Bob Lacey off-the-cuff

Most people probably believe that top law enforcement officials began their careers because of a love for the law. That’s not the case with Los Altos’ newest Police Chief Bob Lacey. The longtime Los Altos resident joined law enforcement on the contrary. Lacey said he developed a distaste of police while studying premed at UC Santa Barbara during a time of protests and heavy policing on campus. At one point, someone asked Lacey, “You think you can do better?”

Lacey took the challenge. He joined the Los Altos Police Department 25 years ago and was named chief in July after a search that included 19 other candidates.

Council postpones decision on 27,000-square-foot house

High-tech moguls Fred and Annie Chan are no strangers to big buildings. In 2003, the couple reportedly invested in the construction of two 400-foot-tall residential towers in Hawaii. Now, they’re building a 27,000-square-foot home in Los Altos Hills.

But the couple will have to hold off for another couple of weeks on plans for a 3,000-square-foot utility building and an 8,000-square-foot tennis complex that would include an area for spectators and a six-car parking lot. The city council postponed approving their application last Thursday when controversy surfaced over the location of a proposed pathway on the property and whether the town or the Chans are responsible for building it.

Groups spring into action to help storm victims

Los Altos-area organizations and residents are pledging their support in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in Louisiana, Mississippi and other southern states.

The Los Altos Community Foundation has established a Hurricane Katrina Fund for residents wishing to donate locally. The foundation will act as the fiscal agent for the fund and will send money to the New Orleans Community Foundation in care of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation’s Hurricane Katrina New Orleans Recovery Fund. The two Louisiana-based foundations are working together since the New Orleans Foundation is temporarily without a home. LACF chairman Roy Lave said, “Our hope is by collecting multiple donations through LACF, we can assist the staff at (Baton Rouge) by providing them with one check, thereby minimizing the administrative burden on their organization in processing gifts toward this relief effort.”

Los Altos Hills Size matters: Large-home builders face energy-use restrictions

All it takes is a little nudge. That’s what Los Altos Hills officials are hoping as they move ahead with an ordinance to encourage residents to go solar.

The ordinance, still being drafted, would apply only to new homes over a certain size. It would not apply to remodels.

Los Altos Hills to supply fluoridated water this month

Keeping their pearly whites cavity-free should get easier for most Los Altos Hills residents this month.

The Purissima Hills Water District will begin supplying fluoridated water to its 6,500 customers Sept. 19. The district serves two-thirds of Hills residents.

LA looks at annexing two neighborhoods

Los Altos could gain 386 new residents by the end of this month if the Los Altos City Council takes advantage of recent law changes that would permit the city to annex two unincorporated neighborhoods without an election. The item is scheduled for discussion at the next council meeting Tuesday.

The expansion may cost the city more money annually in services than it will receive in additional property taxes, but would enable the city to provide better municipal and public safety services, city officials said.

Local groups accepting aid for Katrina victims

the 200-mile stricken area with long-range plans for home rebuilding and assistance.

Although the Town Crier Gulf Relief Fund has targeted these two organizations, donors can also designate other relief agencies to receive all or a portion of their contribution.

Editorials

Reaching out to Katrina victims
The awesome, devastating force of Hurricane Katrina last week surely puts a lot in perspective for those of us living under the sunny skies of Los Altos.
While we debate over traffic calming and zoning regulations, thousands of people are fighting for their lives in the southeast after what’s […]

Letters to the Editor

Appreciates coverage of worker center
Joseph Bennett

I read with interest the writeup on the Mountain View Work Center at Calvary Church by Elizabeth Ridgeway.
As a regular visitor to the center I endorse her views on the center’s work. Thanks to John Rinaldi, who is the founder-benefactor of the center and the gesture […]

House for sale

It’s been established by partygoers that nothing arouses more avid interest than a house with a “For Sale” sign. Cocktail party conversation livens up like a kitty with a ball of yarn at the prospect of probing for and sharing the pros and cons of divesting yourself of what, for most of us is our most beloved possession. In the words of a recently retired priest with whom I correspond, “For a noble senior, the number one gigantic task is closing her or his home and moving to another one. Hang tough!” For those of us who would rather stay than go, those words resonate.

He himself is “working at the task of packing and unpacking, throwing things out and deciding what to keep.” It’s a task bedecked with memories.

Noteworthies

Linda Gass of Los Altos is exhibiting her new art quilt, “Puzzle Of Salt,” through Oct. 22 at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, Ky. Quilt art reflects artistic expressions inspired by the landscape - the contours of the terrain, the effects of light and weather and the imprint of humankind.

Hudson River Valley Art Workshops, under the stewardship of Kim and Mark LaPolla, former Los Altos residents, offers fine art workshops for painters.

Engagement

Tara Roddy and Steve Piercy
Tara Roddy and Steve Piercy have announced their engagement to be married on the beach in Monterey Nov. 5.
The bride-to-be is the daughter of Vicki Burckhardt of Nevada City and the late Ron Roddy. She is a graduate of Nevada Union High School and Humboldt State University. She […]

Births

Born at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital:

April 12: Son, to Jennifer and Douglas Bardsley, Mountain View.

Vet radio broadcaster Al Hart recalls early days of station KCBS 740

Those who have never met Al Hart still recall his voice. He’s like an old friend, one who greeted them each morning: “This is KCBS 740, all news, all the time.”

When the veteran radio newsman spoke at the Los Altos Kiwanis meeting Aug. 30, the room was packed with members and their relatives and guests, all eager to meet the man behind the calm voice of the local news.

Early Literacy Program founder realizes success through star high school student

“I married you for better or worse, but I didn’t marry you for lunch.”

When Duane Stauffer’s wife uttered those words, he knew that his retirement years had to take a different shape, but he was at loose ends. It was time to stop puttering in the garage. So he started a journey that led to creation of Early Literacy Program, a program that has helped hundreds of local primary school students learn to read. Stauffer has been the program’s volunteer coordinator since its inception eight years ago.

LWV holding forum on public’s right to know

Citizens involved in local public issues, government officials, and candidates are invited to a League of Women Voters forum on open government and the right to know 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12 at Foothills Congregational Church, 461 Orange Ave., Los Altos.

The forum, with attorney James Chadwick, an expert in First Amendment issues, will cover the Brown Act, the California open meetings law, and the state’s laws on public record access.

When a self-made millionaire retired to Los Altos

When he arrived here in 1925, William Marvin had probably attained the widest international reputation of any Los Altos resident - and did so from modest beginnings.

One of seven children, he was born in Aberdeen, Ohio in 1892. After high school graduation, he took a job as a traveling salesman. His work took him to Berkeley, where he decided to attend its university. He proved to be a brilliant, prize-winning student who was also adept at earning money from outside jobs. William graduated in 1914 and began studies at Hastings, which at that time was Berkeley’s law school in San Francisco.

Local organization C.A.R. comes to aid of those with disabilities

Three years ago, Kim Ahrens was on vacation in Denver with her family when a drunk driver hit their car. Her husband’s foot was crushed; Ahrens suffered a broken neck. She lost use of her arms and legs. Fortunately, their four-week-old baby was not hurt.

Ahrens turned to C.A.R., the Community Association for Rehabilitation. She now has regained use of her arms and is making progress with her legs.

A permanent gallery has opened in a place of impermanence. Paintings by cancer patients now hang in the library of El Camino Hospital. The exhibit that opened last week grew out of the hospital’s Healing Arts Program. The trees and flowers captured in the paintings are rooted in patients’ lives.

The woman who brought these works into the light is local artist Tehila Eisenstat, who teaches a free class called Creative Expressions every Tuesday at the hospital. Her class has grown from two students to about 20 in two years.

Community Briefs

Chefs Who Care at Cascal
The next Chefs Who Care dinners are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at Cascal restaurant, located at California Avenue and Castro Street, Mountain View.
Seatings are at 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Half the proceeds benefit the Community Services Agency, which serves needy residents in Mountain View, Los […]

Friends of Griffin House seek to halt demolition

The Friends of the Griffin House served a lawsuit on the Foothill-De Anza Community College District late Thursday afternoon, challenging the district’s environmental impact report for the project that includes razing the historic house on the Foothill College campus. The Friends filed suit in Santa Clara County Superior Court Aug. 30.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) mandates that public agencies analyze the impact of construction or demolition on a site’s immediate environment. The Friends claim that the district’s analysis violated CEQA requirements and the California Uniform Building Code.

New Alta Vista takes shape

Alta Vista High School students will have room to breathe in the high-ceilinged multipurpose and art rooms taking shape in their new school. Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District officials take a look at construction progress. Joe White, left, associate superintendent for business services, talks with Superintendent Rich Fischer about the work remaining to be done in the multi. The art room is the part of the project nearest completion.

Student earned 12,000 frequent-flier miles going to and from summer sleep-away camp

Lots of kids go to sleep-away camp during their summer vacations, but most don’t need a passport to get there. This summer I was given an incredible opportunity to visit the United Kingdom as part of the People to People Student Ambassador Program, established by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 to promote international understanding.

I was the only student from Los Altos in the Bay Area group of about 25 fifth- and sixth-graders and two adult leaders. Our group met monthly for half a year to get to know each other and the countries we were going to visit.

Local school districts’ latest API scores rise, Bullis Charter School soars

Three local school districts scored above 900 in the Academic Performance Index for the 2004-2005 school year. A score of 800 is the target set by the state for all public schools.

Los Altos School District’s overall score rose 8 points from 2003-2004 to reach 949 in 2004-2005. Cupertino Union School District’s overall score rose 9 points to 920, and Palo Alto Unified School District’s overall score rose 9 points to 904. Mountain View-Whisman School District gained 11 points for an overall score of 764.

Noteworthies

The following local students at the University of California, Santa Barbara, were named to the dean’s honors list for the spring quarter. Los Altos residents and their majors are Kelsey Leigh Finkelstein, pre-political science; Jennifer Gilbert, global studies; Christopher Osborne Hanson, communication; Maegan Ryan Hendow, English; Nicole Kimberly Hodges, pre-psychology; Kimberly Marei Maher, global studies; Stephanie Danielle Moniz, pharmacology; Benjamin John Rancatore, undeclared; Scott Mitchell Rooker, pre-biopsychology; Brian Joseph Simoni, business economics; and Matthew Amir Yasavolian, biochemistry. Los Altos Hills residents and their majors are Toni Pui-Mun Chau, pre-biology, and Dragoljub Drmanac, electrical engineering.

Foothill College offers recreational astronomy course

Starting in September, a 1-unit astronomy seminar will accompany Foothill College’s popular beginning course, Astronomy 10B: Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe.

Astronomy 105: Astronomy for Recreation will be an overview of astronomy for those looking for more ways to enjoy the cosmos. It will be offered 1:40-2:30 p.m. Mondays starting Sept. 26. No background in science or special equipment will be required. An optional Friday evening session at the college observatory will be available for students in the course.

Los Altos teen fights spread of malaria in Africa

A Castilleja School student who participated with her history teacher in the inaugural season of the Summer Academy at Cape Town a few weeks ago returned to her Los Altos home determined to fight the spread of malaria in Africa.

Senior Ashley Schoettle said, “Although I was well aware that malaria and AIDS were having devastating effects in Africa, working at The Children’s Center in Cape Town and learning that almost 1 million African children die each year from complications due to malaria made the situation much more meaningful and real to me. It seemed especially tragic because malaria is a disease that is actually treatable.”

Spreading ‘Nets of Love’

Africa provides the perfect conditions for malaria: high temperatures, plenty of breeding sites and a species of mosquito that prefers humans to cattle. Each year malaria and related maladies kill 700,000 African children. This is a preventable tragedy: The tools and knowledge to stop the spread of this deadly disease exist, but adequate funding and communications are not appropriately employed.

Bed nets treated with safe, long-lasting insecticide are the most practicable way to prevent and control malaria. Their use has been proven to reduce child mortality by about 20 percent. However, the $6 nets are prohibitively expensive in an area of the world where more than half the population earns less than $1 a day.

Covington Coyotes howl for joy

Covington Coyotes converged on the campus last week to celebrate their school spirit with a back-to-school barbecue. The school community, led by Principal Leslie Crane, with microphone, above, thanked the many volunteers who made the garden around Hardy Jones’ coyote sculpture, in particular the Ghumman family, who donated funds for the garden. Rudolph & Sletten donated the hardscape, and Rebecca Sweet did the landscaping.

Replanted Oak has it made in the shade

Oak Avenue School went public with its “Extreme Makeover, School Edition” on the afternoon of Aug. 21. The Fab Five - all the Los Altos School District trustees - made a cameo appearance to cut the ribbon on the remodeled campus, then mingled with 500 parents, children and school staff as the Toot Sweet Jazz Band played Dixieland music. While PTA representatives recruited volunteers, children went on a scavenger hunt, and everyone enjoyed the hot pretzels and ice cream. Children got into the dedication of the new educational and play garden. Trustees Duane Roberts, Jay Thomas, Margot Harrigan, Victor Reid III and Bill Cooper were pleased to rive the ribbon on the clock tower, which faces the brick courtyard and main entrance to the school. Kindergartner Matthew Permut took a turn pumping water into the artificial creek bed that runs down the garden slope behind the school.

LAHS girls volleyball team lacks size, but not intensity

Leave it to the ever-optimistic Dave Winn, coach of the Los Altos High girls volleyball team, to find a positive in losing his two best players to graduation.

“It’s created a new team dynamic,” the Eagles’ fourth-year coach said. “The practices are more intense, the scrimmages are more even and they’re all competing for a starting job, which is a motivator.”

Economic waves from Hurricane Katrina will be felt worldwide

Hurricane Katrina brought massive human and material damage to Mississippi, Louisiana and other southern states. While this damage and destruction was limited geographically, the economic waves will reverberate throughout the world.

Damaged crops and curtailed energy production will affect prices for some time. Rebuilding will be massive. Jobs, materials and other supplies will be in high demand, leading to increased economic activity over time.

Successful tournament held at Los Altos Golf & Country Club

Tiger Woods didn’t show up, but 132 other golfers did Aug. 8 for the 16th annual Los Altos Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament.

“It was another great tournament, with some very spirited competition at a spectacular location,” said Kurt Hueg,

Making sense of the ETF explosion

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have exploded in popularity. Actively managed mutual funds, over the past five years, have grown from $7 trillion to $8.2 trillion, a 17 percent increase. Exchange Traded Funds, however, have grown from a modest $65.6 billion to $243 billion, a 270 percent increase. Mutual fund companies may have more assets but are worried about this significant trend.

Most ETFs are index funds, which means they hold a basket of securities like the 500 stocks that make up the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. Since the basket doesn’t change frequently, ETFs have low annual expenses (maybe 0.20 percent compared with 1.50 percent), and much lower tax implications compared to most mutual funds.

Victorious Volvos: Two models draw rave reviews

It shouldn’t counter intuition that Volvo isn’t the biggest risk-taker. Like other European automakers, these successful Swedes were aching to expand downmarket, but weren’t willing to go it alone.

So at the turn of the millennium, Volvo tiptoed into the small luxury segment with the S40, basically a rebadge of the Mitsubishi Carisma - a car utterly lacking in the very quality it misspelled. British magazine Car declared it one of the eight worst cars in England.

On the Road

When Volvo was an independent automaker, it received many accolades for the safety of its automobiles.

At the same time, few reviewers ever had anything positive to say about the styling of its cars (”Looks like it was inspired by a refrigerator box,” said one.), or about their performance (”People who buy safety don’t care about performance,” said another.)

Downtown Los Altos is a car lovers’ dream

The incredible, eclectic assortment of automobiles assembled at the recent Community Picnic and the nice array of cars that show up at the Donut Derelicts’ gathering each Saturday morning behind the Main Street Café & Books are proof of what a great place Los Altos is for many car lovers.

Two annual events coming up this month will be even bigger for auto aficionados.

Books

A young man I once knew who was visiting from Australia said, “You Americans are so competitive and so mean to each other about it. I went to a baseball game and could not believe they were actually keeping track of the errors.”

It could be argued that competition made America great - and this area rich - but Vince Scarich and Charles Knell, in their new novel, “Celebrating Joy … the Rebirth of Baseball” (Torchbearers Press, 2005), argue that life could be more joyful with less competition, especially in baseball. What if a team decided to play the game for the joy of playing it?

Dalai Lama: Good-naturedness way to good, long life

If you were in a tiny village in Nepal, served by a footpath instead of roads, you would know when the Tibetan traders were coming down the trail, because you would hear their bells and laughter.

Tibetans are good-natured. There are few peoples on earth who like to laugh more. Even though they live in a harsh, forbidding environment “on the roof of the world,” they can see the humor in almost anything. The Tibetan traders make a long, arduous journey from Tibet, through Nepal and down into India, laughing all the way.

Visit to famous soul-food restaurant highlight of Los Altos resident’s trip to Harlem

My friend of 44 years from Santa Clara and I traveled by plane to New York’s LaGuardia Airport, where we were met by our friend from Tampa, Fla. She had come up days before us and had her four-wheel drive vehicle.

Barbara’s tips and highlights

Transportation

If you decide to walk, keep in mind that New York’s city blocks are twice as long as San Francisco’s average city block. Be prepared to walk the equivalent of eight blocks, even if your map shows four.

Datebook

Datebook items are run on a space-available basis for entertainment, non-profit events, low-cost classes and groups of wide interest in our circulation area. The deadline is noon, Tuesday, for the next week’s paper. Notices must be typed and include a contact name and phone number. Items may be submitted via e-mail (peteb@latc.com); fax (948-6647) or post (138 Main St., Los Altos, CA 94022).

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