THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF MORGAN HILL, GILROY & SAN MARTIN
A supplement to the Gilroy Dispatch & Morgan Hill Times
AUGUST 3, 2018
Gilroy brings back the celebration of the cowboy
The Gilroy Rodeo returns after 60 years
MAGAZINE INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Return of the Rodeo SARAH’S CHARDONNAYS P12 | CYCLING ADVENTURES P13
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Friday, August 3, 2018
THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF SAN BENITO COUNTY
AUGUST 3, 2018
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The Junior Giants stamp out bullying City, police Banning the Bully
A supplement to the Hollister Free Lance
Hollister Junior Giants host anti-bullying workshop
County asks to buy St. Louise
reach fouryear labor agreement
SANTA CLARA COUNTY TO SEND OFFER THIS WEEK
NEW CONTRACT GIVES 4% PER YEAR, WITH AIM TO RETAIN, HIRE BEST OFFICERS
Santa Clara County this week is offering to buy Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy and O’Connor Hospital in San Jose for an undisclosed
SARAH’S CHARDONNAYS P12 | CYCLING ADVENTURES P13
By Barry Holtzclaw Managing Editor
sum, the Gilroy Dispatch has learned. “We would be the perfect purchaser, from our perspective,” County Executive Jeff Smith said in an interview Tuesday, July 31. “So we are moving ahead” with the offer to buy the two private nonprofit hospitals in Santa Clara County, he said. “We have been doing our due diligence with
the appropriate consultants to come up with what we think will be a fair offer” to Verity Health System, the nonprofit that owns the two Santa Clara County hospitals and four others in the Bay Area and Southern California, said Smith. “We’ve been trying to keep in touch with Verity group to keep up with their timeline.”
Smith said he expected the county’s letter of intent to go to Verity Health Systems by Aug. 3. The letter will include a purchase offer, plus a list of terms and conditions relating to medical services offered by the two acute care hospitals. One condition would be that “we should operate both O’Connor and Saint Louise pretty much
SAN BENITO MAGAZINE INSIDE THIS ISSUE
as they are operating right now, in terms of the availability of medical services,” he said. “We would keep the hospitals running as hospitals,” Smith added. “They fit into our strategic plan very well.” The acquisition would increase the number of county-run hospital beds ➝ Saint Louise, 14
Michael Moore Reporter
After five months of negotiations, the City of Gilroy and the Gilroy Police Officers Association have reached a tentative fouryear labor agreement that gives officers an annual 4 percent raise. “Our members are pleased with the successful outcome, and we appreciate the mayor and city council’s continued support to our officers,” Gilroy POA President Brian Dutton said in a statement. The agreement, if approved, will cover about 60 unionized Gilroy police officers’ employment conditions retroactively from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2022. The four-year length of the contract is one aspect of the agreement that makes it different recent previous POA contracts, which have only covered two-year periods, according to Gilroy Human Resources Director LeeAnn McPhillips. This and other aspects of the contract are intended to make the Gilroy Police Department more ➝ Police Union, 2 Robert Eliason t
EMBERS AND ASHES Jayme and Jeremy Simmons stand in the rubble of what used to be their home destroyed by a July 25 fire that ravaged 20 acres, burned several homes and outbuildings, and displaced 21 people.
Couple returns to ashes CALIFORNIA FIRES HIT HOME WHEN COUPLE RETURNS TO SOUTH VALLEY By Debra Eskinazi Magazine and Features Editor
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Jayme and Jeremy Simmons were just about to head out on the Rubicon Trail, a 22-mile route through the Sierra Nevada, when they got the message from Jayme’s mom. They had made the trip annually for the last 13 years and were about to be out of cell range for
the next four days; this would be the last call they made before they hit the trail. “She would have never usually called me at the start of my trip,” said Jayme, 41. “When I called her back she was hysterical, crying, ‘Your house is on fire and I cannot save your animals, and I think they’re all going to die. I got your dogs, but I think the livestock isn’t going to make it. I don’t think anything is going to make it.’” The blaze, the Simmons would soon learn, started as a vegetation fire at 4:15pm July 25 in the
12100 block of Church Avenue. Before being contained by a firefighting blitz of ground crews and a helicopter, it would burn 20 acres and multiple homes, displacing 21 residents in the area, CalFire would later report. Unsure what they’d find when they arrived home, the Simmons headed back to San Martin—an agonizing four-hour-drive. The Simmons arrived to their home on Lena Avenue after nightfall. “You could see flames,” said Jeremy, 41. “We were able to walk up as close as the neighbor’s fence
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over here, and we could see low embers and little flames. And, we could see the freeway behind the house, which you shouldn't be able to see the freeway because the barn should be there.” The main house on nearly 2.5 acres and owned by Jeremy’s parents Judy and Chuck Simmons was mostly unharmed by the fire, but the barn with a loft—which Jeremy and Jayme had converted into an apartment—along with Chuck’s workshop and the original cottage from the early 1900s, ➝ Fire Victim, 5