Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Letters

The community garage sale makes friends and saves the environment

Many events take place each year in Los Gatos to the benefit of many organizations. The Town-Wide Garage Sale taking place on May 9 is an event which will benefit the entire community. It is an opportunity for town neighborhoods to come together for fun and profit. My no-longer-needed end table may be just what my neighbor needs. And I'm sure he has that unique flower pot that I've been looking for.

Not only that, in the exchange we will be reusing items that may otherwise end up in the landfill--wasted and costly in terms of the environment.

Come on, neighbors, gather up your unused treasures and register for the Town-Wide Garage Sale! To obtain more information, contact the Community Services Department, 354-6824.

Toni Blackstock
Community Services Commission, Los Gatos

Americans sweat the small stuff

The American situation is amusing. We insist on not including sales tax in the price in California, so we continue to waste hours each year fumbling with the obsolete penny. We also choose to add three digits of pain for phone calls across the street when our enlightened foreign neighbors simply add a single digit.

Where are those great inventive minds?

Gary Ashford
Los Gatos

Giving thanks where it's due

On behalf of the Los Gatos Union School District, the CATS Campaign Committee and the children of Los Gatos Union School District thank you, the voters in the school district, who again overwhelmingly approved Measure A. We are fortunate to live in a community that not only values education but is willing to put up its money to ensure the best for its children.

Thank you to the hundreds of volunteers and supporters who worked tirelessly for the success of the parcel tax. Three people deserve special mention: Jim McClenathan, who served again as campaign chairman; Martha Geiszler, who served as the treasurer, and especially to Karen Sanders Noe, our campaign coordinator.

We hope that our success is a harbinger for Measure B, the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School district's bond measure. What a wonderful year it will be when both measures have succeeded! Thank you again, Los Gatos.

Bruce Berwald
Dorothy Rouse
LGUSD Board of Trustees

Country club would be good for environment

I am a vice president in the Lockheed-Martin Management Association, with approximately 2,000 members and 1,000 retiree members, who have sponsored and contributed toward our community substantially over the last 40 years. When I brought the Los Gatos Country Club--Pete Denevi's proposed golf course on the site of the former Alma College--before our board last December, there was total support and recognition of the merits and benefits.

I am very concerned about the county's lack of progress on the LGCC project during the last six months.

I attended and spoke at the January and February county Planning Commission hearings on the subject. I am aware of the "environmentalists' " scare tactics. Furthermore, I realize their interest in acquiring the 210 acres of proposed golf course site and surrounding property. The unfounded fears and recent concerns about substantial studies related to seismic activity, especially on property not related to the LGCC, is not beneficial or fair to the LGCC project.

My background and knowledge of the entire property is substantive. I was taught by and visited the Jesuits who lived on this land. Therefore, I am deeply concerned about this issue. The historic property currently lies dormant and rapidly decaying. Herein lies important history of the Santa Clara Mission.

I too am concerned about our environment and community. With due respect for all suggested alternatives, the LGCC remains the right choice. Besides the environmental, health and safety benefits, many citizens see the wide-range of financial and social benefits for our community.

The LGCC is the right choice because it preserves more than 95 percent of the land as open space, and has a built-in incentive and fiscal ability to improve the land and restore/replace/clean up the many abandoned historic buildings and other facility infrastructure on this site, including the old sewage treatment tanks, pipes and current and future erosion problems.

Acquisition of this site by an open-space organization would not even provide this kind of ongoing guarantee. Additional benefits include: improved soil integrity, continuous flora which would benefit the habitat and fauna, fire-risk reduction, firefighting capability, brush clearing and a tree-replacement program. When compared to other alternatives, the LGCC project will provide the total care this site desperately needs, while preserving and improving the environment for man and nature.

Thor A. Spargo, V.P.
Lockheed-Martin Management Association

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