Community

There are times in life when we find ourselves called from seasons of relative peace and tranquility into what we know will be a time of unknown storm. Sometimes the storm chooses us. Sometimes we choose the storm.  As we navigate our way forward, we...

Brittany Lang wasn’t the only winner at San Martin’s CordeValle Golf Club, the site of the 71st U.S. Women’s Open. Local nonprofit organizations were able to take the event—which drew more than 50,000 people to the venue—as an opportunity to raise money for their respective causes.Volunteers from Operation Freedom Paws and the Sobrato High School Athletic Boosters manned some of the concession booths at the site, and in return took home 10 percent of sales proceeds from food and soft drinks, as well as 100 percent of tips collected. “Folks are very generous. It’s been a very positive experience,” said volunteer Diane Jimenez at the OFP concession booth July 8, during the second round of the USGA golf tournament. She was joined behind the counter by fellow volunteers Ed Brown and Nicole Martinez.OFP is a nonprofit that helps veterans and people with disabilities improve their quality of life by helping them to train their own dogs, and certifying them as service dog teams. The San Martin-based organization will host the 5K “Hoofs and Woofs” 5K run/walk 8 to 11 a.m. July 16 at Harvey Bear County Park to raise more funds to support their mission. For more information about the 5K and upcoming OFP fundraisers, or to learn more about the organization, visit operationfreedompaws.org.Sobrato High School football and volleyball team members and parents also participated in fundraising opportunities at the U.S. Women’s Open last week. Sophomore quarterback Sebastian Degroot, 14, said July 8 that he and his volunteer crewmates had raised about $600 in tips at their counter so far. He and freshman Nick Thrappus, a 14-year-old wide receiver, said the team plans to use the proceeds to purchase new equipment for the upcoming fall season.

The Morgan Hill City Council in July approved the Morgan Hill Historical Society's master plan for the development of the Villa Mira Monte property at 17860 Monterey Road.

Editor's Note: The following is the ninth installment in a

A Morgan Hill woman’s beloved German shepherd/great Dane mix, Cali, became gravely ill this summer after eating dog treats imported from China that federal regulators have been warning consumers about for years, and now she’s on a mission to convince the manufacturer to recall the potentially hazardous products.

BookSmart, formerly a cornerstone of the downtown Morgan Hill retail scene, has gained some reprieve on their eviction deadline as long as they adhere to a “very aggressive” schedule to pay several months’ worth of back rent, according to the store’s owner.The book and toy store, now located at 1295 E. Dunne Ave. in east Morgan Hill, was served with a 10-day eviction notice on July 11 because they owed about $60,000 of unpaid rent (at about $7,500 a month) to the landlord.After gaining some help from BookSmart customers after they were informed of the predicament, and reaching at least a temporary détente with the landlord, the popular family-owned store will get to stay open a little bit longer, according to Brad Jones, who owns the store with his wife Cinda Meister.The owners and landlord agreed after July 11 that BookSmart will pay $8,000 toward the back rent every 10 days until they are caught up, Jones said.“We made the first two (payments) through donations from our community,” Jones said. He specified that two different customers each paid a month of rent after they heard about BookSmart’s dilemma, which he called “amazing.” Jones did not name the donors.“It makes you feel like the struggle is worth it,” Jones added.But the store has yet to find a way to refinance a mountain of high-interest and short-term debt that will continue to devour BookSmart’s cash flow even if they get caught up on their rent payments, Jones said.He set up a fundraising campaign on the website indiegogo.com to raise a goal of $20,000 to go toward these debts. But this campaign is “all or nothing,” meaning if they don’t reach the goal then no contributors will pay, the page explains.The fundraising page, found at indiegogo.com by searching for “BookSmart Evolution,” lists other ways customers and contributors can help the store surmount its financial challenges: giving directly at the store; purchasing gift cards; and spreading the word.As of July 21, the campaign raised $4,875 with 22 days left.BookSmart has been in business for 23 years, mostly in downtown Morgan Hill. The store—which is popular not just for their merchandise but also as a café and community gathering place—had to move from its previous location on East Second Street last year to make way for redevelopment of the downtown property.Moving expenses forced the owners to dig deep, “using credit cards, personal loans and cash advances” to pay for the relocation, the indiegogo website says.Also last year, after they moved into the East Dunne location, the store created BookSmart Community Advantage, a nonprofit that promotes local culture and arts. 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.On July 29, BookSmart will host a party/fundraiser with entertainment, food, wine and prizes. They will display original artwork, much of it created by local children during previous summertime BCA classes at BookSmart. The event will go from 4 to 7 p.m.To see more details about BCA and other activities at BookSmart, visit the store’s website, mybooksmart.com.

Santa Clara County this week is offering to buy Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy and O’Connor Hospital in San Jose for an undisclosed sum.“We would be the perfect purchaser, from our perspective,” County Executive Jeff Smith said in an interview Tuesday, July 31. “So we are moving ahead” with the offer to buy the two private nonprofit hospitals in Santa Clara County, he said.“We have been doing our due diligence with the appropriate consultants to come up with what we think will be a fair offer” to Verity Health System, the nonprofit that owns the two Santa Clara County hospitals and four others in the Bay Area and Southern California, said Smith. “We’ve been trying to keep in touch with Verity group to keep up with their timeline.”Smith said he expected the county’s letter of intent to go to Verity Health Systems by Aug. 3. The letter will include a purchase offer, plus a list of terms and conditions relating to medical services offered by the two acute care hospitals.One condition would be that “we should operate both O’Connor and Saint Louise pretty much as they are operating right now, in terms of the availability of medical services,” he said.“We would keep the hospitals running as hospitals,” Smith added. “They fit into our strategic plan very well.”The acquisition would increase the number of county-run hospital beds by more than 80 percent, adding the 93 beds at Saint Louise and O’Connor’s 358 beds to the 563-bed Valley Medical Center.Smith is well-positioned to manage the negotiations for the hospital deal: He has both medical and law degrees.The county executive said that since the Verity announcement, the county has been working with three consultants—a law firm and business firm that specialize in large mergers and acquisitions, and a consultant that specializes in operational mergers of health care systems—to develop the offer letter.Currently, the county operates one acute care hospital, Valley Medical Center, plus 10 healthcare clinics around the county.The Santa Clara County offer will be for just two of the six hospitals owned by Verity Health.Verity Health System announced in July that it was “exploring strategic options to alleviate financial and operational pressures on its six hospitals.” Whether Verity will agree to sell off two of its six properties remains to be seen, and could depend on whether there are buyers for the other four hospitals: Seton Medical Center and Seton Seaside in San Mateo County, plus St. Francis and St. Vincent medical centers in Los Angeles.“At this time, a range of options is being considered, including the potential sale of some or all of the locations, among other possible transactions,” Verity Health said in a July 9 statement."The top priority of Verity's board and management team is to establish a long-term, sustainable path forward for our hospitals, which are of critical importance to the communities they serve," said Rich Adcock, CEO of Verity Health."Pursuant to Verity's strategic plan, we are exploring a number of options to deleverage our balance sheet and address challenges our hospitals face after a decade of deferred maintenance, poor payor contracts, and increasing costs. As the board and management team work together to evaluate these options, the interests of our patients, employees and communities remain paramount."Verity Health declined to elaborate this week.Smith said a purchase by the county would be financed with revenue bonds in a lease-purchase arrangement with the county’s own financing agency. He declined to state the amount of the purchase offer, or to identify the consultants. The consultants will be identified in agenda materials for the Aug. 14 meeting of the county Board of Supervisors, he said.The announcement that the six hospitals are up for sale or for new partnerships was a stunning reversal of the optimism that Verity Health had expressed early this year.The Redwood City-based system named a new CEO in January, Rich Adcock, and in March promoted John Hennelly to that post at Saint Louise Regional Hospital, a 93-bed facility in northeast Gilroy.Just eight months ago, at the time of Adcock’s appointment, Verity chair Jack Krouskup said Adcock “is the person to lead the health system through this time of tremendous growth and expansion to provide state-of-the-art healthcare to the communities Verity serves.”Also at the time, Adcock said, “There is an amazing opportunity to transform health care delivery for our patients and communities throughout California. We are recruiting physicians and healthcare professionals from across the country to join our team to lead the nation in driving medical research and innovation.”Before being named Saint Louise CEO in March, Hennelly had been chief administrative officer for Saint Louise for 18 months, when he was reported to have worked on a financial turnaround to put the hospital on more financially stable ground. In that period, the hospital opened two new breast care centers, increased emergency room volume, renewed the volunteer program and engaged the community, bringing more patients to the hospital.Hennelly and the hospital are active in Gilroy and Morgan Hill. He is on the board of directors for the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce and Gilroy Rotary Club.Verity Health System, created in late 2015, is a nonprofit healthcare system employing more than 6,000 staff statewide. The hospitals include 1,650 inpatient beds, six active emergency rooms, a trauma center and a host of medical specialties including tertiary and quaternary care.In 2015, the Catholic Daughters of Charity sold the six hospitals to BlueMountain Capital Management, which had owned Verity Health. Last year, a company owned by billionaire entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who also owns the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune, bought the hedge fund’s healthcare division that owns Verity.

The empty lot at 17285 Butterfield Blvd.—located between the South County Courthouse and the VTA parking lot—has served a number of public uses since the City of Morgan Hill purchased the land for a future fire station more than a decade ago.  The property was...

More than 1,000 people joined the 13th annual Downtown Morgan Hill Wine Stroll Saturday for a taste of local wines, local merchandise, live music and more under warm and sunny skies. With wine glasses in hand, attendees were able to stroll downtown streets, sample...