The Los Gatos Weekly-Times has been very supportive, relaying all aspects of the progress to our community and businesses.

Thirty-five years ago I began to work and live in Los Gatos. I've seen many of the town council's staff and personnel come and go. Many of the tasks needed for beautifying our town have been mentioned before but not accomplished. This council and staff said, "Yes, we will do it!" They did it! Thanks to all of you for enriching our lives.

—Shirley Henderson, Town of Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce, Beautification Chair


Let's stick to peanut butter!

Although Dick Sparrer's commentary on school lunches (Saratoga News, Sept. 18) seemed to be in jest, it behooves me to comment. I, too, have memories of the chipped beef, turkey parts and peanut butter sandwiches of yesteryear. However, the real and immediate issue is the decline in the nutritional food provided our children through school lunch programs today.

Sparrer is misguided and living under a grave delusion. The "less tantalizing foods" Sparrer refers to, albeit tasteless and repetitive, were prepared daily in the cafeteria and provided the protein and complex carbohydrates needed by a growing youngster.

Today's cafeterias are substituting important protein and vegetables with bagels, chips, cookies and, yes, the Hostess cupcake. Today our medical journals report serious increases in child obesity and diabetes while our schools continue to serve what highly visible and persuasive marketing dictates. Pizzas, tacos, chicken nuggets and tator tots filled with salt, fat, sugar and other ingredients we can't even pronounce are precooked and delivered frozen to our schools.

Our children's lives depend on those choices, for children are what they eat, and they are our future. I admit, I have not seen the menu at Argonaut Elementary School, but I am hopeful about the creativity of some who can prepare both aesthetically pleasing and wholesome foods. I trust our nutritionally aware readers have seen the folly in Sparrer's envy of today's school menu. Mom's peanut butter, egg salad and tuna sandwiches are still a far better choice!

—Sandra Politi, R.N., former school health aide


Young Wildcats say thanks for coverage

Just a note to thank you for the write-up on the young Wildcats! We love reading about our boys in the paper. My oldest son just finished four years on the football team and read the articles every week. I now have a sophomore playing, and he saved the article and put it up in his room.

There are about 70 boys on the frosh-soph football team who, along with their parents, will be hoping to read about themselves each week in the paper. Thanks again for all your coverage of youth sports!

—Sheila McCarty, Los Gatos


Blossom Hill wrong place for skatepark

It's a fine example of a cheap, ill-planned skatepark. Instead of having an underutilized tennis court, they have a deserted skatepark! All the hardware is there baking in the sun during the day and waiting for use in the evening under the lights. The difference is that the tennis courts at Blossom Hill Park are a jewel. To tear into them "temporarily" is stupid. It would ruin the incredible tennis environment and add preadolescent skateboard traffic to that from the playground at the same location.

What the skateboarders really want is a well-designed skateboard park with a well-designed atmosphere where they can skate freely. That is why the original idea of reconstructing the dilapidated portion of Oak Meadow Park is ideal. It is the natural extension of the skaters' park known as Vasona. Real skaters need space; real skateboarders do too. Cramming a tube, a half-tube and a couple of ramps and ladders onto a pair of tennis courts is not a skatepark. It's a cheesy, simplistic fix for the politicians who can't strike a deal with the county to plan and build a skatepark that is something the community can point to with pride.

The Olympics are coming. It's time to think big; it's time to plan for the long-term. It's time to tell the kids in our community we are planning with them in mind.

Leave Blossom Hill Park alone. Tell the town council to do their jobs and lobby the county into something we can be proud of.

—Robert Ruiz, San Jose


Council—do not reduce number of tennis courts

Councilman Joe Pirzynski should have touched base with those who play tennis before making the suggestion he made about the tennis courts. Looks like he is not a tennis player himself.

Between 8 and 11 a.m. almost each day, and especially on Saturday and Sunday, there are people waiting for court time—i.e., all the courts are full.

Naturally, between 1 and 4 p.m. in the summer the courts are underutilized.

We, the senior tennis players, are violently opposed to any reduction in the number of tennis courts and will let the Los Gatos council know about how we feel and what the courts do for our physical and mental health.

If the kids need to skateboard, do build a facility for them—but do not reduce the number of tennis courts.

—D. Schmidek, Monte Sereno


Skateboards and tennis will not mix

I just read with disappointment your article "Blossom Hill tennis courts could become a skatepark." I play tennis on those courts once or twice a week; probably typical of most who use the courts. Sometimes the courts are full, sometimes not so full. No group of tennis courts is used fully all of the time; of course casual observation would show that the courts might be "underused," whatever that might mean. But these courts are the only public courts in Los Gatos, and that they are fully used only some of the time should be enough for the town council to leave them as they are.

I have two further comments. Have any of the town council members ever tried to play tennis with a skatepark going full throttle right next door? Does Joe Pirzynski really believe that "it would take nothing but an erection of a chain-link fence" to implement this idea?

My experience is that nothing is that simple.

—Tim Gafney, Los Gatos


Many thanks for food and facility

With the current economic downturn, and in particular in the Silicon Valley, one might find our local restaurants and merchants either hesitant or limited in their ability to donate to all causes that come their way. But in Los Gatos the local restaurants and merchants of our town came through once again for the 2002 Los Gatos Varsity Football Camp.

Headed up by Coach Butch Cattolico, the varsity football team just completed its 21st persuasion, triple day conditioning camp. With 53 team members sleeping in the gym for an entire week and working out three times a day, trying to feed these young men can be a daunting thought. But, because of the generosity of our local restaurants and merchants, donations of sausage and bacon, bagels and complete lunch and dinner donations made this year's "boot camp" a huge success. The Los Gatos Athletic Club once again opened its doors to the team so the players could enjoy showers, a sauna or a swim in the pool.

On behalf of all the coaches, team members and their families, we would like to thank C.B. Hannegan's, The Cats Restaurant, Double D's, Johnny's Northside Grille and Los Gatos Bar and Grill for their dinner donations; Andale's, Pizza My Heart, Round Table Pizza and Willow Street Wood-Fired Pizza for lunch donations; and Los Gatos Meats for sausage and bacon and Posh Bagels for breakfast donations.

A special thanks to Ed Burke and the Los Gatos Athletic Club for the use of the facility so the team could relax in the sauna or swim in the pool.

—The LGHS Varsity Coaching Staff, 2002 Varsity Football Team and Families