By Eric Leins and Peter Crowley
GILROY
– Life in Gilroy still may feel
”
small town-ish,
”
but over the last 365 days, events at the state and national
levels had an impact in these parts, too.
By Eric Leins and Peter Crowley
GILROY – Life in Gilroy still may feel “small town-ish,” but over the last 365 days, events at the state and national levels had an impact in these parts, too.
The war in Iraq, California’s budget woes and increasing business costs all touched – and to varying degrees challenged – lives of high-profile and everyday Gilroyans in 2003. Meanwhile, events more typical of small town life – from the anniversary of a 25-year-old Garlic Festival to a run-in with a con artist posing as an ex-NFL linebacker – made news in Gilroy this year.
Indian Motorcycle shuts its doors
Five years ago, the iconic Indian Motorcycle Company roared back to production in Gilroy after a 45-year hiatus. On Sept. 19 of this year, everything fell apart.
That day, without any prior warning, Indian’s president called 380 employees together around lunchtime and announced that the company was closing its doors.
Indian’s modestly – but consistently – rising sales numbers couldn’t keep pace with the cost of part recalls, warranty work for its often unreliable bikes and doing business in California. Majority owner Audax Group pulled the plug after a potentially large investor backed out and talk of moving operations to Alabama or South Carolina fizzled.
A judge has yet to rule on one employee’s lawsuit against the company for not giving 60 days’ notice.
An auction for Indian’s trademarks and factory could be decided any day, depending on when officials want to close the bidding. Seven companies submitted bids on Oct. 24. Gilroyan Rey Sotelo with the Matrix Capital Group, Michigan businessman Bill Melvin and five anonymous parties.
Perchlorate
When 2002 spilled over into 2003, perchlorate was largely a Morgan Hill and San Martin problem. By spring, all that changed when the first private well in Gilroy tested positive for the rocket fuel by-product.
Although a handful of other private wells in the area now have tested positive, the city’s wells remain clean as city officials lobby the state to force the polluter – Olin Corp. – to develop a means of stopping the plume. Gilroy relies on eight wells within a mile from the nearest contaminated private well for all of its drinking water. Testing is done monthly.
War hits home
Several Gilroyans launched off to the Middle East when war with Iraq became imminent. Months after major combat ended, a 22-year-old Gilroy man, Cory McCarthy, nearly lost his hand when shrapnel from a rocket propelled grenade pierced through it in a firefight in Iraq.
McCarthy, who needed pins to keep his wrist together, is now recuperating at home with his family over this holiday season. He is enjoying life as he awaits a January operation to regain the use of his thumb that was nearly blown off in the explosion.
McCarthy’s plight brought out the best in Gilroyans. When finding out the parents of the injured soldier couldn’t make the trip to Maryland to visit their ailing son, City Council, the Veterans of Foreign Wars post and a number of concerned individuals came together with their prayers, well wishes and their money to make sure they could.
Mike and Carol McCarthy boarded a plane just days after their son was sent to Maryland for surgery.
Budget woes
With revenue from the state at a painful nadir, Santa Clara County, Gilroy City Hall and local school districts spent countless hours debating how to provide services and cut costs at the same time.
County supervisors sliced $46 million in spending from the county’s 2003-04 budget in October, making the grand total for cuts over the last 18 months more than $280 million. City Hall’s cuts were less drastic, but Council approved a plan that would lay off dozens of employees and close a third fire station if state budget balancing pulls Gilroy further into the fray.
As for school districts, Gilroy Unified found a way to give a nominal raise to its teachers. However, $1.2 million had to be trimmed from its budget on a mostly across-the-board basis. Gavilan College made cuts to its part-time teaching staff to stave off the crisis.
Garlic Festival turns 25
Despite a slumbering regional economy and a 93-degree Saturday that sometimes keeps coast dwellers on the coast, attendance at this year’s Gilroy Garlic Festival – 132,651 – exceeded last year’s figures by more than 7,000. The success of the 25th anniversary festival sent a clear signal that this town’s cultural event of the year may be celebrating plenty more special anniversaries in the years to come.
Janie Mardesich, who would later in 2003 be named Chamber of Commerce Woman of the Year, served as president during the festival’s 25th consecutive run.
Gilroy Police Station costs $26 million
City Council approved plans for a costly and controversial police station project that is millions of dollars over budget before the first screw gets turned.
Councilmen demanded that architects whittle away at least $6 million in construction costs, however, final costs for the project still reach $26.7 million, more than $4.3 million above the amount the city had budgeted.
Gardens in the black
Financially troubled since its inception, Bonfante Gardens theme park turned a slight profit during the 2003 season, quashing concerns that even amusement park operator Paramount Parks could not make the horticultural theme park hum.
Strong attendance became the norm this year and Paramount officials extended the regular season by three weeks. However, the park isn’t out the woods yet financially. Just this fall, park directors got bad news from the county – Santa Clara assessor Larry Stone decided tax relief worth hundreds of thousands of dollars would not come Bonfante Gardens’ way.
Park directors are fighting to improve their tax break with the county, but the matter remains unresolved and profits made in 2003 would be quickly wiped out to pay off Bonfante Gardens’ multimillion-dollar debt.
GUSD test scores skyrocket
All of Gilroy’s public schools exceeded – many three or four times over – improvement goals set by the state this year, with the exception of two elementary schools that did not have a target score set. Based on Academic Performance Index scores released in October, all groups of Gilroy students, such as Spanish speakers and the socio-economically disadvantaged, bettered their standardized test scores.
Fourth of July tragedies
Talks of a ban on fireworks rumbled through City Hall in July after legal and illegal explosives burned two residences on America’s most patriotic day.
Local firefighters were also overwhelmed July 4, putting out seven vegetation fires and responding to vehicle accidents. One of the accidents was fatal and involved a fire department vehicle patrolling for illegal fireworks.
After the tragic day, one City Councilman called for an all-out fireworks ban and Fire Chief Jeff Clet went on record stating Gilroy would be better off banning them. Once the dust had settled, Clet proposed an illegal fireworks crackdown plan that kept so-called “safe and sane” fireworks legal.
Gilroy is the only city in Santa Clara County to allow “safe and sane” fireworks. This year, 16 nonprofit groups used proceeds from fireworks booths to raise funds for their groups.
New high school site
Amid allegations it was violating California environmental laws, a split City Council in July brought 60 more acres – 50 of which will become a second public high school – into Gilroy proper.
After weeks of detailed debate that scrutinized everything from city attorney advice to the intentions of the Catholic Church, Council annexed the 60-acre parcel at Day Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard. The Council’s decision to annex the site as a potential parish, private elementary school and housing project – despite GUSD plans to use most of the parcel for its second comprehensive high school – was called a breech of ethics by then Mayor Tom Springer.
Soon after, Springer announced he would not seek re-election for mayor, citing chronic ethical breeches.
Hit man guilty of murder
Alleged hit man Gustavo Covian will never get out of prison, a Superior Court judge decided on April 24.
On Feb. 11, a jury found Covian, of Hollister, guilty of first-degree murder for the disappearance and presumed death of Gilroy restaurant owner Young Kim in 1998 – despite the fact that Kim’s body has never been found. Judge Thomas Hastings later sentenced Covian to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Kim’s widow Kyung Kim, Covian’s ex-wife Maria Zapian, and Covian’s brother Ignacio Covian are scheduled to face trial for first-degree murder on Jan. 26. Kyung Kim stands accused of paying Covian at least $30,000 to kill her husband. Zapian allegedly brokered the deal, and Ignacio Covian allegedly helped Gustavo kidnap and kill Young Kim.
Changing of the City Council guard
Before campaigning began for this year’s mayoral and City Council election, it looked as though one more Council seat would be vacant in November. On June 29, longtime Councilman Charlie Morales was arrested after driving with a blood alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit. It was at least his third DUI arrest in the last 15 years.
Morales was made to pay fines and complete a DUI multiple offender program. He also is serving a 40-day house arrest by wearing an electronic monitoring device since Dec. 21, but remained eligible to stay on Council – which he did.
As for the election, incumbent Roland Velasco, Paul Correa and Russ Valiquette won the open Council seats. Al Pinheiro won the mayoral seat vacated by Tom Springer.
U.S. 101 opens to four lanes
On May 19, U.S. 101 opened to four lanes from Cochrane Road in Morgan Hill to Metcalf Road in south San Jose. For the residents, politicians and business leaders with a hand in the five-year $80 million project, the breaking of the U.S. 101 bottleneck put cement to a loose but solidifying notion that South Valley has become a political and economic force in Santa Clara County and the state.
Since 1996, when voters approved the tax measure (Measure B) that funded the improvements, South County leaders fought to widen the scope of the project from three lanes on each side to four.
Gavilan coach claimed to be ex-pro
For five weeks, Frederick McGrew fooled Gavilan College into thinking his name was Larry – as in Lawrence McGrew, a starting linebacker for the NFL’s New England Patriots in the 1980s.
Suspecting McGrew wasn’t who he said he was, Gavilan officials reported him to Gilroy police the same day head coach John Lango fired him – ostensibly because of his coaching style. Police arrested McGrew the next day, and he confessed both to not being the ex-pro and to using a Social Security number on his Gavilan employment paperwork that actually belongs to a 75-year-old Ohio woman.
McGrew changed his initial not-guilty plea to no contest on Dec. 4 and is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 26.
Doctor acquitted of sex crimes
Former Gilroy Kaiser Permanente doctor Raul Ixtlahuac was overjoyed and relieved on Oct. 29 when a jury acquitted him of five charges of sexual molestation that threatened to send him to prison for more than a decade and ruin his medical practice. A previous jury deadlocked on these charges – plus a sixth – in the spring.
Ixtlahuac’s lawyer argued that the five women who accused him in court mistook Ixtlahuac’s standard medical procedures for sexual acts in the fall and winter of 2000. His lawyer claimed that the women’s initial feelings of discomfort and confusion evolved – under pressure by police and prosecutors – into a false certainty that they had been molested.
Youth coach charged for raping a minor
On April 2, Gilroy police arrested girls youth basketball coach Quintin Daye, of Gilroy, for allegedly raping a Gilroy girl several times between 1999 and 2002, starting when she was 13 years old. Daye pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of sexual assault of a minor under the age of 14. He has been free from county jail on $100,000 bail since his arrest. His trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 12.
