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Speak Out
An open letter to the crematorium opponents
It's a fact that the world's land use is rapidly dwindling. Cemeteries are filling up and cremations are a reality, plus less costly than burials. Cremations are up 50 percent due to these statistics.
The closest crematory to serve Sunnyvale residents is located 15 miles away and none in neighboring cities. Wyant & Smith Funeral Home make approximately six to eight trips weekly to these sites, each requiring two employees. Anyone in business will realize this is valuable time lost in manpower and money.
Santa Clara County in general needs more crematories to meet the public demand. Wyant and Smith Funeral Home plans to fill that void to better serve the area.
If crematories were so hazardous to the residents, no city would allow it. That is definitely not the case. They have proven to be safe and efficient. Numerous experts in the field have attested to that at the hearings, including a representative from the Bay Area Quality Management. A crematory in Fremont is located across the street from an elementary school. No child has died from it. No fumes are visible or toxic due to a very regulated safety system within the unit. No ash is externally emitted from the stack. It simply acts like a common chimney. The highly insulated walls of the crematory room soundproof the system. Funerals will be going on in the chapel with no noise interference when the crematory is functioning.
We regret uninformed people are poisoning the minds of concerned citizens.
Dick & Donna Smith
Owners, Wyant & Smith Funeral Home
Crematorium a hazard
I appreciate The Sun placing the article on the crematorium on the front page ("Smokescreen," Aug. 15).
Fred Fowler "was sad for the farmers at the Farmers Market" because of a peaceable protest. Farmers are on Murphy Avenue for approximately four hours on Saturdays and then left. Farmers do not live here anymore. I live two blocks from Murphy, past Smith and Wyant Funeral Home. I will have to pass by bodies burning whenever I want to take a stroll to the Farmers' Market or the new friendly WAVE complex coming to town. What is friendly about seeing bodies loaded into an oven, due to location of the oven being down an open area driveway? How can I enjoy my dinner and movie then? What about health risk to seniors and children walking to Murphy Park or school, located within a half of a mile of the proposed smokestack. Perhaps Fred Fowler forgot who voted for him.
The city council vote was for building the oven. Smith and Wyant received a building permit only. If Smith and Wyant are allowed a usage permit to do business this will affect all Sunnyvale residents. "Crematorium" does not sound clean and safe to me. It will discharge smoke, ash and mercury into the air. Help is needed. All citizens of Sunnyvale unite. Please write to Bay Area Air Quality Management regarding the mercury level and the height of the smoke stack before they approve the usage permit.
I am more than dissatisfied with the city council's action and decision regarding the crematorium. I am also displeased with City Manager Robert LaSala, a.k.a. "staff." When will the city council compromise between the quality of life and staff recommendations for quantity of tax dollars? This will only change when we, the voters, vote out the current council and look at the performance of "staff."
Jody Maguire
Sunnyvale
Pool Problems
I am writing in the hope that this request will receive some attention from our charitable city. It was recently announced that Sunnyvale was the best city in the nation to raise a child. Having lived here all of my life, I couldn't agree more. Announcements like that make me proud to be a resident. But since there is always room for improvement, I would like to make a suggestion regarding the condition and availability of the Lakewood Park pool.
I grew up in that neighborhood before it even had a pool. Away at college, I heard of the pool's installation and was so envious of the kids that would be able to enjoy it in future years. My adult life has been spent in south Sunnyvale near the beautiful Peterson pool facility and close to the soon-to-be-fabulous Fremont pool. My daughter has been a lifeguard and swim instructor at Lakewood for the past three years is in terrible condition--stained, cracked, horribly splintered bleachers, and a heater that is slow to provide any comfort to toddlers freezing through their lessons.
The biggest drawback though is the public use cost. A charge of $l.75 per child per day for the two hours that the pool is open for recreational swim, and a charge of $3 to a parent for the privilege of enjoying the splintered bleacher to observe, is prohibitive. Few families, especially with multiple children, could afford a cost like that, which could instead provide meals in their household. The result has been the closure of the pool for public recreation nearly every day this summer for lack of customers.
In an age when we are all concerned with the fate of latchkey kids, or any child for that matter, that is forced to find less healthy forms of recreation, I feel our city could well afford to subsidize our pools at least a couple of days each week to keep them open and available to those for which they were intended. The "big blue card" fee waiver that is available to too few, is not a solution. I can't think of a more cost-effective and beneficial gift our city could give to its children than the joy of free water play.
Sandra Matteucci Henderson
Sunnyvale
Sending the right signals
Public safety says our new police car color will be black (with white roof and front doors), radically changed from the current all-white. Explanation given--the shadier car will be "easier to approach," says a police spokesperson (Quarterly Report Summer 2001, page 5). Now who would be eager to "approach" something that resembles a hearse?
Was there a citizen phone-in survey offered on the question of color? From a poll, the new cruisers might well have been unveiled sporting zebra stripes, to delight children from 1 to 99. Or consider the candy-cane look for "approachability."
Robert Thoen
Sunnyvale
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
