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OMVNA Newsletter October, 1998 It's Election Time! Come to the OMVNA General Meeting 1999 OMVNA Steering Committee Candidates Your Vote Does Make a Difference! Stevens Creek Trail in Our Neighborhood: Segment 1 of Reach 4 New Play Equipment at Fairmont Park The Old Mountain View Neighborhood is bordered by El Camino Real, Shoreline Boulevard, Evelyn Avenue, and Highway 85. The Old Mountain View Neighborhood Association consists of residents interested in preserving the quality of life in our neighborhood. Together we can make a difference—join us! Come to the OMVNA General Meeting:
We will: OMVNA is again holding a Candidates Night, and all the candidates for the three empty seats on the Mountain View City Council have been invited. The format will be a moderated question-and-answer session. This is a great opportunity to hear the candidates discuss issues that are important to you! Bring your questions—learn how the candidates propose to deal with matters that are of concern to you. 1999 OMVNA Slate of Candidates TBD Chair Note that there are still openings on the slate! If you are interested in serving on next year’s steering committee, contact Maarten Korringa at 969-7678. Additional nominations to the Steering Committee will be taken from the floor before the election. In the event that there are no contested positions, the slate will be voted as a block. Your Vote Does Make a Difference! In local elections, every vote counts. Did you know that in the Presidential General Election of 1996 there were only some 36,000 registered voters in Mountain View? And only a few hundred votes are enough to make the difference between victory and defeat in an election for the Mountain View City Council. You can find information about the candidates for Council at http://www.smartvoter.org/1998nov/ca/scl/city.html And if you're not sure you'll be able to get to the polls on November 3, consider asking for an absentee ballot. It's easy—just OMVNA Meetings OMVNA Monthly Meetings are on the third Wednesday of the month, 7:30 pm, in the Reading Room of Trinity Methodist Church, corner of Hope and Mercy. Please join us. You will meet involved neighbors, learn about the neighborhood, and discuss matters of interest and concern to our neighborhood. Stevens Creek Trail in Our Neighborhood: Segment 1 of Reach 4 by Ronit Bryant On Monday, September 28, City Council voted to send back to the Parks & Recreation Commission the alignment of Stevens Creek Trail, Reach 4, Segment 1 for additional public input and reconsideration of alignment options from Landels School and Park to Highway 237. Reach 3 of the trail, which ends at Landels, will soon be completed. The City has funding for Segment 1 of Reach 4, going from Landels to Yuba Drive through our neighborhood. In February, the Parks & Rec Commission discussed Reach 4, with little or no input from residents of our neighborhood. The Commission accepted staff's recommendation that the trail alignment from Landels to Highway 237 be on the west bank of the creek, passing through the meadow at the entrance to the apartment complex at the end of Mercy Street. That recommendation was adopted by Council. In the feasibility report adopted by Council in 1991, the proposed trail alignment was on the east bank, between Highway 85 and the creek. When the alignment study was presented to the Parks & Rec Commission in February, the proposed alignment had shifted to the west bank of the creek. Staff recommended this change because of major erosion of the east bank along the Highway 85 soundwall. This spring, neighbors who live very close to the creek complained to the City that they had not been notified about the Parks & Rec and Council meetings and could therefore not provide public input. While the City insists that notices were sent out to all affected residents, staff recommended that the issue be sent back to the Parks & Rec Commission for further detailed discussion and public input. Staff also recommended that the Reach 4 consultant team be retained to identify and analyze the advantages and drawbacks of an east bank versus a west bank alignment. Call the Community Services Department at 903-6331 for information about the date of the Parks & Rec meeting. by Julie Lovins By the time you read this, phase-in of the latest Mountain View increment in curbside recycling, mixed paper and cardboard, should be complete. Old Mountain View was fortunate to be one of the first neighborhoods to get the new containers, in early September. Since then, the folks at City Hall report hearing from lots of happy recyclers; the folks at Foothill Disposal (967-3034 for "implementation" questions and comments) report some initial confusion about what and when, which might also be interpreted to mean that people are trying very hard to comply with the guidelines. (The City passed out excellent informational material, but obviously it didn't get to everyone.) There are no statistics available yet, according to Bill Burks, Recycling Analyst for the City, but the informal consensus is that collection rates are good. My own limited survey finds a sense of amazement at how much we can now conveniently recycle. What with composting, cans-and-bottles-and plastic (brown bin), mixed paper (black bin), cardboard, newspaper, and yard trimmings, there are a fair number of people who are starting to find that their 20-gallon trash cans are far from full on pickup day. (No changes to the current system, in response to this novelty, are expected in the immediate future; but as the recycling markets mature, we'll see what happens. "Maturing" means, among other things, that more people "buy recycled," increasing the demand for recycled materials.) We are encouraged to keep calling Foothill Disposal with questions and suggestions. For example, it has been pointed out that the Mountain View contractor does not provide stacking bins, and that having such bins would be more convenient. And for the paper-oriented: why isn't white paper collected separately? Answer: the right kind of truck, with more bins, is not available; and also—separating the white paper after collection (which will be done when the price is right) is more economical than collecting the white paper separately. After hearing about complications like this, I am even happier about being able to just throw almost everything in the bins and toters. New Play Equipment at Fairmont Park by Eric Schweitzer The existing play structures (the swings and climbing apparatus in the sand area) at Fairmont Park are around 20 years old and certainly showing their age. The City has allocated funds to replace these play structures with modern equipment, and staff has met with the neighbors to discuss the new play equipment. The remainder of the park, including the grass and picnic areas, will remain unchanged. The plan is to keep the same general equipment as exists now. There will still be swings and climbing apparatus. But the new equipment will meet both the current, more stringent safety requirements and the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The new equipment will be different from the existing equipment in several ways. It will be made of a durable, colorful plastic which will be safer and more attractive than the existing wooden structures. The new slide will also be plastic, so it will not get hot in the sun. The existing swings are much too close together to meet today's requirements. So there will be only two new swings in the new setup, rather than the three that are there now. There will also be platforms at low levels to allow disabled persons to access the play equipment. The plan was discussed at the September 23 Parks & Recreation Commission meeting. Questions may be addressed to Jayne Matsumoto at 903-6331. The plan will be forwarded to City Council very soon. If you have chronic, ongoing traffic problems that are affecting you or your neighborhood, call the Mountain View Police Traffic Complaint Voice Mail Hotline at 903-6146.
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The opinions printed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the OMVNA Steering Committee. |