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Standing atop the rubble that was the old South Valley Bikes building April 20, city officials and business leaders shared memories of the site’s storied past and reflected on the future of downtown Morgan Hill.“Up and down the Peninsula, Morgan Hill is the city that people are talking about” when it comes to downtown development, said Dan McCranie, owner of the former South Valley Bikes site on the corner of Second Street and Monterey Road. “Very few downtowns are able to do this,” he added, referring to the multitude of city and private projects in progress and recently completed to spruce up the neighborhood.McCranie addressed the crowd of elected and paid City Hall officials and fellow businesspeople while standing atop a wooden plank sign—likely from around 1910—that advertised Edes Brothers hardware and grocery store, the first business that ever occupied the site. The crowd was also surrounded by the piled and scattered remains of the South Valley Bikes building, the demolition of which was freshly completed the morning of April 20.The building, which has remained vacant the last few years, has a rich history that holds fond memories for many longtime Morgan Hill residents.“Several prominent businesses were here for a long time,” said Morgan Hill Building Inspector Ken Deluna. His uncle, Al Statti, ran Corner Drug Store on the site from the 1960s until he retired in the 1980s. The store had a soda fountain and was a “typical small town” drug store, Deluna said.“As a young kid I used to come in on the weekends and sweep the floors and change the lights,” Deluna said.McCranie plans to build a multi-story retail, dining and entertainment development on the site. But before that, he will work with City Hall to temporarily relocate its “pop-up park” to the property once it’s cleaned up. The pop-up park is now at the corner of Monterey Road and Third Street, but the new owner of that site plans to start construction on a four-restaurant, two-building complex later this year.As for the long-term future plans for a permanent development on the site, McCranie isn’t offering a lot of details yet but said “classic retail” will be featured on the ground floor, with “dining, lounge and entertainment” uses on the upper floors.“Obviously, the last five years have shown extraordinary growth in downtown Morgan Hill,” McCranie said. “The one thing that’s not yet showing great growth is classic retail.”The Edes family was on the property first, running their hardware store for a couple decades starting around 1910, Deluna explained.Susan Edes, wife of Morgan Hill resident Tim Edes, showed up at the April 20 ceremony to accept the store’s sign that has remained inside the building for more than 100 years. McCranie offered the sign to the Edes’ descendants.After the Edes moved out, Telfer Grocery Store, owned and operated by John Telfer, moved in. Telfer’s grandson is current Morgan Hill resident and real estate broker John Telfer. He has no recollection of the store as it was there before he was born. His grandfather was a blacksmith, with a shop north of the South Valley Bikes site in downtown, before he opened the grocery store. He moved to Morgan Hill about 1906.“He decided blacksmithing didn’t have much future to it, and that’s when they went into the grocery business,” Telfer said. Telfer’s father Ernest and uncle Alec were part of the family business, and ran the store after it moved north, about where the Goodwill store is now on Monterey Road.His grandfather died in 1948 after he was struck by a vehicle while walking across Monterey Road, Telfer said.He added it “would be kind of cool” if McCranie could hang some historical photographs of the different businesses from that site on the walls of the new establishment he plans to build on the corner.After Telfer moved out, Squeri Brothers Hardware moved to the property on the corner of Second Street and Monterey Road, Deluna added. That store occupied the site through the 1950s. Then Statti’s Corner Drug Store moved in, and then South Valley Bikes in the 1980s.McCranie—who is also the owner of Ladera Grill restaurant down the street—purchased the property in 2012, with his son, for about $700,000.McCranie credited the city’s staff and elected officials, as well as nonprofit and business organizations for facilitating recent downtown improvements and future development of sites like the Granada Theater, Downtown Mall, BookSmart shopping center and the former liquor store at Third and Monterey.“I hope we’ll have a lot more memories in the new facility,” McCranie added.

Morgan Hill police arrested a 69-year-old man April 25 on suspicion of sexually assaulting a female minor, according to authorities.About 9 p.m. April 25, MHPD officers were called to a home on the 18000 block of Saint Marks Avenue. Police arrived at the residence and learned that suspect Joseph Davis had sexually assaulted the victim, according to police.Davis was taken into custody and transported to the Morgan Hill police station, police said. He was later booked at Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of multiple incidents of lewd and lascivious acts on a minor.Anyone who has information on this incident or may have been a victim can call MHPD Detective Pevehouse at (669) 253-4914.

The trial for the Morgan Hill man accused of kidnapping and murdering Sierra LaMar was delayed again, as attorneys continue to squabble over the sharing of evidence processed by the county crime lab during the investigation of the 2012 case.The latest delay, which pushes the trial date to May 23, stems from the defense’s insistence on reviewing the state's DNA evidence that includes the genetic makeup of people other than the defendant.However, prosecutors from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office maintain that it is the defendant’s attorneys who have been dragging their feet in handing over their list of witnesses and other evidence they plan to present during the upcoming trial.Antolin Garcia Torres, 24, appeared in court April 25 at the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice in San Jose. Garcia Torres’ attorneys said they were not prepared to go to trial as scheduled at that hearing. The judge set a hearing for May 9 to discuss a previous motion by the defendant to gather more evidence from the District Attorney’s Office, according to court documents.The judge also set a trial date of May 23 at the Hall of Justice. If the DA and defendant are prepared to proceed to the trial, jury selection would likely begin at that time.Despite the finger pointing on the shortage of and delays in sharing evidence, an April 22 order by Judge Deborah A. Ryan worked out in the defendant’s favor. This mandate ordered the DA’s office to provide the defense with “a two to four centimeter portion of evidence,” described as a hair “collected from a white rope seized from Mr. Garcia Torres’ red Jetta.”The segment of the hair, described as 29 centimeters in total length, was ordered to be shared with the defense attorneys’ chosen third-party laboratory that specializes in “mitochondrial testing.” The hair has already been tested by the county crime lab, according to the order.Garcia Torres is charged with murder and a special circumstance of kidnapping in relation to the disappearance of Sierra. The 15-year-old sophomore at Sobrato High School was last seen March 16, 2012. She vanished while walking to the school bus stop near her north Morgan Hill home near Palm and Dougherty avenues, according to police.The DA’s office is seeking the death penalty for Garcia Torres.Earlier this month, Garcia Torres’ attorneys filed a motion to compel the DA’s Office to provide more of the DNA evidence collected by authorities during the investigation. Specifically, defense attorney Alfonso Lopez is seeking “DNA profiles of individuals who are not defendants,” whose genetic material was found on Sierra’s belongings during the investigation.The defense filed the “motion to compel” March 11. This motion also notes that investigators found the DNA of 11 individuals, other than Garcia Torres, on items related to the investigation.“Without adequate defense consultation based on a thorough investigation of all the crucial DNA evidence, defense counsel would be rendered ineffective in their cross-examination of the government experts,” reads the March 11 motion.“The DNA evidence in this case is not reliable as it is subject to human error based on incorrect assumptions which must be independently investigated by the defense,” the motion continues.The state’s case against Garcia Torres rests partly on DNA evidence. Investigators allegedly found Sierra’s DNA in Garcia Torres’ vehicle after he was arrested, and found Garcia Torres’ DNA on Sierra’s clothing which was found in a field near Sierra’s home in the days after the teen disappeared.Deputy DA Dana Veazey has expressed his own frustration with defense attorneys’ alleged delays in revealing the evidence they plan to present in the upcoming trial. In a March 23 motion, Boyd noted that the defendant’s attorneys have not provided evidence first requested in February 2015.  Specifically, the DA is seeking a list of witnesses the defense intends to call to the stand; any audio, video or photograph evidence; expert reports; results of any mental examinations, scientific tests and experiments.“The People have provided over 500 compact discs and over 20,000 pages of material relating to four separate criminal events,” the motion states. “The People’s case rests on eyewitness testimony, forensic DNA, fingerprint and trace evidence, computer searches and cell phone data.”The other cases referenced in the motion are three attempted carjackings that occurred in 2009 in the parking lots of two Morgan Hill Safeway grocery stores. These incidents are unrelated to Sierra’s disappearance, but Garcia Torres is accused of attempting to assault three women by following them to their vehicles in the parking lots late at night.Investigators have not recovered Sierra’s remains or found any evidence that indicates the location of her body.Volunteers have continued to search for Sierra’s remains since she went missing. Roger Nelson, one of those volunteers who has persisted with the effort for more than four years, attended the April 25 hearing.“I know that everyone has been hoping for a long time that the trial would begin and, ultimately, that justice for Sierra LaMar would be served, and it would result in Sierra being returned to her family,” Nelson said.

Santa Clara County residents will pay a half-cent sales tax to improve roads, trains, bike and pedestrian paths to the tune of $6 billion, if a major group representing the top businesses in Silicon Valley has its way.“We heard a rumor that traffic is back and our roads are pockmarked with potholes,” said Carl Guardino, CEO of Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG), a public policy trade association that is currently lobbying for a transportation funding measure for the region.For more than 3½ years, the group, which represents nearly 400 companies in Silicon Valley, has been working on a comprehensive transportation plan they say relieves traffic, fixes local streets and roads and increases transit options for county commuters.The group hopes the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) board will consider its plan at an April 22 board workshop, where it will discuss a number of transportation proposals, including results of a two-year public/private process called Envision Silicon Valley that sought input on identifying potential transportation projects that could be funded through a ballot initiative.   While SVLG did participate in the Envision Silicon Valley process, it created its own parallel plan after consulting with transportation professionals, and relevant staff at VTA and the 16 county jurisdictions.SVLG believes it has crafted a consensus plan for the valley that is equitable to all and addresses major transportation issues.Including big projects like the completion of the BART extension to San Jose, the proposal also includes up to $135 million worth of upgrades to the Santa Teresa and Hale corridor, and improvements to U.S. 101 and the 101-Hwy. 25 interchange in Gilroy.The proposal also earmarks $1.2 billion for street maintenance and pothole repair across the 16 county jurisdictions. Gilroy’s allocation of that total is nearly $30 million.SVLG’s draft expenditure plan also includes $600 million for Caltrain safety improvements and grade separations as well as another $314 million in Caltrain modernization and capacity improvements. These allocations would be made over a 30-year period.This will benefit Gilroy and South County residents by improving the safety, capacity and efficiency of Caltrain throughout the corridor, said Chris O’Connor, SVLG senior associate in transportation and housing.“It is estimated that the improvements funded in this measure, along with Caltrain electrification, will more than double the capacity of Caltrain,” he added.Also benefiting Morgan Hill would be the extension of Santa Teresa Boulevard and Hale Avenue to make a seamless bypass around downtown through the west side of the city, according to Morgan Hill Councilman Rich Constantine. This project has been in the planning stages for decades, but has never gained the necessary funding. The city’s Redevelopment Agency was prepared to start digging on the Santa Teresa/Hale project in 2011, but the state shut down the agency, cutting off future property tax funding.The completion of Santa Teresa/Hale would allow the city to implement “traffic calming” measures in order to stimulate the downtown and improve safety by diverting through traffic, Constantine said.“A lot of the groundwork has already been laid down to put the road in,” Constantine said.  “It would be very beneficial for future traffic calming and the flow of traffic we have now.”Identified projects would be funded by a half-cent sales tax in Santa Clara County that would run for 30 years, generating nearly $6 billion.   If the VTA board moves forward with placing a transportation funding initiative on the November ballot and it passes, sales tax would start being collected in July 2017.Guardino said there is voter support for such a sales tax measure. According to four polls conducted since August 2015, 64 to 68 percent of county voters said they were in favor of a transportation-only sales tax measure.A 2014 study showed that people in the Bay Area spend 64 hours a year in excess traffic—above and beyond the normal commute, said Guardino, almost two work weeks stuck in traffic. Only New York and Los Angeles have worse traffic.Up to 80 percent of Gilroy workers commute to jobs, primarily north of the city.Greg Becker, CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, which has 2,100 employees internationally and 750 in the Bay Area, says the “noise” of people complaining about traffic, both in his company and among his clients, is getting louder.“Housing costs and congestion are two of the big factors that come into play,” he says, in keeping companies and employees here.“How much time you are spending in your car getting from Point A to Point B? The Bay Area will always be expensive but you have to create the opportunity for people to live in lower cost areas. If that’s taken away, you force people to think about other alternatives.”His bank, which represents cutting edge technology companies, has opened a branch in Arizona, in part to handle the pressure of business in SIlicon Valley. “People are wanting to move down there. It's just too expensive here.”The funding proposal provides a mix of improvements that benefit both those who drive to work and those who ride mass transit.“People can sit on trains and get work done,” said Becker. “For the most part, sitting in traffic is dead time. That’s why mass transportation is one of the key parts—fixing BART, getting higher capacity on Caltrain. Not just fixing the roads.”

Gilroy residents hoping to experience authentic Italian cuisine need look no further than Sweet Sicily. The new Italian style coffee bar and bistro opened in late February and business has been booming since.

Whether you’re eating 3,000 calories a day or 1,500, it’s hard not to snack periodically throughout. However, too many people tend to make poor choices when it comes to snacking, selecting foods that are high in calories, sugar and void of key nutrients. Here are some healthy, tasty snack options that won’t bust your waistline and will hold you over until it’s time for the main meal.

One of the best things about gardening in Santa Clara County is that, no matter how big your garden or how long you’ve been doing it, you get the sense that we’re all in it together. A heat wave can wilt a single patio garden tomato as easily a 100-foot row of lettuce. Aphids don’t care if you’ve been gardening for 30 years or just planted kale for the first time with your fingers crossed. They will find you! And so it goes with fruit trees when spring rolls around. Whether you have acres of orchards or a lone apricot in the backyard, it’s time to start thinking about thinning your fruit.