Photograph by Kathy De La Torre

Workers dig up a tree at the Heritage Orchard. As part of the Saratoga Library expansion, some 52 fruit trees were scheduled to be removed from the orchard, half of which were to be relocated to the front of the library.




2001 Year in Review: January-March

January

Residents comprising the six-year old Freeway Noise Abatement Committee asked the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority to lay asphalt on top of Highway 85 to reduce noise in Saratoga. But VTA and Cal Trans officials had other plans for $9 million set aside in 1999 for noise mitigation on the highway. The agencies were studying a grinding technique that would diminish the highway's pavement grooves and thereby reduce sound. The results of the grinding study were expected in March, after which the transportation agencies planned to make a recommendation on the best technique for reducing noise.

The city council approved the five-home Carnelian Glen Court development, rejecting an appeal from neighbors who claimed too many driveways faced their property. Lester and Helen Lee said the driveway leading to one proposed house in Greg Howell and Tim McNeil's development faced right into the Lee's front door. In approving the development, the council mandated that the developer place landscape screening between the driveway and the Lees' property.

With 221 properties still not in compliance with the city's year old septic abatement ordinance, the city council gave landowners 45 days on Jan. 3 to comply with the ordinance or face a lien on their property. The ordinance required that homeowners still using a septic system hook into the main sewer line, provided they were within 200 feet of the sewer. The new law was established in order to clean up Saratoga Creek, and was part of a settlement with local clean water advocates over a 1995 lawsuit.

Saratoga Fire Capt. Bill Morrison received the Wilbur William Worden Memorial award as the Saratoga Fire District's Firefighter of the Year. Morrison, who grew up in Saratoga and first became involved with the department at age 16, was the president of the Saratoga firefighters' union. He also battled with Saratoga fire administration over the firefighters' push to merge the Saratoga Fire District with the surrounding Santa Clara County Fire Department.

Local school districts scrambled to cut energy consumption as the state Public Utilities Commission approved a 7 to 15 percent rate increase to compensate for rising wholesale energy costs. Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District officials went so far as to add an energy consultant as schools aimed to cut energy use by 5 to 7 percent. The city, buying its electricity from the Association of Bay Area Governments power pool, was spared sharp cost increases but still undertook its own conservation efforts.

Lt. Ernie Smedlund became the second-in-command Jan. 2 at the Santa Clara County Sheriff's West Valley Substation. Smedlund moved to the West Valley from the sheriff's San Jose headquarters, and once patrolled the West Valley as a deputy in Cupertino.

Saratoga City Council members asked library architect Mark Schatz to trim the cost of the 31,000-square-foot facility expansion to $14.5 million, below the original architect's and construction firm's proposals of $15 million. The request was to account for typical cost overruns during construction. Schatz proposed several cost-cutting measures, including reducing the size of bookshelves. Schatz also presented a scaled-down entryway that more closely resembled the current library's entrance.

Saratoga High School students mourned the loss of senior Jeff Swanberg, who died when a friend's Ford Mustang flipped over while the two were returning from Santa Barbara Jan. 14. Teachers and students remembered that Swanberg, a gifted football player and student, was never afraid to share his opinion on politics and legendary quarterbacks. Swanberg was the high school community's fourth student fatality in eight months.

Disgruntled citizens and local firefighters banded together to form the Firefighters and Citizens Task force, or FACT, in mid-January. Members of the group said it grew out of a desire to reform the Saratoga Fire District and compel it to join the county fire department. Fire officials reaffirmed their opposition to a merger.

Saratoga Union School District faced a $6 million budget shortfall on construction projects at four of the districts schools--Argonaut, Foothill and Saratoga elementary schools, as well as Redwood Middle School. Superintendent Mary Gardner said the district had failed to acquire matching state funds that were expected to cover the shortage in district money. The overrun on the $40 million construction project was due in large part to unseen repairs that had to be made on the foundation at Saratoga Elementary School.

February

The planning commission mulled over a proposal for a mixed commercial-residential development in the Village, despite Saratoga voters' decision in November 2000 to halt all residential development in commercial zones. Developer Stan Gamble submitted his proposal for several townhouses and an office space on March 1, 2000, 14 days before the retroactive deadline imposed by voter-approved Measure G. But planning commissioners said they would still consider the strong message that voters sent to the city to protect commercial space in the Village.

Four West Valley cities, including Saratoga, discussed approving a feasibility study for an 8.7-mile trail between Cupertino and Los Gatos, along the Union Pacific Railroad corridor. The project, expected to cost $9.2 million, would improve an informal path already used by walkers and bikers. The Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority committed to paying for 80 percent of the trail.

Following the departure of 14 city workers within six months, the city raised the salary range of all positions to a level comparable to surrounding cities. That meant pay raises for 12 employees whose current salary fell below the minimum, costing the city an added $4,000 a month. City council members signed off on the move after a survey of Saratoga and eight nearby cities found that Saratoga had the lowest average salary of any city.

The death of Shirley Ewins, an elderly woman who died alone in her house and was discovered 24 hours later, prompted senior center Executive Director Mary Goulart to begin a new program for seniors living alone. The Senior Health Awareness Registry Program would establish a database of personal information from solitary seniors that fire and sheriff's personnel could access in cases of emergency. The database would include health information, emergency contacts, and hidden key locations in order for emergency workers to enter a locked house.

City officials protested the assignment of affordable housing units from the regional government council, the Association of Bay Area Governments. ABAG assigned 539 units, 239 of them at below-market rates, meaning the city would have to provide opportunities for developers to build new units or homeowners to expand second units to meet the total by 2006. City officials claimed ABAG used inflated job and population projections to determine Saratoga's future housing needs.

Saratoga Fire District officials prepared a request for bids from surrounding departments--the Santa Clara County Fire Department, the San Jose Fire Department and the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection--on the costs of taking over day-to-day operations in the Saratoga district.

After the repair of a leaky sewer main beneath Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, local clean water advocates celebrated a small victory in the Saratoga Creek cleanup effort. The sewer line, which sat uphill from the creek, had been a major source of fecal coliform pollution in the creek. Finding and correcting major sources of pollution had been one of the stipulations of a 1999 lawsuit settlement between clean water advocates and the city.

March

Abby Krimotat left the executive director's position at the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce to take a public relations position at the Mountain Winery. Krimotat had been director for almost two years and had boosted membership in the Chamber substantially.

As talks continued among four West Valley cities about an 8.7-mile trail along the Union Pacific Rail corridor, Union Pacific officials were skeptical about the trail's feasibility beside an active rail line. One Union Pacific spokesman said, "We don't want to put people so close to an active track that a momentary foolhardy act would get them in trouble."

The city put out a detailed brochure hoping to attract donors to fit out the soon-to-be-renovated Congress Springs Park. The city budgeted $1.2 million to improve the turf and realign fields at the park, but counted on residents to pony up $640,000 to complete the park with amenities like bleachers and backstops.

The public safety commission's study of fire service in the city deemed the split coverage provided by the Santa Clara County Fire Department and the Saratoga Fire District "adequate" to serve the needs of local residents. The conclusion angered some firefighters and citizens in favor of the Saratoga Fire District contracting out day-to-day operations to the county, which the group said would raise substandard fire service in the city. Following the release of the study, one resident said of the growing conflict over fire service: "It's going to ugly, fast."

Pleas from the city to reduce the affordable housing allotment assigned to Saratoga by the Association of Bay Area Governments fell on deaf ears at the regional council's March 15 meeting. City Attorney Richard Taylor argued that the city was "built out" and that Saratoga's allotment should be 223 new units, instead of the 539 assigned by ABAG. The regional council and its staff stood by its numbers, however, arguing that job and population projections used to predict housing needs were accurate.




2001 Year in Review
Year in Review Introduction
April-June
July-September
October-December

Photo: A Space Odyssey Christmas

Local Home Sales Listings

Friends of the Saratoga Libraries publishes 'A History of Saratoga's Libraries'

Saratoga Sampler

Sports Briefs

High school sports