Community

More than 1,000 wine drinkers visiting from throughout the South Bay and farther took over downtown Morgan Hill’s streets April 30, glasses in hand, for the ninth annual Wine Stroll.The event, organized by the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, aims to spotlight Santa Clara Valley wineries and local merchants and restaurants, while providing ticket holders with a fun experience in the company of family and friends both old and new. For the first time this year, the Wine Stroll featured arts and crafts vendors—a total of 11 who set up on Third Street, according to MHDA Vice President Kathy Sullivan.Early attendees of the Wine Stroll, which took place throughout the afternoon, were mostly local, with one exception being Fernando Delsotto of Porto Alegre, Brazil. Delsotto, a software engineer, is in California for work, and his friends invited him to join them at the Wine Stroll.“I’m just getting to know the wines from California,” said Delsotto, who described those featured Saturday as “very good.”Local couple Louise and Darryl Brothers said they have fallen in love with Morgan Hill and the surrounding wineries since they moved here about two years ago.“We’re here to support the community and the local wineries, and the restaurants. We’ve got good weather, good wine, good people. What more do you want?” Darryl Brothers said.Mark Knisley of “beautiful San Martin” is a frequent attendee of the Wine Stroll. This year’s event was at least his fifth consecutive annual Wine Stroll, he estimated. He showed up downtown April 30 by himself with a ticket, but quickly ran into some friends.“You see people you haven’t seen in awhile. You get to see what new stores are here, that maybe weren’t here a year ago, and you meet up with friends,” Knisley listed the reasons why he enjoys the Wine Stroll. He said Clos La Chance winery is his favorite in the region.Sullivan described the Wine Stroll as “very successful” with no unfortunate incidents reported. She added that this year, organizers added more tasting stops, which helped disperse the crowds. A total of 24 different wineries from Santa Clara County set up tasting stations at different restaurants and shops downtown.The MHDA Wine Stroll takes place the fourth Saturday of April every year.

A memorial service in celebration of the life of former Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy will take place 10 a.m. April 30 at St. Catherine Catholic Church, 17400 Peak Ave.

More than 700 bicycling enthusiasts converged on Specialized Bicycle Components headquarters April 24 for the Bicycling Spring Classic and post-ride festival.

Over a 24-hour period next month, anyone with a little extra coin who is interested in supporting a specific nonprofit organization can partake in the third annual Silicon Valley Gives online telethon, which has raised millions for worthy causes since its inception.

The new owners of Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy gave staff a 3 percent raise when they took over in December, but workers and their union are unhappy with the pace of promised improvements and afraid of painful layoffs.“We have been notified of Verity’s intentions to cut positions at Saint Louise Regional Hospital and other facilities and we are very disappointed,” said Sean Wherley, media relations representative for the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West.“We intend to hold them accountable to our contract language that says they must make every effort to avoid layoffs, and follow the conditions laid out by the attorney general requiring that they maintain services,” Wherley wrote in an April 5 email.Verity Health Systems was formed to run SLRH and five other health facilities when Attorney General Kamala Harris last December approved the takeover of the financially strapped Daughters of Charity Health System by BlueMountain Capital Management.The SEIU-UHW represents 1,900 non-nursing employees in the Verity system.On Tuesday, a Saint Louise employee said staffing levels at South County’s only hospital are so depleted that employees cannot take vacations, broken equipment as basic as elevators and doors go unfixed and even operating room supplies are not reliable.“We were going downhill with Daughters. Verity said they would put money in the system and we looked to them as our saviors and they have done absolutely nothing,” said the employee, who asked not to be named.She acknowledged that it might all be due to how long it takes to effect improvements in a hospital system that had been going downhill for years before the takeover.But even that does not change the fact that Robert Minkin, the hospital’s new interim chief executive officer, told the staff at a forum that 27 layoffs could be expected, she said.In a statement released last week, Minkin acknowledged the layoff process had begun. “While we continue to employ substantially all of our employees . . . we are implementing a reduction-in-force across the system to reduce labor costs immediately. Notices began last month, and implementation will likely occur over a period of weeks or months, depending on the collective bargaining process.“At Saint Louise, negotiations with SEIU regarding the planned reduction in force have been very productive even though the topic is difficult,” Minkin’s statement continued. “The relationship between management and union representatives is growing closer through the process as we work together to minimize the impact on employees.”A source close to Verity management who asked not to be named said that fewer than 27 SLRH employees will be laid off.In a just-published report about its first 100 days as the hospital group’s operational management, Verity chief executive officer Mitchell R. Creem warned that change will not come quickly, but said it is happening.“Since Verity Health System came into being just three months ago, we have begun a process of transformational change—change that is needed to ensure the Verity Health System hospitals and physicians are able to treat patients for generations to come with high quality, compassionate care,” he wrote.In addition to SLRH, which includes De Paul Medical Center in Morgan Hill, the five other DCHS facilities now under the Verity banner are Saint Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, Saint Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, O’Connor Hospital in San Jose, Seton Medical Center in Daly City and Seton Coastside in Moss Beach.Creem’s comments continued: “The task of turning around our hospitals to a state of sustainable financial success is going to take time and hard work. We aren’t there yet, but we are on our way.”The report cites achievements so far, including:• A 3 percent pay raise for staff, the first in several years.• Forums to introduce staff and physicians to leadership and invite feedback.• A three-year contract for all SEIU employees, including a 3 percent per year wage increase, maintained defined contribution plan for retirement, job security protections and a groundbreaking guarantee of full-time work for most employees.• Negotiating a new contract with the California Nurses Association.  For SLRH, the report also states the Emergency Department is fully staffed, plans for upgrades to it will be finished by the fall with funding from the Saint Louise Regional Hospital Foundation and the facility’s Medicare purchasing score improved from 8 percent to 61 percent.The report notes that under the agreement approved by the attorney general, more than $250 million will be invested in the six California hospitals and the medical foundation, “thus assuring the communities served by the hospitals an opportunity to continue to pursue their missions.”

The Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, in cooperation with American AgCredit, will be awarding Fall 2016 college scholarships and inviting high school seniors with interest in an agricultural major to pick up and submit applications at the Farm Bureau office (605 Tennant Avenue Suite H in Morgan Hill).

With Friday’s wet weather not expected to stick around too long, a fun-filled weekend awaits local residents with three community-centered events scheduled through Sunday.

A motorcade of about 75 participants, some riding Harley Davidsons and others in cars, passed through downtown Morgan Hill led by widower Mary Jo Cetani in honor of her late husband Rocci Cetani Jr.

The Irish are coming!

The local Relay for Life planning committee’s “Paint the Town Purple” campaign struck downtown Morgan Hill in the early afternoon April 14, as a growing group of organizers and team members left a purple haze of ribbons, flags, banners and posters up and down Monterey Road between Main and Dunne avenues.