K-9 baton is passed to new unit

Los Altos Police Officer Mark Thomsen is scheduled to begin patrolling city streets with his police dog this May as the department’s new K-9 handler, city officials announced Friday.

Thomsen was chosen from among four applicants to fill the vacancy left by Agent John Korges and his dog, Gerry, who had to retire early because of medical complications. The 6-year-old German Shepherd will retire with 37 arrests to his credit this spring after four years on the force. Korges will return to patrol.

Resident says water district back with creek plans that LAH Council rejected

With two new councilmembers on board, the Los Altos Hills City Council is set to hear from Santa Clara Valley Water District officials Thursday about Adobe Creek repair work that one watchful resident says is just plain bad design.

“This is the third time the water district is trying to get an easement (from the town) for a bad design,” said Los Altos Hills resident D.J. Rogez.

City dedicates new gymnasium

The gymnasium the result of an agreement between the city of Los Altos and the Los Altos School District to provide joint-use facilities for area residents. A second joint-use gym is located at Egan Intermediate School.

Under the agreement, the city funded the construction and the school district provided the land.

District changes ahead

The gut-wrenching decision to close Bullis-Purissima School has been made. But more hard work lies ahead.

The Los Altos School District Board of Trustees unanimously decided Feb. 10 to close the elementary school in Los Altos Hills, based on financial and demographic criteria. The current 341 students at Bullis will be reassigned, if families choose, to Covington School, starting in the 2003-04 school year.

Overflow student parking could mean street restrictions

Valencia Drive neighbors asked the Los Altos City Council Feb. 11 for relief from overflow parking problems from nearby Los Altos High School that they say is ruining the quality of life on their streets.

Students unable to find on-campus parking are allegedly using nearby streets as parking lots, neighbors complained.

Customers can shop around for deals on gas

As gas prices surge to their highest levels in 20 months, consumers may discover the best deals on fuel can be found at independent stations, according to an American Automobile Association spokesperson.

Jenny Mack of AAA’s Northern California office in San Francisco said to save money consumers should “shop around” for the best deals.

Traffic, golf course drainage among priorities issues for local county residents

Residents in Los Altos’ unincorporated pockets took advantage of an exclusive meeting with Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss Feb. 11 to articulate a host of issues that require county help. These range from drainage issues with the Los Altos Golf & Country Club renovation to traffic improvements on speeder-friendly Magdalena Road.

Kniss, the only local representative for more than 1,100 residents caught between city juridictions, brought eight members of county departments from roads to planning, to help provide specific answers to questions. Kniss and company discussed issues during the annual meeting of the San Antonio Hills Association, a long-standing homeowners’ group that comprises residents living in the unincorporated areas.

Local mayors caution against public anti-war statements

Mayors from both Los Altos and Los Altos Hills had some caustic remarks for city and county elected officials who have taken a political posture against a war with Iraq, calling their recent resolutions opposing a pre-emptive attack on the country “inappropriate” and “disingenuous.”

Los Altos Hills Mayor Bob Fenwick said local elected leaders are not in a position to make an informed decision on whether to strike the Middle Eastern country.

Waiting around for war

Arguments for and against are strong: those for it see war as a must to prevent dictator Saddam Hussein from producing weapons of mass destruction that could kill millions, if not now, then later.

Those against it say there is not enough proof that such weapons exist, and war would incite even more terrorist activities.

LETTERS OF FEBRUARY 19, 2003

This letter serves as a reaction to the charter school effort put forth by the Bullis School parents in Los Altos Hills. I attended the recent local school board meetings where the board voted to close Bullis School.

Weddings

Send your wedding, engagement or anniversary announcements to Richard Billings at the Los Altos Town Crier, 138 Main St., Los Altos 94022.

Photos are welcome. If you want your photo returned, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. For more information, call 948-9000, ext. 318, or e-mail

OBITUARIES FOR THE WEEK OF FEB. 19

“I met Evelyn on a blind date when I was a sophomore at the University of Nebraska in 1936,” said Tom. “I was hooked, because we eloped to Kansas and got married four years later. We would have observed our 63rd wedding anniversary March 10.”

As Tom was transferred from one military establishment to another, Evelyn took positions as a bank teller or a secretary and worked whenever she could. She was a secretary for United Fruit Company. When she received her security clearance, she was hired as a secretary at Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M.

Speakers draw parallels between racial profiling of Muslims, Japanese

Fred Korematsu said when the U.S. government came to take him away to the internment camps during World War II more than 60 years ago, he refused to go.

“I had nothing to do with Japan,” said the 84-year-old Japanese American, who was imprisoned for resisting forced evacuation and took his civil liberties case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1944. “I am an American, and they called me a Jap spy.”

Peace Corps volunteers adjust to life, lack of privacy in Central America

A little mud hut with just barely enough room for the two of us — no electricity, no water, — this is what my husband Tim and I envisioned from the moment we applied to the Peace Corps to the moment we landed in Honduras.

Bullis parents charting a course to a new school

When some Bullis-Purissima School parents learned that the Los Altos School District was closing the elementary school in Los Altos Hills starting in the 2003-04 school year, they began looking into starting a charter school.

A charter school is an independent public school supported by public funds and held accountable by public authority. Charter schools have a “charter,” or written legal agreement, with a sponsoring agency, which is usually a school district.

Foothill students say no to war in Iraq

Calling themselves the “Foothill Coalition to Oppose the War,” more than 400 students and friends gathered Feb.11, in the student union dining hall, to hear speakers discuss a U.S. invasion of Iraq.

The event was organized by Foothill’s speech and debate team, with faculty speakers taking part in a question-and-answer period. The overwhelming opinion was that a war with Iraq was ill founded.

Eagles clamp down on Spartans, 75-68

Trailing by six points early in the fourth quarter, the Los Altos High boys basketball team turned up the heat defensively against visiting Mountain View Feb. 12.

The Spartans wilted under the full-court pressure, allowing the Eagles to rally for a 75-68 victory that guaranteed them at least a share of the SCVAL El Camino Division championship.

City’s economic development coordinator busy retaining downtown business

Abby Veeser, the economic development coordinator for Los Altos, is finding her way around the seven business areas attending meetings and working to promote the economic climate of the city. It’s not an easy job.

Space Station Los Altos, the list of available business properties in Los Altos, is five pages long and growing. Veeser’s concern is not filling the empty retail and office spaces, but retaining the businesses already in Los Altos.

Dental health: An idea worth chewing on

It’s the single most common chronic childhood disease, and more than 70,000 children in Santa Clara County alone are at risk of developing it. The Surgeon General calls it a silent epidemic. The problem: tooth decay.

While even the worst dental problems are unlikely to kill anyone, they can cause unnecessary pain and taint a child’s school attendance record.