Letters

Change of heart over
trees is good news

We were sorry to see an oak tree cut down by Saratoga School this morning. But thank you very much for reconsidering the eucalyptus at Saratoga School. Personally we dislike most of the eucalyptus in California. They are non-native and a big fire hazard. Even Australians treat them badly where the many species of this family are beautifully adapted to their native land.

Last year when we heard that an outstanding member of the Saratoga Union School District board had resigned because of eucalyptus, we really had to stop and think: Why would she do this? But we also read a Saratoga News column written by our most favorite person in all of Saratoga, Willys Peck, eloquently explaining why we need the eucalyptus at Saratoga School.

Our sense of community in Saratoga exists thanks to Willys and Betty Peck, including their special place on Saratoga Avenue and the Historical Society that they champion and Willys' Saratoga News column (the reason why we buy the paper). Willys and Betty see Saratoga's beauty and history and fight for it and we should pay attention.

We can look at Saratoga School and know it has been around a long time, that it is the original school in Saratoga. It's those big oak trees in the parking lot and those big eucalyptus. They probably were planted as nursery trees to shade some young oaks, but the gardener changed and the new one didn't know he was supposed to cut down the shade trees, so they ended up killing the oaks. Now they give Saratoga School a sense of stability, permanence, duration, history, community and place. They evoke emotions from people who have been around Saratoga School for the past few years!

Our sense of community in Saratoga is really rather tenuous. We used to volunteer at Saratoga School when our children went there. We don't have any church, rather read or go for Audubon or Native Plant Society walks on the weekends. What else is there? Our community is Buy and Save, although it was very sad to see Frankie, the last of the original owners retire recently.

It's Saratoga Drug thanks to Ray fighting all last year for his right to stay! It's the old post office which Linda runs so
efficiently. We still talk about the new library in remembrance of the original one, also on Oak Street, like Saratoga School.

What else have we lost? The Community Garden, the Saratoga Horticultural Foundation. ... Now we buy baklava instead of hardware at the hardware store.

Big Basin Way and Oak Street still have many treasures that haven't been whittled away that still give Saratoga our sense of community. Although those tree cutters this morning were horrifyingly swift on that big oak tree, it will take a lot of whittling to cut down the eucalyptus. It's really better to treasure them after we figure out why we should!

Gail and Doug Cheeseman
Kittredge Road

Sheriff's Report

Saratogan offers plan to bring the community closer together

Obituaries: Roberta Worden, Sandria Johnson

Saratoga Sampler

Sports Briefs

Falcons earn 10-1 division record in baseball

CCS Top 8 Track Classic

Saratoga softball team wins two, loses one

Kids' summer sports camps