Creek help or hassle?

Residents, city divided on intent of controversial plan to protect local waterways

The Los Altos Planning Commission has temporarily withdrawn a proposed creekside protection ordinance amid mounting pressure from residents who believed the proposal would do more harm than good.

Fireman’s bell tolls sad refrain in memory of 9/11

Town Crier Staff Report

Community events in Los Altos and Mountain View pay tribute to 9/11 heroes and victims

LA theater site clears legal hurdle

City attorney says city can develop site

Movie theater plans for the parking lot adjacent to Bandera Restaurant in downtown Los Altos last week cleared initial legal hurdles that could have prevented the development of the city-owned site. An architect is scheduled to begin developing a Request for Proposal detailing the project’s specifics to developers.

LAH subdivision approval incites surrounding residents

For Bill Kerns, the Los Altos Hills Planning Commission’s approval last week of steps toward subdividing his Francemont Drive property meant leaping yet another hurdle in the difficult process of building his hilltop dream home. For surrounding residents and others, the commission’s approval flew in the face of reason and perhaps the town’s own regulations.

Kerns’ proposal comes at a time when he is running for a seat on the Los Altos Hills City Council and currently sits on the planning commission. Kerns recused himself from voting in last Thursday’s unanimous decision to approve a negative declaration and tentative parcel map, both vital steps toward subdividing his steep-sloped property. The proposed subdivision goes before the city council Oct. 3.

News Briefs

Los Altos reserve police officer Barbara Gilmore was one of six officers statewide to receive a Meritorious Service Award from the California Reserve Police Officers Association last month at its 25th annual meeting in Sacramento.

There are between 10,000 and 15,000 reserve officers in California. Reserve officers are volunteers who receive the same training as regular officers and work alongside them.

Police Report

Sept. 12, 3:28 p.m., Grant Road: Police reported a hit- and-run accident with no injuries.

Stolen property

Winbigler owners fined $27,000 and asked to bring plans back to drawing board

The Los Altos Hills couple who demolished the landmark Winbigler home without city approval will have to pay a maximum $27,000 fine, give up a height variance and site development approval for the project, and bring plans for their house on Fremont Road back to the drawing board, the Los Altos Hills Planning Commission decided last week in front of a standing room only crowd.

Property owners Maria Ligeti and Gordon Campbell were in the midst of a massive construction project on the property that was to incorporate the former 1926 Winbigler home into a new, 18,000-square-foot addition that included a 35-foot height variance. Last month they demolished the home after allegedly discovering that the structure had termite, asbestos, mold and dry rot damage.

Portions of Foothill Expressway in Los Altos are scheduled for minor upgrades, county says

The segment of Foothill Expressway that runs through Los Altos will more than likely require minimal upgrades during a massive project under way to improve Santa Clara County’s nine expressways.

A study of Foothill’s current conditions shows that the expressway has one Level-F intersection - at El Monte Road - and one anticipated by 2025 - at Grant Road. An F rating means the level of service on that section of road is unacceptable.

Traffic speeds to drop citywide

Motorists may have to put on their brakes on four Los Altos streets. The Los Altos City Council decided last week to consider dropping the speed limits on additional city streets pending a staff review. The city already lowered the posted speed limits on a portion of El Monte Avenue and Springer Road earlier this month as part of a citywide speed limit study.

Fremont and Grant roads and the portion of El Monte Avenue from Foothill Expressway to Interstate 280 are additional streets that could have their 35 mile-per-hour posted speeds dropped by as much as 10 mph. The council agreed last week to lower the speed limit on Miramonte Avenue from 35 mph to 25 mph.

United front for LAH open space

Say this for Los Altos Hills: The affluent town of 8,000 has no shortage of controversies. It serves as the poster community for today’s struggles between those wanting to keep what they have versus people who want to do what they want as long as they can pay for it.

However, there is at least one issue townsfolk seem unified on: protection of town-owned open space.

Letters to the Editor

I want to thank the Los Altos Town Crier for its coverage regarding the one-year anniversary of one of the most devastating events in our American history - Sept. 11, 2001.

I also want to thank the city of Los Altos for honoring the anniversary with a sensitive yet low-key and respectful memorial presentation. I am proud to be a citizen of this country and this community.

Anniversaries and new beginnings

Reflections

September should be a time of looking forward. While summer warmth lingers during the day, there is a clear indication of cooler weather to come. We started thinking about electric blankets, although our ceiling fan turns languidly above. Two of our favorite trees create a transition between summer and autumn when deep red leaves start to reach for the tops of the trees. Children walk past our house on the way to school again, some with reluctant steps, many whizzing by on bicycles. I no longer feel that tug to join them and even rejoice in my sense of liberation from the never-ending grading and planning. The high schools themselves look wonderfully new, shrugging off old memories and problems.

Time capsule from 1930 reveals interesting facts, figures

As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of Los Altos a few weeks ago, a time capsule was buried in the ground. It is hoped the capsule will give our successors in 2102 a personal look at what things were like in Los Altos 100 years earlier.

A few days after the anniversary event, I had the pleasure of actually opening an early Los Altos time capsule. It had been carefully sealed and legally buried since 1930. It contained personal data from the 1930 U.S. Census, recently released after the legally stipulated delay of 72 years.

Morning Forum to feature CNN commentator Broder

The Morning Forum of Los Altos lecture series has begun a new season with a host of engaging speakers. The lectures are normally held on Tuesdays at the Los Altos United Methodist Church, 655 Magdalena Ave.

Scheduled speakers are:

Television ‘House Calls’ visits Los Altos homeowners

Los Altos homeowners Tom Urban and his wife Rebecca Sweet sent an e-mail to “Ron Hazelton’s House Calls” television show detailing a description of an outdoor kitchen they wanted to build in their back yard.

Hazelton and his crew showed up at the Los Altos couple’s home to televise their project. The home improvement series regularly takes viewers on the road with a mobile workshop stopping at homes and helping people with all kinds of projects.

LAH resident’s company proved vital in the detection of post 9/11 anthrax

While the months following Sept. 11 saw significant declines for businesses in industries such as aviation, some companies experienced increases in profits as a direct result of the war on terrorism.

Cepheid, co-founded and currently chaired by Los Altos Hills resident Tom Gutshall, received a boost in sales for its centerpiece product, the Smart Cycler, a device that analyzes DNA in biological samples and matches them with the DNA of known organisms.

Los Altos Rotary salutes Billy Russell for longtime love affair with community

Old friends, family and Los Altos Rotarians paid a deserving tribute to longtime community mover-and-shaker Billy Russell last Thursday at Shoup Park.

Dispensing with usual Rotary Club routine, a supportive crowd took over the park’s Garden House to hug and applaud the life of one of the community’s early volunteers. Russell celebrated his 88th birthday in July.

Resident writes 9/11 tribute song inspired by Todd Beamer

Los Altos resident and amateur musician Noah Mesel has released a commemorative album about the Sept. 11 tragedies.

His first song, “Let’s Roll,” was inspired by the heroism of Todd Beamer aboard Flight 93 forced down in Pennsylvania. The song, initially written for colleague and friend Dave Beamer, Todd’s father, was first played at a kickoff meeting at Legato Systems. Mesel and Dave work at the Mountain View based software development company.

AAUW features talk on corporate ethics, governance

Reservations must be made by calling Marilyn at 843-3465.

St. Nicholas Church scheduled to present ‘Sir Thomas More’

St. Nicholas Church’s Spiritual Life Committee has scheduled an engaging and provocative evening of theater with the nationally acclaimed play “Maxims, Monarchy & Sir Thomas More,” 7:30 p.m., Saturday, in the St. Nicholas School Gymnasium, 12816 S. El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills.

Graham Thatcher performs the one-man play, which shares More’s intensely intimate last hour before his execution as he wrestles with the moral dilemmas that led him to the block. More makes up songs, jokes, takes jabs at his tormentors and eventually finds peace in his faith.

Calendar

Los Altos Senior Center, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, 97 Hillview Ave.

Wednesday

Community Briefs

“To Be or Not To Be - the City of Los Altos” was the hot issue in Los Altos in 1950-52, which literally divided the town in half. Historical Commissioner Don McDonald will host a reenactment of the “Great Debate” scheduled 4 p.m., Sunday, at the Los Altos History Museum, 51 S. San Antonio Road (behind the library).

Los Altos residents Jim Thurber Jr., Ann Assarsson and John Reed will also present the program, including 1950s music and trivia. The Los Altos history exhibit will also be open.

Hidden Villa’s seventh Humanitarian Awards includes tribute to organic chef Alice Waters

Hidden Villa’s Josephine and Frank Duveneck Humanitarian Awards honor recipients who have contributed to forwarding the causes of muticulturalism and the environment.

The seventh annual awards ceremony and dinner is set for 5-9:30 p.m., Sept. 28, at the Los Altos Hills preserve. The $150 admission fee includes a social hour with organic wine and hors d’oeuvres in the newly restored Duveneck House gardens. Guided tours of the educational garden for children are available.

Los Altos artists ‘paint town’ for 50th anniversary celebration

Expect to see more than 80 creative images from 45 artists who toiled in the hot sun Saturday for “Paint The Town - Again.”

Setting up their easels all over town, artists tried to capture on canvas, or watercolor, scenes of Los Altos as the city celebrates its 50th birthday.

CSMA construction to start this month

The Community School of Music and Arts has a lot to sing about.

The non-profit school will be breaking ground for its new $11 million campus Saturday. This will be the school’s first permanent home since it opened in 1968. The school is the largest non-profit of its kind to provide arts education in Silicon Valley, said Evy Schiffman, director of communications for CSMA.

Efforts being made to increase road safety

Los Altos-based Girl Scout Troop 1099 is teaming up with the Los Altos Police Department to prepare a presentation about bike safety that will be given by officers at local elementary schools in early October.

The presentation comes at a time when traffic safety issues have gained new levels of importance for Los Altos elementary school children. The relocation of Almond School to the Egan Junior High School campus and Springer School to the new Covington site while renovations take place has increased bicycle traffic.

Foothill-De Anza 2002-03 budget positive despite state deficit

Trying to balance a total revenue budget of slightly more than $212 million for the Foothill-De Anza Community College District is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces.

“We don’t know what funding we will receive from the state, and we are waiting to see what the governor vetoes,” said Kathryn Blackwood, budget officer for the district. “We don’t have all the answers from the state yet.”

Noteworthies

Tayor Meschke and Julie Ashton of Los Altos have been named to the spring 2002 Dean’s List at Columbia University, New York.

U.S. Air Force Airman Patrick N. Keenan of Los Altos graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas.

Schools Briefs

The Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View has scheduled a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday for its new $11 million campus scheduled to open in January 2004. The school still needs to raise an additional $4 million for the project. The new facility will be built on a 1.6-acre site at San Antonio Circle, Mountain View. Once complete, the center will have 17 music studios, ceramics studios, art and music classrooms, a 200-seat concert hall and a digital arts/electronic music room.

For more information, logon to www.arts4all.org.

Schools feel crunch with state budget

Local schools dependent on state funding have fewer than 45 days from the approval of the state’s budget Sept. 5 to reconfigure their budgets. The biggest fiscal change for schools is in the form of a $681 million delay in apportionments into the 2003-04 fiscal year, up from the $475 million delay outlined in the budget the Senate passed in June.

The reason for the delay is that the budget adopted by the state Legislature has less tax revenue than the budget the Senate approved in June. The new budget does not include an increase in vehicle license fees or cigarette tax, according to the state.

Sports On The Side

Three Los Altos residents recently placed in their respective divisions at the Amateur Athletic Union’s National Karate Tournament in Salt Lake City. Tiffany Choy, a third-grader at Santa Rita School, won a gold medal in kobudo and a bronze in kata in the Girls 8 Intermediate Division. Kevin Sweeney captured a gold in kobudo and bronze in both kata and kumite in the Boys 9 Advanced Division. His brother Patrick Sweeney placed sixth in both kobudo and kumite in the Boys 12 Advanced Division.

Tee time

On Deck: the local sports lineup for Sept. 18-24

Football

Friday

Owls subdue Santa Rosa in football

Foothill Roundup

No volleyball this year

SFHS grad earns Player of the Week honors in soccer

A day after earning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career, University of Texas junior midfielder Kati McBain of Los Altos was selected to the Soccer America Team of the Week Sept. 4.

The St. Francis High graduate garnered these honors for her six-point performance during Texas’ opening weekend against New Mexico and No. 21-ranked Duke.

Lorrie Fair selected to play in WUSA’s inaugural all-star game

Los Altos High graduate Lorrie Fair has been named a starter for the North team in this weekend’s inaugural Women’s United Soccer Association All-Star game.

Fair, a midfielder on the Philadelphia Charge, recently completed her second WUSA season. Her twin sister, Ronnie, plays for the New York Power.

Penalties plague LAHS in opener

A bitter beginning for Eagles

The start was stellar. The finish was fine. Everything in between was downright ugly for Los Altos High, which opened its football season with a 35-12 loss to visiting Gunn last Thursday.

Titans beat their elders to capture baseball tournament

The West Bay Titans won a Bay Area 18-and-under invitational tournament hosted by Hardtke World of Baseball Sept. 8 at San Jose Municipal Stadium.

The team of local 16-year-olds defeated host Hardtke, a team of 18-year-olds, in the championship game. The Titans beat club teams from San Jose, Los Gatos and San Leandro before the win over Hardtke.

Taufoou, eight turnovers help Lancers rout Oak Grove

MV whips Willow Glen

Mountain View High kicked off its season with a 28-6 win over host Willow Glen Friday at PAL Stadium.

Mitty makes quick work of Los Altos in volleyball; Mtn. View wins tennis opener

Fall Sports Summary

Girls tennis

Bush’s saber rattling disturbs stock market

Stock Report

Looking back, we saw the Enron and WorldCom dominoes fall, Arthur Anderson’s figures become depressed, Martha Stewart’s salad wilt and GE’s former CEO Jack Welsh get caught in some scandalous doings. Now what?

Transactions

702 Arroyo Road - Hagood Trust to E. & T. Klaassen for $960,000.00

1665 Candace Way - C. Kasiner to K. Shih for $1,150,000.00

Kaman Properties opens office at Rancho

When desirable office space became available in Rancho Shopping Center, Kaman Properties moved in. Run by the Kamanger family, the Los Altos residents have been deeply rooted in local real estate since 1980 and now their office is closer to their clients.

Kaman Properties satisfies client’s real estate needs from acquisition to remodeling and construction, or selling. A quaint type of boutique firm, they act as realtor, contractor and attorney.

Some children can benefit from TV coverage of violent events like 9/11

Keys to Parenting

Q: The wide TV coverage of the 9/11 anniversary got me thinking about how I should handle such programs with my children. Should they have watched a little, some or all of the coverage?

Correct swimming technique can minimize shoulder injuries

House Calls

Swimming is an excellent form of aerobic exercise. However, improper technique or trying to ramp up too quickly can result in repetitive overuse injuries of the shoulder. These injuries are commonly called “swimmer’s shoulder.”

Speech pathologist to discuss specific language impairment

If you’ve ever traveled to a country whose language you didn’t know, then you can appreciate the frustration of not understanding what’s being said to you and not being able to articulate your own thoughts clearly. This is an everyday problem for children with specific language impairment.

Specific language impairment is a disorder in which language development - the order of nouns and verbs; the placement of question words; and other issues of grammar, syntax and pronunciation - does not take place or is incomplete.

Health Briefs

Doctors from the urology department of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Stanford Hospital and Clinics lead a free discussion for all ages on prostate cancer. The group meets 5:30-7 p.m., the fourth Tuesday of every month, in Room 117, Avenidas, 450 Bryant St., Palo Alto.

For more information, call 326-5362, ext. 22.

Helping problem children recover

Children’s Health Council aids schools, families

The Children’s Health Council is an airy, new building set well back from the constant commotion of construction on Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto. A summer visitor to this quiet blue-and-green sanctuary might never guess that come September, it becomes a place of last resort for the most difficult of difficult children: young people who are caught in a web of emotional, cognitive, learning and sometimes physical disorders.

A desire to ‘turn back the clock’ could mean a trip to your local skin doctor

Town Crier Staff Report

Some people, both men and women, like to “turn back the clock” because their skin is aging.

ECH chief of staff wants to retain community pride in the hospital

El Camino Hospital’s new Chief of Staff Dr. Saul Eisenstat said he enjoys working at El Camino because of the quality of the nursing staff.

“When we (doctors) leave the hospital we know the patient will get the best possible care from the nursing staff,” Eisenstat said. “The nurses live with the patient 24 hours a day. If we couldn’t trust them when we return to our offices, it would not be enjoyable working there.”

Probiotics help get GI tract back on track

Dear Readers: In response to my last article on antibiotic resistance, several people have asked me to tell them more about probiotics. I hope this will be of interest to you as well.

Probiotics are a type of supplement used to help return your gastrointestinal (GI) tract to normal. Some of the signs that indicate the GI tract is out of whack include bloating, indigestion, flatulence, nausea, diarrhea and constipation. I doubt there are any among us who have not experienced these uncomfortable symptoms at some point in our lives.