$1 • Friday, August 4, 2017 • Vol. 123, No. 31 • morganhilltimes.com • Serving Morgan Hill since 1894 OUT & ABOUT WEEKLY CALENDAR COVERAGE STARTS THIS WEEK IN SOUTH VALLEY MAGAZINE
Residents question experts on site cleanup CONCERNS LEAK OVER TO MND PUBLIC HEARING Scott Forstner Reporter
Scott Forstner
PROPRIETOR AT THE PEAK Hilltop Market owner Charlie King, pictured at his Jackson Oaks Drive store July 31, has built a loyal customer base with an array of craft beer and wines as well as tasty, local products and everyday essentials.
They’ve got it all at the Hilltop LOCAL MARKET SPECIALIZES IN MH PRODUCTS, CRAFT BEER, BASICS Scott Forstner Reporter
As a real estate agent for more than two decades, 48-year-old Charlie King had shown and helped sell dozens of residential and commercial properties
THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF MORGAN HILL, GILROY & SAN MARTIN
AUGUST 4, 2017
Abundant Harvest
wildlife and scenic views of the city below. “I was familiar with the area and sold homes up here in the past. I had ran into the owner (of this property) and began to show it,” explained King, who eventually sold his own idea of opening a small market to service the sky-high residents to a short-lived business partner. Shortly after opening Hilltop Market in June
T OUT & ABOU OF CALE NDAR EVEN TS
Inside this issue:
18TH BARREL P17 | PEANUT CACTUS P18 | REALTOR SEAN DINSMORE P21
Michael Moore
South Valley Magazine
6
58015 02004
Editor
1
2014, King took over sole ownership of the business, retired from the real estate game and started to pour his heart and soul into his vision. Twentyfour hours, seven days a week of dedication has allowed him to steadily build his clientele. “I used to be a pretty good golfer when I sold real estate,” joked King, who is well-known among the hilltoppers for his friendly, welcoming
demeanor as well as going out of his way to stock the market with local, unique and high-demand products among his most loyal customers. “I just thought it was a great idea to provide for these residents. I also try to draw (customers) from down below,” King added. “I never pictured myself doing this.” ➝ Hilltop Market, 2
➝ Cleanup, 10
Former mayor hopeful goes for term limits KIRK BERTOLET AIMS FOR NOV. 2018 BALLOT MEASURE
A Garden Grows in Gilroy
A section of the Gilroy Dispatch & Morgan Hill Times
throughout the area, including in Morgan Hill. But one in particular caught his eye more and more as he brought different entrepreneurs to view the 2,200-square-foot space in a quaint, unassuming three-store shopping center in the Jackson Oaks neighborhood. About 500 or so homes are sprinkled along the hillside in different sections such as Holiday Lake Estates, flush with
Representatives from the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control did their best rope-a-dope impression as they took everything local residents threw at them before countering during a well-attended July 27 meeting on the plan to clean toxic soil on a proposed northeast Morgan Hill school site. Vivek Mathrani, a toxicologist/risk assessor for the state on the July 27 agenda, said the 9-acre plot of land in northeast Morgan Hill is not “toxic,” even though the DTSC has determined it contains heightened levels of the potentially harmful chemical dieldrin. “I’ve been in tune with what’s been happening....I can understand how unsettling it can be when the media portrays the site as a toxic site,” Vivek said. “There is no imminent health hazard associated with it.” Vivek further explained that an individual would have to be exposed to the dieldrin in the soil by direct contact for 24 hours a day, seven days a week over a 30-year time period to experience the most harmful effects. He stated the Peet Road site poses only “low level risk with long-term exposure.”
A former candidate for the Morgan Hill mayor’s seat says he is fulfilling one of his campaign promises by trying to place a local measure establishing term limits on the November 2018 ballot.
Kirk Bertolet, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2016, is the lead sponsor of the ballot measure petition that would limit candidates to 10 years on the city council or as the mayor. He is in the process of collecting at least 2,300 signatures from registered Morgan Hill voters in order to present an ordinance to the city council. Bertolet thinks local elected officials should be subject to term limits in order to hold them more
accountable and “elimi- publishing a notice for an nate the career politicians initiative measure and a we have in Morgan notice of intent Hill.” But he thinks to circulate petithe voters should tion in the newsget to decide. paper. Now that “I made a promthe notices have ise during my cambeen published, paign for mayor Bertolet is ready that there would to begin enlisting be this term limvolunteers and its initiative on the Kirk Bertolet start collecting 2018 ballot, win or signatures. lose,” Bertolet said. Specifically, Bertolet’s Bertolet began the measure would prohibit ballot measure process any person from servearlier this summer by ing as an elected council
member or mayor for more than 10 years. Anyone who serves a full 10 years on the council “would be precluded from serving on” city commissions as appointees, the initiative notice states. The notice of intent to circulate a petition, also published by Bertolet, clarifies that a candidate could serve two four-year council terms and a twoyear mayoral term; or one ➝ Term Limits, 14