MHT1831

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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

THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF SAN BENITO COUNTY

AUGUST 3, 2018

Banning the Bully

A supplement to the Hollister Free Lance

Hollister Junior Giants host anti-bullying workshop

The Junior out bullying $1 • Friday, August 3, 2018Giants • Vol. 124, No. 31 stamp • morganhilltimes.com • Serving Morgan Hill since 1894

San Martin residents begin to recover from fire SARAH’S CHARDONNAYS P12 | CYCLING ADVENTURES P13

FAMILIES LEFT HOMELESS BY WILDFIRE FIND ASSISTANCE

SAN BENITO MAGAZINE INSIDE THIS ISSUE

County asks to buy St. Louise SANTA CLARA COUNTY TO SEND OFFER THIS WEEK By Barry Holtzclaw Managing Editor

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 sum, the Morgan Hill Times 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 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 by more than 80 percent, adding the 93 beds at Saint Louise and O’Connor’s 358 beds to the 563-bed Valley Medical Center. Smith is well-positioned to manage the negotiations for the hospital deal: He has both medical and law degrees. The county executive said that since the Verity announcement, the county has been working ➝ Saint Louise, 11

Nathan Mixter & Michael Moore Times staff

More than 20 residents displaced by the July 25 fire that rapidly spread through a San Martin neighborhood have a variety of local resources from which to obtain long-term and immediate assistance until they are able to start rebuilding or find new permanent homes. Members of several families whose homes burned in the blaze, which started as a vegetation fire, attended a July 26 community meeting at the San Martin Lions Club to get more information about such resources. The leaders of Santa Clara County organizations in attendance—including CalFire, Social Services Agency, the Office of Emergency Services and the American Red Cross—urged the impacted residents at the meeting to spread information about available ➝ Fire, 11

Robert Eliason

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

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, ➝ Survivor, 12


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