Saratoga residents are invited to help clean up two area creeks on National River Cleanup Day May 15. The cleanup, which is cosponsored by the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the Creek Connections Action Group, will take place from 9 a.m. to noon at Wildcat and Calabazas creeks.

For the Wildcat cleanup, meet in the parking lot between the corporation yard and the recreation center on Allendale Avenue. For Calabazas, meet near Via Roncole at the railroad crossing.

Volunteers are advised to wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts. For more information, call 408.265.2607, ext. 2238, or visit www.cleanacreek.org.

Fire departments
discussing merger

The Board of Fire Commissioners will hold a public meeting about the proposed functional merger between the Saratoga and Santa Clara County fire departments. It will include a definition of the proposed merger and discussion of whether it should happen, how it should happen, and what would be affected.

The meeting will be held in the Fellowship Hall of the Odd Fellows Retirement Home at 14500 Fruitvale Ave. on May 20 at 6:30 p.m. For more information, contact Trina Whitley at 408.867.9001, ext. 303.

Experts discuss
Ohlone history

The city of Saratoga Historic Preservation Commission and the Saratoga Historical Foundation will sponsor a May 18 lecture about the Mumekwa Ohlone people who lived in what is now Saratoga as long as 6,000 years ago.

Artifacts and reports from an archaeological dig conducted at 6th Street and Big Basin Way more than 30 years ago have been stored at San José State University since that time and have not been on public display.

Presenters include Monica Arellano, a tribal vice chairwoman; Dr. Alan Leventhal, a tribal ethnohistorian, archaeologist and SJSU professor; and Malcom Toriumi, a school and community speaker. The free lecture begins at 7 p.m. in the Civic Theater at 13777 Fruitvale Ave.