Pool compromise best solution

Eight and a half years is much too long to wait for a decision, but at least the Los Altos City Council made the right one in approving a one-pool project for the hard-fought 1-acre site at the end of Rosita Avenue.

Pool supporters, led by the fund-raising group SPLASH (Swimmers Promoting Los Altos Aquatics, Safety and Health) wanted two pools.

Neighborhood residents picturing nightmare traffic and noise scenarios wanted no pool.

So naturally, one 25-yard-by-25-meter pool is the perfect compromise.

The April 25 council decision came from a host of options presented by a task force that councilmembers David Casas and Val Carpenter assembled at council direction in January. The task force was charged with coming up with project scenarios and projected costs. The aim was to bring people representing all sides of the pool issue together to work on solutions.

There’s still plenty to do before the first shovel goes in the ground. SPLASH must now go forward to raise the $5 million or so it will take to build the pool. There’s still more paperwork. And there’s still the looming cost question over ongoing pool maintenance.

Still, the council’s straight-down-the-middle, unanimous decision on the Rosita plan is ultimately fair to both sides of this contentious issue, even if it is not the ideal solution to some residents in both camps.

Now El Camino can move forward

The El Camino Hospital District’s lawsuit settlement with Saratoga attorney Aaron Katz, announced last week, is surely a big relief for hospital officials.

The $200,000 settlement is pocket change when compared to the millions of dollars the hospital has lost, and stood to lose, in delays to its major reconstruction project. Katz had sued the district to tie up $148 million in voter-approved bond money for the project. He claimed he should have been allowed to vote on the 2003 bond as a property owner in the hospital district, and further contended that those who did not own property should not have been allowed to vote.

Meanwhile, the hospital faces a state-imposed mandate to update facilities to meet stricter seismic standards by 2008. The work ahead includes rebuilding the hospital tower.

Although the hospital still faces escalating construction costs, at least officials can move forward without their hands tied. The warmer months ahead also will help accommodate actual construction.

It is difficult to settle with a plaintiff who appears clearly in the wrong. But the hospital took the correct, pragmatic approach in cutting its losses with last week’s action.