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Around The Glen
Mayor presents budget proposal
Mayor Ron Gonzales' list of budget proposals for the 2001-02 fiscal year lines up well with District 6 Councilman Ken Yeager's priorities, according to Yeager Chief of Staff Darren Deffner.
Gonzales made his budget recommendations to the city council on March 20. He suggested spending $5 million on neighborhood traffic safety measures. Last year the city budgeted $1.5 million for traffic calming.
The mayor also recommended earmarking $6 million for neighborhood capital improvements, $300,000 for a new initiative to help the city's homeless and $10 million of redevelopment agency funds for affordable housing.
At the city council meeting, Yeager said he supported the mayor's neighborhood spending proposals.
"So many of the problems we do face are literally on the streets," Yeager said. He mentioned street, sidewalk and gutter repair and repaving and tree trimming, as important investments for District 6 and throughout San Jose.
Yeager also acknowledged Gonzales' increased spending proposals for traffic-calming measures, saying that staffing is one of the city's biggest problems in making its streets safer.
"There might be approval for a streetlight or a stop sign," he said, "but often there isn't the staffing to do it."
The council will consider Gonzales' recommendations and work with the city manager before adopting the budget in June.
--Kate Carter
Postmaster relocates WG passport office
Passports are still available at the Willow Glen Post Office, but the office is now in a new and bigger space.
So many more people are traveling and wanting passports that San Jose Postmaster Kevin Brown decided a new room and more acceptance clerks were needed to accommodate the jet-setters and prevent jams at the city's only passport office at the Willow Glen post office.
As of March 26, people who want a passport will need to enter the post office at 1750 Meridian Ave. from the south side of the building on Gaton Drive. As always, they will need to bring a document proving their citizenship (the original county birth certificate or a naturalization certificate), picture I.D. and $60 for each adult or $40 for each child.
Passport-seekers can also bring two passport photos or they can have them taken at the passport office for $15. At the office they will have to fill out an application form and wait to be processed in the comfy new waiting area, leafing through a selection of magazines or watching TV.
Passport renewals are required every 10 years for adults and every five years for children. The process is the same, but the old passport serves as the proof of citizenship.
Passports arrive six weeks after the post office receives the application, but expedited service is also available.
For more information call 408.723.6198, or visit www.travel.state.gov.
--Kate Carter
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
