Los Gatos Weekly-TimesLettersDeath of princess should offer some food for thought In the passing away of our princess, and thus our fairy tale, there is much food for thought. Most of us these days are in a mad dash toward prosperity, pleasure and good health. We pride ourselves on intelligence, accomplishment and control. Yet we are faced with the fact that even the most powerful among us have ultimately no control. Even so, Diana's death has stopped us dead in our tracks. The notion that someone or something has snuffed out the life of our lovely princess is beyond insult. We want to believe that beauty, character, fame, fortune and, particularly, youth will immunize us. We want to forget the reality of our human condition, that we are fragile, frequently powerless and mortal. Regardless of our agenda, death often comes in the middle of the night when we least expect it. In our fast lane to nowhere, we might do well to ponder the meaning of our own lives' inevitable death, not only the Princess of Wales'.
Pamela Delaney Neal Cassady house was not worth saving Friends and family have sent me the articles on the destruction of my former home on Bancroft Avenue in Monte Sereno. Let us not condemn before seeking all the facts. Neither the Schechters nor the Monte Sereno officials are to blame for this destruction. It's the termites. I fought a few battles with them myself, but in the end they won the war. There is no point preserving a shell full of sawdust. I had intended to tear down that house and build another on the back of the one-third-acre lot, but I could never raise the money for it. All material things decay and die, but the memories are eternal, and we have still a large supply of photos and films of many events and personages that have now made it famous and will outlast us all. The Schechters have put up nobly with the uninvited attention heretofore; let's all wish them well in their new home.
Carolyn Cassady Traffic snarl was a small disaster The bird-brain setting up the resurfacing at the Blossom Hill Road and Los Gatos Boulevard intersection should be seriously rebuked, censored, disciplined by his/her betters, then, as an act of kindness, put to sleep!! I can only hope the pinhead responsible got caught in the afternoon mess.
Douglas MacGill Red Cross was prepared with shelter supplies Before we all forget about the "Cats Fire" that threatened our town last month, some little-noted occurrences deserve to be made part of the record. By 4:30 p.m., the fire was roaring up the hills and evacuees were being moved from the Meadows to the high school lawn. At this point, United Methodist Church personnel welcomed them into the adjacent church complex. Church members and other residents of the community arrived to help, and in true loaves and fishes fashion, a small barbecue for a small group of church members turned into adequate food for the hundred or more refugees congregated. Local restaurants and businesses, plus the Meadows' staff, supplemented and expanded on the "loaves and fishes" so that no one was turned away hungry. This part of the event you all know. Yet there's another part I've not seen covered in stories and letters. Due to preparations that have been ongoing since 1990 by the West Valley Advisory Committee of the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, a complete shelter was set up and ready to go by 8 p.m. An ARK (a 40-foot storage container) donated by the Red Cross now occupies an area near the LGHS football field. This ARK has been stocked with emergency supplies due to fundraising efforts of students and faculty over several years from local residents and merchants. Cots and other emergency supplies were thus available in this ARK. Members of the Red Cross (including both the WVAC and Mountain Emergency Response Corps--MERC) reported to the high school gym (a previously arranged ARC-designated shelter) to be ready when/if emergency personnel asked for a shelter. When the request came, everyone pitched in, located a truck to transport supplies, and with the immense help of the school custodian, Carlos Ramirez, the shelter was ready for use in a very short period of time. Fortunately, the fire was soon under control. Because The Terraces, local hospitals, the Toll House and townspeople opened their doors for the night, the shelter was no longer needed. However, its rapid implementation was a successful culmination to many years of preparation. One could wish for a less harried "drill," but it certainly represented a payoff for years of meetings and planning and, yes, disaster preparedness. Los Gatos isn't the only place to benefit from those years. Since its formation in 1990, WVAC, which operates as a direct arm of the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the ARC, has added to the original two ARKs at Redwood Estates and Loma Prieta with the one at LGHS, one at Lakeside School, one at Saratoga High School and one at the Saratoga Community Center, six in all. While not quite fully stocked yet, these ARKs are in place with basic emergency supplies should a disaster occur--be it flood, earthquake or fire. I thought you'd like to know that your Red Cross is ready.
June Sythe It's time to talk about the money Regarding the school district reorganization, this is really getting out of hand. The Los Gatos Weekly-Times in its Sept.3 editorial sums it up accurately when it states "... the meetings have produced much conjecturing and more than a little hysteria with relatively no consideration of the costs or the practicality of any of the proposals." We in Los Gatos are writing letters, attending meetings, making numerous phone calls, planning trips to Sacramento ... and for what? Our schools are full! Why are we going through this? We are not told of the costs for any of these proposals or what will happen to the parcel-tax money (it surely will not be passed for renewal if the money is somehow funnelled to another district) and, above all, what the possible ramifications are on our children's education. To make matters even worse, there is some possibility that if one of these unification proposals makes it to the polls, we in Los Gatos may not even be entitled to vote. I thought this was a democracy! It is time to stop trying to fix something that isn't broken in Los Gatos and [that is] causing a great deal of wasted time.
Dick Ribas PG&E says it will explore alternatives This past week, PG&E agreed to explore reasonable alternatives to construction of transformers and towers proposed for Vasona Substation at Lark Avenue and Winchester Boulevard. PG&E attorney Charles Lewis and senior planner Robert Masuoka were scheduled to tour Los Gatos as well as the El Patio and Hicks substations with attorney Patrick J. Power (attorney for the area residents and Boccardo Corporation). This dramatic turn of events is what the residents have been working toward since May 24. The key to solving the "alleged" electric power problem in Los Gatos has always been to decide on a reasonable alternative that everyone including PG&E can accept. The natural gas service station issue has finally been put to rest by locating the natural-gas facility operated by ARCO on property sufficiently away from a high-density residential and recreational area (the logical solution). Residents together with the Town Council made this point perfectly clear to both Town Manager David Knapp and PG&E! The same principle applies to transformers, 230kV wires, and ugly towers. The next step in the process will be to hear the PG&E response to the reasonable alternatives proposed by residents, due Sept. 30 as stipulated in the CPUC administrative law judge's ruling of Aug. 28, 1997. The residents of the entire town of Los Gatos and city of Monte Sereno are to be congratulated for continuing the grassroots effort to protect their safety and welfare as well as generating a strong effort to remove all 230kV wires and towers from the heart of Los Gatos. In the next few years, the town staff of Knapp, Bowman, and Baker plus PG&E will have moved on, yet the residents of the area will remain. We moved to Los Gatos and Monte Sereno in order to enjoy a quality of life that could not be found elsewhere. Hopefully, the town manager and PG&E will finally get that message!
Bill and Ann Burns
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This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, September 24, 1997. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||