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Letters
Why is Wildwood Park being ignored?
I'm a very concerned parent who lives on Paul Avenue. I read the most recent article, "City Council moves ahead with play equipment in parks," in the Nov. 24 issue of the Saratoga News, and to my chagrin again there is no mention of Wildwood Park playground equipment upgrades. As in other articles, only a mention the restroom facilities improvements at Wildwood Park was stated.
Look at the Wildwood Park playground. It is in such shabby disrepair. It is exceedingly dangerous to have children play there. We no longer walk to that playground; we avoid it. We'll go to Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos or any number of other neighborhood parks that are safer, cleaner and more fun to play in.
Take a closer look at how many children there are in the neighboring streets of Wildwood Park; there are more than dozens in each street. We are tumbling over with small children born in recent years. There are many more elementary school-age kids here than in the Kevin Moran Park neighborhood (I know--I have family living in both of these neighborhoods). Yet Kevin Moran Park is getting playground equipment, and their park is in 200 times better condition than the Wildwood Park playground.
I am surprised the city hasn't yet been sued because there are so many accidents waiting to happen on this playground (Wildwood). Since the swing has been pulled out, all that's left is a rumpled ground cover tarp under the wood shard that trips countless little feet. The existing swing set is rusty and hardly useful for toddlers without protective plastic-coated chains. Mostly grass-smoking teenagers play here.
Give us back a decent playground. We paid taxes!
Look at the dangerous slide we have. Why doesn't anybody on the City Council notice that the wooden guardrail slats are wide enough for a small child to fall through? I've seen many small children attempt to put their heads through only to be yanked back in time by an older child.
Why doesn't anybody on the City Council notice that the old stone retainer wall is crumbling to pieces and that kids running along the top ridge can trip on those loose stones! Why are there dangerously sharp cement steps by the slide with such a high metal railing that the kids can't reach the guardrail when walking up the cracked stone steps?
This park needs a lot more than an expensive new restroom for tourists to use. This playground is used by tourists, picnickers, school-event participants and birthday partygoers. A long list of kids from the neighborhood would want to play in a safe and fun environment!
Why is Wildwood Playground being overlooked? When will it get the attention it requires? How often will parents have to tell individual City Council members their plight before anything gets done?
Marie Kovacs
Paul Avenue
City Hall finds out who's been naughty
Making a list and checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty or nice. No, I'm not singing along with Santa and his elves at the North Pole; I'm talking about the busy staff at City Hall.
The "list" they are making up as we speak is a mailing list to those "naughty" people who continue to use their septic systems in this modernistic world.
I suppose we could be labeled as something like "Saratoga's Secret Seniors Septic" gang. On second thought, we don't fit the modernistic description of a gang, but we are all from Saratoga and, from what I've heard and seen, most of those addressed will be seniors living in older homes.
And "secret" no longer applies. I'm afraid I have to inform Melvin, Michelle, James, Philip, Nicolas and all the others that our secret is out. You have been fingered. Your cover has been blown. Who betrayed our anonymity, you might ask? It was your friendly sanitation district, I might answer.
Seems like they have been in cahoots with the city from the very beginning. There were several meetings whereby they ended up passing all this private information on to City Hall, so the city could put together what some call their "hit-list." Weren't you invited to any of these meetings? Me, neither.
And this will be just in time for Christmas. "Ho, ho, ho" won't sound too good this year. "Bah humbug," maybe. What's a citizen to do? Beating one's head against City Hall usually results in a very severe headache. Trust me!
As horrible as this crazy, illogical ordinance is, we can't let it get us down to the point of leaving this beautiful city. Maybe, rather, we should come together and form a special society of unique people caught by a unique law.
What should we call ourselves? SOS usually sounds pretty good, but "Save Our Septics" is kind of corny, and some of these new millionaire whippersnappers probably don't even know what a septic is. Now then, if we consider where this despicable ordinance surfaced and the fact that it punishes innocent people nowhere in the vicinity of the crime, maybe "Scapegoats of Saratoga" would be applicable.
Yes, that sounds good. Very appropriate.
Can't you visualize T-shirts, picnics and a spot in our yearly parade, a secret handshake and all sorts of things? Probably made up of a group of old-timers. Sounds interesting. Kind of a "heritage" thing.
But I do feel sorry for the staff at City Hall. Sending out these notices at this time is like harassing your elders (I thought there were laws against that).
Punishing innocent law-abiding senior citizens is certainly a rotten job, but hey, somebody's got to do it. Have a happy holiday from one of the gang.
Bert Martel
Fruitvale Avenue
Correction
Because of a copyediting error, last week's Seniors column gave a list of the "six most frequent medical conditions of Alzheimer's day care participants." In fact, the list referred to medical conditions of adult day care participants. It should have said:
The six most frequent medical conditions of adult day care participants are stroke, heart condition, high blood pressure, diabetes, Alzheimer's dementia and arthritis. Fifty eight percent use a cane, walker or wheelchair. Many are incontinent as a result of their conditions. Females outnumber males two to one. Most facilities are nonprofit organizations with fees based on the participant's income.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
