Community

Local law enforcement will once again host the community for the annual National Night Out from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 1 on Third Street in downtown Morgan Hill.

Music As Language will host its “Rock For a Reason 2017: A Night at the Movies” fundraiser Aug. 19 at Miramar Vineyards in San Martin.

Morgan Hill has seen a steep increase in the number of homeless individuals within its city boundaries, according to newly released statistics from a 2017 county homeless report.

BookSmart, a family-owned Morgan Hill bookstore that has been a beloved community gathering place for more than 20 years, is in danger of being forced to shutter its doors if the owners can’t gain a sudden large infusion of financing.Brad Jones, who owns the store located at 1295 East Dunne Ave. with his wife Cinda Meister, informed his customers July 11 that he received a 10-day eviction notice from the store’s landlord. The store owes about $60,000 in back rent, but Jones said the owners actually need to bury a mound of other debts—which eat into BookSmart’s ongoing cash flow—in order to stay open. And they don’t have much time.“We need to have an angel that’s willing to finance us,” Jones said. “We’ve spent every penny we’ve made in the last 25 years in the bookstore business.”In total, the company needs about $250,000 in long-term financing to cover the back rent (about $7,500 per month) and to pay off high-interest short-term debts. Jones explained that if he could pay off the short-term debts—about $150,000 worth—the store would be on solid financial ground, and would in fact make enough money to continue to grow.“Business is profitable enough to make payments on our long-term financing, but not enough to make payments on the short-term financing,” Jones said. “Unless we can refinance the (short-term) debt, we’re gone.”Jones and Meister have owned BookSmart for 23 years. They initially opened the store in a small shop at Monterey Road and Second Street in downtown Morgan Hill, then moved to the former Depot Center shopping center at Second and Depot streets as they outgrew their former space.Last year, the owners of the Depot Center property sold the site—under a deal set in motion years earlier by the City of Morgan Hill and the former Redevelopment Agency—to make way for a mixed-use residential/commercial project that is now under construction.The new location is located on the eastern outskirts of town, in a more modern shopping center near the intersection of Dunne and Murphy avenues. Jones said while business started off slow in the current location, it has picked up steadily since they moved in.BookSmart has always been more than just a book retailer and toy store. It also has a café with ample comfortable table seating, and serves as a de facto community center for many Morgan Hill residents.It is a center for “music, arts and literacy,” according to Karen Fitch, coordinator for the nonprofit BookSmart Community Advantage, which the store created last year in order to promote arts and culture. Part of BCA’s agenda is a summer-long calendar of fun and educational workshops, art lessons, music classes and more, primarily geared toward children.One of these ongoing events is the weekly “Baby Blanket Babble-On” infant storytime, led by Fitch. The storytime takes place every Tuesday at BookSmart.A frequent attendee of Baby Blanket Babble-On is Morgan Hill resident Brenda Glimpse, who brings her 9-month-old son Hunter to each weekly story. She carefully arranges her busy work schedule just to make time for the Tuesday stories. Glimpse was also a frequent customer of BookSmart’s previous downtown location.“This store is a good environment for him,” Glimpse said.Count Fitch’s 10-year-old son Matthew among the young faithful customers of BookSmart’s too. The store is a safe, welcoming place with plenty of activities for him and other children—not to mention his preferred spot to pick up the latest novels in the “Ranger’s Apprentice” and other series he follows.“We’re trying to create a place where Matthew has caring adults in his life. This is home to him,” Fitch said.BookSmart has been in a similar, if not quite as dire, situation before. In 2014, Jones and Meister found themselves similarly overextended in debt after a store they opened in San Jose failed. They turned to their customers, who helped raise enough money to keep their doors in Morgan Hill open.Jones acknowledged the support of BookSmart’s customers Tuesday as he worried about the long odds of staving off an eviction.“The community has already done an awful lot for us,” Jones said.BookSmart will begin liquidating its inventory Friday, July 14 unless Jones and Meister can come up with the financing to stay open.

Treat your furry friends to a wash at the 8th annual Pet Wash, which will take place between noon and 3 p.m. July 9 at Cherisse’s Hair Salon, located at 84 West Second Street in Morgan Hill.

On June 25, Honda of Morgan Hill celebrated the end of their month-long campaign “Christmas in June,”  which was able to offer 35 brand new bicycles and helmets to needy children within the South County community.The event kicked off June 1, with the dealership, located at 17100 Laurel Road, partnering with Bikes Because We Care, according to a press release from Honda of Morgan HillThe bikes were delivered to the dealership on June 1, and were on display June 25. Dealership mechanics performed safety inspections and helped to assemble every bike before they were delivered to children.Bikes Because We Care is a local nonprofit in the Morgan Hill and San Jose community that has been donating bikes since 2007 and usually delivers the bikes during the December holiday season. Honda of Morgan Hill has been supporting Bikes Because We Care for years, and when founder Mark Reuter reached out to see if the two could partner in the middle of the year, Honda of Morgan Hill owner Ted Stevens didn’t even hesitate, reads the press release.Christmas in June was born to create a spirit of giving that went on throughout the entire month at the dealership. On Sunday, June 25 one very gracious Honda employee came dressed as Santa Claus—complete with board shorts and a surfboard—to surprise the kids. The bikes were donated to children within St. Catherine Church community and Community Solutions, both of which serve residents and families in need in Morgan Hill and beyond.

State environmental officials will host a public meeting regarding the local school district’s Removal Action Workplan for the proposed Borello elementary school site on Peet Road from 6 to 8 p.m. July 27 at the El Toro Room inside the Community and Cultural Center.

Photographer Robert Eliason and Times reporter Scott Forstner shot dozens of photos of the Fourth of July festivities in Morgan Hill, including the downtown parade and evening fireworks and entertainment at the Outdoor Sports Center on Condit Road. 

A wave of red, white and blue flooded the downtown streets as thousands of patriotic-clad spectators enjoyed the 2017 Morgan Hill Freedom Fest Fourth of July Parade Tuesday morning.

On a recent afternoon on Anderson Lake in northeast Morgan Hill, officers who regularly patrol the waterway towed a malfunctioned jet ski out of a popular party cove and warned two people to stay off the bridge on East Dunne Avenue before sheriff’s deputies had to respond to an emergency call on land, just below the dam.The call, in response to a fight at Santa Clara County’s Anderson Reservoir Park picnic area, cut short a June 17 visit by a reporter and photographer on the sheriff’s patrol boat. The incident ended without any visible injuries, according to Sheriff’s Deputy Travis Eastman.Anderson Lake is the county’s largest reservoir and the most popular local water body for boating and other kinds of recreation, according to authorities. On the sweltering afternoon of June 17, scores of boats—filled with wake boarders, anglers, sunbathers and swimming children—scattered the length of the reservoir and its many hidden coves. It was a typical, crowded summer day on the water at Anderson.Eastman has been on the sheriff’s boat patrol team for four years, and has been an instructor of boat officers for the last three years. He was on patrol June 17 with Deputy Matt Carroll. Also on the water that day, and most weekends, was a U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary boat, with Cmmdr. Dave Naumann at the helm. Santa Clara County Parks also has a boat on Anderson, which is staffed by park rangers.The three jurisdictions have some overlapping responsibilities, and some unique ones. For the sheriff’s water patrol, their primary focus is on enforcing Boating Under the Influence, or BUI, violations. Eastman said the number of such offenders has dropped significantly since the Sheriff’s Office acquired a second patrol boat—with the assistance of state grant money—in 2010. That brought the sheriff’s fleet—which also patrols Calero and Coyote reservoirs—to a total of two boats.“Our BUI arrests are way down,” Eastman said. “I attribute that to the high-profile patrols, just being out there and the public seeing us.”In three years from 2014 to 2016, the sheriff’s boat patrol made a total of six arrests for suspected BUI violations, according to Sheriff’s Sgt. Ken Owens. Those numbers include arrests on Calero Reservoir. But Owens added, “We prefer education over enforcement to keep our waters safe.” And the numbers do not reflect arrests by county park rangers.The newer sheriff’s boat is equipped with modern radar, GPS and “side scanning” technology—the latter of which was useful the evening of May 30, when a local woman fell off the bridge on East Dunne Avenue to her death. Carroll responded to that scene on the sheriff’s boat, and Eastman said they used the scanning devices to try to find the victim’s body. They also transported the sheriff’s dive team to the scene.The May 30 death of Briana Kelly illustrates why the patrol team takes any signs of trespassing on the bridge—somehow known as “the Cochrane Bridge”—seriously. One recent afternoon after the death, several deputies, at least one boat and a helicopter responded to a report of five juveniles hanging out on the bridge. They cited one of the juveniles with a trespassing violation to “make an example,” Eastman said.On June 17, Carroll contacted two men he noticed were sitting directly under the bridge’s supports where it meets the bank. The men told him they were simply trying to find a cool place in the shade to sit down, and Carroll informed them they were trespassing and asked them to leave without further incident.The recreational boating season will continue through the rest of the summer.Boating reservations are encouraged through Labor Day, and can be made by calling (408) 355-2201 Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or online at gooutsideandplay.org.