Memorial for loved council member missing Behind the Morgan Hill
City Hall is an empty cement foundation that once held a memorial
to City Council Member Jan Smith.
Memorial for loved council member missing
Behind the Morgan Hill City Hall is an empty cement foundation that once held a memorial to City Council Member Jan Smith. The memorial was removed for landscaping, which has been done for a couple of years, but the memorial has not been replaced. I have inquired at the information desk in City Hall, leaving my name and phone number, and have had no response.
Tragically, the memorial to the former council member somehow got broken. Lisa Lewis, Mayor Dennis Kennedy’s secretary, said the city isn’t clear how the plaque got broken except that they are in the process of replacing it. So keep an eye out for a shiny new memorial of the late Jan Smith who lost her battle with lung cancer Aug. 20, 1996. Smith, who joined the Morgan Hill City Council in 1992 following special election after three council members were recalled, was a strong advocate for slow growth, environmental protections, rights for women and minorities and anti-nuclear proliferation. The former planning commissioner and Chamber of Commerce board member – among other community service positions – was honored with the chamber’s Woman of the Year before she died.
We’ve sprung a leak?
On West Main Street, just to the west of the landscaped area in front of the Historical Museum about three feet from the sidewalk, is a broken water pipe. There has been water flowing from this pipe for several weeks, making a marshy area. Can you find out who is responsible and see if it can be fixed before the Museum is moved?
Red Phone and the city both went out to the Acton House to investigate the problem, however neither of us could find a leak. Jim Ashcraft, director of public works, said there was a leak closer to city hall that had been there for several weeks and created a mess, but they have fixed it. If we happen to over look something, please give public works a call at 779-7337.
News Flash: The writer who originally addressed the query to re******@mo*************.com sent a follow-up stating the problem had been fixed.
A peak by any other name
Being a long-time resident of Morgan Hill for the past 46+ years it makes me very angry when someone refers to the mountain that I live under as El Toro. It has always been and will always be Murphy’s Peak. Just because a stupid councilwoman made the change doesn’t mean we old timers support it.
Jim Rowe, planning manager for Morgan Hill, said the official name of the peak is El Toro appointed by the state in the 1970s. According to a Morgan Hill Times article from March 2004, the distinctive peak overlooking Morgan Hill has been called a variety of names over the years: Murphy’s Peak, 21-mile Peak, Nob Hill, Morgan “Hill,” Oreja del Ojo (Bear’s Eye), Ojo de Coche (Pig’s Eye), Loma de Toro (Bull’s Hill) and by its present name El Toro (The Bull). No one knows exactly when the peak became known as El Toro, but it appears to have been named during the Mexican period between 1822-46. However, some still argue that the mountain is Murphy’s Peak, a designation applied when it was simply a piece of real estate owned by the Murphy family.
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