Opinion

One unusual Friday night, with no plans on our calendar, my husband and I went to Sarah’s Vineyard for their Sunset Music Series. For $60 we enjoyed some of the finest pinot noir on the Central Coast, dinner and live music amidst an amazingly beautiful, 360-degree vista.

The Morgan Hill Downtown Association Board of Directors joins the entire community in the sorrow surrounding the tragic accident on the evening of July 4. While crossing Monterey Road, two young boys were struck by a car and critically injured at an intersection widely known to be one of the riskiest in the downtown.On a night when most of the community was celebrating our nation’s birth, those two young members of our community ended their day in a most horrific way that undoubtedly forever changed their lives, as well as the driver’s and both of their families.As historically safe as our downtown has been, the hard-earned growth in popularity of our businesses may challenge the past record. As the efforts of everyone—from the stalwart businesses of the community, to developers, to city staff—continue to contribute to the success of the downtown, we will see a growing competition for the use of our sidewalks, crosswalks and roadways.We still don’t yet know the details surrounding the July 4 accident. We don’t know if any of the traffic calming efforts like those currently proposed or seen during last year’s Complete Streets Pilot Project would have helped. We have to hope that we have the best possible solution to our traffic calming concerns amongst our current plans or options being explored, but we need to keep an open mind to additional solutions.The recent tragic accident has served as a reminder that we need to maintain a safe environment downtown, but at the same time we want to remind the community that the downtown is a business district that will continue to grow in its role as the community social gathering place and economic driver.Keeping this in mind, we would like to restate some of our previous recommendations that have not yet been implemented:• Install the traffic control signal at Fourth Street and Monterey Road as quickly as possible;• Provide enhanced law enforcement in a manner sensitive to the perception that excessive enforcement may be a deterrent to bringing more visitors to the downtown;• Identify ways to lower and implement a 15 mph speed limit through the downtown core;• Provide user-held crosswalk flags at pedestrian crossings as soon as possible;• Close Monterey Road to vehicle traffic on selected weekends, or on weekends in general.We do not support the following in the downtown core:• Speed cushions or speed bumps;• Raised pavement markers;• Flashing pedestrian crossing lights;• Vehicle speed indication signage.The recently proposed traffic calming strategy of programming the downtown traffic control signals to flash red in all directions (creating four-way stop sign intersections) during off-peak traffic periods should be further considered for implementation.Recent comments by City Council members have indicated an interest in revisiting the lane reduction, as experienced during the 2015 Complete Streets Pilot Project, when the Hale Avenue extension is completed or conditions present a better opportunity for successful implementation. Please consider a resolution stating that under the se conditions that Monterey Road lad reductions could be revisited.Kathleen Sullivan is a board member of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association. She wrote this letter to the City Council on behalf of the MHDA board, and presented it to the council at the July 27 meeting.

Editor’s note: The letter below was sent July 26 to the families of students attending Silicon Valley Flex, located on Jarvis Drive in Morgan Hill. The letter has been edited for length and style.Dear Flex Families,It is with heavy hearts and the deepest of regrets that we make this announcement. After extensive deliberation, and after exploring every option available to us, the Flex Board has made the decision to close the school.K12, the school’s service provider who managed and operated the school for the board for the last five years, terminated its service contract with Flex on July 1, five years early. While the board disagrees with K12’s grounds to terminate the service contract, it cannot operate the school without K12’s financial support, and does not have alternative funding for the school. Please note that the K12 staff supporting the school are working hard to assist with this transition.While this late notice is very unfortunate, the Flex Board does not have sufficient funds to operate the school this year without K12, and attempting to begin the school year without a sound economic base would inevitably result in closure mid-year, thus forcing staff and students out at a point which would be much worse.Silicon Valley Flex has served its students and families well for the past five years, and our sincere hope was to find a way to ensure it could continue to do so. Sadly, in the past week it became clear that we are simply out of options and can wait no longer to notify our staff and our families.We know that you have many questions and we are working as quickly as we can to get you the answers you deserve. Over the next two weeks, members of the leadership team and representatives from our partner, K12, will be onsite to meet with you to discuss next steps and other options available to you. We appreciate K12’s effort in this regard. We have also included some Frequently Asked Questions at the bottom of this letter to address some preliminary questions that we anticipate you’ll have.We want to hear from you directly and to answer any questions you have. School and K12 representatives will be onsite July 27 from 7:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. and again on July 28 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. For those who are unable to join us this week, we will be available next week from Tuesday through Thursday as well.Sincerely,Mark Kushner, Board PresidentOn Behalf of the Silicon Valley Flex Board of Trustees

On a recent Sunday afternoon, a group of us followed the Wine Trail of Santa Clara Valley and stopped in at Kirigin Cellars, which has been making wine on the property since 1916. There are so many things to love about Kirigin Cellars: to start with, their expansive property comprises rolling vineyards, over 1000 rose bushes and 100 sequoia redwoods.

I love living in Gilroy. We’ve got the natural beauty of open space (for now, anyway), mountains all around us, an extremely friendly community, the Premium Outlets and best of all, a dozen or so awesome wineries right in our very own backyard.

Don’t push a ‘blank check’ on votersEditor’s note: The following letter was addressed to the Morgan Hill City Council regarding an agenda item at the July 20 council meeting, to consider a “resolution of necessity” for $38 million in bonds for city street repairs and maintenance—a precursor to placing the bond measure on the November ballot. The council approved the resolution unanimously, and will discuss a possible bond measure at the July 27 meeting. While this resolution is only a step allowing the council to preserve the option of placing a bond measure on the ballot, it is a step in a direction away from another issue that needs to be addressed. Issuing a bond doesn't resolve the problem of city leaders not being more attentive to their fiscal responsibility. These funding gaps have been a known issue for Morgan Hill for years, particularly with respect to street maintenance. Every budget available on the city's website, from 2008 to the present, has identified funding for street maintenance and repair as insufficient. Those same budgets continually noted increases in street maintenance backlogs.Yet other than minor attempts to reduce costs, such as the LED streetlight conversion, it's only been recently that the city has purposefully addressed the funding gaps through contracted analysis.I have heard many excuses for the decrease in infrastructure funding: economic downturn, elimination of the Redevelopment Agency, decline in gas tax revenue, lowest per capita tax level among cities in Santa Clara County. While all may be valid contributors to this deficit, there has been little mention of proactive steps to address projected funding shortfalls.Maintenance has continued to be deferred, maintenance backlogs have increased, and the funding gaps have grown larger. The response by the city has been to publicly advertise community engagement and use designed surveys as crutches to excuse their decisions as to what the community has voiced as its needs and priorities.What the city has not done is publicly advertise their responsibility for this fiscal problem.As the City of Morgan Hill has continued to grow, so has the infrastructure funding gap. It seems apparent the city cannot continue to grow at the rate proposed and add to an infrastructure it cannot already support. During the period of updating the General Plan and Residential Development Control System, the city council had the opportunity to make adjustments to the city's long-range plans that could have helped narrow these funding gaps. One of those adjustments should have included slowing Morgan Hill’s growth rate in order to lessen the burden of demands on city services and the associated costs. That the city council and planning commission continued their insistence on maintaining a similar level of growth that contributed to increases in these funding issues is irresponsible.The "quality of life" categories presented through the Godbe survey and the city's own attempts at community outreach are not things to be voted on or prioritized or subject to being questioned about their importance to the community. These are services expected to be provided by the city and managed accordingly. Paying off this debt with more debt is not a financial plan; it's a reaction.As the city has somehow been able to determine the amount of this potential bond at $38 million, officials should be prepared to explain to the community how the number was arrived at and explain the spending plan that comes with it.I will not support a "General Obligation" bond that does not detail where, how or for what my money is being spent. I will not support a blank check.Chris MonackMorgan Hill

Thank you Morgan HillI would like to thank the citizens of Morgan Hill for entrusting me with the elected position of City Treasurer over the past 19 years (five elections).It has been a unique opportunity for me to serve the community while having professional experiences that were outside of my private sector employment and for me to meet many of you, plus elected officials and city staff, whom I may not have otherwise met.I have decided not to seek elected office this year but look forward to the spirited campaign I believe will ensue as others in the community seek this elected office.Thank you again.Michael J Roorda, City Treasurer City of Morgan Hill

Like the rest of our countrymen we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The difference is that we add in a huge dose of local pride and make it a patriotic event done the Morgan Hill Way—and then we invite the world to come visit us.Back in the old days it was usually the local government that put on the big Fourth of July events. We’ve defined the Fourth with the imagery of parades and fireworks, and maybe a picnic with watermelon too.Most of those sources of funding are long gone and in most communities the parades and fireworks are gone too. But not in Morgan Hill! We now have more going on in our “little” community than ever.The grandest local events surrounding July 4 are put on by the Independence Day Celebrations (IDC) nonprofit organization. They have not only shouldered the work of organizing the parade but are also solely responsible for making sure that our nighttime sky is still filled with fireworks to complete the day of memorable patriotic images.I couldn’t go to all of the events but from all reports I can tell you that on the evening of July 3, the IDC started throwing a party!Sunday’s Patriotic Sing was punctuated by remembrances of former mayor, and dear friend, Dennis Kennedy, and local attorney William Brown. Both men are known for their giving to the community and are sorely missed.I was there for the Family Street Dance and I’m telling you that bringing it back to the downtown was the right thing to do—not easy but right. The move back downtown was for the benefit of the community, but it put a huge burden on the IDC staff. They needed to break down all of the stages and tents, and clean it all up before the next day’s parade—a huge job that doubtlessly leaves many volunteers sleepless that night.The next morning everything looked great; of course, it was a little difficult to tell since the streets were buried under tens of thousands of people (maybe 50,000 I heard?).Our 140-year-old parade is officially the epicenter of Santa Clara County on July 4. By extension I think we can claim that we are Silicon Valley’s official Fourth of July Parade.  So it was an incredibly beautiful day and the parade had over 150 entries—it was the perfect day and place to sense that small town America still means a lot to everyone.I was on the Downtown Association float and I’m telling you that we had an incredibly cheerful crowd in attendance. We had decorated our float to look like the ever popular pop-up park, which everyone seemed to recognize, so it was almost a given that we would feel nothing but love. I’ll never forget that parade it was like being in an old-time movie.We missed the fireworks since we spend every Fourth of July evening with our dogs. They fear those loud explosions and stuffing them back into their skins can be mighty tough.We might have missed the fireworks but we got an opportunity to reflect on a great day and toast our community for countless reasons. Here’s a toast to Fourth of July done right.John McKay is a Morgan Hill resident, interim president of the Downtown Association, city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.

The 47th TheatreWorks Silicon Valley season starts out with a strong production that fits well with current events. Confederates is set during a presidential campaign with a “snag.” The people who find it, work it, providing an example of how far the media will go get the story while staying within the law. It’s a story of how one almost innocent mistake can upset an entire future. Superbly written by playwright Suzanne Bradlbeer, three magnificent actors show how they manage the situation at hand.

The city of Gilroy Recreation Department and the Gilroy Children’s Theatre, led by director Hillary Little, have brought the Disney musical production of Beauty and the Beast Jr. to Gilroy High School Theatre. Fifty-plus kids 6 to 16 gather and have as much fun as the audience. Mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles and grandparents in the audience whoop it up and support the kids in a formative theatrical adventure.