Last weekend, 22 student volunteers from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Police Academy helped stretch the resources of Morgan Hill’s Park Maintenance Division.
Students completed landscape clean-up tasks in an assessment district park on the city’s west side. Nominal fees assessed along with residents’ property taxes help keep assessment district areas at basic maintenance levels. Daryl McChristian, student president of the co-ed academy, initially contacted the city in search of a community-oriented project (the Academy is located at Boys’ Ranch in Morgan Hill). After completing the project, academy students spent the remaining afternoon at the boys’ facility talking with the young men about life choices and future opportunities. Anne Beale, supervisor of the city’s Parks and Streets divisions, praised the academy effort as “an outstanding job of removing excess vegetation that now improves security and allows more native vegetation to grow job, at no additional cost to the city or to residents.” Organizations, businesses, and groups looking for similar community-help projects can contact Beale at: an********@mo*********.gov, or (408) 776-7333.
