Our Los Altos Pathways System, by clever sleight of hand, is being replaced by a multitude of cul-de-sac paths (more properly called dead ends by hikers) and some roadside additions.

The proper response to this is the ballot box, and the present council should refrain from removing these town assets until the population votes in the election. At that time it is to be hoped that the NAMPL (Not Along My Property Lines) will be found to be in the minority.

This is important because, presently, paths or nonpaths seem to be determined more by whom you know than what is best for our town in the long run.

Keith N. McFarland

Los Altos Hills

Reality check

The non-starter for my wife and I concerning the parcel tax increase for LASD is the narrowness of the criteria for exemption. Open up the exemption to include all low-income residents regardless of age. Is it really the intent of the district to frighten and drive out longtime residents whose circumstances are less fortunate than others?

Guy L. Eustice

Kathleen Blanchard

Los Altos

Misleading mailer

about open space effort

Los Altos Hills Councilman Steve Finn sent out a mailer to residents this week warning them that the proponents of the Los Altos Hills Open Space Initiative are misleading neighbors of Westwind Community Barn. The Finn mailer suggests that a “Public Recreation” designation for Westwind could result in soccer fields which would produce traffic, congestion, parking problems, etc.

The opposite is true. It is Councilman Finn who is doing the misleading. The implication of the Finn mailer is that Westwind Community Barn should be designated as Open Space not Public Recreation - the designation that properly belongs to this property.

The Open Space designation allows only passive open space uses hiking, riding, jogging, nature study, grazing, etc. Structures, such as a large full service barn with riding arenas, are not permitted Open Space uses.

There are only two other designations that are possible to describe this property - Public or Private Recreation. As the Barn is owned by the Town, it obviously should carry the Public Recreation designation. It is no longer a privately owned stable.

The committee of residents who have been working on the Los Altos Hills Open Space and Public Recreation Initiative have invested time, money and energy to come up with a strong initiative that will protect the significant environmental, aesthetic, scenic and recreational benefits that lands provide to the community.

What Palo Alto accomplished back in the 1960s is exactly what the residents of Los Altos Hills would like to achieve - the long-term preservation of their town-owned open space and recreation properties.

Those of us working on the initiative are doing so to preserve Westwind Community Barn as the community asset it now is and to assure that it will remain so for future generations.

Nancy Couperus

Los Altos Hills Open Space Committee

Conflict of interest over town hall

Recently, customers of the Purissima Hills Water District received a letter from Daniel F. Seidel, president of the Water District’s Board of Directors. The letter described the many ways that LAH’s Town Council’s proposed new Town Hall would adversely affect the district.

Mr. Seidel writes, “We need your help to communicate with the (LAH) Council. Up to this time, our requests to meet face to face to negotiate a lease agreement have been rebuffed.”

Mr. Seidel now is in company with the growing number of residents who are experiencing the same communication roadblock. One of the compliments that the current Council gives itself is that they have very few internal conflicts. What good is that when it results from turning a deaf ear to the customers, i.e., LAH residents, it allegedly serves?

The Water District’s letterhead also listed Janet M. Fenwick as vice president of the District.

We were surprised to learn that the Council’s Town Hall proposal is not beneficial to the district because not very long ago we received a mailing from Jan Fenwick applauding that same Town Hall proposal. It was obvious that she was trying to bolster support for her husband’s (LAH Mayor Bob Fenwick’s) widely-criticized plan.

Are Jan Fenwick, the mayor’s wife, and Janet Fenwick, the Vice President of the Purissima Hills Water District, different people? We must hope so, because wouldn’t it be a whopping conflict of interest for her to try to garner support for a proposal that is not in the best interests of the organization she directs?

Nancy Kelem

Los Altos Hills

Jan Fenwick replies: I have not participated in any of the water district negotiations with the city council due to conflict of interest. (My husband is on the council.) However, it has never been stated that a new town hall, whatever the design, would adversely affect the water district. It is time to stop being divisive and come together as a community, and welcome our new council members.

A poem

to dress for

About recent “Dress Code” stories on school efforts to curb immodest student clothing:

To A Navel

Flaunt your pipick,

It’s terrific.

It’s the way to go,

Belly button,

Good for nuthin,

Makes a lively show,

Never meets

The pants and shirt you’re wearing,

Independent charm,

Above, below, the skin you’re baring,

No cause for alarm,

I’m keeping my middle

Fit as a fiddle

Til fashion moves along,

And suddenly my pipick

Is all wrong.

Robert Bergman

Palo Alto