Will city ‘BID’ to improve downtown?

For years, particularly since the economy went south with the dot-com bust more than five years ago, talk about bringing more traffic - and sales - to downtown Los Altos has persisted. While downtown sales are up over the past two years, discussion on how to attract more visitors continues - centering mostly on improving landscaping and maintenance.

The problem remains, however, how to pay for such improvements.

Dire forecasts spur talks on LAH school district

Officials estimated that the Los Altos School District could lose up to $3.5 million and the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District $3.7 million as negotiations began last week with the Los Altos Hills City Council on its plan to seek its own K-8 district to bring a public school back to the town.

LASD Superintendent Tim Justus said a new Hills district would necessitate program reductions and cuts, and trustee David Williams predicted a loss of 10 percent of the high school district budget.

Remembering Hank Kolm on anniversary of fatal accident

A year has passed since an accident took the life of longtime Los Altos resident Henry “Hank” Kolm as he crossed San Antonio Road on the morning of April 2, 2005. He was on his way to buy bread for a dinner party. At home, his wife, Irene, set the table for 10.

The driver of the SUV that struck the 6-foot-tall man who wore a turquoise sweatshirt and khaki pants did not see him in the crosswalk, according to court records.

Los Altos sewer service charges begin long-term rise next year

Monthly sewer service charges for single-

family residences in Los Altos will rise by $2.75 per home next year to increase system revenue by half a million dollars. The rise in the current $21 monthly residential fee will add $33 to each homeowner’s total sewer costs for the year.

Los Altos Hills signs leases for cell towers

Los Altos Hills has completed leases with Verizon and Cingular Wireless for cell towers at Westwind Barn and town hall that will bring in $5,000 a month in rent.

The $3,000 monthly lease for the Westwind tower allows Verizon to charge other cell providers to collocate on the tower. Providers that want to collocate on the town hall tower, for which Cingular will pay $2,000 a month, must negotiate with and pay the town.

LAH council decides not to widen Fremont Road

On weekday mornings, a sluggish commute along Fremont Road has been a fact of life for many in Los Altos Hills. This is unlikely to change soon - the city council scrapped preliminary plans to widen the road at its March 23 council meeting.

Town staff carried out a traffic congestion evaluation at the intersection of Fremont Road and Weston Drive in front of the Pinewood School Upper Campus and found a maximum waiting time of about 3 minutes during the peak period between 7:50 and 8:05 a.m. During a one-hour traffic count, 424 cars crossed the intersection, 262 turned into the Pinewood parking lot.

News Briefs

St. Paul’s building plans approved
A two-story rectory and one-story duplex residence for teachers will be built on the property of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, 101 El Monte Ave., despite some neighbors’ concerns about introducing multifamily housing into the neighborhood.
Each building will cover an area of approximately 3,000 square feet. The […]

Police Blotter

Burglary
March 28, 8:02 a.m., 900 block of Fremont Ave.: vehicle parked in underground garage broken into. Suspect unknown.
March 28, 12:36 p.m., 900 block of Andover Way: credit cards taken from vehicle.
March 31, 7:02 p.m., 1600 block of Parkhills Ave.: residential burglary, entered open window and took jewelry and electronics, ransacked […]

Editorials

Bid for BID: Trust must be established
Up for discussion again is the idea of forming a business improvement district in downtown Los Altos to fund more landscaping and maintenance.
It’s a major undertaking, requiring agreement among property and/or business owners about what needs to be done and, of course, financial commitments. Typically, […]

Letters to the Editor

Building costs and gay pride
The March 22 headline (”Building costs through the roof”) and the articles and letters regarding Gay Pride Day contrast with striking irony.
The length of the lead article was needed to define this serious fiscal issue reflecting gross mismanagement in state/local government. The irony is the comparable space on […]

Of happenstance on a shrinking planet

At Disneyland, Cris and I were always charmed by the “It’s a Small World” exhibit and lilting voices that sang of a planet where distance was no longer perceived as detachment.

Now, modern technology bridges the gap between a Caucasian student in Palo Alto and his brown-skinned brother across the international date line.

Troop celebrates World Thinking Day

Springer Elementary School’s Girl Scout Troop 1168 recently celebrated World Thinking Day, which provided girls the opportunity to participate in activities and ponder issues related to adolescent health. The girls discussed ways to be healthy and fit, including exercise, diet and stress management. They sampled Indian foods in tribute to their sister troop in India and were led through a yoga class, which included balancing, strengthening, stretching and relaxation poses.

Black-tie, high-heel tribute to CSMA’s McConnell offers an evening of surprises

The annual benefit for the Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) March 25 at Finn Center was both a tribute to both outgoing executive director Angela McConnell and to the school’s mission of “Arts for All.” Nearly 400 guests turned out at the Computer History Museum for the event emceed by former Mountain View mayor Matt Neely.

Sponsored by the Morgan Family Foundation, Applied Materials, Corrigan-Walla Foundation, Franklin and Catherine Johnson Foundation, Castellano Family Foundation, and Bob Reay and Judi Fan, the benefit raised more than $250,000 for CSMA’s arts education and financial aid programs.

Community-supported agriculture, slow food principles shared at library event

Now that the Valley of Heart’s Delight grows gadgets instead of prize-winning fruit, produce in local farmers’ markets often comes from the far reaches of the county or from coastal San Mateo and San Benito counties. In spite of the distance, these farmers are expanding their markets through Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, the formal name for subscription farming.

To learn more about the future of America’s small farms as well as how community supported agriculture is practiced locally, the public is invited to a free screening of the documentary “Broken Limbs: Apples, Agriculture and the New American Farmer,” 7:30 tonight at the Los Altos Main Library. The film is sponsored by Slow Food Silicon Valley and the Library. Andy Griffin of Mariquita Farm will explain how subscription farming works.

Best-selling author of ‘Distant Land of My Father’ to speak

Bo Caldwell, a Cupertino author, is scheduled to speak 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the Los Altos main library as part of the Fourth Annual “Speaking Volumes” series by leading contemporary authors.

Sponsored by the Los Altos Library Endowment (LALE), the presentation will be held in the Program Room of the library, 13 N. San Antonio Road. Caldwell’s novel, “The Distant Land of My Father,” was published in hardcover by Chronicle Books in October 2001 and in paperback by Harcourt in September 2002. The book was a national best-seller and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2001.

RSVP program offers seniors help with household tasks

For homeowners or renters who are advanced in years or disabled, tasks such as replacing smoke detector batteries, flipping a mattress or washing the windows can pose a major challenge.

Help is on the way in the form of cost-free assistance from local realtors in cooperation with various community organizations and senior centers.

Annual Egg Hunt set for April 15

The Los Altos Recreation Department and the Los Altos Library have scheduled their Annual Egg Hunt 9:45 a.m. April 15 at the Hillview Soccer Field.

The egg hunt, divided into age groups (walking to 4 years, 5 to 7 and 8 to 10), is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Two golden egg prizes will be offered per age group. Due to the overwhelming success of the event, each participant will be limited to collecting five eggs. Bring your own basket.

Arranger at work

The March 28 meeting of the Garden Club of Los Altos featured speaker Kren Rasmussen, a master flower arranger. Rasmussen, who runs Bloomsters in Los Gatos, made six arrangements for the club, each different in shape, style and color. The garden club meets the fourth Tuesday of each month at Christ Episcopal Church on Border Road in Los Altos. For more information, call 365-4677.

What’s cooking at El Camino?

The El Camino Hospital Foundation has scheduled a gala May 20 at the Parking Pavilion, Penthouse Level.

Celebrity chefs from premier restaurants in Northern California, including Amber India, AP Stump’s Chop House, Caffe Riace, Chez TJ, Emile’s, Evvia, Quattro - Four Seasons and Kokkari, will cook their signature hors d’oeuvres onsite - the tented rooftop of El Camino Hospital’s new parking garage.

Calendar

Ongoing
Los Altos Senior Center, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, 97 Hillview Ave.
Today
Mountain View Planning Commission, 7:30 p.m., city hall, 500 Castro St.
Thursday
Los Altos Hills Town Council, 6 p.m. town hall, 26379 Fremont Ave.
Los Altos Planning Commission, 7 p.m., city hall, 1 N. […]

Pet of the Week

King is a vocal, 2-year-old neutered male available for adoption at Palo Alto Animal Services. King is described as “a great cat for someone with time.” To adopt King, visit the agency at 3281 E. Bayshore Road, in Palo Alto, or call 496-5972.

Los Altos Relay For Life rally deemed a success by organizers

Organizers said the March 23 kick-off rally at Los Altos United Methodist Church, meant to encourage participation in the third Los Altos Relay For Life, fulfilled its mission to ignite the spirit of the event in the community.

This year’s event, scheduled June 24 and 25 at Los Altos High School, is a 24-hour walk in relay-fashion that raises awareness about cancer and funds for the American Cancer Society to continue its fight for a cure. The event features ceremonies honoring survivors and entertainment and food to encourage participants and supporters who spend day and night at the relay.

College students to the rescue

Lizzie Paulsen, a 21-year-old Los Altos resident and student at UC Santa Cruz, and fellow resident Stephanie Chan of UC Riverside

spent their spring break in New Orleans along with thousands of other college students helping with clean-up from Hurricane Katrina. “We gutted homes in the Lower Ninth Ward, worked on a women’s shelter and cleared out a flooded elementary school,” Paulsen said. They stayed in a shelter with the housing group Common Ground. “We were encouraged to share our stories on return in order to let people know the ongoing need for help,” Paulsen said.

Community Briefs

LACF to sponsor gay-straight parade
The debate in Los Altos over Gay Pride Day proclamations has spurred a movement toward organizing a downtown parade in June promoting “the special interests and needs” of local youth having to do with sexual orientation.
Last week, the board of directors of the Los […]

Oak Avenue students bloom in educational native garden

Amidst an open playing field lies a nature-filled oasis where children have an opportunity to connect one-on-one with the environment. The oasis is the Oak School Creative Play and Educational Garden.

The garden was the idea of Environmental Volunteers member Vicki Moore. Environmental Volunteers provides services that focus on natural science to local schools. They take the children in Santa Clara County schools on field trips.

Young scientists take to the labs

It’s science fair season: poster boards are flying off the shelves, mold is growing and seedlings are sprouting.

At Santa Rita Elementary School, more than 100 students set up displays last week to showcase their exploration of the scientific method. Participants in the school’s “Science, math and engineering fair” canvassed topics as varied as botany, robotics, vulcanology and chemistry.

Los Altos High sponsors districtwide college fair

Los Altos High School is hosting a districtwide college fair 6-8 p.m. tonight in the large gym. Local students and parents can meet with representatives from approximately 80 colleges and universities.

Representatives will speak and provide material regarding their colleges. UCs, CSUs, local community colleges and private colleges from across the nation will be represented. SAT prep companies and Financial Aid information will also be available.

Castro school seeks in-class project volunteers

Castro Mariano Elementary School in Mountain View is seeking volunteers for its Generation Connection projects, in which participants work with students in the classroom or the garden in an effort to boost their English skills.

In-class volunteers share stories from their childhoods and help students with their writing. Garden volunteers meet in the Mountain View Senior Garden to talk with students about nature. No prior experience is necessary; volunteers receive explicit instructions.

Pinewood Singers win radio contest

Pinewood Singers, the high school choir of Pinewood School in Los Altos Hills, recently won a contest at KFOX radio station competing against 32 Santa Clara County schools.

The contest required the group to make a recording of one of their songs for KFOX to play on the radio. After the radio play, the public was asked to vote for the best performance.

Former LAHS students publish book

Three years ago, two brothers from Los Altos High School began work on a book, which subsequently sold nearly 20,000 copies.

The pair, Kent and Kyle Healy, had tried to run a skim board and wakeboard company when they were 14 and 15 years old, respectively, and then a window-washing business called Mario and the Squeegee Bros. about a year later.

Fremont Union hosts crab feed and fund-raiser

The Fremont Union High Schools Foundation’s Annual Crab Feed “FUN” Raiser is scheduled 5:30-9 p.m. Friday at the Hinson Campus Center at De Anza College. The event is co-sponsored by the foundation, the Rotary Club of Cupertino and De Anza College.

Tickets are $35 and can be purchased at Fremont Union high school offices - Cupertino, Fremont, Homestead, Lynbrook and Monta Vista - and through the foundation office by calling (408) 773-1218. Tickets are also available at the district’s Educational Services Center, 589 W. Fremont Ave., Sunnyvale.

Assistant’s dismissal leads to LA football coach’s resignation

When he was hired to be Los Altos High’s fourth football coach in seven years, Erik Rutgers said he planned to stick around for a while. Less than a year later, Rutgers has resigned.

Los Altos High athletic director Monica Lodge indicated that Rutgers’ decision to resign was based on not being able to coach alongside Steve Cox, his offensive coordinator last season.

Spartans struggling to keep up in De Anza

Things have gone so wrong for the Mountain View High baseball team lately that coach Ray McDonald actually welcomed last week’s rainout of a game scheduled for Gunn.

“Thank God,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m thinking of having a victory party.”

Know your ABCs before investing in bonds

The Federal Reserve Bank increased the short-term rate, the Fed funds rate, by a quarter of a percent last week. This move indicates a healthy economy but one that is not too robust. Too much economic activity causes inflation and regular readers should understand what that means. Inflation is a hidden tax that affects low-income consumers even more than high-wage earners. We have a flat yield curve, so short-term bond yields are about the same as long-term bonds right now.

Investors often ask how bonds work and how one chooses good, high-quality bonds for a portfolio designed for both security and income. Several rating agencies have made a business evaluating and ranking bond issuers.

Hiruko brings holistic healing and martial arts to children

If you’re feeling stressed and in need of meditation, chances are your children are, too. Throw a noncombative emphasis on martial arts into the mix, and you’re likely to celebrate what Hiruko, a Los Altos holistic wellness center, has to offer.

The center, located at Loyola Corners, integrates expressive arts like meditation with healing arts such as Tai Chi and Qigong and offers classes for all ages. Fewer than one-third of their clients so far, however, are older than 13, said teacher and executive director Natalia Gabrea Tejada.

Small car, big buy

Preferences in automobiles today have as much to do with what a car looks like as what it can do. Most of us aren’t happy just getting from point A to point B anymore; we want to make some sort of statement as we go by.

The MINI Cooper Checkmate we drove last week is all about statements. But it’s still a very practical and efficient way to get from point A to point B.

Most drivers say they don’t use turn signals

Maybe you’ve asked yourself: What is the big deal about a turn signal? Is it hard to find? Difficult to use? Why is it that 57 percent of drivers say they don’t use one?

Won’t-use-a-signal drivers are shameless, according to a national survey by Response Insurance, a national car insurer.

Good repair shop key to getting long life from vehicle

Other than your home, your automobile is likely to be the single largest purchase you will ever make. Finding a quality repair shop is an important step toward maximizing the life, reliability, driving pleasure and resale value of your vehicle while minimizing unnecessary expenses along the way.

In this, our first monthly column, we will offer some suggestions to help you find that ideal shop.

‘Two Minute Rule’ quick, enjoyable read

“The Two Minute Rule” by Robert Crais (Simon and Schuster, 2006) is quite good but not great.

I got confused in the first sentence: “Marchenko and Parsons circled the bank for 16 minutes, huffing Krylon Royal Blue Metallic to regulate the crystal as they worked up their nut.” A few other sentences were confusing, but overall the writing is terse, clear, informed and readable.

Ton of gravel & ultimate trut on relationship between science, religion

We’ve probably all heard the question, “Have you stopped beating your wife, yes or no?” What do you answer if you never did beat her? If you say “no,” it sounds as if you are still beating her, and if you say “yes,” it sounds as if you used to beat her. The truth is that there’s something wrong with the question.

Scientists trying to figure out how the world works have sometimes discovered that there was something wrong with their questions, too. I think in some of the current religious and social debates there’s also something wrong with the questions.

Bride’s guide to calming wedding-day jitters

During the hours before your wedding, you are going to be a nervous wreck. Who wouldn’t be? You are about to take a giant step into the unknown and simultaneously throw the most important party of your life. Here are some simple techniques for getting rid of the jitters. Practice early and often.

Breathe!

Questions to ask before you book

Here is a simple checklist of things to ask venues before choosing one for your special event.

• How many events per day does the venue allow? Some places book more than one event on the same day, which limits your setting-up time and may require ending the party before you want to.

A place for us

You have found each other; now you have to find a place to get married.

Los Altos is central to many wedding venues. There are outdoor sites that take advantage of the area’s stunning natural beauty, as well as wineries, gardens and historic homes. A town of many faiths, Los Altos is an excellent choice for a traditional wedding in a church or temple. The beach is close by, and destination wedding options are available through travel agencies.

The very best grapes

Monticello Vineyards has been growing grapes in Napa County since 1970 and making wine since 1980. Los Altos Hills resident Jay Corley created the vineyard and winery, which now produces more than 15,000 cases a year of Monticello Vineyards and Corley Reserve wine. “We sell wine around the world and we feel we compete with the very best,” he said.

Corley named his winery Monticello after Thomas Jefferson’s estate, in honor of his family’s history in Virginia from the 1640s to the 1740s. “The Corleys in the South are fairly prominent, and every generation has been involved in farming,” Corley said. His wine is also named in honor of Jefferson himself, who “loved wine and food, like I do,” according to Corley, who attempted to grow grapes despite the difficulty of Virginia’s terrain for the crop. Although there is a burgeoning wine industry in Virginia now, Monticello is purely Napa Valley.

The vessel of our spirits - a look back at the wineglass

History tells us that our affection for wine long predates our taste for the delicate crystal and glass vessels we drink from today.

The earliest intact wineglasses date from the Pleistocene era and consist of baked-clay goblets made by the Iberians, and subsequently passed on to the early Britons. With the spread of Roman culture circa the first century BC, silver and gold vessels with ornate scrollwork along the edges of the goblets increased in popularity.

Wine country associations

Calaveras Winegrape Alliance

P.O. Box 2492

Uncorked wine store and tasting gallery offers fine wines without the attitude

Picking out wine for a dinner party or for your own pleasure can be an intimidating affair. Unless you know exactly what you want, wading through aisles of bottles can get frustrating and may often culminate in blind guessing. Ask a wine connoisseur what’s good and the novice is often confronted with strange questions.

Would you like a woodsy or oaky aroma? Do you prefer a crisp or full-bodied cabernet? Stuttering or cluelessness is embarrassing.

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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