Santa Clara County officially says the Almaden Youth Association is "well-meaning, but there is no evidence that they have the necessary skills to implement such complex mitigation measures or the financial resources to hire qualified personnel to do so" ("The county denounces McKean Rd. fields plan," Oct. 7). It's nice to see that I'm not the only one to think this.

It has been quite obvious to people who are paying attention that the people who are running the AYA and its plan to build a soccer fields complex on McKean Road are in way over their heads. Their solutions to what the environmental impact report calls "significant and unavoidable impacts" are pure fantasy, and if the city council votes to approve the plan, they are living in the same fantasy world.

The county also asks a question I've had for a while when it wonders "whether the City is merely serving as a conduit for the Almaden Youth Association (AYA) to avoid county land-use regulations."

Finally, according to the Resident's story, the county says the city must be more specific about what its relationship with the AYA actually is. The city should start by asking Pat Dando what her relationship with the AYA is. Getting these fields approved before she is forced to leave the city council must be very important to her, because she is defying all logic and ignoring the facts in pushing this project. Could there possibly be another reason she is such a sycophantic supporter of the AYA and its wrongheaded plans?

Bennett Blakley

Queenswood Way

The county gets off the
sideline, bashes fields

Well, now that the county has weighed in on the proposed sports fields complex on McKean Road, I guess the AYA folks will have to brand County Council Ann Miller Ravel as anti-child, or maybe a NIMBY, just as they have labeled everybody else who has argued that a 35-acre sports complex is not suitable for the property.

Ravel's letter set out pretty much what field opponents have been saying all along: that there's not enough water to grow the fields and keep the groundwater levels safe and that traffic will be bad. But she didn't stop there, and pretty much blows up every AYA and city argument in favor of building on McKean Road.

I was wondering where the county was while this project was meandering its way toward a city council vote. As someone has written recently, maybe the county finally decided to get off the sidelines and get into the game. I'm just happy the county took a realistic view of the proposal, as opposed to the rose-colored picture Pat Dando, the AYA and their (seemingly) corrupt EIR paints.

Gilbert Guitierrez

Brooktree Way

Forget soccer fields;
build swimming pools

I am getting fatigued over the debate about whether we should put a sports complex in my neighborhood. My children played soccer, baseball and softball when they were young, but eventually got into the year-round sport of swimming. Throughout the city of San Jose, there is land set aside at schools and parks for soccer teams, softball teams, and baseball teams to practice at little or no cost to these teams.

Throughout the country there are city-built pools for swim teams, yet nothing like that exists in San Jose. Surrounding cities such as Morgan Hill, Campbell and Santa Clara to name a few have supported the building of city-owned pools, yet not San Jose. Swimming is a sport where athletes practice five to six days per week 11 months out of the year. We are basically relegated to private club pools, or school district-owned pools at a major cost to our teams. If the soccer teams, softball teams and baseball teams had to pay their way, at the same usage cost that we do, they would have trouble existing. I don't see how any money not raised and collected by these organizations should be put into the building or maintaining of these facilities.

If this is to happen, then where is the swimming complex where a nonprofit swim team can benefit from city funding? I'm not sure of the cost involved with setting these fields up, and making sure the surrounding area can accommodate them, but I would like to see the plan for all this solely with funding from the youth organizations themselves. Until they can show us that they have the budget and the personnel to handle this major project, I don't even see what the debate is about.

Shannon Mackin

President, Osprey Aquatics Swim Team

Complex will turn
road into 'blood alley'

On Saturday Oct. 2, St. Anthony's Church held its annual parking lot rummage sale off McKean Road. As is the case with most public events, the parking was not sufficient in the lot. As a result of the insufficient parking, shoppers decided to park on McKean Road. This is only a half-day event and it causes quite a traffic issue on the few occasions the church holds a large event. I have no issue with this event or St. Anthony's, but I am sending the attached pictures to show you what people will resort to when there is not enough parking. This also occurs when Challenger School has open houses and runs out of parking. Driving southbound on McKean at around 3 p.m. on weekdays is also quite challenging when school is getting out.

The parking issues that will arise on McKean if the proposed sports field is approved will be truly significant on a daily basis. But if there is a large event, and the proposed parking lot fills up, McKean Road will turn into a "blood alley" for anyone brave enough to drive, bike or walk on this stretch of road.

Doug Turk

Hunters Hill Road

Teachers should keep
politics out of classes

L.A. Bloomfield's observation of Pioneer High School teachers publicly displaying Kerry signs or peace symbols on the American flag (Speak Out, Oct. 7) is more evidence that public schools today teach students what to think instead of how to think. It is also further proof that more money is not the silver bullet that will cure our failing public schools. Schools need to focus on teaching reading, writing, arithmetic and the art of critical thinking and less time on promoting concepts of "diversity," tolerance and self-esteem, which should be taught by parents.

Jerry Mungai

Fall River Drive

Dollar signs override
compassion and ethics

We should have expected that the war profiteering would extend into the graves of our brave servicemen and women who are sent to fight an unnecessary war.

Though the president is bending over backwards to find a way to justify his elective war in Iraq, and we're losing a solider a day to roadside bombs and ambushes, the real war we should be fighting--against the actual terrorists who attacked us on 9-11--is flagging.

This war in Iraq is draining our treasury, and the only people who are happy are the folks at Halliburton and other unethical companies making money hand over fist while those billions of dollars being spent on a bloody occupation could be put to a much better use at home.

I shouldn't have been surprised to read that one of the true heroes of this war is being dishonored in death by another war profiteer. Taking Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan and turning it into a computer game is just disgusting ("Computer game company using Pat Tillman's memory for profit," Oct. 7).

The people who run Kuma Reality Games ought to be ashamed of themselves for producing "Mission # 20: US Army Rangers Lead the Way. Dedicated to the Memory of US Army Ranger Pat Tillman." But of course, dollar signs have a way of overriding compassion and ethics.

I'm glad that the Tillman family is taking steps to remove Pat's name from the "game," but I'm afraid that the damage may already be done. How many kids have grown up playing these kinds of games and how many of them now are desensitized to violence? I doubt very much that the Kuma Reality Game features "friendly fire," which is what killed Tillman.

Jill Wayne

Olive Branch Lane

Please, no more creepy
spiders articles, OK?

I like reading your newspaper (when it is delivered). I always find I'm learning things about Almaden Valley that I didn't know, even though I have lived here for 17 years.

But did you really have to put those creepy spiders on the cover ("Creepy Crawly, Almaden's eight-legged neighbors not so itsy, bitsy," Oct. 7)? And that half-page photo of our "friendly neighborhood spider" was really too much. I couldn't look.

I must say that I didn't know that tarantulas were native to Almaden, and now that I do know, I'm weirded out just enough to put up a For Sale sign.

Please, no more spiders articles, OK?

Diana Kramer

El Paseo Drive

It's time to eradicate
the predator problem

The city council needs to get with the program and vote to allow leg traps. I understand all about trying to live in harmony with nature, but the Almaden Valley is being overrun with these predators, and it's obvious that county vector control can't handle the problem.

Look, I understand the problem. I know that humans are the newcomers to this land, and we've effectively made ourselves at home on what was once open space, where the laws of nature--kill or be killed--ruled over the land. A year ago, everyone was worried about mountain lions. So this predator is smaller in size. Doesn't it do the same kind of damage to our pets or, God forbid, a child?

All we need is for some toddler to be carried off and devoured by a pack of these hairy beasts. Then what will all the crybaby environmentalists have to say then? Would they say it's the parents' fault for letting the kids play outside without supervision?

My mother lives in Almaden Valley, too, and she likes to take her bichon frisé on long walks in Almaden Quicksilver Park. What if a marauding pack should come across my mother and Sweetie on the trail? I can see her being knocked to the ground--her cane being of no help--while they get her, and her little dog, too.

No! I say it's time to run these evil beings out of our valley! Leg traps are too good for them! I propose that those of us who are willing to take matters into our own hands meet up one morning, grab some heavy sticks, put on some big boots and stamp out this problem!

Then Almaden Valley would be free of tarantulas!

Joe Ignacio

Little Falls Drive