Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Letters

GTE thanked for kitten rescue

We would like to thank the good people at GTE in Los Gatos who came to our rescue on Aug. 28. We were faced with the predicament of trying to coax a kitten named "Boulevard" down from a very tall palm tree. She was frantic, about 35 feet up the tree with little to cling to. When the fire department and the Humane Society told us they could not help, we agonized over how long she could last before she fell to certain doom. Calling GTE was a long shot, but we hoped that our "service request" would touch somebody's heart.

Our appeal was directed to Ian Nyquist, who immediately communicated the situation to his supervisor. Much to our amazement, Ian received the clearance to bring his GTE truck (with basket) over to rescue the kitten. This generous response went far beyond the call of duty. GTE truly deserves the highest praise for their humanitarian spirit, and Ian has our (and Boulevard's) everlasting gratitude. It's nice to know that big business can have a big heart.

Laurie Lenhart and Carol Hardy
Los Gatos

Challenger opposed

I am the next-door neighbor to the proposed Challenger School and I am soon to occupy my new estate in December. I have been to every town meeting concerning Challenger and the expansion of Los Gatos Christian Church and have been against them every time.

All the neighbors within 5,000 feet of both projects strongly oppose this. We choose to live in peace and quiet and pay outrageous taxes to do so--as well as maintaining these large properties. We do not care about what people in Almaden and downtown Los Gatos think about our neighborhood.

I believe the biggest issue the council wants this development for is the purpose of building the hiking and bike trail for free. I think that if you want to turn our neighborhood into a park and have a trail along my side fence, you should pay for it yourselves. If you do require the Challenger property to accommodate a trail, any home developer will be more than willing to put one there at any time and widen the street with no problem.

I protest that decisions about our neighborhood are based on the good of the entire town. It is us who risk our lives every day driving up and down Shannon and Hicks roads. I will put my children in Los Gatos public schools because I believe we have a great public school system. I am not willing to pay $20,000 a year for my kids and risk my life to heavy traffic. I also feel that the noise and traffic of 1,400 children and staff between the two schools will destroy our peace and quiet and our property value, and I will hold this council responsible for this.

In conclusion to this nightmare that has come up, I believe that if you just stick to the master plan and deny all this, all your problems will go away: You will have no liabilities of any kind, you will maintain a beautiful rural setting, and you will have maintained the ethics of preserving the master plan.

Mike Ajlouny
Los Gatos

Challenger praised

Our home is right near the proposed Challenger School site, and we welcome the prospect of this beautiful new private elementary school moving into our neighborhood. We cannot comprehend how such a visually appealing project can be deemed by the planning commission to "violate the integrity of rural zoning."

Currently, the site is a rundown, unkempt, weed-choked dirt patch, covered with scrub brush, collapsed structures, garbage, dead trees and rusted scrap metal. As a final touch of "rural" charm, abandoned jalopy trucks and illegally parked mobile homes sit deteriorating on the lot.

The school, however, will be hidden by 190 new trees and set back a great distance from Hicks Road. Aren't more trees better? We've seen Mark Wessel's traffic study, so we know that traffic can't be the real objection. The site couldn't look worse than it does now, so looks can't be the reason either. The fact is that there is no good reason for turning them down.

For over a year, Challenger was cooperative in its dealings with the Planning Department, which ultimately advised the Planning Commission to approve Challenger's project. After all this time and effort, it is not merely unjust but dishonest for the commission to disregard the department's favorable recommendation. In their usual cavalier manner, they summarily dismissed the staff's painstakingly gathered findings.

All the residents we know want to see a beautiful school with manicured lawns and lots of trees, shrubs and plants. Remove the jalopies! Eliminate the broken glass, the weeds and the rusty metal! Bring in the sound of children laughing! Only a fool would prefer the parcel in its present condition to what will be if Challenger School gets the permission it deserves to replace useless garbage with beauty and social utility.

Pedro Bracho and Helen Pastorino
Los Gatos

Tire-burning plan stinks

Kaiser Cement in Cupertino wants to annually burn more than 2 million tires to fuel its plant. I agree tires are a problem. However, burning tires for fuel and releasing even more known cancer-causing toxins, as well as introducing new ones into the air in our densely populated Bay Area, is not the answer. Common sense tells us that the technology for tire-derived fuel needs to be improved so that, at a minimum, it does not increase air pollution. I call upon Kaiser, a British-owned company, to act responsibly. All interested Bay Area residents should let Kaiser Cement and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District know your views on this.

Lisa Robertson
Cupertino