I was greatly impressed with the professional accomplishments of Iris Berke (Main Street column by Mary Ann Cook, June 16). This dedicated public servant revitalized schools that others had abandoned and established a dialogue among diverse interests at those schools. Additionally, when faced with a potentially violent attack against her students, she brought it to a peaceful conclusion, with no one getting hurt.

These are valuable skills for all public servants to display. Now that Ms. Berke is retiring, would she consider a run for president?

John Comiskey

San Jose

Set the record
straight over
letter's content

I would like to set the record straight with Belinda Heerwagen's comments on my "Finding it difficult to be patriotic over this war" letter (Los Gatos Weekly-Times, June 23). Ms. Heerwagen states, "You obviously have super-secret information that the rest of us are not privy to because you so factually state that there is no Al Qaida in Iraq. Can I read your report? Can I speak to your resource? I'm fascinated."

Well, I'm fascinated, too, since I never said that. My letter states, "What do liberals have to do with the fact that our self-proclaimed war president decided to attack and occupy a country [Iraq] that had nothing to do with 9-11." This is not an opinion but a known fact.

Nowhere in my letter do I state "that there is no Al Qaida in Iraq" even though there hasn't been any evidence linking Al Qaida with Saddam Hussein. I find it rather insulting, and ironic, that someone goes through all the trouble of questioning facts when they can't even get them straight themselves.

James Diaz

San Jose

Pool is a great
addition for the
town and school

I was happy to read about the grand opening of the pool at Los Gatos High School. It was a great article and captured the more important aspects about this great event—the fact that the new pool will serve the entire community and that the high school athletes now have a home facility they can use and be proud of.

As one of the founding members of the Community Pool Association, I'd like to point out that you failed to mention two key individuals who were instrumental in the early fundraising efforts—Bob Crowder and John Lux. The pool would not exist today without the efforts of Bob and John.

I was able to drive by and see the new facility a few weeks ago and was awed by how fantastic it looks. Thanks to all who contributed time and money to make this beautiful pool a reality.

Charles Bannan

Los Gatos

Our apologies to both Bob Crowder and John Lux for the omission.

Urging opposition
to town's position
on La Rinconada

My understanding of the situation with delivery—and other traffic—to La Rinconada Country Club is that back in 1988, when there weren't as many homes, pedestrians, children and bicyclists as there are now, that Wedgewood Avenue was specifically designated, within the La Rinconada Country Club use permit, to be used for all deliveries to the club. This seems unfair to the residents of Wedgewood because we already have so much traffic on our street.

While most cars and trucks that use Wedgewood cannot get to their destination using Clearview or La Rinconada Drive, the delivery vehicles going to La Rinconada Country Club can. These streets are quite able to handle the trucks going to the country club. In 1988 there was not enough representation from Wedgewood residents and the Clearview/La Rinconada residents, along with country club members, got this rule pushed through. Today, given the chance, we would band together as a neighborhood and oppose being designated as the "back door" to La Rinconada Country Club.

If the members can go to and from the club on both Clearview and La Rinconada, why can't their food, alcohol and construction supplies?

I was traveling and unable to attend the June 9 planning commission meeting. When I returned, my neighbors told me how the commission, despite many objections by residents who attended, approved the proposals that La Rinconada Country Club had asked for. They were told that if anyone wanted to appeal the decision (my neighbors are concerned about traffic), they had to file within 10 days and pay $1,000.

A $1,000 fee to question a decision made by our town officials? In other words, if you can't afford this ridiculous fee, you can't question our government. This fee, raised from an earlier, much less costly fee, smells of the town deciding to reduce the number of appeals by raising the fee to an amount too difficult for most to pay.

Town officials and country club administrators are paid for their time on these matters, but any citizen trying to question injustice or unfair decisions has to do so in their personal time. Throwing a fee like this at people with legitimate objections to a decision—a decision that seemed to already have been made before the meeting even started—seems to be a fabricated roadblock that, in this case, allows the country club to get its projects approved without interference from residents who do question the town's ruling.

La Rinconada Country Club is a private business operating in a residential neighborhood. There are other streets and entrances that can be used to get to there. You cannot get to the main entrance on Wedgewood. The club is private, creates no recreation or other kind of service for the residents of this neighborhood or town residents in general. Why should our street, and the residents living on it, be the only ones having to endure the traffic caused by its daily operation or special projects?

If La Rinconada Country Club was a public course or a park for all to enjoy, situations like this proposal would seem to be less of an imposition. As it is now, the country club is the source of additional traffic, flooding problems, noise rules are broken and golf balls hit our properties, all with very little concern shown by the club.

La Rinconada and Clearview have no truck traffic. Wedgewood has it all—not just the country club traffic but all of the vehicles going to the Safeway Center and beyond. The residents on La Rinconada and Clearview use Wedgewood to go in and out of the area, along with thousands of other vehicles daily. It is our town officials' job to protect the rights and quality of life for those who live adjacent to the club. Put traffic controls in place for the construction period. Enforce the 25 mph limit. Review the La Rinconada use permit and make the La Rinconada/Clearview streets the everyday entry for all deliveries to the club.

The residents of Wedgewood Avenue are tired of being the back door to the country club, and we are tired of our town officials treating us with disrespect. We pay the same rate of property tax as any others, yet we are being treated as second-class citizens while all the preferences go to our neighbors higher up the hill. Some of them are not even town residents, they are in county limits!

We urge all residents to get involved, contact your council members and go to meetings. Help stop these unfair decisions and nondecisions against us.

Mark Medalie

Los Gatos

In a recent letter to the editor published in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, Larry Arzie, while protesting long lines at the post office, added, "You cannot even get a passport in town any longer." According to Pamela Jacobs, the assistant town manager of Los Gatos, passport applications and processing is available at the town clerk's office Monday through Friday until 4:30 p.m.

In a June 9 article in the Around Town section of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, the organization catering the food for the Mountain Art Guild's two-day art show was misidentified. Providing the food at the event was Nonno's Catering and BBQ, operated by mountain resident Ralph DiTullio.