May, 1999 editor: Larry Ames

Can it be that two years have passed since I first wrote to you as president of WGNA? Looking back over my term, I realize how much I have learned and gained. In the past two years, WGNA has continued to serve Willow Glen with the purpose of preserving and enhancing the neighborhood, and I feel privileged to have served as the leader of such a worthwhile organization.

Because I plan to run for City Council (Councilmember Fiscalini will be leaving because of term limits), I have decided to remove myself from the WGNA board to free both the Association and myself from the complications that politics can bring to almost any circumstance. If the Board needs my assistance, I will always be there to help, as they have been there for me over the past two years. Transitions are made easier when those passing the baton do so with a spirit of confidence and cooperation. J. Michael Gonzales will make a good president and I know that you will join me in offering J. Michael, and the new board, much support and good wishes.

My final days as President have not gone "peacefully into the night". Besides several important projects that we have planned, a dilemma has come up which has caused our board to be concerned with the lack of clarity in our by-laws as related to the scope of our association. We have received an unusual number of applications for new memberships (most paid in cash), and many of these applications are from people outside of the designated boundaries of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association. (The Board is working hard to resolve the matter in a fair and equitable manner.) Please read this newsletter carefully, especially the section on the suggested by-laws amendments.

As I think back on the last two years, I am amazed at the amount of work we have accomplished together. Following are many of the achievements of which we can be proud:

• Land Use/Quality Of Life Issues:

Tracking of the San Jose Airport expansion plan - noise, parking, and pollution concerns addressed and presented at Council. WGNA members worked with Councilmember Fiscalini and airport staff to address Airport Visual Approach to minimize airline shortcuts across Willow Glen.

Worked successfully with Safeway representatives and the neighbors closest to the building to lessen impact of loading docks and the proximity of a large building mass.

Billiards and Brew/The Glen: Support for Meredith and Blewett Avenue residents in their concerns over late night hours and parking impacts as related to the City's 24 hour Policy which addresses late night hours in areas outside the downtown core.

Backed residents in their request that the Garden Theater Conditional Use Permit be upheld by the City. (WGNA is happy to see owners of the Garden Theater and the Aqui property sit down at the table to resolve their differences over a required easement and hope that a fair resolution for all parties will soon be reached.)

Radio Avenue: Helped reduce the number of single family homes on a less-than-one-acre parcel of land. Eight homes were proposed, six homes were finally allowed.

Urged the development of the old Tasso's site for regular business use - Togo's and Papa John's now occupy the corner. (An all night Taco Bell had previously been proposed for this location.)

WGNA conveyed forcefully the noise impact concerns of Willow Glen residents when a County Fairgrounds Amphitheater was suggested. The proposal was dropped by the County Board of Supervisors in September of 1998.

• Traffic and Safety:

Successful support of residents seeking a stop sign and pedestrian crossing at Willow Street and Camino Ramon (Willow Street Park).

NASCOP (photo radar): WGNA obtained NASCOP for 5 streets in the Willow Glen area at the request of Willow Glen residents.

Active support of a traffic signal at Lenn and Meridian (the post office) which is scheduled to be installed for vehicle and pedestrian safety.

Currently working on Lincoln Avenue pedestrian safety with the Business Association.

• Beautification and Enhancement:

Continued graffiti abatement.

Residential tree planting with Our City Forest (February, 1998)

Meridian/Fruitdale Beautification Project (October 17, 1998)

Continued support of the Greenline Initiative.

Completion of the irrigation plan for the Los Gatos Creek Trail Project: water has been turned off and the native species which we planted will now grow on their own. (Thank you, Larry Ames!)

Purchase and installation of a permanent, quality drinking fountain on the Los Gatos Creek Trail at Blackford Elementary.

Active endorsement of the City Parklands Dedication Fee Ordinance which assures additional funds for the purchase of new parklands for San Jose.

• Community Builders:

The 25th Anniversary of WGNA was observed on June 14, 1998. Friends new and old, along with representatives from the community, came together to celebrate WGNA's contributions, past and present.

Co-hosted Founders' Day Community Meeting with the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association. (2/98)

Continued to sponsor Founders' Day Historical Walks.

Organized and led the community memorial in response to the killing of Oscar Perez, a Willow Glen youth. (6/98)

• Forums and Information Nights:

Traffic Issues - Gary Richards, Mr. Roadshow (Fall, '97)

Mayoral Forum (Spring, '98)

Sheriff and Mayoral Forum (Fall, '98)

Emergency Preparedness - in cooperation with The Stone Church (April, '99)

Design Review of Single Residences (May, '99)

A big "THANK YOU" to all who made the above possible - our hardworking and generous Boardmembers, the WGNA members who have volunteered to help on our projects, the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association Board (especially Demitri Rizzo) who have worked with us in a spirit of cooperation, Councilmember Fiscalini and his staff who have supported us on a number of our concerns, and last but never least, my family, who through their love, support me in the work that I find both interesting and rewarding.

In the last month, WGNA has been involved in two community outreach programs - the Emergency Preparedness Night, co-sponsored with the Stone Church, and a Willow Glen Neighborhood Clean-up, sponsored by Vice Mayor Frank Fiscalini. WGNA members enjoyed both events and wish to thank the following:

• Emergency Preparedness:

Virginia Holtz: for organizing the Emergency Preparedness Evening. WGNA enjoyed joining with the Stone Church in helping Willow Glen residents become more aware of family plans, emergency kits, disaster preparedness, etc. Thanks also to our guest speaker, Harry Hall, who is a Red Cross National Disaster Response Team volunteer.

• Spring Cleanup

Frank Fiscalini and his staff, Michelle McGurk, Edith Ramirez, and Olivia Nunez, who, with the help of WGNA, organized a Spring Clean-up Day for neighborhoods east of Bird. The bins were full and the BBQ delicious!

Tom Chivers and his crew from the City Code Enforcement who manned the clean-up bins. Inspectors Cindy Del Blanco and Anna Vanegas who also were on hand to help.

We received a great response from WGNA members living in the Spring Clean-up area. The following people helped pass out 900 flyers to Willow Glen, east of Bird: Bonnie and Paul Castoro, Roger and Martha Deal, Katherine and Mathew Baginski Doar, Dick and Barbara Jarvis, Dave Parkinson, Megan and Mark Riese, John Gibbs, Cathy Marshall, and Doug and Elizabeth VanderEsch. Lynn and Michelle Kelly of Cherry Avenue also passed out a bundle!

Helping on the day of the May 1st clean-up were: Ginger Brown and Tom Savarino, Patrick Cunningham,Sandra Gaedke, Olivia Graeve, Lupe O'Malley, Andy Lezotte, Terry Denevan, Lyman Higgins, Teresa Pisacane, Cathy Marshall, Ann Lindahl, Louise Parzanici, Raymond Arechiga, Helen Santomouro and her two sons,, and the WGNA Board.

Organizing the clean-up were Boardmembers Lynn Repetsky, Peggy Rossignol, Helen Solinski, Margaret Hardy and Patsy Neher.

Driving the trucks which hauled large items for the elderly and disabled were Jim Fish, Greg Lindahl, and Jim Brooks from Los Gatos Roofing.

Aqui of Willow Glen Manhattan Bagels

Cash and Carry, W. San Carlos Street Safeway, Hamilton Avenue

Durham Meat Co. U Haul, Curtner Avenue

Juleann's Bakery, Lincoln Ave.

Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Company

Lincoln Avenue between Willow and Minnesota

sponsored by the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association

Music by "My Old Man's Band" and the "Jesse Charles Band'

Food by the Scrumptous Willow Gen Restuarants

Helen Solinski

The next proposed work on the light rail is a $300 million extension to Vasona. The Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) hopes to get started in 2001 and finish in 2004. Phase I will start at the San Fernando station, hitting Diridon, Fruitdale, Bascom and Hamilton with possibly a (much needed) station on West San Carlos. Phase II will connect at Campbell Ave to Winchester. Phase III will go on to Hacienda and then to the Vasona Station. Only Phase I is fully funded: Phases II and III don't have significant funds. The travel time from Campbell to downtown San Jose is estimated to be approximately l5 minutes, with an expected daily ridership of 8,000 to 9,000 people. There will be some new Park and Ride locations, with VTA planning on putting in a few hundred "new" parking spaces. If you are interested in finding our more about the Vasona extension please contact Julie Klingmann, VTA-Environmental Analysis at 408-32l-5789.

As you may know, the County is revitalizing the Fairgrounds on Tully Road. The good news for Willow Glen residents is that this will result in some improvements to your quality of life.

A key component of our revitalization strategy is the development of a 7,500 seat Performing Arts Center. The County is currently in negotiations with Universal Concerts to build this $25 - 30 million facility.

Benefits to Willow Glen Residents

• If the Board approves the Performing Arts Center proposal in late 1999, the sprint car races at the speedway will end after this current season (March to October). The Performing Arts Center and its parking will take up this space. No more sprint car noise in the summer!
• The Performing Arts Center will be an indoor venue so noise in this facility will not affect you.
• Universal Concerts will bring entertainment acts that are not currently available in the South Bay. Examples of entertainment that Universal manages include Phantom of the Opera, Radio City Music Hall, and Lord of the Dance.

We are soon adding Fairgrounds Updates to our web page. The web page address: http://CLARAWEB.CO.Santa-Clara.CA.US/ bos/d2/d2.htm (or check the link from the WGNA site at www.wgna.net!)

If you would like to be notified of our upcoming community meetings, please call my office at 299-2040 to be added to our database.

Plants That Attract and Provide a Suitable Habitat for Beneficial Insects, Birds and Butterflies in your Garden:

Slowly but surely I'm becoming aware and interested in what I can do in my own garden to attract and provide sustenance for beneficial insects for the purpose of creating a more biologically diverse habitat and more ecologically managing "pests" that might otherwise ruin my plants. There are number of excellent references on this subject which I'll list at the end of this article, since in this article I am only focusing on some key plants you can grow to make the greatest impact on typical "pest "populations.

My strategy is to plant a beneficial plant at each ends of each of my 4X8' vegetable beds so that there is a ready supply of pollen and nectar for as much of the year as possible. Since the insects that tend to be a problem in the Willow Glen area include aphids, scale, whiteflies, thrips, mites and a number of caterpillars, I'm growing plants that attract beneficials that prey on or parasitize these pests.

Some effective predators and parasites for these are: lacewings, syrphids, lady beetles, predatory bugs (certain hemipteras), predatory mites, and parasitic wasps. Plants which attract and support these, include ones who flowers provide ample nectar and/or pollen (when in flower) such as: cilantro, cosmos, dill, fennel, Scabiosa (pincushion flower), sunflowers, sweet allysum, white lace flower, and yarrows. Additionally, to attract butterflies and hummingbirds, I tuck some plants of asclepias, cardinal climber, columbine, coneflowers, salvias and scarlet runner beans, There are also many native plants like ceonothus and native grasses which should be designed into appropriate sections of one's yard to enhance.

Shepherd's Garden Seed's has an excellent publication called "Attracting Beneficial Insects to the Garden with Beneficial Flowers", which is 8 pages of well written information on the subject. Other excellent information sources on this subject are the U.C. IPM publications -- Pests of the Garden and Small Farm and Pest of Landscape Trees and Shrubs.

If you want to purchase "beneficial insects" from a nursery or through the mail, it is still critical that you have a garden that can support them or they will die or fly off to better digs. Having a garden that supports them means you don't indisciminately spray toxic pesticides whenever you see an insect and that you have a variety of pollen and nectar producing plants.

elist is WGNA's new electronic community bulletin board service. It's sort of like posting notices to a convenient telephone pole, or an electronic "town crier". People used to talk with neighbors over the fence or down at a local hangout, but the city is so big and we all are so busy nowadays that we have tended to miss out on that form of neighborly communication. WGNA's elist is our attempt to restore that local dialog.

Any WGNA member is free to join the elist (there is no fee), and you can leave at any time. Once you are registered on the elist, you will be able to automatically send email messages to all other elist members, and you will also receive postings from them. This is modeled after successful programs in other local neighborhoods, and is often used for discussing items of local concern such as telling of lost dogs or announcing garage sales. There are restrictions and guidelines on the usage (you will receive the full list when you sign up): basically, no commercial or political/fundraising announcements, and be polite. We don't anticipate any difficulties, but a moderator may warn you and remind you of the guidelines if they are exceeded, or may even remove you from the list in extreme cases. We hope and envision that this additional form of communication will add to the sense of community.

To join: send an email note to "admin@wgna.net", with the subject "add to elist". (You don't have to include anything in the body of the letter.) You will receive confirmation and a welcoming message, usually within a couple days, explaining how the system works. To leave, again write to admin@wgna.net with the subject "leave elist". To use, just write an email letter to the address you will be given - it's that simple!

By the way - do we have your correct email address? Last week, we sent out an introductory test notice to all WGNA members who have given an email address: if you did not receive the notice, then we must have a typo, so please drop a line to admin@wgna.net with the title "correct email address". You may join the elist at the same time. WGNA won't be "spamming" you with lots of notices, and we definitely won't sell or otherwise distribute the mailing list to others, but we might use it to announce upcoming events (general meetings and important events), and for emergencies. If, for any reason, you don't want to remain on the list, drop a quick note to admin@wgna.net saying you want off, and we'll gladly remove your email address from the database.

It's WGNA election time again: time to vote for next year's Officers, Board, and Nominating Committee. This year's Nominating Committee have come up with a fine slate of candidates. (Thank you, Ester Rechenmacher, Joan Doss, Margaret Hardy, and Linda Herschbach!) We also solicited nominees from the general membership, as per our bylaws (see the previous newsletter), and we received the nomination of one qualified candidate. In addition, well after the posted deadline, we received a few more nominations for candidates who did not meet the qualifications for the offices sought: they are not listed on the ballot.

It's not a very contested ballot, so you may be tempted to ignore it, but please don't! Even if there are no challengers for a number of the positions, your vote is still a vote of confidence: it is your way of telling the incoming Officers and Board that they represent you, our members. Also, we would appreciate your approval of the proposed changes in our by-laws.

Details: If you have a household membership (as indicated by the "H" on the back side of the ballot), then up to two members of the household may vote: one member marks the choices in the left column, and the other member checks the right column of boxes. If you have an individual membership (with an "I" on the back side), you are entitled to a single vote: use the left column of boxes-any marks in the right column will be ignored. If you have a complimentary membership (for city/county, churches, or nearby neighborhood associations, as indicated with a "C"), you may not vote (sorry!). If your membership has expired (indicated with an "X"), you may vote if you include your renewal.

If time is short, feel free to vote by mail (it must be postmarked by May 19^th, the day of the General Meeting). Or, better yet, bring the completed ballot to the General Meeting: you'll save 33¢, as well as meet neighbors and friends, and be able to participate in an interesting and informative presentation.

J. Michael Gonzales - Project Manager for Meridian Avenue Planting. Appointed to the Board 2 years ago. Occupation as a community liaison has been helpful to our membership resolving and delineating issues.

John Gibbs - serves as Chief of Staff for County Supervisor Don Gage. Was appointed to the Board four years ago. Has helped with projects such as Meridian Ave. planting, 25th anniversary and Spring Cleaning.

Patsy Neher - organized neighbors around Willow Street Safety. Successfully led the movement for a stop sign on Willow St. at Camino Ramon. Solicited donations for Meridian Ave. planting. Active in many other projects.

Cathy Marshall - Newly nominated. Helped with Meridian Planting and Spring Cleanup. Acted as representative to United Neighborhoods.

Margaret Hardy -long-time member of Willow Glen. Active in the arts. Recently completed first year on Board as Treasurer. Helpted to consolidate and organize WGNA accounts.

Larry Ames - WGNA webmaster and newsletter editor, past President, creek trail blazer, County Park Commissioner, and rocket scientist.

June Cooley - Recruits blood platelet donors for Stanford Blood Center. Volunteer at many art festivals, cleanup projects and Founder's Day, as well as at Our City Forest.

Lupe O'Malley - newly nominated. Active member of Los Amigos program which enables local youth to help the needy in Latin America. For the past 2 years, organized and prepared scrumptious food for WGNA meetings and forums. Volunteered for the Spring Cleanup.

Peggy Rossignol - Elected last year to the Board. Has worked tirelessly to bring individuals to the table concerning Meredith Ave. issues on noise and parking. Helped with membership, tree planting, and took leadership in Spring Cleanup, etc.

Helen Solinski - appointed to the Board last year. Worked on cleaning up the Salvation Army drop-off area at Lincoln and Curtner. Has attended many public meetings on County Fairgrounds, light rail, lot splits, etc. Helped organize Spring Cleanup, and participated in Meridian Planting.

WGNA always welcomes new members. However, an unusual situation arose recently in which we were handed a large sum of cash and a stack of membership applications. While we are still trying to resolve whether this was an act of kindness by an effective recruiter, or a fraudulent attempt by someone trying to pack the voting rolls, it has nonetheless caused us to re-examine our bylaws. In doing so, we have uncovered a couple of areas which we would like to clarify. We would like you, our members, to approve the changes. We found that we had no protection against, say, an out-of-state financier putting up a couple thousand dollars, submitting a slate for the Board and Officers, and electing them with the memberships they had bought! They could even run off with all of the Association's assets.

To protect us against this and other scenarios, we are proposing a number of modifications to Article III of our bylaws, as indicated by italic additions in the accompanying text. Basically, we are saying that the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association is for residents of Willow Glen. We found that most neighborhood associations in the area restrict voting to those residents living within designated boundaries. We will continue to welcome anyone to be a non-voting "Associate Member", with all the privileges of newsletters, meetings, websites, notices, and our new elist. However, voting membership is to be reserved for those who reside within Willow Glen, or own residential property in the area. (We will "grandfather" in all existing memberships: if you are a member now, you may continue with your current membership even if you are just outside of Willow Glen, or you may switch over to the new Associate membership.)

The Board realizes the purpose of the Association is to preserve and enhance the Willow Glen neighborhood. As volunteers, any attempt to serve those outside of our boundaries is really more that we may be able to handle. We hope the majority of our members will agree.

... (the rest of Article III, and the entire current bylaws, may be viewed on our website at www.wgna.net, or will be sent on request by calling 408/294-WGNA).

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