Community

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.

The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill distributed $22,000 in college scholarships to 21 Morgan Hill high school seniors, according to a June 20 announcement.

Tickets are now available for Harvest for Heroes 2017, a benefit for the U.S.  Veterans Program at One Step Closer Therapeutic Riding, according to a June 27 announcement.

With temperatures climbing to triple digits at the infancy of the summer of 2017, the City of Morgan Hill’s Downtown Splash feature has been a big hit.The water feature allows children (and adults, as there is no age limit) to run through several jets that shoot water high into the air. The facility recycles and sanitizes water as it refreshes the users, according to city staff.The fountain is located in a corner of the Community and Cultural Center’s outdoor plaza, at 17000 Monterey Road. City staff are planning to keep it open the rest of the summer, from 12 to 4 p.m. every day except Friday.The Downtown Splash feature has been inactive in recent years due to an historic drought and the city’s climbing costs to maintain the facility.In 2015, the city upgraded the fountain by removing the splash pad’s underground equipment vault to a new above-ground enclosure, making maintenance and upgrades easier in the future. This upgrade cost about $150,000.The spray feature was built when the rest of the CCC campus was developed in 2002 with former Redevelopment Agency funds.Other recreational swimming facilities in Morgan Hill—at the Aquatics Center and the Centennial Recreational Center—require users to pay monthly or day-use fees.

The National Weather Service has extended a heat advisory for all of Santa Clara County, which includes Morgan Hill, until 9 p.m. June 22, according to an announcement from the county.