No Irish need Apply?
I read in The Times that the police will hold a DUI checkpoint on St. Patrick’s Day. Why are they singling out the Irish? Do they do this on Cinco de Mayo, the Fourth of July or Chinese New Year?
“No, we’re not picking on the Irish,” said MHPD Lt. Terrie Booten, who oversees traffic patrols.
The department received a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety allowing MHPD to set up five checkpoints over the course of the year.
Booten said they will target those times when the safety of the public is put at risk: holidays often associated with unrestrained alcohol consumption. Besides St. Patrick’s Day, they include Memorial Day and Labor Day.
“We may even set one up at the beginning of summer,” Booten said.
The purpose of these checkpoints is twofold: to education the public about the dangers of drinking and driving and arresting those who are driving with blood alcohol levels over the legal limit of .08 percent.
Tennant’s Tenant
I’m calling with a compliment. I really, really treasure the article that Carol Holzgrafe wrote about the man behind Tennant Station (William Tennant, 1830-1885). Please publish more articles like that. It was really fun to read about the history.
We’re thrilled that you think so, caller. And, yes, there will be more stories like that as we approach Morgan Hill’s Centennial in 2006, and an orgy of history stories during the Centennial year.
Since The Times newspaper will be 119 years old as of April 12, we have archives to die for and we intend to use them.
In fact, when the latest in mountain lion meets the public stories ran last March, we were able to reprint the original stories of the lion attack on Isola Kennedy and a small boy in 1909 and, a month later, reports of their deaths from rabies.
Besides working as our city reporter, Holzgrafe is an unreformed history buff, a member of the Morgan Hill Historical Society and gives tours most Saturday mornings (10am-1pm) at the old Hiram Morgan Hill House at Villa Mira Monte, 17860 Monterey Road.
Stop by sometime and hear more about the town’s history and, especially, about the Hill and Murphy families. Bring the kids; Holzgrafe is quite capable of entertaining them with age-appropriate tales. If you want to be sure she will be on duty, call 779-4106, x201 or 779-3563.
By the way, the Historical Society will lead the annual Hike Up El Toro on Saturday, April 3, 8 and 10am from the museum, 600 W. Main.
Dress appropriately.
n The Red Phone sounds off Saturday in The Times.
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