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The Saratoga City Council wants the farmers market to stay in Saratoga. With this in mind, the council passed a resolution of support for relocating the market to West Valley College at a council meeting on Jan. 19.
Talks have been going on between farmers market authorities and West Valley College since administrators at the Saratoga High School announced in December that they would not be able to accommodate the market in the school parking lot beyond May 2005. Complaints by neighbors, increased use of the school property and the scheduled opening of the Performing Arts and Lecture Center in the spring were reasons for the decision.
At the meeting, City Manager Dave Anderson said that Phil Hartley, the college president, had told him that the proposal was being considered seriously. "They have sent out flyers to the immediate neighborhood asking for input," Anderson said. He indicated that the college had received 16 letters of support and three letters of opposition.
When the council started discussing the resolution, Councilman Nick Streit said that how the neighborhood felt about the issue would be crucial. "I want to make sure that we are not leaving one problem and creating one more in a different neighborhood," Streit said. Councilman Norman Kline said he wanted to make sure that the use permit for the market specified the number of vendors and the amount of area it could occupy.
Mayor Kathleen King indicated that the college was perhaps the best place for the market in Saratoga. "Their parking lots are huge. A farmers market at the college will have the least impact on the neighborhood," she said.
In other city business, the city awarded a bid to Golden Bay Construction for the Saratoga Gateway Project.
The project involves decorative paving, medians, landscaping and other related work between Cox Avenue and Prospect Road on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. The total project will cost about $2.2 million and most of the funding for it comes from the money that Caltrans had given to the city to renovate Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road.
John Cherbone, city public works director, said some upgrading work around the Pierce Road intersection will also be part of the project. He said construction on the project would start by March and the work is expected to be complete by fall.
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