By Different picture of child care story
Sara Ballenger’s Oct. 17 front page article on child care in Los Altos was quite interesting, though in several respects, quite inaccurate. As the senior warden of the Christ Episcopal Church Vestry (the governing board), and as the author of the lease between the church and Early Horizons, I have quite a different picture of the events leading up to Early Horizons relocating to Christ Church.
Once the Packard Foundation had assisted the various day care centers and pre-schools in locating possible relocation sites, all interaction was directly between the parties. One of our parishioners, Ed White, met frequently with Early Horizons personnel to understand their needs and negotiate the terms of the tenancy. He took the steps to receive the necessary permits.
Any notion that all costs of “renovation to bring the buildings up to code” were paid by Early Horizons is wrong. Christ Church not only accommodated the disruptions to our services by the Early Horizons renovations, we also spent a substantial amount of money to meet code and use permit requirements.
The article also suggests that the schools faced dramatic increases in rent, implying that the landlords were taking advantage of their difficult circumstances. Early Horizons’ rent may be higher than at Covington School, but the square footage being used increased by many multiples.
We have also given up a sizeable portion of our parking lot to allow a large playground. Our goal is to cover the expense of having Early Horizons at our facility. We expect to meet that goal, but do not expect any windfall profit.
We have provided a new home for Early Horizons and enabled them to expand, not contract, their services. We have done this at considerable cost and at the expense of some of our own programs. It would have been nice if Ms. Ballenger had chosen to interview anyone at the church. We’re not looking for kudos, but we do not appreciate the suggestion that opening our facility to Early Horizons resulted from the efforts of others and at great profit to ourselves, rather than as a service to the community of which we are proud to be a part.
Rick BellLos Altos
Rancho architect left indelible mark
As the wife of one of the original tenants of Rancho (John D. Lopes, M.D.), I wish to add a few words to my friend Frances Maas’ excellent article (Nov. 7). There was no mention of the extremely talented architect who put this all together. His name was Harold Johann Bakke and his genius is seen throughout the center and surrounding homes. Unfortunately, some are being razed and replaced with monstrosities.
Chris Wilder was a wonderfully kind and generous man to us.
Jeall R. LopesSonoma
Other woman did become a star
The picture on page 8 of the Nov. 7 Town Crier shows two young thespians from 1967. Diane Wiesner may not have become “a famous star” but the other actress in the picture, Jane Anderson, has done very well in theater. She’s been in movies, on TV and off Broadway as an actress. Now this 1972 Los Altos High School graduate is an award-winning Hollywood writer. Her movies and TV scripts have been well received.
Sue Senger(No address given)
Serve one master, not two
The mayor of Los Altos Hills, Toni Casey, has gone bicoastal with her appointment to a federal position in the Small Business Administration, which will require her spending considerable time in Washington, D.C., at the expense of her constituents in Los Altos Hills.
With all the responsibilities of a sub-Cabinet level position, she still wants to hang on to her council seat. It is prudent to ask how well she can perform here, providing constituent services, approving variances, preparing agendas, reading staff reports and keeping up with the numerous responsibilities of being mayor while giving an honest day’s work to the Bush administration.
She has already missed one council meeting due to a conflict with her federal position.
Maybe it’s time to hang it up in Los Altos Hills and serve one master instead of two.
William C. Downey
Los Altos Hills
