SEEING RED OVER THE RED CURBS AT EL TORO SCHOOL
“There is a peeling red curb on Main Avenue right in front of El Toro Elementary School where parents drop their students off in the morning. The cars are being ticketed for parking there as the parents drop off their kids, but there is no reason at all for the curb to be red. It used to be a bus stop, which has been relocated across the street and farther west. Also, since we are discussing painted curbs, the fire hydrant by the school has no red curb at all. What’s up with this?”
RED PHONE:
The Red Phone contacted Scott Creer, senior civil engineer for the City of Morgan Hill, to try to get to the bottom of the school’s red curb problem. Creer went to El Toro Elementary School and agrees with you, caller. The curb no longer needs to be red. He will send out a crew to either sandblast the paint off the curb or repaint it grey … whatever it takes.
Fire hydrants usually have a red curb painted 15 feet on either side of them. You will find that many hydrant curbs in Morgan Hill are painted red and some are not. The maintenance costs of keeping the curbs red has risen to the point where the city has decided not to paint the curbs at all, relying on drivers to keep the 30 feet clear around the hydrants.
Fire hydrant locations are marked in the center of the roadway by a blue reflector, so watch for them, and don’t park there.
NEVER-ENDING GARAGE SALES ARE MADDENING
“I am wondering why the city is allowing the rental housing units near Main Avenue and Monterey Road to have garage sales any time they want on any given weekend. There is a constant display of old clothing and used articles all along the street, and I believe the city should be putting on a better face for the many visitors our little town gets on weekends.”
RED PHONE:
Caller, technically speaking, the city is not actually allowing these garage sales to happen, since that would imply that the city has authorized them. No permit from the city is necessary for a resident to hold a garage or yard sale, although that may seem advantageous for you in this case. If the practice of these never-ending garage sales is disturbing to enough of your neighbors, and you truly feel the city is being presented in a poor light because of them, perhaps requesting that the city pass an ordinance limiting the number of garage sales a resident may have in a year may be worth pursuing.
WHY WASN’T MY FAVORITE STORE ON YOUR LIST?
“The list of stores going in at Cochrane is quite impressive, but was under the impression that Morgan Hill was getting a Trader Joe’s. Why wasn’t that store included on your list?”
RED PHONE:
Morgan Hill is getting a Trader Joe’s, but not in the new mega mall location on Cochrane Road. The 13,500-square-foot Trader Joe’s is being built on Laurel Road, just behind the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant located on East Dunne Avenue. The groundbreaking for the store took place June 1 and has a grand opening date set for Nov. 17, just in time for Thanksgiving.
The Red Phone is keeping busy running down answers to your questions and comments. Keep those calls coming in! Contact Red Phone at (408) 779-4106, ext. 206, or e-mail re******@*************es.com. Remember to leave a name and phone number when you call or e-mail. The Red Phone will not publish this information and will only use it for verification purposes.
