Opinion

Just when you think our South Valley can’t get any lovelier now that our golden hills have turned green, out of the cold and rain of winter (well, sort of—it’s been a strange year!) burst forth brilliant yellow flowers spreading like soft coverlets over our hills and vales.

Clear plants from creekMy property—as well as many more, including the Woodland Estates Senior MobilE Home Park—backs up to the Llagas Creek between Santa Teresa Boulevard, and Olive Avenue, which is all part of the city.In 2010, I brought up the issue about the overgrown vegetation to both the Santa Clara Valley Water District, as well as the City of Morgan Hill. This vegetation could create possible fire danger in the summer, and also the impairment of the water flow in the creek.I was impressed with the immediate response from both the city and the Water District. The city was out there the next day to cut down the tall grass up to or about 30 feet from the property lines for weed abatement, and the Water District set up a plan to cut down the overgrown berry plants and remove some of the dead vegetation—which they did a couple months later.In March 2011, we had a lot of rain in a short amount of time, and with Chesbro Reservoir already filled, the water was not only going over the spillway but some water had to be released from the dam. In doing so, Llagas Creek was totally filled with fast running water, within two feet from flooding my property, and had encroached onto other properties along the creek. Water was also bubbling out of the storm drain at the end of our cul-de-sac, putting the end of our street two feet under water.In the last couple of years, the berry plants have come back. Even though they are not nearly as tall as before, they are tall enough to impair the natural water flow in the creek.I have meet with both the Water District and a representative from the city of Morgan Hill, and have had no luck because of the bureaucracy getting in the way. I have even sent an email to Mayor Steve Tate of Morgan Hill, over a month ago with no reply!With El Nino in the forecast this winter, we are expecting more rain than we have had in the past. If the creek isn't cleaned out once again there is a definite potential of flooding of the properties along the creek as well as some mobile homes lifting off their foundations and floating away.Because of this urgency, the bureaucracy needs to be put aside, and matters to take care of the creek area is a must before this negligence causes thousands of dollars of damages. If this were to happen, someone will be and should be liable!Roger MartaranoMorgan HillSpaceX landing an historic eventI want to congratulate Elon Musk and SpaceX for making history by landing the first stage of a rocket back on Earth (in one piece this time) after deploying a payload into space. This is an historic event because the cost of getting stuff into space just got at least three times cheaper.In a world where news is dominated by ISIS, mass shootings and Donald Trump, it's time the smart people get the spotlight and we have good news to report. This event is another milestone representing the progress of humanity on a road that will eventually lead to the human colonization of the planet Mars. All of humanity rejoices tonight at this great accomplishment.Thank you Elon and the team at SpaceX.Marc PerkelGilroy

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.