THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF MORGAN HILL, GILROY & SAN MARTIN
A supplement to the Gilroy Dispatch & Morgan Hill Times
JANUARY 25, 2019
Morgan Hill’s Taco-Oh! delivers Mexican fare Mighty Molly
SOUTH VALLEY MAGAZINE INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Morgan Hill restaurateur’s newest nibble
COYOTE RIDGE P7 | WINE WINNERS P12
CHARTER GAINS CONSTRUCTION FUNDS P2 | RESULTS OF SOUTH VALLEY SCIENCE FAIR P4 | ACORNS AIM FOR STRONG SEASON FINISH P18
THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF SAN BENITO COUNTY
JANUARY 25, 2019
A supplement to the Hollister Free Lance
Hollister farm flourishes as herby enterprise
SAN BENITO MAGAZINE INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Fields of Purple Hollister’s fragrant Foxhollow Farms COYOTE RIDGE P7 | WINE WINNERS P12
$1 • Friday, January 25, 2019 • Vol. 126, No. 4 • morganhilltimes.com • Serving Morgan Hill since 1894
Storm soaks South Valley RESIDENTS ALERTED ABOUT POSSIBLE FLOODING Jaqueline McCool Reporter
➝ Rain, 8
Robert Eliason/File photo
Last week’s torrential rainstorm, labeled an “atmospheric river” by experts, prompted citywide email alerts, warnings of local flooding and words of assurance from the county’s water officials who have seen many times over what kind of damage such weather can bring to the area. When it was over, the National Weather Service estimated Morgan Hill saw 1.76 inches of total rainfall between Tuesday, Jan. 15, and Thursday, Jan. 17. The city, which also sent out email alerts early in the week warning
PUMPKIN PARK Sisters Or, left, and Maya Ereo picked their perfect pumpkins at
Uesugi Farms Pumpkin Park last October in San Martin.
Uesugi closes up HUGE SALE OF ITS FARMING EQUIPMENT IS UNDERWAY Barry Holtzclaw Managing editor
Uesugi Farms has harvested its last crops and sold its last pumpkin. The large, well-known, family-owned vegetable
producer with operations in California—Santa Clara, Contra Costa, San Benito and other counties—and Mexico, is selling off all of its equipment and “winding down” its operations. There will be no spring planting of its Napa cabbage, pepper, corn, squash and pumpkin crops. “Due to market
conditions and factors outside of its control, Uesugi Farms has made the difficult decision to wind down its operations at the conclusion of the 2018 fall harvest season,” the family said in a web posting this winter. Pete Aiello of Hollister, general manager of Gilroy-based Uesugi Farms, declined to comment. He
has been general manager since 2002. His father, Joe Aiello, of Morgan Hill, bought Uesugi Farms from the original owners in 1979. “Uesugi’s priority is to maximize the value of its assets and implement plans to work with customers, vendors, lenders, employees and others to obtain the best outcome possible
for all its stakeholders,” said the web post. The sales effort began with letters that went out to select creditors, followed by advertisements in trade journals and local newspapers, including this newspaper. The sales flier distributed in the new year read ➝ Uesugi, 11
AG rejects hospital appeal COUNTY’S OFFER TO PLEDGE CARE LEVELS WERE REBUFFED AFTER BRIEF MEETING DISCUSSION Barry Holtzclaw Managing Editor
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has rejected a personal appeal
from Santa Clara County officials to keep two hospitals open, after they had attempted to head off a Jan. 30 court showdown. The county had proposed a memorandum of understanding that would commit the county to the highest levels of medical care at the two hospitals it seeks to buy from Verity Health System, according to Santa Clara County Executive Jeff Smith. Smith and several staff drove to Sacramento in
a driving rainstorm the afternoon of Jan. 16 to hand-deliver the proposal and meet with Becerra, who earlier this month stunned the county by asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to block the sale of O’Connor and St. Louise hospitals to Santa Clara County. If the attorney general is successful in convincing the judge to “stay” or block the sale of the two hospitals until a U.S. District court rules on Becerra’s appeal
of the judge’s Dec. 27 sale order, the $235 million hospital deal is dead and the two hospitals will close, said Smith. Smith remained hopeful. “We are pretty confident that our legal case is strong, and that the stay will not be granted,” he said. Lawyers familiar with the case also said it would be unlikely that a judge would stay his own order. Because of a death in the family, Becerra was
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not able to attend the Sacramento meeting, at which Smith had hoped to ease Becerra’s stated concern that the county’s failure to commit to quality medical care was the primary reason the deal should be scrapped. Santa Clara County supervisors last week instigated a social media, telephone and email campaign—including appeals to Gov. Gavin Newsom—in ➝AG, 14