The following organizations and individuals deserve either
CHEERS or JEERS this week:
The following organizations and individuals deserve either CHEERS or JEERS this week:
JEERS: For the increased vandalism at Gilroy’s schools. The community passes a $69 million bond issue to refurbish and build new facilities, and a few punks go around with spray paint, matches and such to destroy our property. Chief of Police Gregg Giusiana would do a great service to the community if he would devise a crackdown plan to catch and punish these vandals.
CHEERS: For Gilroy Golf Course professional Don DeLorenzo, who played 100 holes Friday to help raise money for Gilroy Little League, which needs funds to offset the expenses associated with the girls trip to the Little League World Series. Cheers, too, for City Councilman Craig Gartman who is organizing Saturday morning’s downtown parade for the girls which begins at 9:30am. Delorenzo and Gartman are both accepting donations on Little League’s behalf, 848-0490 or 710-6090, respectively.
JEERS: For the city of San Jose which has, at long last, showed its true colors in relation to Coyote Valley. For Mayor Ron Gonzales and his cronies, developing a city larger than Gilroy or Morgan Hill in Coyote Valley is not about the need for jobs or campus industrial sites. It’s about appeasing powerful housing developers who have speculated on Coyote Valley land. Why should we care? Because South County residents don’t want to be joined at the hip to San Jose with wanton disregard for urban buffers and the identity of individual communities.
CHEERS: For Gilroy Unified School District STAR test scores. Yes, there’s a lot more work to do – especially in mathematics, but Gilroy scores have shown improvement across the board and that has to be recognized and lauded. The momentum needs to continue. There’s no reason Gilroy students can’t be above the average of Santa Clara County as a whole.
JEERS: For the proposal to put a Microtel Inn and Suites hotel in the Pacheco Pass Shopping Center. Wasn’t the City Council paying attention recently when the Hilton Garden Inn said it couldn’t live up to its economic incentive agreement with the city because there weren’t enough guests staying at the hotel? It’s time to start thinking about what gets approved and what doesn’t with consideration for existing businesses.
JEERS: For Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy who publicly suggested that Gavilan College give up its site in Coyote Valley to the Morgan Hill School District for a high school. Gavilan has done its homework and located a site while Morgan Hill has been frittering away its planning days. Mayor Kennedy needs to think this through. What Morgan Hill should do is sue San Jose to stop any Coyote Valley development in its tracks.
