Discussion heats up as LAH council mulls decision over Adobe Creek restoration plan

Those for and against a water district plan to widen Adobe Creek in Los Altos Hills are becoming increasingly vocal about their views, even before Thursday’s scheduled public hearing on the matter.

Therese Blockus, a resident on the Los Altos side of the creek who favors the project, protested “misinformation” being distributed through fliers. “It says we’re going to lose an undisclosed number of trees - it’s not undisclosed,” she said. “They’re talking about an unsightly industrial-looking ramp - it’s a gravel access road. Let’s fight fair.”

Increased incidence of counterfeit Thomas Cook traveler’s checks in Bay Area, police warn

Local authorities issued a fraud alert to Peninsula merchants last week following a recent increase in the number of counterfeit traveler’s checks reported being cashed throughout the Bay Area.

Los Altos Police Sgt. John Hughmanick said the traveler’s checks are being used by alleged customers who purchase items with the checks and receive cash change.

Man gropes Los Altos mother near child’s school

During a surprise ambush last week, a man concealed in bushes near Oak School groped a Los Altos mother as she walked to pick up her child after school.

The woman told police the man popped out of the bushes in front of a home on Oak Avenue near Marinovich Way as she walked past.

LAH increases top city salary

Los Altos Hills’ highest paid official will soon take home a bigger paycheck.

City Manager Maureen Cassingham recently received a 7 percent raise, boosting her annual salary to $121,359, according to public council documents.

Library boosters bring more than books

It’s no secret that Los Altos residents love their libraries. The statistics bear this out: The Los Altos public libraries have the highest circulation in the No. 1 ranked library system in the country. Santa Clara County is ranked best among library systems serving a population between 250,000 and 499,999 people, according to Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings.

A group of longtime library supporters have created the Los Altos Library Endowment (LALE) to add another dimension to community backing for the libraries.

Toni Casey to challenge Barbara Boxer for Senate seat next year

It wasn’t a bolt from the blue, but Toni Casey told the Los Altos Rotary Club last Wednesday she will run for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat in the next election.

“Last Friday I resigned my Director of Intergovernmental Affairs position in the U.S. Small Business Administration,” Casey said. “It will give me more time to get organized for the run.”

LAH rabbi named first woman to lead Jewish clergy

Sexual equality in the Jewish pulpit became more than a concept recently with the unprecedented appointment of Los Altos Hills Rabbi Janet Marder as head of one of the nation’s largest groups of Jewish clergy. Marder is the first woman to lead a major rabbinical association.

The Central Conference of American Rabbis named Marder to a two-year term as its president March 26, a position she assumed last Saturday. Marder will lead the approximately 1,800 Reform rabbis in North America that the organization represents.

Los Altos police arrest woman second time for stalking

A Milpitas woman charged with making death threats on her estranged husband’s former girlfriend last July was back in jail Thursday after Los Altos Police discovered she had hired two private detectives to follow the victim from her Los Altos workplace.

Mai Thi Vu, 44, was arrested at her home and is being held in Santa Clara County Jail on a $1 million bond for breaking a court order barring contact with the victim and for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Crisis spurs call for finance reform

Davis, while still finding money to renovate San Quentin prison, is proposing $128 million be slashed from the 59 basic aid districts in California. These districts, which include the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, get a measly $120 per student but get to keep property tax revenues. This has greatly helped districts in affluent areas.

However, Davis’ proposal, as it stands, would probably force the Mountain View-Los Altos district into receivership because the proposed takeaway of approximately $12 million for next year amounts to 33 percent of the district’s annual $32 million budget. That leaves $20 million. Given that $10 million goes for straight operating costs such as utilities, $10 million remains for salaries - typically 83 percent of the budget.

LETTERS OF MARCH 19, 2003

much older

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 APRIL 2

a longtime Los Altos resident and real estate broker passed away peacefully on Monday, March 24, 2003 after a courageous battle with lung cancer. Marge is survived by her husband Steve, sons Mike and Tom, daughters Linda and Lyndsey and eight grandchildren.

An Ohio native, Marge moved to Baltimore in 1965 where she began her long career in real estate and developed a love for boating on the Chesapeake Bay. She moved to Los Altos in 1970 and quickly earned her California real estate brokers license, an occupation that complemented her warm, outgoing personality. Through the course of her career, Marge earned many professional awards, an accomplishment that she took great pride in. However, it was the people that drew her to and kept her in the real estate profession for 38 years. Whether a business associate or client, Marge was a friend to many. She was most recently a broker agent with Coldwell banker in Los Altos, where she worked in partnership with her husband Steve. When away from the office, Marge loved spending time with her family, her daily walk with friends and spending time on San Francisco Bay on her boat, the “Grand Finale”.

Longtime children’s librarian Sandy Kelly closes the book on 22 years at Los Altos branch

In August 1974, Los Altos Hills resident Sandy Kelly walked into the Los Altos Public Library pushing her newborn baby in a stroller. Being offered a job in the children’s section was the last thing she expected.

But when it was offered, Kelly jumped at the opportunity and has worked there ever since.

Women’s activism worldwide subject of Morning Forum lecture

Kavita Ramdas is a study in contradictions. Born in a country that considers being a female a “huge misfortune,” she is a feminist. Granddaughter and daughter of India’s highest-ranking Naval officers, she opposes the war in Iraq. An Indian, she is married to a Pakistani.

Ramdas, the President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, told the March 18 Los Altos Morning Forum audience that from AIDS to the environment, “there is not a single issue in the world today that is not a women’s issue.” Her organization is dedicated to seed, support and strengthen women’s rights groups overseas. Founded in 1987, the Fund has given over 25 million dollars to more than 2,000 groups in 160 countries, focusing on small grants ranging from $500 to $15,000 to women’s groups addressing everything from voting rights in Mongolia to female genital mutilation in Africa.

Los Altos captains retire from firefighting

After 30-year careers in firefighting that won them the respect of colleagues and residents alike, Los Altos fire captains Jim Callahan and Glynn Morris officially retired Sunday.

Since the early 1970s, both Santa Clara County firemen worked almost exclusively out of Los Altos firehouses, ultimately becoming captains at local stations (Morris at Loyola Station on Fremont Avenue and Callahan at Los Altos Station on Almond Avenue).

Bullis Charter School attempt becomes divisive issue

Three words have come to represent a major division in the Los Altos School District — Bullis Charter School.

Since the district’s acceptance of the school’s charter March 17, district parents and community members have organized to voice opposition to the school’s formation.

Eagles set their sights high

Some coaches pause to ponder such a question. Sandy Wihtol, however, was quick to answer when asked about his expectations for this year’s Los Altos High baseball team.

“Without a doubt, it’s to get back to CCS for the third year in a row,” Wihtol said. “It’s kind of expected in this program.”

Spartans are pitcher-perfect

For Matt Means, perfection was no more. For the Mountain View High baseball team, it was business as usual.

Sporting a perfect 0.00 earned-run average through his first 13 innings of the season, Means gave up his first earned run last Saturday afternoon. It was only a slight blemish, as the Spartans rode his dominant pitching to shut down host Monta Vista 5-1. The win improved Mountain View to 8-0, 4-0 in the SCVAL El Camino Division.

Local auto repair shops merge for better service

Warren McCord Motorsports and Dean’s Automotive (formerly Dean’s Foreign Car), which were in Mountain View for more than 30 years, recently merged. The new company is called Dean’s Automotive, Inc.

“We both had a growing business for years and shared customers on foreign and American cars,” McCord said. “When he decided to sell we sat down and talked about it.”

Now that’s really Italian

Since Nelly Capra’s latest class series, “The Way We Cook in Italy,” is taking place during the time of Italy’s Carnivale celebration, she has included bugie, a traditional treat of Carnivale, as an option for her students to make.

These knotted cookies are deep-fried in oil and then smothered with powdered sugar. The cookies are called bugie, meaning “lies” in Italian, since the frying process makes the dough curl up into curious shapes. For the more healthfully inclined there is a thick vegetable, meatless minestrone soup and a lentil stew, among other simple but delicious items on the batch of recipes Capra hands out.

Classic family living

Gregory Naumann and his twin brothers, Michael and Bradley, sit in the kitchen playing Yu Gi Oh! cards while they wait for their mother to drive them to Pinewood School. Their father, Alan, plans to work at home this morning and checks in with his San Jose office while their mother Masami wipes the kitchen granite before they leave for school. That’s a typical early morning in the life of the Naumann family of Los Altos Hills.

Their 7,900-square-foot home was built for family living, and the Naumann family members take full advantage of it. It has five bedrooms, four full and two half baths, on 1.5 acres.