Community

California Highway Patrol Officer James Branik, 44, loved his family and was passionate about cars. He also loved being a CHP officer.Last Wednesday, Branik was killed in a motorcycle accident in San Martin. James was a man of deep conviction, tenacity, loyalty, and passion for life and for those he loved.“For most people, a job is a means to an end,” Scott Morris, Officer Branik’s brother in law said. “For James, his work was a fulfillment of who he was created to be.”  Officer Branik was born on March 1, 1973, to Lawrence P. Branik and Charlotte A. Branik. He was a graduate of Leigh High School in San Jose, where he was a member of the 1991 CCS championship basketball team.  He entered the California Highway Patrol Police Academy in 2004 and graduated on January 28, 2005.“He was quietly tenacious and fiercely loyal,” said Morris. “When you would talk to him you wouldn't know the impact that he had on the department."He was someone that people went to when they needed help. You knew, if you went to James, he was going to be there for you and he was going to have a piece of knowledge or wisdom to help you."Branik was a devoted husband to his wife, Gina Baiza-Branik. The couple had three dogs whom they adored. Morris described Officer Branik as a lover of animals, but the attention he paid to his nieces and nephews was appreciated.“He had eight nieces and nephews and he was a great uncle,” Morris said. “The intensity that they showed as a cop was very different when he was at home. When he was around the kids, he would clown around. He would talk with my son about being a police officer and what the laws meant and he would play ‘pretty, pretty princess’ with my daughter. It was so funny to see Officer Branik wearing a tiara with my daughter. He had such a rich, warm heart.”Officer Branik met Gina in 1995 at a Mennonite youth event. The couple went out to play pool on their first date and two years later they were married. From the mundane of life to the intimate recesses of the soul, James and Gina were inseparable.Officer Branik was also a person who refused to give up.“He applied to the police academy seven times; it was what he wanted to do,” Morris said. “It was hard, but he never let it get him down. It was inspiring to see someone who truly wanted something and who was not ready to accept failure. You wouldn’t have known it to talk to him. He didn’t sit around and complain. He just kept trying.”When off duty, Branik’s love of cars followed him him home. He worked restoring cars, including the complete restoration of a 1968 Camaro and a 1965 Ford Fairlane.“He loved muscle cars; you could always tell when James was coming down the road,” Morris said. “From the time he was 2 years old, he was on his back watching a neighbor fix a dune buggy. He just loved cars and trucks. It was in his soul. The fact he became a CHP officer was beautiful.”Officer Branik was born and raised in San Jose, but moved to Morgan Hill in 2012.“He loved being in Morgan Hill, it was his home” Morris said.

When Mike Johnson first started out as a full-time outside salesman for his father’s business, Johnson Lumber Company, in 1989, he couldn’t figure out why prospective clients would run away from him when he walked up to a construction site.

More than 40 years ago, Ana Frederico, an unassuming entrepreneur, borrowed $1,000 from her parents. Her husband, Fernando Frederico, used it as seed money to start their own specialty foods importing business.

Caitlin Robinett Jachimowicz, 33, is the newest member of the Morgan Hill City Council. Her colleagues appointed her to fill a vacant seat in February, for a term that will expire at the end of 2018.Jachimowicz lives in the newly created east Morgan Hill council “District D.” She is married to Joshua Jachimowicz. The couple has a 2-year-old daughter “with another on the way,” she said. She grew up in Morgan Hill and graduated from Live Oak High School. Caitlin and her husband are lawyers who met while they were attending Santa Clara University School of Law. Both are practicing attorneys.Jachimowicz is a lifelong musician and an avid dancer who taught swing and salsa in college. She enjoys gardening and spending time outside with her family.“I love to travel, but the more I do, the more I’m convinced that our little corner of the world is the best on Earth,” she said.She agreed to answer a few questions from the Times about her experience as a councilmember so far, and her ideas on how to address some of the city’s biggest challenges.What has your experience been like serving on the council since you were appointed in January? In what ways has it been different than you expected?It's been a wonderful experience to be able to serve on the council. I love my hometown so much, and my experience has helped me to appreciate it even more. It's an incredible amount of work, which I expected.But what I didn't expect is that the work is made that much easier by city staff and community members who have made me feel so welcome and helped get me up to speed. I have had a couple people comment that they were surprised at how quickly I was able to jump into things, but that is a direct reflection of the way I've been supported by the city and community.The council could very easily be a full time job, and often feels like it, when we are representing our community in the region as a whole.You are a Morgan Hill native who, like many, moved out of town after high school to pursue educational and career opportunities. What made you and your family decide to return to Morgan Hill?I really wanted to give my daughter the opportunity to have the kind of childhood that I was fortunate enough to have. Morgan Hill offers a kind of quality of life that is not easy to come by. To convince my husband to move down to Morgan Hill, I used to tell him, "the sky is bigger" here. And it is. You drive south from San Jose, and the sky opens up to reveal a place that's safer, cleaner, more open and full of a community spirit that is hard to describe to someone who hasn't experienced it.I grew up walking to school, learning patriotic songs, eating ice cream during the Friday Night Music Series and knowing all my neighbors. I wanted that for my family, and I also wanted to work to preserve that sense of community.  As a council member, what can you say or do to encourage today’s younger Morgan Hill residents to stay in town, or return after they have completed college and/or explored broader opportunities?   One constant topic of conversation at our council meetings and regional assignments is “affordable housing.” But that term is relative in a place where the median home price is more than $900,000.We have a housing crisis in the Bay Area, and Morgan Hill is no exception. What I can tell you is that we are trying to balance our controlled growth initiative to keep our community spirit while providing a diversity of housing options—like townhouses, apartments and smaller lots—so that people will be able to try move back home to the community they love.  The entire council, and city staff, is committed to finding affordable housing solutions. We have a lack of 25- to 35-year-olds living here, which is not good for long-term sustainability. We need to do better at providing affordable places for our young people as well as decent job opportunities so they can stay in the city. But of course, we want to try to balance those needs with the quality of life our smaller town provides.  The city has spent about $25 million since 2015 to improve downtown Morgan Hill. How do you feel about the results so far, and how do you see the downtown contributing to the local economy when current ongoing private projects are complete?I'm very excited about the progress we have made to revitalize downtown. The basic issue is this: many cities get the bulk of their revenue from property taxes. In order to have a vibrant and successful city, we need to come up with alternative revenue sources because we want sustainable growth.A lot of the opportunities for other revenue sources are interconnected; we can bring in tourists to visit the wineries, and stay in the hotels, but then those tourists need places to eat. We can bring in restaurants, but for the restaurants to be successful, they need to be busy more than just on the weekends. We can have some high-density housing close to the city center to fill those restaurants and shops, but then we need to be able to provide enough parking for everyone else.  Every one of these issues is being tackled, and discussed regularly. I think we are just beginning to really see the fruits of that labor.Besides the economic sense it makes, I am very excited to spend more time downtown myself. I think it's just one more way to connect with your neighbors if you can shop and eat locally.  What excites you the most about the future of Morgan Hill as envisioned in the city’s recently adopted Morgan Hill 2035 General Plan Update, voter-approved growth control update and the ongoing Downtown Specific Plan?What excites me the most is that we have a clear vision for the future. And, I think that vision is a beautiful update to that idyllic community I grew up in. We are still going to be a small city with large, open spaces, safety for our neighbors and pride in our community. But we are going to continue to improve the quality of life for the people who live here.My daughter, Penelope, will still sing patriotic songs on the Fourth of July Parade, and attend the Mushroom Mardi Gras. But those special events won't be the only reason for her to visit downtown. My hope is that the downtown will be just as vibrant and successful the rest of the year.  Data show that while Morgan Hill’s population of working residents grew by more than 30 percent from 2002 to 2013, the number of jobs available in town grew by only about 3 percent. What is the best thing the city can do to create more jobs in the city limits so new and existing residents can work in Morgan Hill?Earlier this year, the City Council approved our Economic Blueprint, which focuses on four key industry areas and outlines ways to attract employers to Morgan Hill. I think through that process, we have now announced to employers, companies and businesses out there that we are interested in having them in Morgan Hill and are willing to take steps to ensure that happens.The next and most important step is to work on our telecommunications capability in Morgan Hill. Faster and more reliable internet will help bring businesses and jobs to Morgan Hill, but also is just something that is sorely needed for our current residents.   A recurring headache for many Morgan Hill and Bay Area residents in general is traffic congestion. Has this had a notable impact on the local economy that you have been able to discern?Yes. Traffic is a huge problem for us. As I have said before, it's a safety issue, an issue for our quality of life and of course it impacts our local economy.  There are plenty of people living in south San Jose who would love to go to dinner at Odeum or Ladera Grill (both in downtown Morgan Hill) on a Friday night, but aren't willing to sit in traffic to do so.  The larger issue is that the Bay Area has outgrown our freeway system and does not have the support of an adequate public transit system. But what we can focus on locally is bringing more jobs to Morgan Hill, to help keep people off the roads.These economic issues are interconnected. Focusing on jobs and our telecommunications capability will help the economy and help relieve the traffic congestion. Those things will not fix the problem completely, but we can nudge the needle in the right direction.

With half a dozen new residential and commercial projects in various stages of completion in downtown Morgan Hill, The Granary District on Depot Street is shaping up to become the neighborhood’s hippest “district within a district,” according to the developer.Residents are expected to start moving into 16 new condominium units at Barley Place, located at the corner of Depot Street and East Main Avenue, by the end of November, according to Sam Carlson, project manager for developer Weston Miles Architects. All 16 units are already sold.Those new residents won’t have to walk or ride their bicycles far to enjoy a variety of eating and entertainment options outside their door. Barley Place is just one aspect of Weston Miles’ Granary District, a mixed-use, multi-structure complex of offices, restaurants, a retail store, a beauty salon and a craft beer establishment—all within a one-block radius.Carlson explained that while the vision for Barley Place started out about three-and-a-half years ago with a plan for 30 high-density residential units, the effort evolved into the current combination of projects characterized by sheet-metal siding and weathered wood trim that recalls the agricultural, early-industrial era when Morgan Hill became a city.“We whittled our plan down to 16 units. We decided the mix of residential and commercial tenants really made sense for each other,” Carlson said during a recent tour of the Barley Place condos, where contractors were hanging drywall inside.“Barley Place became this extension of the Granary District, to make it a place where you would want to live,” Carlson added.The newest commercial establishment at the Granary District is The Grapevine restaurant and wine bar, where owner Valerie Evans is planning a grand opening Oct. 7.The Grapevine is just next door—tucked into a relaxing, sun-soaked plaza off the edge of Depot Street—to Running Shop and Hops, which opened just over a year ago. The Running Shop and Hops has become a bustling craft beer haven, with more than 80 beers—mostly microbrews made in California—on tap.Paul and Renee Rakitin, the owners of the shop, have had so much success slinging beer that they expanded into an attached space, formerly occupied by their retail running shoe and apparel store, with a variety of games and social space for their brew customers.Just across the plaza, adjacent to the Depot Street sidewalk, is Bike Therapy, Morgan Hill’s newest bicycle retail shop. Owned by local resident Doug Hall, Bike Therapy celebrated its opening with a Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting Sept. 14.On the south side of the original Granary building is Gloss Beauty Lounge. Gloss opened in 2016.These new businesses and residences add to the offices (including the Morgan Hill Times) and Odeum restaurant that have kept the Granary building busy at 17500 Depot Street since Weston Miles extensively remodeled the former agricultural facility in 2006.A ‘different’ project for MHThe Barley Place residences are mostly single-story “condominium flats,” ranging from 1,200 to 1,400 square feet, each with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Exceptions are four loft units, with three bedrooms and ranging from 2,200 to 2,300 square feet, Carlson explained.Two of the units have small backyards.“It’s different from what you typically see in Morgan Hill,” Carlson said. “There aren’t a lot of condos in Morgan Hill.”Each unit will have two designated parking spaces. A wide range of buyers have signed up to live at Barley Place, from first-time homeowners to “downsizers” and people who pointedly wanted to live closer to downtown and its easy accessibility.“They want to be closer to the community center, where expansive yards and things like that are not as important,” Carlson added.The construction has relied on mostly local subcontractors, he noted.Time for wineValerie Evans is an industrious entrepreneur who brings her vast experience as a business owner and salesperson to The Grapevine in Morgan Hill. In fact, she previously owned a Grapevine wine bar in Willow Glen, which she sold in 2013.Also a mortgage broker, Evans first joined that Grapevine as an employee, after the housing market crash of 2007 led her to culinary school in Campbell. She became a certified sommelier, and interned at Grapevine of Willow Glen before she ended up purchasing it.While she had planned to move out of the area in 2013, those plans changed and she started to miss the Grapevine. She thus set out on a search for the best location for a new specialty wine bar and artisanal restaurant, which she found in downtown Morgan Hill.The Grapevine of Morgan Hill will pour a variety of local and regional wines, with some foreign varieties. “Probably about two-thirds of the wines will be from California, with a huge emphasis on Santa Clara Valley, the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Carmel Valley,” Evans said. “The other third (of the wines) will be international.”The new restaurant will also feature a “smokeless kitchen” and a menu that features artisanal cheeses, small-plate dishes, gourmet grilled cheese sliders and desserts.“Ideally we want people to come in and dine with us. We hope to be the starting point or ending point of their evening, if they don’t want to dine with us,” Evans said.The Grapevine will celebrate its grand opening Oct. 7.‘Great chemistry’Doug Hall, owner of Bike Therapy, agrees there is “great chemistry” among the different commercial uses of the Granary District.Hall brings his own vast experience in sales to Morgan Hill with Bike Therapy. He has worked in numerous bike shops over the years, primarily in sales. Years before he moved to Morgan Hill with his wife Jodi recently, he worked for Fox Clothing, which was local at the time.“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Hall said of having his own bike shop. Bike Therapy not only sells a variety of bicycles—including many from local industry behemoth Specialized—the shop also features a full service department and all kinds of supplies and apparel.He and his staff are eager to become a part of the Morgan Hill community, which he called a “great cycling town.” They want to organize group rides, promote cycling in the local schools and “do a lot of fun events to get more people on bikes.”Hall and Evans, in separate interviews, equally praised the City of Morgan Hill’s Economic Development team—consisting of Edith Ramirez and John Lang—for helping them secure their new business locations.The completion of a visionCharles Weston and Lesley Miles, the married owners of Weston Miles Architects—also located in the original Granary building—moved to Morgan Hill in 1980.At that time, the downtown was full of dirt lots as well as agricultural and industrial truck traffic, and lacking sidewalks.But they saw early on that Morgan Hill was going to grow, and the need for a variety of more modern land uses typical of a downtown neighborhood would only increase. The Granary building—an underutilized agricultural building—was threatened with demolition.“We saw that if we took the all of downtown and quartered it, and named (the quarters), it would create uniqueness and understanding,” Weston explained. “The Granary District was this quarter where the Granary, the Granary Retail and Barley Place now reside. We wanted to create a destination, with its unique old and new, distinctive architecture which in the case of the Granary was very much agricultural in style.”Carlson, an experienced civil engineer who is married to Weston and Miles’ daughter Alicia, joined the family business to help bring Barley Place to reality. The result is a modern development that harkens back to the property’s agricultural history.“If you look closely to the Train Depot and know a bit about the history of the buildings that once were or still here, you will see details from them that acknowledged our past in this relatively new building,” Weston said.

A room filled with caring residents sympathetic to the plight of the homeless within Morgan Hill and throughout Santa Clara County absorbed the expertise of a diverse panel of advocates, law enforcement, city and school personnel during a Sept. 26 event hosted by the local chapter of the American Association of University Women.

For the 28th consecutive year, the Chamber of Commerce Taste of Morgan Hill street festival entertained visitors and residents with live music, plenty of food, cold beverages and scores of vendors offering a variety of handmade crafts and trendy merchandise.Chamber Executive Director John Horner said this year’s Taste of Morgan Hill, which took place Sept. 23 and 24 in the city’s downtown, was a “terrific success.”“We enjoyed beautiful weather, which was neither too hot nor too cold,” Horner said. “Vendor booth rental spaces were completely sold out with 172 participating vendors. The Kids Zone ride area was bigger and more popular than ever.”On Saturday, the festival’s annual car show—always a hit—was also sold out with the owners of 185 classic cars delighted to show off their rides, which ranged from old Model A’s to “modern prototype electric vehicles and everything in between,” Horner said.While the event is an annual fundraiser for the chamber, the organization doesn’t publicize specific dollar figures, Horner explained. But he noted that beer, wine and soda sales at the 28th annual Taste of Morgan Hill were “higher than they have been over the previous five years.”Furthermore, the Saturday Night Street Dance—a relatively new attraction at the annual festival—“has become a lynchpin of the weekend, and we plan to do it for many years to come,” Horner said. Pacific Soul played this year’s street dance.The Taste also featured numerous live bands throughout the weekend. Downtown streets were closed to vehicle traffic as vendors and patrons took over on foot.

The funeral services for California Highway Patrol Officer James Branik, who died in an early-morning accident in San Martin Sept. 19, will take place Sept. 29 in Morgan Hill.Services are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center, 17000 Monterey Road. The public is invited.Branik, 44, of Morgan Hill, died after a traffic accident on Monterey Road just south of Chester Avenue just before 6 a.m. Sept. 19. He was driving south on his Suzuki motorcycle when a Chevrolet pickup—travelling north on Monterey Road in the left-turn lane—turned into him, according to authorities.Branik, who was off duty at the time of the accident, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, which is under investigation, according to police. Alcohol or drugs are not suspected to be a factor in the collision.Branik worked for the CHP since 2005. Since 2010, he was assigned to the Gilroy Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Facility, which is located on U.S. 101 in San Martin. His role was as a mobile road enforcement officer, tasked with patrolling county roads and freeways in the area of the weigh station for vehicle safety violations, making traffic stops and issuing citations, according to CHP Lt. Robb Kaczor, who was Branik’s commanding officer at the San Martin facility.Branik was recognized by his commander and his peers as a “leader” in commercial vehicle safety knowledge and enforcement, Kaczor said.His obituary, printed in the Morgan Hill Times and other South County media, says Branik was “a man of integrity and quiet conviction.”He graduated from Leigh High School in San Jose in 1991. Before becoming a CHP officer, Branik worked for the U.S. Post Office in Campbell and Los Gatos from 1993 to 2005. He enjoyed basketball, G.I. Joe, Marvel and DC comics and animals, according to the obituary notice.In lieu of flowers, Branik’s family has requested donations be made to the CHP 11-99 Foundation in his name.

After an extensive national search, the Board of Directors for South Bay Regional Public Safety Training Consortium appointed Linda Vaughn to the position of President/CEO at their Sept. 21 meeting, according to a Sept. 21 announcement.

Older adults who no longer have a driver’s license or do not feel comfortable operating a motor vehicle will soon be able to hitch a low-cost ride through a new “Get’n Around Town” program based out of the Morgan Hill Senior Center.