Community

GILROY—A “bustling” life was cut short on May 9, when the car Natalia Salcido, a Christopher High School sophomore, was riding in struck a tree. She was killed on impact, exactly one week before she was to celebrate her 16th birthday.

GILROY—Garlic City Computer stormed to a 7-0-1 record in the Men’s DD Softball League June 16 by upending the Borrachos 16-5 at Las Animas Veterans Park.

GILROY—Classes that teach high schoolers the agricultural arts and sciences just received a big boost in Gilroy, where farming and ranching dominated life for more than a century before subdivisions and industrial development moved in.Spurred by a resurrected parent booster club, Gilroy Unified School District trustees have approved renovation of a sprawling but decaying greenhouse at Gilroy High School where in better times members of the school’s Future Farmers of America chapter grew a sea of red poinsettias as their annual holiday fundraiser.“I’m very happy to see it grow, said Hannah Komin, 16, of the greenhouse plans and renewed emphasis on programs that cater to the many students who dream of careers in ag-related industries.She is one of about 170 members of Gilroy High’s booming Future Farmers of America chapter and also one of its officers. FFA is a nationwide organization.“I wish I would be around to see it,” said FFA member Dallas Lafond, 17, a Texas transplant who was graduated from GHS yesterday, June 11.The resurrection of a greenhouse that has been a dilapidated target of vandals, graffiti artists, ground squirrels and the elements for more than four years is the story of parents with a cause, a supportive school board, help from local ag companies and the Gilroy Rotary.“They were a huge help,” said FFA member and graduating senior, Ashley Bonesio, 17.Kurt Ashley, president of Gilroy High’s FFA Booster Club, said that by the time his daughter entered GHS four years ago the ag program “was dying for lack of support” and the boosters club had vanished.Regular fair goers with their family at the annual Santa Clara County Fair, Ashley and his wife noticed other high schools had better ag programs and larger and better equipped FFAs.They sought out other parents and together in 2013 kick-started the boosters club that, with a donation of $500 from Mayor Gage, applied for and secured nonprofit status and set its sights on supporting a program the school district no longer can afford to fund as it has in the past.“We’re not just doing the greenhouse,” Ashley said. “That’s just one piece of the project. Our goal is to support the entire FFA program, including the school farm out on Kern Avenue.”FFA member and chapter officer Kimberly Potman, 16, gives all the credit for the rebirth of interest in farm and ranching subjects for the benefit of students to the involvement of parents.“It was the boosters, they pretty much fueled everything,” she said.Financial help also has come from Christopher Ranch and Uesugi Farms, among others, Ashley said, enough so that the boosters’ club will contribute $10,000 of the nearly $50,000 cost of renovating the greenhouse with new heating, cooling and electrical systems, new roof and siding materials and other upgrades to be ready for classes in August as long as the new ag teaching staff is in place by then.In addition to horticulture and floral design, new course options for students interested in agricultural sciences in 2015-16 will include Ag Chemistry, Ag Communication and Leadership, Soil Chemistry and Biotechnology.For more information on the FFA club and boosters, go to facebook.com/gilroyffaboosters.

GILROY—A little more than a year ago, Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero presented 12-year-old Caley Camarillo with a miniature WBC World Title belt that made her beam from ear to ear. The belt was a symbol of Camarillo’s strength as she battled cystic fibrosis, the disease that ultimately claimed her life in June 2014.

After a one-day scorcher to start the week in South County with triple digits hitting Gilroy and Morgan Hill, cooler but still warm temperatures will prevail over the weekend and into next week, according to Forecaster Bob Benjamin of the National Weather Service.

GILROY—The Valley Transportation Authority plans on expanding bus service in the Garlic Capital in the fall, starting with two lines between Saint Louise Regional Hospital and downtown Gilroy and extending weekday hours of buses between Gavilan College and the city core.

GILROY—The second-division teams were victorious on June 3 as the Men’s E League program moved into its seventh week of play at Christmas Hill Park.

GILROY—A 17-year-old Christopher High School student and budding entrepreneur wants to turn his peers into “walking advocates” for causes from child abuse and homelessness to world hunger.

MORGAN HILL—A Morgan Hill veteran who was exposed as a fraud by a television news report earlier this week admitted Tuesday he has been lying for more than a decade and apologized for the lies.William C. Goehner, 89, has spent years fooling the Library of Congress, the media and even his own friends and family. He has talked publicly about the four Purple Hearts, three Silver Stars and Navy Cross he received for heroism as a member of a storied Underwater Demolition Team during the Second World War. Morgan Hill Rotary Club issued a presidential citation for valor that he proudly displayed.But it was all a lie. Goehner said at his home June 2 he is sorry for telling the tall tales all these years. That was just a couple days after Goehner’s credibility was called into question by ABC investigative reporter Dan Noyes at a presentation the Morgan Hill man made at the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda.“I’m sorry. I was discharged as a Seaman First (Class),” Goehner said Tuesday. Seaman First Class is several ranks below Lieutenant Commander, which Goehner has claimed many times to have achieved at the age of 19 after just 2.5 years in the Navy.On Tuesday, while admitting he is a fraud, Goehner stopped short of taking full personal blame for the fabrications. He said a friend, whom he declined to name, contacted the Library of Congress on his behalf to set up a video interview for its Veterans History Project in 2004. Goehner said the Library of Congress never did its own fact-checking to verify his story.He said he did not receive any of the previously claimed medals. He did not serve on the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Team. The lead character played by Richard Widmark in 1951’s “The Frogmen” was not based on Goehner and he did not serve as a film consultant, he admitted.The former editors of this newspaper— when it was under different management and ownership—reported Goehner’s detailed accounts under the headline “The original Navy SEAL,” on January 11, 2013.Goehner explained his lies by saying, “I guess you get in the habit of it.”Goehner’s son Victor showed his father the DVD with his 2004 video interview for the Library of Congress.“But you’re the one who said you did these things,” Victor said.“Don’t sit here and say you didn’t know about it.”Victor said his father has told  the war and war medals stories “as long as I can remember.”When confronted by Noyes May 30 at the USS Hornet Museum with military records that disprove most of his story, Goehner insisted on camera that the stories were true. Victor said Tuesday morning was the first time his father “remotely admitted he’s wrong.”One veteran who vouched for Goehner, and recommended him to the USS Hornet Museum, is Morgan Hill resident and U.S. Air Force veteran Brian Shiroyama. He is “obviously...disappointed” in Goehner, but “pleased” to hear he has finally admitted to his lies.Goehner served in the U.S. Navy in Europe, Africa and the Pacific before and after World War Two, according to his naval separation documents. Goehner and his son showed these records to Gilroy Dispatch editor Jack Foley May 31, when Goehner continued to insist his stories were true.A day later, his son, Victor, 60, said his father has a long history of embellishing and fabricating things about his life.Goehne  enlisted in December 1943 and served honorably in the reserves until 1954, his documents state. Theyalso list his training in the navigation and steering of LSTs, navy lingo for Landing Ship, Tank.On June 2, Goehner continued to insist he received UDT training at Little Creek, but his son and a former Navy SEAL says that’s not possible.At the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum in Ft. Pierce, Florida, executive director Richard Kaiser called Goehner’s combat stories “just preposterous.”He said the museum has a database that lists every person ever trained in underwater demolition work and Goehner “is not on it.”Underwater Demolition Teams, or UDTs, never were deployed in Europe during World War II, said Kaiser, a former Navy SEAL and recipient of  the Silver Star Medal for Valor in the so-called “Black Hawk Down” action in Somalia, Africa, in 1993.Goehner has also claiimed he was a Los Gatos policeman and went to Santa Clara University law school.Neither the city nore school has a record of him on the payroll or as a student.Goehner and his son said  June 2 that Goehner was  an “auxiliary” police staff person,  “kind of like a volunteer,” said to Victor.“It was wrong of me,” Goehner said of his tall tales. “It was absolutely wrong. I shouldn’t have let it go this far. I’ve got to come out with the truth. It’s my fault, I guess.”

GILROY—UNFI, the $6-billon natural foods distribution company opening soon in Gilroy, filled 140 positions during a three-day job fair, with most slots offered to Gilroy residents.