Election: Lines drawn on Morgan Hill Measure S
The City of Morgan Hill’s Measure S has turned the widely accepted local concept of growth control into perhaps the most hot-button issue in an election where incumbents and challengers are, to varying extents, staking their own campaigns on the success or failure of the Nov. 8 ballot question.
Fall garden markets
Many cool season vegetables can be planted in our South County gardens in the fall. During our winters, nature helps with the watering, and there are fewer weeds and pests. Cool season vegetables include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, kale and beets. The UCCE Master Gardeners have Fall Garden Markets scheduled in Gilroy and Morgan Hill, with varieties especially well-suited to the southern end of the county.
Appraisals
The primary way lenders establish the value of a home, either for a purchase transaction or a refinance, is through a Residential Appraisal Report.
MHPD: Teen accident highlights dangers of DUI
A teenage driver was arrested on suspicion of impaired driving Sept. 17 after crashing into a tree and then two vehicles, including one occupied by a family with young children, according to police.The accident occurred about 11 a.m. on Butterfield Boulevard near Digital Drive, reads a post on the Morgan Hill Police Department’s Facebook page. Authorities did not release any information about the juvenile driver, other than he or she registered more than twice the legal blood alcohol content of .08 allowed for an adult driver.“Fortunately this collision did not result in any major injuries but it was 100 percent preventable,” reads the MHPD’s post.Police posted a narrative of the accident, with photos of the impaired teen’s wrecked Ford Mustang, in order to alert and remind residents of the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the post explains.The teen was traveling northbound on Butterfield when the driver lost control of the vehicle, which left the roadway and hit a tree in the center divide, police said. The tree was ripped from the stump and lodged in the front of the teen’s Mustang, according to police. The vehicle continued moving into the southbound lane and struck the other two vehicles. One of these vehicles was carrying a family with two children.“This post is not meant to create a forum of judgment, it is to encourage you to talk to your children about the dangers of driving after drinking alcohol,” the post continues.A DUI offense for a driver younger than 21 can result in a minimum one-year driver license suspension, mandatory alcohol education classes and fines, according to authorities. State law has zero tolerance for a minor driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.For more information on underage DUI, distracted driving and teen driving, MHPD suggests two websites: the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (nhtsa.gov/impaired) and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (madd.org).
Sip and savor
Revered in the wine world, Josh Jensen is the winemaker at Calera Wine. He’s graced the cover of Wine Spectator and Jensen’s pinot noirs are known the world over.So it was during their recent Summer Social & Sliders event that I made my pinot pilgrimage to Calera, to sip and savor wine made from grapevines grown in limestone soil at the site of a former limekiln. Arriving at the winery I was immediately awed by the views provided by the majestic Diablo Mountains.My tasting started inside the cool barrel room with a glass of 2014 Central Coast Chardonnay ($20), awarded “Best Value!” by Wine & Spirits Magazine. Next up was a “spunky and fun” 2015 Pinot Noir Rose—just right for summertime picnics.Although 19 different pinot noirs, all estate grown and from different vineyard blocks, are available for purchase, for the day’s event we were treated to a vertical tasting of pinots from the Jensen Mt. Harlan block: two library and one 2012 release.The pinots were poured next to the outside tent filled with gourmet sliders. Surprisingly, the 2005 Pinot Noir ($94) is still a fabulous wine, showing rich and complex layers of ripe raspberry and Bing cherry. The 2009 Pinot Noir ($104) is silky with sweet spice topping the dense raspberry and cherry cola flavors. Layers of sweet raspberry jam and tart rhubarb give way to leathery notes on the finish of the 2012 Pinot Noir ($92).Taking in the views, I savored the tasty bites and sipped these extraordinary wines.
Gavilan Election: What you need to know
On the heels of hiring a new president, Gavilan Community College in Gilroy will soon have a new trustee.Two candidates, Danielle Davenport and Rachel Perez, will vie for the only contested seat in the Nov. 8 election for the Gavilan Joint Community College District. Two other seats are uncontested so voters can choose only the incumbent in each.It will mark the first time trustees are seated under the college’s new district election format. Previously, they were elected at-large from the attendance area, which encompasses 2,700 square miles in San Benito County, and Gilroy, Morgan Hill, San Martin and parts of south San Jose in Santa Clara County.Also under the old system, the board had to be made up of two trustees each from the Gilroy and Morgan Hill unified school districts and three from San Benito High School District.In the new election format, representation from Santa Clara County will be slightly stronger than from San Benito County.Four trustees must live in Santa Clara County, two in San Benito County and the seventh can live in either county.Under the new format approved by trustees last year, the attendance area was subdivided into seven Trustee Areas (TAs), each roughly balanced in numbers (24,000 based on the 2010 U.S. Census) and demographic characteristics, including ethnicity.The change was made following pressure from Latino groups that claimed Latinos were at a disadvantage under the old system, a violation of the Federal Voting Right Act.Now, candidates can run only from the area in which they live. Voters cast ballots only for candidates who live in their area.Elections under the new system, like the old, are staggered so that all seats are not open at the same time. This year, seats in TAs 2, 4 and 6 will be filled.Davenport, of San Martin, and Perez, of Gilroy, are vying for the T6 seat. That trustee area is the only one that includes parts of Santa Clara and San Benito counties.Incumbent Jonathan Brusco of Morgan Hill is running unopposed in TA2, while board colleague Mark Dover of Gilroy is unchallenged in TA4.The San Benito and Santa Clara County election offices consolidate the trustees’ election with the November general election under contract with Gavilan College.On June 14, the college board voted unanimously to hire Kathleen Rose as the school’s superintendent/president.Previously she was Gavilan’s executive vice president and head of instruction. Rose held that post for seven years before succeeding the retiring president, Steve Kinsella.Gavilan College has a 2016-17 operating budget of $43.5 million, with another $33 million in Measure E capital project expenditures, federal financial aid monies and the Associated Students fund, according to Jan Bernstein Chargin, director of public information.The college enrolled 8,572 students for the 2016 spring semester. Of those, 71 percent were part-time, 19 percent were full-time and 9 percent were non-credit students, she said.It has a full-time faculty of 207 and 270 part-time teachers and other staff.In addition to its main campus in Gilroy, Gavilan operates learning centers in Morgan Hill and Hollister and will open another in the Coyote Valley in South San Jose.The college started nearly a century ago as San Benito Junior College in Hollister, became a joint community college in 1963 with the addition of south Santa Clara County to its service area and built its main Gilroy campus on Santa Teresa Boulevard in the late 1960s. In 2019 the school will celebrate its centennial anniversary.
Meet the council candidates: Rene Spring
Editor's note: This article was originally published Feb. 8, 2016.Campaign season for the November 2016 city election is underway, as Planning Commissioner Rene Spring has formally announced his candidacy for one of two City Council seats up for grabs.Spring, 52, is running on a platform that consists of slowing down the growth that Morgan Hill has seen in recent years, and planning for “smart” growth in the future.“I’m really worried about the direction our town is going,” Spring said. “I don’t know anyone who moved to Morgan Hill for the urban experience. I’m really worried about the explosion of buildings we’ve seen across town. As a planning commissioner, I’m really worried about some of the policies the council still has in place that enable this to happen.”Spring is a 12-year resident of Morgan Hill, having immigrated to the U.S. from Switzerland a few years before he moved here.He has served on the seven-member planning commission since 2012. Members of that body are appointed by the elected City Council.“The council doesn’t want to change. They cater to the builders and developers,” Spring added.He doesn’t think some of the council’s recent key decisions on land use reflect how the majority of Morgan Hill residents feel. He cited the Southeast Quadrant project as an example, where the council has regularly advocated an annexation and “Sports-Recreation-Leisure” plan for the agricultural area for more than a decade, despite the protests of other local agencies and residents who insist the effort is not compatible with its surroundings.“When (the SEQ) came up, I strongly advocated including that in the General Plan Update,” Spring said. The City Council two years ago declined to include the projected commercial growth of the SEQ—which would include a private Catholic high school if it gains approval from the county—in the General Plan Update effort. “It will not do anything to preserve our agriculture in the Southeast Quadrant.”Another “eye opener” on the commission, for Spring, was when the Oak Meadows annexation project in west Morgan Hill. On that agricultural property, the owner planned to build up to 48 new homes. “I thought that was a beautiful area. When it came up (at a planning commission meeting), I was the only commissioner that voted against the project,” Spring said.The current council last year ultimately rejected the Oak Meadow annexation by a 3-2 vote.“We need to stop annexing land outside our city as long as we have lots of land inside our Urban Service Area,” Spring added.Spring added he has also differed with the current council on the conversion of industrial land to residential and commercial. “We want companies to move down here and make this land available for well-paying jobs.”Furthermore, Spring said the city’s downtown plans suffer from safety shortfalls, and have forced small businesses to move out to the detriment of the city.“I do not think (the downtown) is family friendly,” he said. “It is unsafe, especially for kids. I want to keep our innovative and community-building small businesses in downtown, and we need to attract other business.”Two council seats up for election in November 2016 are currently held by incumbents Larry Carr and Marilyn Librers, neither of whom has formally announced their intent to run for re-election. Councilmembers serve four-year terms.The mayor’s seat, currently occupied by five-term incumbent Steve Tate, will appear on that ballot as well. The mayor’s term is for two years.The city election will take place Nov. 8.Spring is Director of Program Management for Cadence Design Systems. He has served on the board of directors for Leadership Morgan Hill, and is currently President of the Board of Directors for the Morgan Hill Community Foundation.
