It is great that The-Sun continues to inform the public of the Peterson Middle School open space changes. But after reading the Feb. 8 article "City council renews interest in open space," I was surprised that the projected costs were stated as factual figures.

At public meetings, the acres' costs have been stated from $2 million to $3 million. It seems an official written appraisal report for the per-acre land value should be done or made available. The field's upgrade and upkeep costs still need to be formally evaluated instead of just accepting one verbal estimate obtained by Roger Barnes from the Santa Clara Unified School District.

The commission that Barnes was on was only to make a recommendation if there is surplus of unneeded school land. Detailed field upgrade and maintenance costs were not required for this evaluation.

I hope The Sun will publish written support for the costs and values used in the prior article or published updated costs and values from the newspaper's independent findings.

Brian Beardmore

Sunnyvale

Yes, in the Feb. 8 article, the figure of $3 million per acre should have been attributed to Roger Barnes. However, regarding the cost of upgrade, there were numerous times during Peterson Field meetings that the advisory committee discussed the need to upgrade the field and maintain it if the school district were to retain ownership. The costs associated with this effort were also discussed. --Editor

Is public safety on duty or on Starbucks break

Has Sunnyvale annexed all the Starbucks to be satellite offices for the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety? No matter what time of day, there are numerous police officers and firefighters at Starbucks throughout the city, drinking coffee.

Sometimes, especially at the Cherry Orchard, it seems like a public safety convention. Numerous uniformed officers push several tables together and sit there chatting forever.

Are they having a staff meeting? These are not 15-minute coffee breaks. One morning several officers were there for at least 1 1/2 hours. Shouldn't they be out on patrol?

This same scenario goes on all day long. Are the chief and city manager aware of this?

At Mary and Washington avenues, they park the fire rig behind the building.

Don't they have coffeepots in the firehouses and at police headquarters? If not, I'm sure people would be happy to donate some.

Why use city vehicles for these caffeine expeditions? Is this job so exhausting that they have to take a break minutes after going on duty? Why don't they get their coffee like other city employees do--before work, on their own time.

If any other city employee decided to take an hour break whenever they wanted, they wouldn't have a job. So why let these officers do it? It's time to get back on patrol.

Fritz Robinson

Sunnyvale

Sunnyvale's public safety information officer explained that officers work 11-hour shifts. They get 45 minutes of break time. They use this break time in various ways. Some take a 30-minute lunch, some take a 15-minute break before they start their shift. And some eat their lunch while in the car and take their long break at another time. Members of the department sometimes do hold unit meetings off site. --Editor

Solar power will save energy and money

Ed Johnson (Opinion, Feb. 15) may have already forgotten that Enron and other energy providers have extorted billions of dollars from California citizens over the last five years. Can he be willing to continue being at the mercy of the power companies?

Global warming is real, and real action must be taken to avoid an environmental catastrophe. If Johnson thinks his utility prices are high now, just wait until $60 per barrel is factored into his PG&E statement. He will wish he had installed solar panels because it's going to be painful paying his utility bill.

Each home powered by solar power reduces greenhouse gas emissions by six tons per year. This is not insignificant, as Johnson suggests in his article. With solar technology, it takes little effort to understand the cost and benefits of using it.

The city of Sunnyvale is nationally renowned for managing its budget. The financial benefit for installing solar panels on city-owned buildings will become abundantly clear when a cost analysis is performed.

All one has to do is look around at cities like Palo Alto, Los Altos and Mountain View to see they have done the math and are busy working toward a cleaner and more prosperous future using solar panels.

Doug Thompson

Sunnyval

City's new buildings are plain and unattractive

I've never seen a drawing for a proposed development that didn't make the development look attractive. However, when the development is built, more often than not it doesn't look as good as it did on the architectural rendering.

I attribute that to my lack of training as an architect and my inability to project from the detailed drawings to the final building. Similarly, none of the members of the planning staff, planning commission or city council are trained architects.

Sunnyvale badly needs an architectural advisory board consisting of two or three professional architects to advise the city's planning staff, planning commission and the city council on the attractiveness of all new major developments.

The need for this committee comes from the fact that there are a number of plain, unattractive buildings that have been constructed in Sunnyvale recently.

Exhibits 1 and 2 are the Best Buy and PetSmart buildings on El Camino Real near Wolfe Road. Exhibit 3 is the commercial complex that has been constructed on the southwest corner of Mathilda Avenue and El Camino, another set of plain, unattractive buildings on an intersection that some have referred to as the gateway to Sunnyvale's new downtown.

Admittedly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but my opinion is shared by many others. Unfortunately, plain, cheap-looking developments begat more plain, cheap-looking developments. It makes you wonder what the new downtown will really look like.

Sunnyvale deserves better.

Werner Gans

Sunnyvale