Players at the table as public service center discussions begin

U.S. Postal Service agrees to consider the latest plan

City moderates talks

By Oakley Brooks

The city brought together representatives from the Saratoga Fire District, the U.S. Postal Service and the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office recently for the first session in a renewed discussion on a public service center at the corner of Saratoga Avenue and Saratoga-Los Gatos Road.

The participation of the U.S. Postal Service and the fire district answered a crucial question about whether or not the two parties would even consider the idea of a new center.

Four years ago talks broke down between the two neighboring landowners over a renovated building that would house the post office, fire station and the sheriff's West Valley Substation, which had rented space in the post office.

The plans fell apart when the U.S. Postal Service did not accept a $498,000 offer from the fire district for its 6,300-square-foot building, more than three-fourths of which it leased and continues to lease to the sheriff's department for $86,000 a year.

The fire district eventually went ahead with plans of its own and is on the verge of constructing a new 13,000-square-foot station on the site of the existing fire station.

But citizen Don Whetstone's July 9 letter to the city urging it to revisit the idea of a combined building project convinced the city council to set up renewed talks among the four public agencies. The city owns two alleyways that run through U.S. Postal Service and fire district property on the corner site at the edge of the Village.

After the fire district recently agreed to cooperate, the U.S. Postal Service said last week it was again interested in the idea of a new public service complex.

"The Postal Service is not a roadblock at this point in time," said Saratoga Postmaster Curtis Jewell, adding that the agency would be looking for fair market value for its building.

No firm plans took shape at the July 30 meeting. Councilman Nick Streit, who led the closed-door discussions, along with City Manager Dave Anderson, described it as a brainstorming session that allowed all the agencies to put their wishes and concerns on the table.

Jewell said that the U.S. Postal Service seeks a slightly expanded new office space, in part because the agency now requires that each post office have display areas for stamps and other postal goods.

Sheriff's substation Capt. Dennis Bacon said his department wants to expand its space as well--from the existing 5,000 square feet to between 9,000 and 11,000 square feet. The sheriff's department is also requesting a conference room and adequate weight- and locker-room facilities as part of an expansion that city leaders agree is necessary.

Both the sheriff's office and post office would stand to benefit from expanded parking in a new public service center. One of the options being considered by the group is a common underground parking garage that might alleviate the sheriff's department's need to borrow some 30 spaces from the nearby Saratoga Federated Church. The parking garage might also absorb overflow parking from the Village.

The fire district has reluctantly agreed to go along with the discussion, while simultaneously pursuing its own plans for a new station. Fire Chief Ernie Kraule said the district's engineer is completing electrical and structural planning on the proposed Julia Morgan-inspired building that was approved by the Saratoga Planning Commission in late June.

Saratoga fire commissioners are intent on moving quickly on the new station, for fear that they are under time pressure to spend nearly $6 million in bond money approved by voters last spring. Fire Commissioner Hugh Hexamer said the district is looking into the exact details of the time constraint.

"We're ready to go," said Hexamer. "This other exploration is just that. There's nothing that says we couldn't go ahead and do the station and the rest of the development would follow."

Kraule said that Whetstone's recent suggestion to move the new fire station several hundred feet up Saratoga-Los Gatos Road to the site of the district-owned Contempo Realty building would not help traffic issues. Kraule favors his emergency vehicles entering traffic under an all-red signal (the district can control the signal) at the Saratoga-Los Gatos Road and Saratoga Avenue intersection rather than from a new station farther up Saratoga-Los Gatos road.

The chief is going ahead with plans to use the old Contempo building as a temporary station while a new one is built.

But Councilman Streit said, "There's nothing that's off the table." He said that Caltrans engineers have told the city that emergency vehicles would be permanently allowed to exit onto the state-owned Saratoga-Los Gatos Road from a new station on the Contempo building site.

The city is having the design group Noll and Tam explore options on the combined properties on the Saratoga-Los Gatos Road and Saratoga Avenue corner. Sutro and Co., which advised the city on its library expansion bond, is looking into how the city might finance the new public service complex.

"The only stumbling block we might have is the dollars," said Streit.

Because the financing of a future service complex might eventually have to come before Saratoga voters, Streit said future meetings about the issue would be open to the public. Whetstone and firefighter and citizen task force Chairman Dave Dolloff have already been involved in the study sessions.

The meetings will be on Mondays at city hall as the group attempts to shape a comprehensive plan before an appeal of the planning commission's approval of the fire station comes before the city council on September 5.

"We're going to have to have done our homework so that what we do [on September 5] is best for the city of Saratoga," said Streit.

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