Local officials sworn in
With newly elected trustees David Gerard, Gino Borgioli and Donna Foster-Ruebusch sworn in prior to the Dec. 9 board of education meeting, Morgan Hill Unified School District’s new seven-member caucus went right to work by electing a new president and vice president.“This is a wild and wonderful new experience,” said Foster-Ruebusch, a retired teacher who spent her career at Live Oak High School. “I have sat on the other side of this table for a long time, and I look very much forward to the next four years working with my colleagues.”Trustee Bob Benevento, who has been a member of the board since being appointed in 2011, was elected president by a 4-3 roll call vote to succeed former president Don Moody, whose 10 years of service ended with him not seeking re-election in November.A second 4-3 roll call vote followed with Trustee Ron Woolf, a retired MHUSD educator who was elected to the board in 2010 and re-elected to a second four-year term last month, winning the vice president seat. He replaces 12-year board veteran Shelle Thomas who also decided not to run in the general election.In both votes, for which trustees filled out ballots that were then read aloud to the audience inside the district office boardroom, Benevento, Foster-Ruebusch, Woolf and Trustee Amy Porter-Jensen—chiming in via a teleconference call from an offsite location—voted in the majority. Meanwhile, Trustee Rick Badillo, who was up for both the president and vice president spots, was given support from Gerard and Borgioli.“One of the reasons I ran for the board was to try to bring more community involvement into this board, and that’s one of the reasons I seconded the nomination for Rick Badillo,” said Gerard, praising Badillo’s completion of the California School Board Association’s Masters in Governance.“He’s shown to me that he’s an agile learner and I think that he would be someone who would continue to learn,” Gerard added.After Woolf’s motion to nominate Benevento was seconded by Foster-Ruebusch, Gerard did the same for Borgioli’s nomination of Badillo—who has sat on the board since 2012.“I’d like to thank the parents of Morgan Hill for the vote of confidence in me and the other candidates during the election,” Borgioli said. “I look forward to really working with everyone here at the district, listening to our parents and really bringing a lot more voices to the board.”Council incumbents sworn inMorgan Hill City Council members Rich Constantine and Gordon Siebert, along with Mayor Steve Tate, were also sworn this month. The three incumbents, beginning their next terms, took the oaths of office at the council’s Dec. 3 meeting.City Clerk Irma Torrez administered the oaths of office.Constantine and Siebert are both beginning their second four-year terms, while the mayor is in his fifth two-year term. All three candidates won re-election in the Nov. 4 general election.“I’m overjoyed the electorate was willing to return all of us to office so we can continue to make progress for the citizens of Morgan Hill,” Tate said after being sworn in. “And I want to thank my wife, Jennifer, for allowing me to do this.”
CalFire Santa Clara unit transitions out of wildfire season
Recent rains and cooler temperatures across the region have lowered the threat of wildfires, allowing CalFire’s Santa Clara Unit to transition out of fire season as of Dec. 8, 2014 at 8 a.m., according to a press release from CalFire. The transition takes place in Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa and the west side of Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties.Unit Chief Derek Witmer noted his thanks to “the public and our local government fire partners for assisting us in achieving our goal of keeping 90 percent of our fires 10 acres or less this fire season.”As drought conditions continue to have a hold on California, CalFire is maintaining staffing that meets the current threat, and will be strategically moving resources to areas that remain at a higher threat level, according to the press release. CalFire will also continue to monitor weather conditions closely and still has the ability to increase staffing should the weather conditions change or if there is a need to support wildfires in other areas of the state.The 2014 fire season has been an extremely active year, authorities said. Statewide, CalFire and firefighters from many local agencies battled more than 5,500 wildfires within the State Responsibility Area. These fires burned nearly 91,000 acres. This number is over 1,000 more wildfires than normal at this time of year. In the Santa Clara Unit, CalFire responded to 164 wildfires that charred 666 acres.Residents are urged to continue to take precautions outdoors in order to prevent sparking a wildfire, according to the press release. A leading cause of wildfires this time of year is from escaped agricultural burning. Before you burn, ensure it’s a permissive burn day by contacting the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.During burning, make sure piles of agricultural debris are no larger than established restrictions, and provide a 10 foot clearance down to bare mineral soil around the burn pile, authorities caution. Make sure a responsible adult is in attendance at all times with a water source and a shovel.For more ways to prevent sparking a wildfire, visit www.ReadyForWildfire.org.
The drought goes on
Despite November’s 1.87 inches of rain—a monthly high for drought-stricken 2014—and even more storms hitting South County through the first week of December, the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s board of directors enacted an extension of a 20 percent water reduction mandate through June 2015.“It’s still very dire,” Director Dennis Kennedy, who represents District 1 on the board, said of the district’s water supply in its reservoirs and aquifers which supply groundwater storage. “I can’t predict how long it will take to restore that. Even if we get an above average wet winter, we’re still not out of this yet.”The SCVWD board voted unanimously at its Nov. 25 meeting to extend the countywide water reduction measure that it first approved back in February. The board recommended measures be taken by retail water agencies, local municipalities and the county to reach that goal.Since February, countywide water use has dropped by about 12 percent compared to 2013, falling short of the 20 percent target, according to water officials. As a result, groundwater storage (at a range of 200,000-250,000 acre-feet) has reached the “severe” level of a five-stage scale, as defined by the district’s Water Shortage Contingency Plan. Anderson is at 37.1 percent capacity, according to the SCVWD website. Chesbro reservoir is empty and Uvas is at 2.1 percent capacity. Total surface water storage at the district’s 10 reservoirs is at 29 percent of capacity.Morgan Hill, one of the first cities in the county to adopt a resolution for a 20 percent water reduction, recorded a 24 percent water use reduction last month for a 16 percent cumulative rate since February, according to Kennedy. Gilroy is between 12-14 percent in overall reduction.“Gilroy is doing especially well in using recycled water,” said Kennedy, touting the impact of the South County Regional WasteWater Authority, which has been widely used at Gilroy and Eagle Ridge golf courses as well as Gilroy Gardens, Obata Farms, Cintas and Calpine Power Plant.“That’s been one of the big successes in South County,” Kennedy added.Also part of the latest resolution, the SCVWD board approved budget adjustments of $3.8 million to extend augmented water conservation programs and outreach campaigns until June 30, 2015.The district has already spent $7 million on reimbursing homeowners who participate in the landscape rebate program, which calls for residents to remove existing grass and replace it with “drought tolerant plants.” In doing so, participants are given $2 per square foot of turf removed. Morgan Hill added another $1 per square foot on top of that for its residents. For example, a resident stands to make $3,000 for every 1,000 square feet.“We want to keep that program alive because it has been very successful, and the good thing about it is it’s permanent and conserves water continuously,” Kennedy said. “Staff is having a hard time keeping up with the requests.”In 2014, the rebate program has seen a 500 percent increase in applications and rebates for the conversion of approximately 675,000 square feet of turf, according to water officials.Local farmer Andy Mariani, of the eponymous Andy’s Orchard in east Morgan Hill, hoped that Tuesday’s storm was a sign of more to come, as his water sources are becoming even more limited. Water officials cut off Mariani and other surface-water users from their main water source, the Half Road Lateral, earlier this year. That pipeline, which pumps water from San Luis Reservoir into the county’s treatment plant and Anderson Dam, was being used freely by several agricultural and landscaping users.Stormy weather has dropped another 1.93 inches of rain in the first two days of December, according to the National Weather Service Forecaster Diana Henderson. Showers continued through Wednesday afternoon (measurements were not available until after presstime) and scattered showers are expected for Dec. 4-5 with the next storm set to hit mid to late next week, Henderson said.Along with the limited rainfall, Mariani said he’s been able to “limp along this year” by using water from a well at nearby Chiala Farms to irrigate his decades-old orchard. But that water source will be cut off when the Chialas begin to plant peppers, according to Mariani.“Our only hope is it rains significantly more, and then maybe the district allows us to get water from them,” said Mariani, who also is looking to install a new water pump into an old well. “It’s going to be a precarious year, regardless.”Despite the continuing drought conditions, Kennedy said the Anderson Dam Seismic Retrofit Project, which is scheduled to start at the end of 2015, is still “proceeding full speed ahead with engineering and environmental work.”Kennedy added that water officials have been in contact with the state’s Division of Dam Safety to see if there is a possibility to delay the project since Anderson is being used as an “emergency reserve” with water pumped in from San Luis. Rebuilding or retrofitting the dam will require draining the reservoir.“We are having those discussions, but to my knowledge we do not have an agreement or approval to delay it,” Kennedy said.
