&
ESTABLISHED 1868
A New SV Media publication
GILROY LOCAL SCENE
PrOGRESS
Friday, September 29, 2017
pRIDE
Sidewalk Sale Downtown The Downtown Summer Sidewalk Sale and Vendor & Craft Fair opens up Saturday. This free event features vendor and craft booths on the Green Space at the Gilroy Center for the Arts and at the parking lot at the intersection of Fifth and Monterey streets in addition to the sidewalk sale. Offers and specials vary by individual stores. Visit downtowngilroy.comfor more information. Presented in partnership by the Gilroy Downtown Business Association and Gilroy Center for the Arts
gilroydispatch.com • Vol. 150, No. 39 • $1
EAGLE RIDGE RESIDENTS HATE IT SO MUCH THEY WORE BLACK Bryce Stoepfel Reporter
Thinking About College South County Cal-SOAP (SCCC) invites students of all ages and their parents to its 13th annual college fairs, to be held from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, October 26 at San Benito High School’s Mattson Gym and Thursday, November 2 at the Gilroy High School Student Center.
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
Matt Linder, Senior Broccoli Product Manager
➝ 10th Street Bridge, 4
➝ Great Wolf, 10
Stopping traffic CHP OFFICERS TAKE ON RUDE AND DANGEROUS DRIVERS By Brad Kava Editor
An undercover California Highway Patrol officer in a bright florescent yellow shirt was in a crosswalk at Sixth and Eigleberry streets in downtown Gilroy when a silver Chevy raced by, missing him by inches.
THE 10TH STREET BRIDGE PROJECT LINGERS ON INDEFINITE HOLD
Sakata Seed America is 40
OU T & AB OU T OF NDAR CA LE EN TS EV
Inside this issue: Sakata Seed America turns 40
BEAR’S HIDEAWAY P10 | HEALTHY FOODS P16 | REALTOR CHRISTINE FORTNEY P21
58015 02001
“I’m shocked,” said Gilroy Unified School District Board Member Mark Good. “Until Monday I thought the bridge was going through. The school board had meetings about the design of the roadway and bridge so as far as we knew, it was going in. I think it endangers students at Gilroy High School.” Original plans called for the Glen Loma developer to pay for the bridge and have the city repay
LICENSE PLEASE Sgt. Ben Grasmuck writes a ticket as Sixth Street was lined with flashing lights and CHP officers giving citations Wednesday as the local California Highway Patrol office used a federal grant to educate and prevent pedestrian fatalities. The officers got overtime for their hours.
In the blink of an eye, a CHP officer in a squad car with lights flashing took off after the offender who was in a postal service uniform. She got a ticket, as did more than 20 other people Wednesday morning. This was part of a crackdown on drivers who ignore the safety of pedestrians, sponsored by a federal grant and the six officers working all morning were accompanied by an ambulance, in case the undercover officer got hit. “I think I’m very pleased with
the number of people who did stop,” said Sgt. Ben Grasmuck, who headed the three-hour-long operation. “We thought it would be fish in a barrel. We were very pleased that most people obey the law. It’s a little scary, though, the people who said they didn’t see him.” The nine-year-veteran officer, whose name is being kept out because he works undercover, was pretending to text on a cell phone ➝ CHP, 12
Not feeling very groovy
THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF MORGAN HILL, GILROY & SAN MARTIN
More Broccoli, Please
A survey paid for by the company that wants to build a 500-room lodge and waterpark near Gilroy Gardens said that 63 percent of Gilroyans favored the Great Wolf Lodge project. You’d never know that based on the people who came to object at Tuesday’s city council study session on the proposed project. Alex Evans, of Oakland’s EMC Research, polled 450 residents by telephone, 33 percent of whom strongly support the construction while 30 percent, somewhat supported it. On the other side 19 percent strongly oppose it and 13 percent somewhat oppose the park. EMC concluded that 38 percent of Gilroyans believe that increasing tourism to Gilroy was a high priority and that 69 percent support encouraging tourism in Gilroy. “Our research tells us that families are traveling somewhere, so why not Gilroy,” said Bryson Heezen, a Great Wolf director. The privately-owned Madison, Wisconsinbased Great Wolf Lodge, with 14 waterpark hotels across the country, has been negotiating with the city to build a hotel, 1,000 capacity convention center and indoor waterpark on 35 acres of hillside land adjacent to Gilroy Gardens. The company finished its biggest park in Garden Grove last year, just down the street from Disneyland. That city laid out close to $100 million for the company and is seeing more than $10 million a year in tax revenues from it. Gilroy and Great Wolf are in the midst of a 60 day exclusivity period, which
Brad Kava
Celebrating its 28th year, Gilroy Foundation’s “A Day in the Country” has become a highly anticipated community event. This year it’s on Saturday, October 7 for the “Run for the Roses,” a nod to the colorful Kentucky Derby. This year’s event will be held in the Gilroy Gardens Event Pavilion. Silent auction, wine tasting, a Southern-themed dinner and live auction are highlights of the evening, along with complimentary mint juleps served during the silent auction. This year’s Getaway Raffle is to Lexington, Kentucky, the Thoroughbred Capital of the World, featuring a tour of Taylor Made Farms, the home of California Chrome and a VIP Tour of Woodford Reserve Distillery. Derby hats are encouraged! Tickets are on sale now! For additional information, contact http:// www.gilroyfoundation.org/ dayinthecountry/ or the Gilroy Foundation Office at 408.842.3727. “Give Where You Live.”
A section of the Hollister Free Lance
2017
Gilroyans favor Great Wolf Lodge water park, study says
A Nod to the Derby
6
SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE
By Brad Kava Editor
After a dozen years of planning and talk, the Gilroy City Council recently decided it didn’t have the money to build the much anticipated 10th Street Bridge, which would have connected more than 1,200 new homes in the city’s
southwest corridor to Gilroy High School and Highway 101. The bridge has been on the drawing board since 2005 and was the backbone for developments along 10th Street, which anticipated it would offset current traffic jams. The city also allowed a project of 1,700 homes to be built at Glen Loma Ranch, west of Uvas Creek, anticipating residents of the city’s largest project could drive on the bridge. That project has been scaled down to 1,200 recently.
0
MAKE THIS SCHOOL YEAR
GREATER THAN LAST YEAR!
Mathnasium of Gilroy • mathnasium.com/gilroy
408-329-MATH (6284)
FREE
ASSESSMENT