Whether the South Valley area is better or worse than it was at
the end of 2002 is still up in the air. Some news was good
– very good; other news was very bad. Here are some of the high
and low spots that riveted public attention during 2003.
Whether the South Valley area is better or worse than it was at the end of 2002 is still up in the air. Some news was good – very good; other news was very bad. Here are some of the high and low spots that riveted public attention during 2003.
• PERCHLORATE ATTACK
Choosing the top story of the year caused The Times staff no trouble at all. News in January that perchlorate had polluted the underground water table and hundreds of South Valley wells left every other important, long-ranging story in the dust.
The contamination, caused by a former Olin Corp. plant at Tennant and Railroad avenues, has touched virtually everyone who lives in Morgan Hill or San Martin – some more than others.
Many private well owners found they could not drink their well water and found their property values depressed and prospects of selling disappearing. Morgan Hill residents will likely be paying higher water rates to make up for more than $1 million the city has spent – mostly unreimbursed so far by Olin – providing safe drinking water for its customers.
Everyone questioned just how much perchlorate in water is safe to drink and worried about the health implications for humans and animals – the chemical may have been in drinking water for as much as 40 years. Are crops irrigated with perchlorate-tainted water safe to eat? Will Olin Corp. pay to install treatment plants on every small well? As the year ends, no answers have appeared. Stay tuned; they’ll be more in 2004.
• HWY 101 OPENS
Following close behind the water issue for hugely affecting the most people are four new lanes on Hwy. 101 between Morgan Hill and south San Jose. When the lanes opened officially in May, commute times shortened dramatically, Friday afternoon escapes from the north improved and the miles-long line Sunday afternoon back up from the south eased significantly.
The $80 million project was funded by a 1996 voter-approved sales tax increase and $25 million from the governor’s Traffic Congestion Relief fund. Construction came in $10 million under budget and six-months ahead of schedule.
After then Gov. Gray Davis pronounced the road open and he and other officials gave their speeches thanking officialdom, Santa Clara Valley Water District board member Sig Sanchez – for whom the original freeway stretch was named – made what might be the quote of the year.
“I heard a lot of speakers today, but I’m not sure if any of us thanked the taxpayer yet. They’re the ones who made this possible,” Sanchez said.
• DISTRICT UPHEAVAL
For the Morgan Hill School District, 2003 was a year of controversy. While there were several high points to the year, there were many lows.
Among the good news for the year was the announcement that four district elementary schools qualified to apply for California Distinguished School awards, and one middle school was asked to apply for a national School to Watch designation. A P.A. Walsh Elementary student, sixth-grader Gladis Covarrubias, was chosen as the Santa Clara County Migrant Student of the Year, and the school itself celebrated its 50th anniversary, with members of the P.A. Walsh family attending the celebration.
Parents and the Morgan Hill community in general came forward to help the district this year, including the Live Oak Foundation’s generous annual grants to district schools, another round of donations of supplies for district teachers by the Teachers’ Aid Coalition and the reinstatement of several Live Oak High sports programs thanks to the donation of approximately $25,000 by athletic boosters.
Other good news for the district this year is that no school is in danger of being designated a “program improvement” school under the new federal guidelines for “No Child Left Behind.” All the schools met at least one of the two requirements included in the designation. On the secondary school front, both the middle schools and Live Oak High saw improvement in their Academic Performance Index scores, and Central High saw an increase in graduates.
Unfortunately, the district also had more than a few rough spots. From dissension between board members to community members and teachers alike expressing a lack of trust in district administration, the district suffered through a series of controversial issues, finally culminating in a recall petition being circulated as the year draws to a close. The petition seeks a recall of the four senior board members -Tom Kinoshita, Jan Masuda, George Panos and Del Foster.
The year began with budget woes. District officials were forced to cut more than $3 million from the budget – a year after cutting $2.6 million – due to the state budget deficit and declining ADA, or average daily attendance, funds. When the March 15 layoff notice deadline arrived, 111 teachers and several administrators received pink slips. Eventually, nearly all notices were rescinded, but only after months of worry as some, including one elementary principal, went right down to the wire before learning they wouldn’t lose their jobs.
Support staff took a crushing blow. Custodians and bus drivers were laid off in large numbers – 11 custodians and 10 bus drivers – plus two mechanics, a groundskeeper and two maintenance technicians. One senior account clerk position was cut; other secretaries and account clerks lost days, 13 for some departments and 20 for another.
Other controversies during the year left some parents and community members with a bad taste in their mouths. Contentious decisions by trustees on a federal grant for Live Oak to establish small learning communities, on adding a mandatory ninth grade social studies class to high school graduation requirements and on new high school boundaries brought crowds of concerned parents, teachers and community members to board meetings. The meetings themselves turned into three hour marathons, due to the amount of public comment and intense, prolonged discussion by trustees.
The school sports community was also stirred to comment by the Live Oak football field problems and by the closing of the Britton pool.
And the district as a whole mourned this year the loss of three students, one accidentally and two who committed suicide, one of those while at school at Britton Middle.
• IN MEMORIUM
Morgan Hill’s 2004 will be distinctly poorer because, in 2003, the community suffered the loss of three giants. When Ken Tougas died at age 66 in May, he had only lived in town 20 short years. But the hole his passing has left among seriously active volunteers is cataclysmic. Tougas poured immense amounts of time, effort and care into his (many) pet projects: Toys For Tots, ChildSpree, the Morgan Hill Grange, the John Boccardo Family Living Center in San Martin, the Community Action Group (CAG) which serves the seniors, Kiwanis, the Lion’s Club and Cornerstone, Youth Advisory Committee, Youth Empowered for Success (YES).
Others have picked up the standard Tougas left behind but, his friends and co-volunteers say, it’s just not the same without him. Tougas was honored as the 1999 Showcase Man of the Year.
The second great loss was more historic. John Moreno, long-time police officer, police chief of mythical proportions, City Manager-and-council member-in-a-pinch, died Oct. 23 at 83. Moreno moved to town as a young man in the 1930s. He met and married the former Ellen Oberg, a Morgan Hill native, and stayed in town to bring the Morgan Hill Police Department from a two-man office into the modern age. Moreno’s spell as City Manager and councilman came at times where he truly rescued the city from disaster.
Moreno was vastly loved and respected by a wide range of people, several of whom spoke at his memorial service, everyone stressing what a fine and honorable man he was. Moreno was 1960 Showcase Man of the Year.
Henk Marselis died in August at age 63, taking with him years of dedication to the Mt. Madonna YMCA, Leadership Morgan Hill, St. John the Divine Episcopal Church and other lucky organizations in town. Henk’s service to the Y was acknowledged in November at the 16th Annual Philanthropy Day Awards Celebration.
• SCHOOL SHUFFLE
For several schools in the Morgan Hill School District, 2003 was a year of tremendous changes. The oldest school in the district, Machado Elementary, which housed first and second graders in a portable on the site of the original one-room school house, was closed at the end of the 2002-2003 school year. District officials cited the deteriorated condition of the portable, among other problems, and pledged to reopen the school at a later date.
Another school was closed and then re-opened under “new management” – Encinal Elementary, in south San Jose was closed at the end of the school year, the fourth, fifth and sixth grade students it housed moving to an expanding Los Paseos Elementary, also in south San Jose. When the former Encinal opened for the 2003-2004 school year, the Charter School of Morgan Hill had moved in. The school added an eighth grade this year, along with more than 100 students, to bring its enrollment to approximately 370.
Another school that saw big changes this year is the new Sobrato High School, located on Burnett Avenue. Scheduled to open in August 2004 after an October 2002 groundbreaking, the school has gone from an empty plot to a campus with a recognizable layout and buildings halfway completed.
A number of details have fallen into place, including former Live Oak Principal and then Co-Principal Rich Knapp being officially named Sobrato principal, the selection of school colors (maroon, black and white) and mascot (Bulldogs), the drawing of boundaries for the two high schools and registering Sobrato’s first students, next year’s ninth and 10th graders.
Sobrato started 2003 precariously, however, with newly elected School Board Trustees Shellé Thomas, Amina Khemici and Mike Hickey requesting a special board meeting to discuss the district’s financial ability to build and operate the school. At that time, the estimate cost to build the school was $72 million; by the end of the year, it had risen to close to $80 million.
Controversies during the year included board votes on eminent domain, as the district attempted to acquire property for the school and its surroundings, and the need for a crosswalk in front of the school, as well as a sidewalk down the opposite side of Burnett Avenue.
• SAN MARTIN
This unincorporated area of the county became a force to reckon with during 2003. The folks who live in San Martin chafed at being a “dumping ground” for projects rejected elsewhere, took matters in their own hands and investigated the pros and cons of cityhood in a sensible manner. They were also the folks hit hardest by perchlorate in their wells. Not waiting for rescue, they formed committees and stormed official meetings, insisting on being a part of the solution.
• BUTTERFIELD OPENS
When the fourth section of Butterfield Blvd. opened in November, the road jokingly named “The Road to Nowhere” finally went somewhere useful. The new four-lane arterial road now carries traffic from Cochrane Road south to Tennant Avenue, allowing quicker bypass of downtown for commuters and emergency vehicles alike.
Begun in 1992, each project came in under budget at $12.99 million for the city’s part. The extension through the Morgan Hill Ranch was partially paid for by developers of the business park.
Project Manager and Senior Engineer Julie Behzad said phase four was the most complex of all since the city had to work with 14 property owners to secure right-of-way and move or demolish homes. In all, the 2.44-mile completed road swallowed up parts of 25 properties.
The final phase for the road is to connect it with Watsonville Road, which Mayor Dennis Kennedy said is planned to happen before 2014, though no funds have been earmarked for the project.
“This will be the busiest street in town,” Kennedy said.
• AQUATIC CENTER
The City Council placed the Aquatic Center on a fast track this year, allowing the project to jump ahead of everything else in a quest to get the place open by Memorial Day 2004. Ground was broken on Aug. 21. The three-pool fantasy with plenty of water-related activities for professional swimmers and beginning water bunnies alike, is the dream of Mayor Dennis Kennedy, Councilman Larry Carr and most every swimming enthusiast in town.
The Morgan Hill Aquatic Foundation organized to provide financial backing for the center – it has – and to help keep the place open. The 50-meter Olympic sized competition pool will remain open all year while the free form recreational pool will be open only during the warm months.
Originally planned to cost $8 million, the total may now exceed $20 million. Whether the center, on Condit Road just north of Tennant Avenue, will earn enough in fees to pay for its operating and maintenance costs was a matter for discussion throughout the year.
• HEALTH CARE DILEMMA
Morgan Hill’s medical situation has been declining at an alarming rate since the Saint Louise Hospital closed in December 1999 and physicians, clinics and labs followed it out of town. The City Council mounted a valiant effort to bring medical services back, but with only limited success. During 2003, however, things began to move forward when the responsibility for beefing up area medical services was transferred to O’Connor Hospital, a group with more time, money and energy to devote to the problem. The O’Connor people promise things will look rosier by the end of 2004.
• DOWNTOWN
Morgan Hill’s downtown limped along during the year, hosting a successful Taste of Morgan Hill in September and parades in July and December and extending the Farmers Market to a year-round event. Restaurants shuffled about, with Sinaloa planning to reopen in Maurizio’s old site and Maurizio moving across Monterey Road to East First Street. The decision was still out on who will take over the soon-to-be-abandoned police building at Monterey and Main – El Toro Brewing Co. or the Rick Page consortium. Both are prepared to open family-oriented dining, entertainment and brew establishments.
But all was not well – Morgan Hill Florist closed its doors in December and several other businesses say they’ll decide soon whether or not to keep up the struggle even though owners reported better than average holiday sales. Adding sales that tanked right after Christmas onto the worst November anyone had seen in recent times, plus the pall a dark and shuttered Granada Theater cast over night time business, and the picture is dim.
An active downtown association working with the city produced a 10-year plan for the area, emphasizing mixed use, boutique shops and restaurants and heightened awareness of transportation, responding to changing demographics.
• THEATERS CLOSED
Morgan Hill became a city without a movie theater this year when Cinema Six in Tennant Station was bought by Cinelux Theaters and closed for a complete overhaul. It is expected to reopen, bigger and better, in mid-to-late January. The historic Granada theater, an anchor drawing people downtown, also closed but with a less optimistic future.
Owner Ed Enderson, looking for someone else to run the place (Enderson would like to retire – he’s 80) has just leased the theater to the new owners of the downtown mall. The future of both buildings, whether together or separate, is undetermined at year’s end. Stay tuned.
• PLAYHOUSE OPENS
The Morgan Hill Community Playhouse breathed new life into a 1920s church building when it opened in January after months of intensive renovation. Small, with only 184 seats, the theater is the third and final part of the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center, that also includes a classroom building rented by Gavilan College and the much larger community center at Monterey Road and East Dunne Avenue. The Playhouse is home to South Valley Civic Theatre and Easy Street Theater Company and has been the scene of several lectures, recitals and even a few religious services.
The finished Playhouse cost $3.5 million in Redevelopment Agency money – including $900,000 to buy the building and land from Temple Emmanuel church. Councilman Larry Carr told an opening night audience that “there isn’t a bad seat in the house.” The Playhouse is located on the southeast corner of Monterey Road and East Fifth Street. The opening night party on Jan. 31 displayed the talents of local and regional performers in ballet, opera, folk music, a string quartet and the SVCT troupe belting out Broadway musical numbers.
The Playhouse and community center rooms can be rented for almost any private event. Visit www.mhcommunitycenter.com or call 782-0008.
• MATH GOLF COURSE
Few local people will ever play on The Institute Golf Course, a private 18-hole course built for the American Institute of Mathematics and business associates by a group including John Fry of Fry’s Electronics but it kicked up quite a fuss in the area nonetheless.
The course was brought up to world class standards from an earlier and simpler course on the grounds of the old Flying Lady Restaurant on Foothill Avenue. But this was done largely without permits – according to the city – and without proper consideration of waterways, wildlife and downstream neighbors – according to environmentalists.
As city and golf course factions duked it out before the City Council, other residents whose building projects required proper permits accused the city’s planning department of having as a ‘double standard.’ City officials say everyone is held to the same standard; they just didn’t know what was going on out on Foothill Avenue. Now they do and they say the golf course will – eventually – follow the rules, just like Mr. and Ms. Public wanting to add a room to their house. A revised draft environmental impact report on the course’s effect on its surroundings is due for a close look early in the new year.
• AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Murphy Ranch, on the southeast corner of East Dunne Avenue and Butterfield Blvd. is the latest in the city’s efforts to provide affordable housing for very low income residents by joining with nonprofit housing groups. Sixty-eight Murphy Ranch units of 2- to-4 bedroom townhomes were built by First Community Housing and Redevelopment Agency money. They will rent between $383 to $1750 per month, depending on the number of bedrooms and the size and earning potential of the renting family. A second phase of 32 units is slated to begin construction in 2004.
Murphy Ranch is environmentally efficient and offers in-house washers and driers plus play yards and communal pool and entertainment areas.
The state mandates that each city must allow affordable housing and Morgan Hill has been commended by state and regional officials for doing better than most other cities. Villa Ciolino, another similar project, won a national design award in 2003; Jasmine Square, still another project, is under construction on Monterey Road, south of the post office. But that’s a story for 2004.
• COURTHOUSE
Though it isn’t scheduled to open before the end of 2005, a new county courthouse engaged a good deal of city council, staff and public time during 2003. The South County Justice Center, designed and paid for by Santa Clara County with a sizable $7 million Morgan Hill contribution, entered the realm of controversy when the council and community members objected to what they described as overly imposing architecture, not blending into local community design.
After a few borderline hostile letters and council meetings, city and county officials agreed to work nicely together to come up with an 80,000 square-foot, $40 million building that will fit into the neighborhood, allow space for a third city fire station and easy access to downtown restaurants and businesses for courthouse workers.
A secured underground area for off-loading prisoners calmed the fears of nearby residents that dangerous felons would escape into local neighborhoods.
• LIBRARY GRANT
After counting on state bond money to build two-thirds of a new library – with Redevelopment Agency money to fund the rest – and having the city’s grant proposals turned down twice, council members and library fans began looking for other ways to fund the much-needed building. A battle over remaining RDA funds with fans of a planned and much-wanted indoor recreation center looms over the new year.
• URBAN LIMIT LINE AND MEASURE P
Two hardworking committees of council members and the interested public spent much of 2003 wrestling with tricky Morgan Hill issues. One updated and, one hopes, improved Measure P, the city’s voter-approved slow growth initiative, and readying it for the March 2004 ballot. Proponents say the measure has kept Morgan Hill semi-rural and manageable, defining its charm. A second committee tackled drawing a line around the city designating certain areas to remain “green” or undeveloped, with the hope of maintaining the town’s somewhat rural atmosphere. While both committees were a bit contentious at times, both forged bravely ahead, working toward ends requested by residents.
• BUSINESS
Kmart packed up and left, taking 90 jobs and sales taxes that end up in the city’s general fund, paying for police and fire protection plus recreation programs. On the plus side, Comcast Communications opened a new call center this fall, bringing 400 jobs – but no sales taxes. By December, work had begun turning the old Kmart building into Home Depot, which is scheduled to open this spring.
On other fronts, the hotel business and retail sales in general (more depressing sales tax news) were still down. Though Christmas holiday sales were good, several businesses were not able to hold out. Business owners hope for a better 2004.
More about each of these top stories can be found at www.morganhilltimes.com
