the residents? Are we now to stop walking, riding our horses and riding our bikes in order to be safe in our own community? The very fact that the residents' safety wasn't a consideration in the mitigation shows the total lack of regard for my community by the proponents of the Sports Complex project.

Suzy Shields

Resident, South Almaden Valley Urban Reserve

Ramifications of site
never fully considered

While my kids have grown up and moved on with their lives, they did play in the Almaden Valley Soccer League. They loved the camaraderie and the competition the league offered, making lifelong friends along the way. I have never had anything but appreciation and gratitude for the coaches and league organizers for offering a safe and pleasurable experience for my three kids.

But that was so long ago, I can't say that I know the conditions of the fields that kids are playing on now. From what I have read, the school fields are always in use and in pretty bad shape.

So I can see why there is a big push to get the sports complex on McKean Road built and why the two Almaden newspapers are interested in writing about it.

When I read the Almaden Resident's article on Aug. 19 ("EIR points to problems in soccer-field plan") about the draft environmental impact report, it seemed to validate everything those opposed to the sports complex have been saying all along: that there is not enough water for all that grass and there is a real danger to kids who would walk or bike to the fields on that two-lane road. The two solutions the AYA and Vice Mayor Pat Dando have come up with—waivers promising never to walk or bike to the fields and building a little bit at a time—aren't solutions. They are work-arounds that don't address the problems, leaving them there as time bombs waiting to blow up.

The other newspaper's article had just four paragraphs about the EIR, didn't mention that the fields would dangerously affect the wells used by some residents when (not if) there is another drought or the McKean Road concerns. Instead, its article was a defensive face-saving play by Dando and the AYA, trying to blunt the Resident's fine articles about the mess they have made of the fields project in general.

It just seems to me that when people started thinking about where to build a sports complex, they looked around, saw the McKean Road site, and said, "Eureka!" and stopped looking, without ever considering the ramifications of building there.

Gilbert Gutierrez

Brooktree Way

Keep up the pressure
for full disclosure

Thank you again for continuing the pressure on the Almaden Youth Association and the city to give us full disclosure of the soccer fields plan or lack thereof. It is refreshing to see a newspaper like the Almaden Resident work in the interest in keeping government activities exposed to sunlight.

And in regards to the Almaden church serving as host to homeless men ("Almaden church takes its turn hosting homeless men for the month of August," Aug. 19): I commend the Almaden Hills United Methodist Church for its dedication in helping the less fortunate among us.

Unfortunately, today, more than ever before, people find themselves in need because of a long series of bad choices on their part. We have to ask why they are in need. Did they take advantage of all the educational opportunities while in school? Did someone force them to abuse drugs or alcohol?

At what point do we hold individuals accountable for their own irresponsible behavior? These are truly difficult questions to ask, but ask we must if we are to find solutions to the problem of ever-increasing numbers of homeless.

Jerry Mungai

Fall River Drive

Last week we reported that Vice Mayor Pat Dando and representatives of the Almaden Youth Association had delivered agreements between the city and the AYA, as well as the organization's IRS tax for 990 for 2003. It was our intention to review all the documentation and publish a story about our review in this week's paper. Unfortunately, a key representative of the AYA was out of town and unable to respond to questions our reporter had. We expect to publish the story in next week's Almaden Resident.