Columnists

I do not understand the Elf on the Shelf.

I feel like talking a little bit about a whole bunch of things, maybe throw out some news and food for thought.Morgan Hill is about to say goodbye to a huge community asset. Steve Rymer will be heading back to a region familiar to him to be another lucky city’s city manager. I understand that there was virtually only one city that could draw him and his wife, Helene, away from Morgan Hill and even when that opportunity opened up he had to be the best of 300 candidates. Statistically speaking, the odds of all this coming together were pretty staggering. However, if you know Steve then it’s no surprise at all.We’ll miss you Steve and Helene.So with that sad news we get to announce some good news. We have a new city manager.The city council decided they didn’t need to look far for a new city manager with the quality of the existing teammates within Morgan Hill City Hall. I feel that the vision, values and culture that exist there are unique for a city office. Quite frankly, I was worried that the culture might be affected by someone coming from outside that might not “get it.” Culture is one of those things that can easily change with no conscious effort.Looking within, the city council found and selected Christina Turner. I used the term “teammate” because the culture at City Hall is that of a big team, and now Christina will be the leader and biggest cheerleader for city staff and the entire community. Christina is also one of the women highlighted during Women’s Week—we walk the walk in Morgan Hill.Okay, so what else is going on?How about the growth of a little corner of Morgan Hill that is on the verge of exploding. Over at the Granary (at First and Depot streets), two new shops are coming on line: a bike shop and wine bar. When you combine these two with Running Shop and Hops you will undoubtedly have the healthiest and happiest corner in Morgan Hill.Both of these unique new shops will be run by people who believe in Morgan Hill and want to make their shops and Morgan Hill stand out in the region.Bike Therapy is open now and The Grapevine will have a soft opening around the weekend of the Taste of Morgan Hill (Sept. 23-24).In other good news, the parking garage just got safer. I thought it was already pretty safe to begin with, but admit at times I was a little annoyed with the activities of some of the loiterers. Apparently not much enforcement was being done in the past because you need to have the right laws in place before you can enforce them. New laws are in place and the enforcement has begun (also: a fence has been placed limiting access to part of the garage and improvements are being made so people can’t access places they shouldn’t).If you have noticed something different about the fence around the future Granada Hotel site (corner of First and Monterey Road), you are seeing the results of an effort to make the downtown look just a little nicer during all the construction. The Leal organization took on the challenge and it’s nice. Take a look for yourself.Congratulations Morgan Hill, good stuff is happening.John McKay is president of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, a city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance. He can be reached at [email protected].

Like everyone else, you hope to remain physically and financially independent your entire life. And you may well achieve this goal. Nonetheless, the future is not ours to see, so you’ll want to prepare yourself for as many contingencies as possible – one of which is the high cost of long-term care.