Saratoga News

Letters & Opinions

Speak Out

Falcons play football
under the lights--finally

On Friday, Oct. 29, the Saratoga Falcons football team did something that had never been done in Saratoga before. They played in front of a home town crowd of friends, family and neighbors UNDER LIGHTS! And won!

Yes, they were rental lights as the permanent lights have not yet bee installed but nevertheless the Falcons played under the lights. It was marvelous.

My friends and family and neighbors came out to the game and filled the stands. We watched football under the lights in Saratoga! Wow!

The amazing thing was that the moon remained in the sky, there were no drunken riots or drug induced crazies to be seen. It was a small town watching their sons play football and their daughters cheering their team. The Saratoga marching band played in front of stands at their own school. This was a big night for Saratoga.

Only time will tell if the property values in Saratoga plummet and the crime rate skyrockets because of these lights, but my bet is that we will all wonder why in the devil this took so long.

Dennis Farmer

El Camino Grande

Parade passes by,
but not all of it

We've been reading stories about Saratoga's 50th anniversary celebration, and we attended the parade on Sept. 24. The part of it we saw was quite enjoyable. However, the coverage in the paper didn't include answers to questions that some parade-watchers had after the event.

We sat on Saratoga Avenue, between Herriman and the library, which the paper said was the start of the parade route. We were not alone--there were a number of families along that stretch of road, some set up with chairs.

After the cars and horses went by, we waited and wondered where the marching bands were going to come from. We had seen bands warming up at the high school. After a while, guessing that they might come up Herriman, we walked back to the intersection and waited some more. Finally two bands came hurrying up the street from the high school, not playing or performing but rushing to find the end of the parade. By then at least 15 minutes had passed, and most of the crowd along that part of the road had left, including many disappointed kids. It was clear something hadn't worked quite right.

What happened to the bands? We saw two of them. Where did the other four join the parade? It would have been a much better event if we had known the "real" parade route was just on Big Basin Way, if that indeed was the case. We had a choice of observing locations, and certainly weren't the only ones who were clueless about where to be to see the whole thing.

If and when Saratoga does another parade, better information about the route would certainly be a plus.

Diane Howell

Saratoga Hills Road

King has done much
for city of Saratoga

I am surprised and dismayed to see the letters to the editor this past week miss the outstanding, positive role Kathleen King has played for Saratoga.

How does this make sense after such progress this term, including the major successes that have occurred in the city in the last two weeks that can be attributed to Kathleen's hard work?

After working for seven years to try to get the use of West Valley College fields, it has been Kathleen's persistence, as well as Phil Hartley's and city staff's efforts, that have brought us two play fields at West Valley College. After the poor relationship between the city and the school, it is nice to see this new level of cooperation occurring.

The signing of AB117 into law has to be attributed in great part to Kathleen's efforts on this bill. This will result in the biggest financial improvement to occur in this city in decades, and the potential of an increase of $700,000-$1 million each year in city funding, with no increases in taxes.

Although she gives credit to others, I know that Kathleen and Mayor Norman Kline put hundreds of hours into making this happen, calling our state capital and representatives constantly, with many trips to the county and state offices, and discussing the governor's signing with his chief of staff personally.

You might say Saratoga was lucky this bill fell into place, but there was no luck involved--just four cities that agreed to team up in a persuasive argument that the county officials could agree with, and sheer dogged persistence in making it happen.

I for one thank Kathleen for all her hard work this term, and I plan to vote for her.

We need Ms. King to have another four years as a council member to continue making the city and community of Saratoga a better place for all of us.

Mark Linsky

Barksdale Court

Thanks for fields
at West Valley

I am writing on behalf of the children of Saratoga to publicly thank everyone who worked so hard to make the West Valley College soccer field agreement happen. I realize that it took many, many hours of hard work and planning on the part of Phil Hartley, the West Valley staff, the city council, and the city planning staff.

It signals an exciting new step toward increased relationships between West Valley College, the city of Saratoga and youth sports organizations. By giving the city access to two fields for Sunday games, it goes a long way toward solving the critical game field shortage in our city.

For too many years, our neighboring communities have welcomed our Saratoga children on their fields while we did not offer our share of game or practice fields. Combined with the hopeful addition of flat grass in the dead orchard at Kevin Moran Park, the West Valley agreement will help Saratoga to serve the needs of some of the hundreds of Saratoga children currently practicing and playing games in neighboring cities.

Debbie Lillo

Kristy Lane