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Letters
Funding for WV stadium included in Measure E
Two weeks ago, in the Saratoga News, Vic Monia urged voters to oppose Measure E, the West Valley-Mission Community College bond issue that [could ultimately] cost taxpayers in the district [as much as] $715 million. Mr. Monia wrote that the district's academic performance has been deteriorating as measured by criteria established by the state community college chancellor's office.
He also wrote that the district has a recent history of fiscal irresponsibility. Finally, Monia's letter pointed out that the district bond measure would require voters to pay $3 in extra taxes for every dollar that the college district receives.
One of the district trustees, Chris Constantin, published a response saying that Mr. Monia's letter was inaccurate. Under the guise of setting the record straight, Mr. Constantin made arguments in favor of the bond measure.
The most telling part of Mr. Constantin's letter was what he was unable to write. He was unable to say one word challenging Mr. Monia's facts about the district's deteriorating academic performance, its record of fiscal irresponsibility or that taxpayers would pay $3 for each dollar the bond measure generated. Mr. Constantin also failed to mention that the bond measure includes $5.5 million for a football stadium at West Valley College, and he forgot to mention that, at the governing board meeting where he and the other trustees voted to put the measure on the ballot, they agreed to change the language of the bond project list to disguise the fact that the West Valley College stadium would be one of the funded projects.
So much for setting the record straight.
David Yancey
San Marcos Road
The Coopers and Garrods have been contributors
It was with great joy that I read your recent articles on the Coopers and Garrods. I grew up among both families atop Mount Eden Road since I was 3 years old. I have always found both families to be respectful, responsible community leaders and members, and socially minded citizens.
My late parents had the honor and privilege of befriending R. V. and Emma Garrod in the 1940s, and had many challenging personal encounters concerning the history of Saratoga, farming, family, animal life, native plants and politics. These encounters continue today with family members and neighbors.
I am confident that the Cooper and Garrod families will continue to prosper and assist their community in any way they can.
Arturo Fallico
Mount Eden Road
New residents praise village holiday light display
We moved to Saratoga from Southern California in August 2001, and have been delighted by the warmth and friendliness of the people of Saratoga. Our first four months here were topped off by the wonderful light display in the Village during December.
The first time we turned onto Big Basin and saw the fantasy world of lights we all gasped. We took every opportunity to walk or drive through town and enjoy the lights and the displays in the store windows. I don't know if the light display is an annual event, but we sure hope it is!
Marcia, Russ, Laura and Sarah Hansen
Bella Vina
Traffic lights would hurt rural feeling
The plan to place two traffic lights at Kirkmont and Seagull is exactly the wrong thing to do.
It is three-tenths of a mile from Prospect to Seagull, so two additional lights would then give us three traffic lights in three-tenths of a mile!
These surely would greatly increase noise, congestion, travel time and air pollution, decrease the smooth flow of through traffic, and annoy, inconvenience and harass Saratoga residents.
Wonder what an environmental impact report would say? We pay enormous taxes, and now the task force and the city want to do this to us? Medians and walkways are fine, but to harm our travel and create all these other problems?
Such an action would be callous, unnecessary, mean-spirited, and downright wrong! Saratogans expect an open, rural feeling, and more traffic lights very much run counter to this expectation. The "solution" in sprucing up, namely, more traffic lights, is far worse than any present condition.
No traffic lights at Kirkmont and at Seagull!
Todd Walsh
Plymouth Drive
Gateway proposal is a boondoggle
Why the city of Saratoga would spend taxpayer money to create a pedestrian walkway along the Sunnyvale-Saratoga Road is beyond me. Who is going to walk there? And what will they find even if they do? I patronize businesses in that corridor. But I do so because I need what a particular merchant has to sell. I certainly will not spend even an additional second of my time just because there are some trees and a walkway.
And then to drop the speed limit is absolutely inane. Will that encourage anyone to park and walk around? Most certainly not! It will, however, add to the air pollution along that road as more cars stop at traffic lights or just take longer to pass through.
I agree with the comments of Al Pansaro, as reported in the Saratoga News. If you cannot pull directly into a parking lot, you just keep on going. This proposal is a boondoggle for a handful of merchants that will only siphon money from other badly needed projects such as repaving the streets in the neighborhoods such as the ones I use: Verde Vista , Russell, and Sevilla lanes, and most egregious of all, the section of the very same Sunnyvale-Saratoga Road between Thelma and Verde Vista Lane.
I know there are other neighborhoods that require street improvement to make them safe for pedestrians and bicyclists. Let us not waste our precious tax dollars on some highfalutin idea which I did not support back in the days when I served as a planning commissioner.
Marcia O. Kaplan
Sevilla Lane
Correction
In the Jan. 16 issue of the Saratoga News, an article on a mobile skatepark mistakenly identified skatepark engineer Ron Powers, as Ron Howard.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
