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Letters
Resident praises control of traffic near local school
The parents and the administration of the Saratoga Elementary School on Oak Street have done a commendable job with traffic control. Given the existing conditions, I would not have thought it possible.
As the main spokesman for a coalition of neighbors concerned with traffic safety for the children, I have been very critical in the past. Both Oak Street and Komina Avenue are narrow, substandard streets, and were not able to handle the heavy volume of traffic, particularly at drop-off and pick-up times. We expressed great concern when they expanded the enrollment to 35 percent. We thought Oak should have been widened more. We thought much more off-street parking should have been provided.
All the elements of their success are not known to me. However, there are staggered drop-off and pick-up times, reducing the congestion. Although there is still a problem for through traffic from cars queuing up on Komina, most of the cars doing drop-off and pick-up approach from south Oak Street, which is wider. They stay close to the curb in front of the school, so through traffic on Oak can pass. Mothers are stationed near the turn-in area, and they direct traffic very well.
In the past, cars were parked on both sides of Komina for most of its length, further narrowing the street and increasing hazards. There are fewer parked cars there now. The younger children who must walk in the traffic lanes on Komina are usually accompanied by parents.
These folks all deserve a lot of credit for a complicated job well done.
Art Anderson
Komina Avenue
Board thwarted efforts by residents to speak out
Recently I spent a fascinating, though frightening, evening as the guest of the West Valley-Mission Community College Board of Trustees. I saw firsthand how this elected body used its powers to thwart the efforts of the people of Saratoga to speak on the proposed stadium.
Refusing to reposition this issue at the front of the agenda for the 40 or 50 who came for that item, we listened to three hours of bantering, during which it was obvious that any ideas contrary to those of several trustees were put down by contempt, sarcasm or silence.
The members of the community who appeared at the meeting were trying to have the board hear local objections to a 5,000-seat stadium threatening to spoil the character of the West Valley neighborhood. After forcing us to wait three hours and without allowing any discussion, this proposal was totally shut down by the board. Additionally the board squelched a request to study the feasibility of placing this stadium at the campus at Mission College, where traffic and noise issues would not impact a family neighborhood.
In the near future there will be a proposal to take away an elected representative from Saratoga and give it to Campbell, further eroding Saratoga's interests.
I strongly urge all Saratogans to attend the next meeting at West Valley College on Dec. 13 to watch how your rights are being eroded. Watch how the city's quality of life and property value interests are ignored by Saratoga's elected representatives. I promise that the evening will be more interesting than reality TV.
Rachel Zierdt
Maclay Court
History of local firehouse has many twists and turns
On July 12, the Saratoga Planning Commission voted narrowly to approve the necessary permits to proceed with the construction of the new fire station. An appeal was filed by members of a local citizen's group called the Firefighters and Citizens Task force (FACT). On Sep. 5, the city council heard arguments both for and against, advanced by the district's architect, firefighters, task force members, planning commissioners who had voted on both sides of the issue, and other, independent citizens of the fire district. After two hours of testimony, the council unanimously granted the task force's petition and overturned the planning commission. Why?
The task force argued that the apparatus bay is too small. The firehouse was designed well before the fire department decided to buy its first ladder truck, the longest vehicle it has ever owned. Rather than modifying the firehouse design to make the apparatus bay larger, the fire commissioners decided to jettison some of their other vehicles to make room for the truck. The task force and the firefighters urged the fire commissioners to revisit their design instead of forging ahead with an already-obsolete plan and sacrificing essential fire suppression capability. The fire district administration offered no response.
Other citizens rose to advance the possibility of an integrated public safety center situated on the corner presently fragmented between the city, the fire district, the sheriff's department and the U.S. Postal Service. They argued that this possibility should be examined before the firehouse is (literally) cast in concrete and the options are extinguished. The fire commissioners had stated earlier that this option had been explored, that the post office had refused to sell their parcel, and that Caltrans is opposed to allowing fire engines' egress on Saratoga-Los Gatos road.
The chairperson and vice chairperson of the Saratoga Planning Commission (both of whom had voted to approve the firehouse plans) rose to ask the city council to overrule their own decision and deny the permits. They explained that their votes to approve the permits were in part based on the answers they had received to the above questions about the post office and Saratoga-Los Gatos Road. Subsequently, after discussions with the city manager, they concluded that they had been misled; the post office is eager to sell, and Caltrans has no objections. So they respectfully asked for their own decisions to be reversed because the fire commissioners had not been truthful. The fire district administration offered no response.
For these and many other reasons offered that night, each of the city council members voted to deny the building and use permits. Instead, they commissioned a study of the available options for a public safety complex, which would house the fire station, the sheriff's substation, the post office and an underground parking garage. The study committee is led by the city manager and consists of a representative of the fire district, the city council, the post office, the sheriff's office and unaffiliated citizens. The task force believes that this blue-ribbon committee will produce a better plan for a state-of-the-art firehouse and public safety complex which will serve the fire district and the entire city well into the 21st century.
Ed Farrell
Kittridge Road
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
