With little discussion, the Campbell City Council on June 1 voted unanimously to approve the proposed city budget for the 2004­05 fiscal year. The $50.5 million budget represents an increase of 5.4 percent over the previous year's budget.

The approved version is unchanged from the one originally proposed at the May 5 public hearing, said Campbell finance director Gretchen Conner.

The new budget takes effect July 1. Campbell will avoid cutting city jobs and will maintain services.

CERT program is starting new class

The Campbell Police Department is inviting the public to attend a training program to learn and practice disaster preparedness. The Community Emergency Response Team program, or CERT, is a Federal Emergency Management Agency course. CERT training is designed to prepare citizens to help themselves, their family, their neighbors and community in case of an emergency or catastrophic disaster.

The Campbell Police Department will be sponsoring the next CERT class starting on July 15 at 6:30 p.m. The program consists of a total of 20 hours and the classes will be held on Thursday evenings and on Saturdays at the County Fire Training Center, 485 W. Sunnyoaks Ave. Training is available to all residents, businesses and civic groups in Campbell.

For more information, contact Jon Hackley, CERT coordinator, Campbell Police Department at 408.871.5115 or by e-mail at jonh@ci.campbell.ca.us.

Students, parents honored by district

The Campbell Union School District held a reception at its May 20 school board meeting to honor a number of the notable students and parents in the community.

Taylor Deckard of Capri Elementary School and Keith Dominic Crowther, Redeat Mengiste and Zelby Nelson of Campbell Middle School were each recognized for winning the 2004 Spring Awards, which include honors for GPAs, leadership and spiritual consciousness. These awards are given out by the Santa Clara County Alliance of Black Educators.

Recipients of the 2004 Seagate/ Sharks Foundation 8th Grade Leadership Award were Sofia Andrade of Campbell Middle School, Christine Vermy of Monroe Middle School and Christina Forst of Rolling Hills Middle School.

Alex Riad of Campbell Middle School, Sidney Moiwa of Monroe Middle School and Kristin Obermeyer of Rolling Hills Middle School received the 2004 Student Leadership Awards from the Association of California School Administrators.

All aboard Caltrain
for a free weekend

Caltrain will offer free rides on any trains traveling from San Jose to San Francisco and back on June 12 and 13.

It's Caltrain's way of thanking its customers for their patience during the last two years of rail construction that disrupted weekend service.

New rail work was being laid to facilitate express train service up and down the peninsula for Caltrain's speedy new Baby Bullet service, which began June 7.

Caltrain's Baby Bullet express service will zip passengers between San Jose and San Francisco in 57 minutes; its fastest current train takes 90 minutes to make the trip.

The Baby Bullet trains will travel at 79 miles per hour and stop at six of the 26 stations between San Jose and San Francisco—San Jose Diridon, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Hillsdale, Millbrae and the San Francisco terminal at Fourth and Townsend streets.

For more information on free weekend Caltrain service or the Baby Bullet, visit http://www.caltrain.com/.