Welcome to the latest edition of the Crimson Crusader’s column.
File your question, comment or complaint with the Red Phone by
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POPPY JASPER
I know that poppy jasper can be purchased at the Taste of Morgan Hill and the Mushroom Mardi Gras. Other than these festivals, where can I purchase poppy jasper during the rest of the year? Where does it come from and can it be purchased in its raw form as well as cut and polished? What can I expect to pay for the stone?
I’m sure I’m not the only one interested, so I hope you can research this for me and post the answer in the Red Phone section of the paper soon.
RED PHONE: Geologists have told us that orange poppy jasper is unique to the Morgan Hill area, due to our rich iron oxide deposits which gives the poppy jasper its unique color. The stone can be found near El Toro mountain, Hayes Valley, and in the bedrock ridge southeast of the city. All locations are on private property, so weekend gem-hunters had better watch out.
You can buy poppy jasper at the Goddess Bead Shop located in the Downtown Mall, 17490 Monterey Road, in Morgan Hill. The owner, Shelly Fast, offers the stone in its natural state as well as polished. Small polished pieces under an inch in size range from twenty-five cents to a dollar. Larger unmounted polished stones are priced from $5 to $25. Pieces that are mounted into jewelry settings such as necklaces, belt buckles, rings, etc., obivously will cost much more. The cost of the larger pieces escalates because the hard but brittle stone can take up to four months in the rock tumbler to produce a surface that measure up to her standards and are worthy for sale.
Fast also has poppy jasper just as it comes out of the ground. The pieces she is willing to part with go for $10 a pound. She likes to keep some on hand for the use of the high schools’ geology classes, and also has a 15-pound specimen on display at her shop.
Poppy jasper was named Morgan Hill’s official stone in May 2002, and a 62-pound sample of the rock is on display at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center, 17000 Monterey Road, and a pound stone is on display at the Trail Dust Barbecue Restaurant at 17240 Monterey Road in Morgan Hill.
OPINIONs NOT NEEDED
Calling in reference to the June 3 Red Phone column answer having to do with mental illness and how the police deal with that.
I think your answer is way off base. The police are trained in dealing with those kinds of situations. We’ve had that in our family. They know exactly what to do, and they have been very, very helpful with us.
I think you need to get properly informed here. And if the police officers who dealt with the situation that the caller referred to in the call to you, then that person was improperly served by the police.
I was briefed on the police’s standard operating procedure with regard to these kinds of situations before we needed it. And when we did call on them to send our son to Emergency Protective Services, they did an excellent job – very caring, and they knew exactly what to do.
So, I think you need to educate yourself and not pass out bad information like you did in your response. We don’t need your opinion on how these things go, as you gave in your last paragraph. We need facts, and you should put it out straight.
RED PHONE: This reminds me of an old rhyme my mother taught me long ago…
There’s one thing I can say
about opinions and advice,
you’ll find that both are free and always worth the price.
But the Crimson Crusader does not have the luxury of handing out opinions. The answers printed in this section come from contacting people in authority concerning the issues raised by our readers, and then relaying that information.
As I stated in the answer to the caller you are alluding to, the Morgan Hill Police Department was the source of the information. You contend the police are adequately trained, but the police feel otherwise.
I am glad your situation played itself out as well as you conveyed, but that does not mean all is well in Mudville.
