Saratoga News

Letters

Kudos to deputy

One of Saratoga's finest was dispatched to our home by our alarm company last week. We'd like to compliment Deputy #1607 for his very thorough investigation of our property as evidenced by the "False Alarm Card" left in our mailbox. . . . We really enjoyed his sense of humor.

Judi Craik
Hidden View

Nelson's friends want an apology

The undersigned are the last directors of the Florence Nelson foundation prior to its merger with the Community Foundation of Santa Clara County. We are also longtime friends of Frank C. Nelson, deceased, and some of us knew Frank for almost 50 years. We take strong exception to the published pieces disparaging the Florence Nelson Foundation and the Community Foundation of Santa Clara County as evidenced by opinion pieces written by F. L. Stutzman published in recent editions of the Saratoga News. We have maintained a low profile in recent years in order not to fuel the fire of controversy concerning Nelson Gardens, but the recent articles by Mr. Stutzman contain such blatant misstatements that we feel compelled to respond.

We wish to make the following statements in response to Mr. Stutzman's articles: Frank C. Nelson was never declared legally incompetent by his family. Yuen T. Gin was Frank Nelson's personal attorney for over 20 years and is astounded that Mr. Stutzman would state that Nelson was declared legally incompetent.

Helen Nelson, second wife of Frank C. Nelson, is a wonderful person and very much supported her husband. Both Helen and Frank Nelson for many years financially supported the Nature Conservancy and the California State Park Foundation when those organizations owned Nelson Gardens and tried their best to preserve it as an apricot orchard.

Mr. Stutzman's statement that the attorney for the Community Foundation of Santa Clara County knew nothing of the background of Nelson Gardens, and that he was a "hired gun" is not correct. The attorney for the Community Foundation of Santa Clara County was very knowledgeable of the background of Nelson Gardens.

A member of the Saratoga City Council did, in fact, visit with Frank C. Nelson, but due to Frank's health, Helen Nelson refused to allow long visits or unscheduled visits.

With respect to the "bribe" quoted by Mr. Stutzman, we would remind him that this "exaction" (a City Council term) was requested by the City Council in our original hearing, circa 1987. This was pegged at the time as 10 percent of the sales price of $2.4 million, or $240,000, which was to be matched by the builder. If the Nelson Gardens had been sold for $2.4 million, the additional proceeds from the sale and revenues from then to the present would have generated millions of additional dollars for charitable purposes. The Florence Nelson Foundation was founded on Sept. 10, 1952, and has generously contributed to organizations in Saratoga and the local area. The present sale was a little over half of the 1987 sales price, and the exaction of approximately $560,000 reflects almost 50 percent of the amount from the realized sale. We, too, were disturbed at these results.

Being dedicated to the desires of Frank Nelson to support his first interest, i. e. the Florence Nelson Foundation, named after his first wife, who died in the early '60s, we proceeded to try and sell the Nelson Gardens to increase the Foundation's charitable distributions. We did not proceed in this direction until Frank himself agreed to such action, which was confirmed by his tape played to the City Council and during subsequent Friends of the Gardens meetings. We deeply resent being represented by letters in the Saratoga News that we manipulated and took advantage of him in this matter. This is an untruth. The fact is, his mind was very sharp up until his passing.

Finally, we don't believe Mr. Stutzman ever personally met Mr. Nelson as evidenced by his closing: "Frank--you tried; we failed you" in one of his earlier letters. We have not failed him. We knew him closely, and he had confidence in our actions on his behalf.

We believe Mr. Stutzman should issue an apology to the Florence Nelson Foundation, the Community Foundation of Santa Clara County and especially Helen Nelson and stop misleading the Saratoga public with unsubstantiated statements. It's time to put this matter to rest.

Roger W. Ross
Ray L. Byrne
P. E. Greenlee
Yuen T. Gin
Edwina Kump
Nelson Fund advisers to the Community Foundation

Cuts could signal the end of baseball

Saratoga Little League has a record number of players this year, with 485 registered for the 1997 season. The baseball program depends upon local parks and fields for practices, and Congress Springs Park for practice and all games. We have estimated our usage of Saratoga Parks at over 50,000 person-hours this season, between the months of February and June. All of our players reside in Saratoga, and our usage calculation does not include spectators, siblings or friends brought to the parks.

Saratoga Little League has made considerable capital improvements to Congress Springs Park, building the snack shack and storage blockhouse, which are used by Pony baseball and by AYSO soccer, and add greatly to the desirability of the park for youth sports programs. In the last two weeks Little League has relaid the farm baseball infield at considerable expense, as it was in an unplayable and dangerous condition after the soccer season.

The costs of these improvements are met by our budget, and also through the generosity of parents. However, we feel that cuts in maintenance to the parks would put an enormous strain on our operating expenses, and may signal the end of the baseball program entirely, if fields were to deteriorate further due to constant usage throughout the year.

Little League is more than bats and balls. It is a coming together of the community in an effort to provide a wholesome, supervised activity for its youth. It is a program that teaches leadership and instills the virtues of character, courage and loyalty, the rewards of teamwork, a respect for authority and the self-discipline that will help our youth grow and mature into the leaders of tomorrow.

I strongly urge the City Council not to make any cuts to the maintenance of Congress Springs. For the sake of our children in the community, let there always be a Parks and Recreation Department in the city which will provide a safe, attractive and enjoyable venue for organized sports programs such as Little league.

A copy of this letter has been sent to Saratoga City Council members.

Susie Dymoke, president
Saratoga Little League

What happened to the morning mail?

I have lived in the Santa Clara Valley for over 70 years, and I have never been one to resent change or progress. But every once in a while, I long for the days when we were still called "The Valley of Heart's Delight" instead of Silicon Valley. I'll always miss the beautiful orchards and the small-town atmosphere that we knew in Sunnyvale, but today my mind is on the postal service.

When I was a little girl, postage for a letter was 3 cents, a penny post card was still a penny and we had such marvelous postal service. Of course, we had never even heard of junk mail then. Our mailman came by with the mail well before noon and made a second delivery in the early afternoon, except on Saturdays when there was only a morning delivery. Now, I feel very lucky if my mail arrives before 3 p.m. or before dark. We have never had a morning delivery since we moved to Saratoga some 25 years ago.

Whoops, I must sign off. It is 6:28 p.m., and the mail has arrived, needing my attention.

Hortense Johnson
Karn Circle