County OKs plan to rebuild destroyed church

The effort to rebuild a Los Altos Hills church destroyed by arson last year continues to push on despite resistance from neighboring property owners.

Last month, the Antiochian Orthodox Church of the Redeemer on Magdalena Avenue got the approval from Santa Clara County to build a 24,800-square-foot structure. The three-phase plan calls for rebuilding and expanding the destroyed church, constructing a new administration building and replacing its former one-story social hall with a two-story, 350-person banquet hall.

LA man shoots himself during police standoff

A six-hour police standoff with an armed Los Altos man ended in suicide last week. Los Altos police said a despondent 51-year-old man shot himself in the head with a rifle while the Los Altos and Santa Clara County Sheriff’s SWAT teams surrounded his Julie Lane house and waited for him to surrender Sept. 23.

A family member called 911 at 1:06 p.m. to report the man had made suicidal threats. The family had taken a handgun away from him and locked it in a car outside, but the man owned several firearms still in the house, the caller told police.

Woman injured in Los Altos blaze

A2-alarm fire destroyed a Los Altos cottage on Borderhill Road Monday afternoon. A woman who lived in the converted garage escaped the fire but suffered burns on 89 percent of her body. The fire completely destroyed the separate garage which had been converted to a residential unit. A Life Flight helicopter transported her to Valley Medical Center in San Jose. Santa Clara Valley Fire Department Arson Investigator Dennis Johnson described her condition as life-threatening.

The fire was discovered by neighbors who ran to assist the woman when she ran through her burning house. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Celebrate Los Altos

The Celebrate Los Altos Fall Festival will be held this weekend in downtown Los Altos. Visitors will be able to walk among the classic cars, visit the 170 artisan booths displaying paintings, ceramics, textiles and holiday items, and check out the outlandish scarecrows that signal Halloween is around the corner.

The festival is intended for families, with a designated area set aside for children. In the past, more than 20,000 people have attended the two-day festival.

District’s only obligation is to provide space for charter school

The Los Altos School District board’s move last week to let the county administer Bullis Charter School made the best financial and logistical sense, according to officials. The board is still considering day care a priority for the former Bullis-Purissima School site, to the dismay of charter supporters.

The board voted unanimously to allow the county to oversee charter school operations after the county board of education approved the charter school application at its Sept. 3 meeting. County board members gave Los Altos officials 40 days from that action to decide whether they wanted to administer the charter school.

Town Crier’s Gen. Shelton comments picked up by national media

Gen. Hugh Shelton’s surprise Celebrity Forum comment that questioned the integrity of Democratic presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark turned out to be a scoop for the Los Altos Town Crier last week, picked up by major media sources and triggering responses across the country.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during 9/11, lecturing at Flint Center in Cupertino Sept. 12, was asked by moderator Dick Henning, “What do you think of Gen. Wesley Clark and would you support him as a presidential candidate?”

LA, MV Web gurus make billionaires list

Los Altos may rank as one of the wealthiest communities in the United States, but only one resident made the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans last week. Jerry Yang, 34, is the nation’s 162nd wealthiest resident, according to the magazine’s annual list. He tied with 16 other billionaires, including another Bay Area resident — San Francisco’s Robert Allen Naify of United Artists Theaters.

The Stanford University graduate and co-creator of the Internet search engine Yahoo! Inc. is worth $1.4 billion. His partner, Mountain View resident David Filo, 37, ranked No. 126 on the list with a net worth of $1.6 billion.

Lessons learned from lawsuits

A judge’s recent ruling deconstructing the city’s no-solicitation ordinance to thwart loitering day workers has the city paying $90,000 to cover the opposition’s attorney’s fees in addition to its own when city officials decided to defend their ordinance in the courts. Facing a similar lawsuit, Mountain View dropped its no-solicitation ordinance. Did Mountain View know something we didn’t? A February 2002 editorial in the Mountain View Voice noted: “Unless the city negotiates some sort of settlement, … a lengthy and expensive court battle could sap Mountain View’s finances at a time when the city expects sharply declining revenue.” Hmmm.

A Los Altos neighborhood sued the city over the need for an environmental impact report for a pool complex on Rosita Avenue. After months of fighting the issue in court, the city finally relented and is doing the EIR at a cost of between $70,000 to $81,000. Meanwhile, the city lost thousands in court costs and again, had to pay $50,000 to the opposition’s attorneys.

LETTERS OF OCTOBER 1, 2003

leading candidates

OBITUARIES FOR THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 1

Mrs. Ervin was born in Oregon on June 23, 1920. She was a housewife and was a Presbyterian.

Weddings

Send your wedding, engagement or anniversary announcements to Avinell Johnson 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. 335, or e-mail

St. Simon Church welcomes five new nuns

Within the last month, St. Simon Parish has seen the arrival of five new nuns from the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose. Nuns from the mission are committed to community both in shared living and in serving the people.

“We are absolutely delighted that the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose have agreed to answer God’s call at St. Simon Parish,” said the Rev. Anthony Mancuso, pastor of St. Simon Church.

Los Altos nurse practitioner offers ‘maps’ on dealing with pregnancy, menopause

For years, road maps have come in handy for many clueless drivers in search of direction. Now “Road maps for women,” created by Los Altos nurse practitioner Barbara Dehn, helps women navigate the often difficult lifestyle changes brought on by pregnancy and menopause.

“This is born from 16 years of answering questions,” said Dehn, who is a registered nurse at Women Physicians in Mountain View. Dehn also teaches at San Jose State University as an assistant clinical professor in the graduate nurse practitioner program.

CHAC celebrates 30 years of local support

The Community Health Awareness Council (CHAC) is celebrating 30 years of providing low-cost and free counseling to troubled youth and other needy residents.

In 1971, Dody Alexander represented the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District at the California Drug Education Training program sponsored jointly by the State of California and Santa Clara County.

Author of ‘Nickel and Dimed’ tells Morning Forum about life of working poor

“Never use the word unskilled,” Barbara Ehrenreich told the Morning Forum audience on Sept. 16, describing her work as a waitress, maid, salesclerk and nursing home aide. “These jobs take intelligence and patience, and are often made much harder than they have to be by employer rules against such things as talking to each other, or drinking water on the job. Some assembly line workers and cashiers actually wear adult diapers to work because they are not allowed bathroom breaks.”

Ehrenreich, an acclaimed writer, wondered how women driven into the work force by welfare reform could make ends meet with jobs paying $6 to $7 an hour. She went undercover with the following ground rules: To take the highest paying job she could find that required no prior experience, find the cheapest place to live, and keep her expenses within the income she earned. The resulting book, “Nickel and Dimed, On (Not) Getting By in America,” chronicles her experiences on jobs in Key West, Fla., as a waitress; Portland, Maine, as a maid and nursing home aide; and Minneapolis, Minn., as a Wal-Mart “associate.”

Boys and Girls Club offers new after-school study program

A new after-school study program at the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula is giving at-risk youth a shot at making the grade.

In an effort to help disadvantaged students catch up on their math, reading and spelling skills, the club last month launched the Enhanced Academic Program at its East Palo Alto facility.

New Alta Vista campus to be built by 2005

The board of trustees for the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District last week began reviewing of preliminary plans for a new Alta Vista High School campus to be built on a three-acre plot of land adjacent to the district offices on Bryant Street.

In 2002 the Mountain View City Council unanimously approved a 40-year land lease at $1 per year with a 10-year renewal option to the MVLA district for the city’s old water tower property.

Foothill-De Anza board alerted to 2004-05 budget deficit challenges

Preparing the 2004-05 budget for the Foothill-De Anza Community College District without the slightest indication what the state will do is an obvious challenge.

Because of the severity of a projected budget shortfall for next year, Mike Brandy, vice chancellor of business services, presented his first 2004-05 forecast to the board of trustees Sept. 22. Brandy put in plain words the challenge the Foothill-De Anza Community College District must meet.

Paly squeaks by Eagles; DLS crushes St. Francis

Another game, another narrow defeat for the Los Altos High football team.

The Eagles sunk to 0-3 with last Friday’s 27-22 non-league loss at Palo Alto.

New business uses stickers to spread kindness

While you may feel your teen is on another planet when you try to talk with them, there are steps you can take to foster good communication. Try using positive Acts of Kindness™ stickers like “YOU are so special to me,” available from Carma Design.

Los Altos residents Emma and Carter Hand launched Carma Design last month to market the feel-good stickers. The Los Altos-based company is donating 5 percent of its profits to Child Advocates, an organization that provides a powerful voice for abused and neglected children.

Resident takes walk on the wild side with ‘Cold Noses, Warm Hearts’

Tonto is the talk of the town. Everybody seems to love Tonto. Even other dogs love him. He’s that golden retriever who follows his owner around town with the leash in his mouth.

“Tonto was 1 year old when I picked him up as a stray at the Salinas Humane Society,” Lisa Powell said. “He is now 14 and has pulled me through a lot of hard times.”

Fit for a French king

The newly built two-story chateau on the banks of Adobe Creek is grand even by Los Altos Hills standards.

Tailored after French castles in the Loire Valley’s chateau country, the 6,495-square-foot house emulates the grandeur associated with French royalty during the 16th century.

A winning combination

When we journalists first drove the new Bentley Continental GT coupe, to be introduced in the United States early next year, we couldn’t decide how to describe it.

Is it a state-of-the-art performance automobile with luxury touches or a luxury automobile that uses state-of-the-art technology to deliver cutting-edge performance?