Saratoga does not have a "fiscal crisis" as your article (Feb. 9) states. The Saratoga council has a problem with excessive and wasteful spending.

Saratoga has a city council that has no idea how to control spending. You report that the city council spent $18,000 on a project (which has failed) to get "grants" from state and federal agencies.

Is there anybody out there who knows where state and federal agencies get their money? (Clue: begins with "ta" and ends with "payers"). It seems the council did not hear the message from the election.

For years, it seems, the city council was (to put it kindly) unaware that it was necessary to maintain roads and bridges. Now they know, but they put the money away and used it to buy North Campus, which still sits there costing money and doing nothing.

Now is the time to dispose of North Campus and spend the tax dollars on what they should have been used for in the first place--the proper maintenance of the city.

Peter Knight

Glaskow Drive

Good Samaritan finds
family's runaway dog

This letter is to publicly thank a local Good Samaritan who retrieved our runaway dog for us.

On Feb. 3, without my knowledge, our side gate was left open by a gardener. Rocky, our beloved 11-year-old Jack Russell mix, took advantage of the opportunity provided to explore the neighborhood.

A caring, anonymous person noticed him about half a mile from our home, read his tags, returned him to our yard and left a message on our voice mail about where we could find him. I was panicked when I heard the message, but Rocky was right where he'd been dropped off. I guess he'd had enough adventure for one day.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for saving our dog from the traffic on Highway 9.

Jamie Wang

Toll Gate Road