Letters

Remembering last days of Chamber in different light

As the last president of the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce, I have kept quiet in spite of false comments made over the past three years. But, in the editorial about the former Chamber in the June 9 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, there were so many untruths that I need to speak.

The editorial stated that the former Chamber went out of business due to lack of interest, failing membership and financial debt. Our last mixer had over 100 people in attendance; that was not "lack of interest." At the mixer we presented the new Los Gatos website. It connected member businesses to the site-- the same website that continues to exist today.

We had 750 members; that was not "failing membership." Brad Bosomworth and his mother, Joanne, had organized a great membership drive for the new year.

The editorial is accurate that financial debt was a problem. When I agreed to become the Chamber president to try to resurrect a sinking ship, I did a Quicken spreadsheet for the upcoming year. We would be $55,000 in debt. Our credit line was $20,000 and had already been maxed out.

In January, I invited Town Council members, Randy Attaway and Joanne Benjamin to my office and gave them a copy of the spreadsheet so that they were aware of the seriousness of the problem. The board fired our executive director--there was no money to pay her. (The Chamber in Sausalito hired her.)

I called Steve Tedesco of the San Jose Chamber and asked for his help. He was absolutely unwilling to help at all. Nothing. Dave Knapp stepped in and loaned us his assistant town manager for a few hours each week. Dave Knapp also held several meetings with the presidents of the Downtown Association, the Boulevard Committee, and the Chamber to try to reunite the three groups. I attended these meetings.

For Steve Tedesco to claim his "major contribution" was making the town realize it couldn't have separate organizations is not true. Dave Knapp did that.

The old Chamber just needed to make it through the Fiesta de Arts to be solvent again. But, there was a problem here. Old Town had been purchased and the new owners did not want the event there. Rich Lang, board member and chairman of the event, put a lot of effort into finding a different location.

In order to make the money we needed, we needed space for 100 booths and also to be able to pour wine. Rich felt the only possibility was to do as Menlo Park and various other towns do and close down N. Santa Cruz Avenue for a weekend. The police department had stipulations, but was agreeable to the closure. The Town Council had to agree to the closure.

The vote in early May was 2-3. Pat O'Laughlin, Joanne Benjamin, Randy Attaway voted no. The next day the Chamber folded. The art and wine festival was to take place in six weeks and had no place to be held. I had put in 900 hours in five months.

Another six weeks and I thought we'd be solvent--but we didn't make it.

I had a wonderful board. These people deserved applause for trying to salvage a sinking ship. Brad Bosomworth, Angelo Troquato, Teri Hope, Kurt Lemons, Lora McCririe Joanne Rodgers, Michael Riordan, David Ticzon, Rich Lang, Penny Ratcliff and Judie Richardson. It was a wrenching experience for us all.

I firmly believe that Los Gatos needs its own Chamber of Commerce. Congratulations to Sheri Lewis and all the others who have worked hard to create the new Town of Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce.

Gloria LeBlanc
Los Gatos

Town should rethink codes on non-porous drives

I want to share with your readers a letter I am sending to our Town Council regarding the gravel drive controversy at Green Thumb Nursery. Although I support the nursery's position, there is a larger issue involved--the town policy calling for non-porous drives and roadways recalls the era when public policy, led by the Army Corps of Engineers, put everything that moved into concrete or metal runnels, tunnels and culverts. Natural streams and springs were the enemy, and all effluent, no matter how toxic, was sent out into the bay.

The world has turned; times have changed; we now have a clue. How about updating our clueless town codes regarding permeability (i.e. the natural tendency of water to penetrate the earth's surface, thereby replenishing our precious underground water supply) or would that be too simple?

This is what I wrote to the council: I am writing in support of the use of gravel drives as in the case of Green Thumb Nursery, but as a landscape professional I see this as a part of a much larger issue that needs to be dealt with by the town.

The landscape profession has instituted many changes in methodology since the rules concerning permeability were instituted in Los Gatos. Just last year I was told that I could not use interlocking or modular pavings (even bricks!) for driveways within the town limits, as all road surfaces must be impermeable.

This ruling is in direct opposition to current landscape theory and practice. The modern environmental model would encourage runoff to percolate gradually into the soil, rather than channeling surface water with all of its accumulated contaminants into the Bay.

I strongly encourage you to allow this minor controversy to become an opportunity for positive change, and to nudge Los Gatos planning codes forward into the 1990s.

Chris Jacobson
Los Gatos

D.A.'s probe at Guardian Los Gatos is not fair

My mother is a long-term resident at Guardian of Los Gatos, and I want you to know that your coverage of the complaints against Guardian were very unfair and biased. How could your reporters go through that facility and not be impressed with the cleanliness and pleasantness of it?

Our family read through all the reports filed on site and available for anyone to read before we placed our Mama there. (After all, who among any of us wants to "end up in a nursing home," or have to place a loved-one there?) A day does not go by without at least one member of our family dropping in to visit Mama, so we are aware of how our Mama is and what her environment is like.

The staff has been very caring and attentive to her and very open with us in all areas of our concerns. The charges brought against Guardian have all been investigated and dealt with in full compliance with the laws and bodies involved in governing skilled nursing facilities, so what is going on here?

Why is the district attorney Randy Hey, using taxpayer money to single out Guardian? Guardian is, in fact, one of the better facilities in our area. By the way, can you imagine how the residents who are alert enough to understand felt when they saw what you had to say about their home? That is really upsetting.

A. L. Hedman
Sunnyvale

Shadowing day was really special for local students

Approximately 40 teenagers from Los Gatos and Saratoga High Schools spent a day shadowing professionals in industry, government and the arts as part of the annual Career Shadowing program offered by the American Association of University of Women this spring.

It is terrific to find professionals willing to contribute their time and knowledge toward fostering the development of students in these busy times in this hectic valley.

We wish to thank the mentors from the following organizations, without whom this program would not have been possible: American Medical Response; Full Circle Productions in San Francisco; Blizzard North, San Mateo; Santa Clara County District Attorney; Foothill School in Saratoga; Good Samaritan Hospital; Children's Surgery Center; Mission Oaks Hospital in Los Gatos; Kaiser Hospital, Santa Teresa; NASA/Ames Research Center; Moffett Field; Nordstrom at Stanford; San Jose State University, Psychology Dept.; Symphony conductor Barbara Day Turner; Take Charge Financial in Los Gatos; Trend Micro, Cupertino; Trimble Navigation Limited in Sunnyvale; Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara; University of California at San Francisco, Facilities Planning; Warren Heid & Associates, Saratoga; West Valley Pet Clinic, San Jose.

Exposure to real-life experience is what is most often missing from school and what is so beneficial to students. It is a kind of learning students cannot get in textbooks.

One student went back for a second day at the invitation of the mentor organization. Two students volunteered to be beta testers for a company. When a hearing at the courthouse was canceled, the mentor arranged on the spot for her student to meet judges, attorneys and other staff.

Another student helped put together a new art show. One student said her mentor talked to her about specifics of the profession that she never would have thought to ask about, even if she had been doing a research paper. Several students said they had a day they will never forget.

One mentoring group said that their student asked particularly knowledgeable questions; the student said she learned so much, that going in to observe, she would say she had been clueless.

All the students who took part in shadowing said they would do it again, and more often if possible, even though they had to juggle their schoolwork around it (much like the mentors juggled schedules to meet the students). A special thank-you to all who helped create the up-beat days of career shadowing.

Jean Ricket
AAUW Career Shadowing Coordinator, Saratoga

Police Report

Some numbers obviously count for more

Photo: St. Mary's School international festivities

Photo: dredg concert at LGHS raises money for refugees

Ytuki becomes the Official Millennium Bug

Picture From the Past

Sports Briefs

Local athletes prepare for Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game

Summer sports camps for youth