Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Letters

Donation of time, talent, helps town

The town's fourth annual volunteer recognition reception, held April 17 at the Los Gatos Downtown Neighborhood Center, was an enormous success!

The reception honored volunteers who served the town in 1996 by providing a spectrum of services, including mural painting on the Forbes Mill Footbridge, park and trail maintenance, raising funds for the Town Library, providing police support and other services.

Volunteers complement the town's efforts and foster a spirit of cooperation between the Los Gatos community and our municipal government.

Our volunteers' dedication and support to town services are vital to the strength of the community and exceptional quality of life enjoyed by residents. Thank you!

We extend thanks also to the many business donors who contributed food, beverages, desserts, flowers and entertainment to the town. Their volunteer spirit helped to make the reception a special community event:

A Rental Center, Andalé of Los Gatos, Bunches, C.B. Hannegan's, California Cafe Bar & Grill, DeliZioso, Diddam's Amazing Party Store, Dolce Spazio Dessert Cafe, Gaeta's Flowers of Los Gatos, Good Earth Restaurant, Happy Dragon Thrift Shop, Icing on the Cake, Los Gatos Brewing Co., Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Co., Los Gatos Meats & Smoke House, Los Gatos Village Flowers & Gifts, Lunardi's Supermarket, McWhorter's Stationers, Nectar's, Nob Hill Foods #4, Safeway Stores--N. Santa Cruz Ave. and Pollard Road, Shepherd's Garden Seeds, Southern Kitchen, Stems, Togo's of Los Gatos, Villa Felice Restaurant, Walgreen's Drug Store and Isham Quartet.

Individuals or groups wishing to become town volunteers can do so by calling the Community Services Department, 354-6820.

Regina A. Falkner
Community Services Director

Senior Handbook answers many tough questions

Every adult child with parents still living should have in his or her possession a copy of the 1997 Senior Handbook.

First published in May 1984, it is written in a how-to format to provide a listing of service agencies to seniors and their families and an understanding of senior issues.

It is published every year in the fall and revised annually to reflect changes in service agencies and programs that have taken place since the previous issue as well as address changes, if any.

It does not contain the name of every service in Santa Clara County available to seniors, but it is the finest and most comprehensive guide that can be found. A full 136 pages of information, the 1997 Senior Handbook is available in Room 3 of the Los Gatos Neighborhood Center from 9 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday, free of charge to those who call for them in person.

They may be ordered for $5 (including postage and handling) from Information & Referral Services, Inc., 1245 South Winchester Blvd., Suite 200, San Jose, 95128.

Los Gatos churches should have a copy of the handbook in their libraries.

The need for senior assistance can develop gradually or with a single crisis; hence the importance for adult children, as well as their parents, to be familiar with the handbook and its contents. Anyone looking for a service that is not listed can call an I&R counselor for assistance. The telephone number is 345-4532.

We are becoming an increasingly aging society. By the year 2000, 50 percent of our population will be 50 and older, and 100,000 of us will be more than 100 years old. It is obvious that the need for senior services, for them and their families, will increase with the passing years. Hence the importance of wide public support for what I&R is called upon to provide.

Vern Hansen
Los Gatos

Bruni's departure is final bullet in heart of the town

After 17 years in Old Town, Bruni's studio has been taken away from her by the new owners of Old Town, Hunter-Storm Properties of Cupertino. With no studio and exorbitantly high rent proposed to keep her gallery here, she has been forced to leave town.

Bruni's is the last of the working studios and art centers in this town, and Bruni herself is the greatest painter to have ever resided in Los Gatos.

When all others sadly fell by the wayside, Bruni's spirit prevailed. She weathered seemingly insurmountable adversity, not only to keep going, but to go all the way to the Smithsonian's Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

This is the final bullet through the heart of this town, once a highly creative and thriving art community.

What will they say when the last giant redwood is hacked down to clear space for yet one more mall? Oh well, it was just another tree?

Mark Gray
Managing Director

The Old Town Gallery and The Jazz Masters Series by Bruni

Ed Storm of Hunter-Storm Properties told the Los Gatos Weekly-Times that the interior basement area where Bruni has her studio is being closed off and will no longer be available for lease. Hunter-Storm has invited her to keep her gallery and to relocate her studio within Old Town at market rate for like space in the shopping center.--Editor

It's people, not buildings that make Los Gatos

In regards to your April 16 article, "Bruni says she's leaving... ," you should be aware that the tone and content of the article has missed the point by a country mile and does a disservice to a prominent member of the Los Gatos community. Bruni would only leave if she was forced to leave, and that is what should have been the crux of the article.

The owners of Old Town have conducted their management of the property and its tenants in a way that is an embarrassment to ordinary business ethics and an affront to the standards of this community in the treatment of one of its citizens. Frankly, it angers me that the issue of what these people are in the process of doing to Old Town and the manner in which they are doing it is being ignored in deference to articles that blithely report that Bruni may be leaving.

People who are familiar with Bruni's work know what an enormous talent she is and what she adds to this community. The quality of Los Gatos is the sum of its people, not its buildings, and it is people with Bruni's stature that make the ordinary extraordinary. Who, in your mind, contributes more to the character of this town: Bruni or Old Town's new landlord?

There's a story here if you choose to act on it, and it isn't that Bruni may leave. You have the opportunity to set the record straight, to let the people in Los Gatos know what's really happening in their community. The real news is how this new landlord is conducting business in Los Gatos and if the truth of that be told, you wouldn't have to be saying that Bruni may leave.

Bill Gallagher
Los Gatos

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