Letters

Parking and traffic are causing problems

School is starting soon, August 27th to be exact. I am writing on behalf of my husband, my neighbors and myself. We are concerned about the parking and traffic dilemma on our streets around Fisher Middle School during the school year.

The streets in question are Roberts Road, Fisher Road, Mitchell Avenue and Serra Court. We have tried, unsuccessfully, to discuss our problems with Dr. Aliotto, the previous principal of Fisher Middle School, and the local police department. Before the school year progresses too far, we are hoping that our concerns will be addressed.

Our top concern is the parking situation. The parents, rather than using the designated drop off/pick-up area in the parking lot available on the east side of Fisher Middle School, double-park on the streets or block our driveways or park on our private property.

Several situations arise from this problem:

Double-parking creates a traffic flow problem.

Blocking our property creates a violation of right of passage onto our private property and is also a violation in the California law.

Maintenance of our properties. Our driveways and private parking areas have had an inordinate amount of traffic due to people abusing our property and causing an undue hardship for the property owner.

Another concern is in regards to the traffic congestion, which is created when parents heading westbound on Roberts Road stop at the intersection of Fisher Avenue and then do not proceed through. This causes traffic bottleneck not only on Roberts Road, but also on Los Gatos Boulevard. These same vehicles will proceed through the sign at a very slow rate of speed, honk, stop the vehicle in the middle of the road and encourage their child to jaywalk in the middle of the block while they are double-parked. This causes all the traffic behind them to wait until the child has loaded up all of their belongings and buckled their seatbelt before proceeding.

Now to address the eastbound traffic, some of these of parents traveling eastbound are looking for their children not paying complete attention to the surrounding traffic and children crossing their lane. We are concerned that one of the children may become injured

What is the answer to these problems? We are fully aware that you are the professionals who have the training to analyze the situations listed above and have the power and means to correct them.

Some of our suggestions are:

To place No Parking /No Stopping Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. (which seems to work for George Street, a cross street between Roberts Road and Mitchell Avenue) or Permit Parking Only Signs on the residential sides of the streets;

Create another drop off/pick-up area on the north side of Fisher Middle School, eliminating the lawn area;

Police to control traffic during peak traffic periods (7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.) and issue citations for traffic violations;

Make Roberts Road a one-way street in the eastbound direction;

Create a 15-mile per hour speed limit around the school during school hours;

Encouraging car-pooling or to set up an area off location for the children to gather and then be bused onto the campus.

Jan Bryant Amaral
Los Gatos

Skateboard park behind Balzer Field a good spot

I was wondering what the status is on the skateboard park? For location I think the empty lot behind Balzer Field is an excellent spot. I am for the skateboard park because the nearest one is in Campbell. A good skate park is in Milpitas at the Great Mall. It also annoys me when I've seen torn-up property by skateboarders because there is nowhere else to skate.

Matt Gifford
First Class Boy Scout Troop 501

Garbage trucks making too much noise too early

Summer weather has many people in town sleeping with their windows open. Unfortunately, the contract with Green Valley Disposal, in addition to providing monopolistic access to our market, allows them to disturb our slumbers with their trucks in residential neighborhoods at 6 a.m. Green Valley Disposal betrays this agreement and sends out their trucks at 5:30 a.m. and earlier. I was wakened by a collector this morning around 5:45 a.m. and chased him down. I pointed out that it wasn't 6 a.m. yet, and he kept right on collecting.

The law prohibits operation of noisy machinery in residential neighborhoods before 8 a.m. The contract with Green Valley allowing operation at 6 a.m. represents a betrayal of the people of Los Gatos. Green Valley disposal has shown that they will not even comply with these overly loose restrictions, and have chosen to operate at their own convenience rather than ours.

I believe that it is just silly to allow these trucks to disturb our community on a daily basis. The town council has created this situation. They need to correct it or face replacement.

Herb Kutscha
Los Gatos

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