Community News

La Colina Park renovations are under way. Most of what the public consensus planned for is being built. One item that had top priority was dropped from the budget- the barbecues! Todd Capurso, manager for half the 140+ parks in San Jose, says it was necessary to axe the barbecues to make sure the new security lighting was paid for. At the meetings last spring Charlotte Powers, District Two's Councilperson, reassured me the money to cover all important parts of this project would be available.

For eight years she has promised to get 2 items finished at La Colina Park left over from the 1981 La Colina master plan; picnic tables and barbecues. It appears we will not have barbecues before Charlotte leaves office at the end of the year. Mr. Capurso states that the Parks dept. itself will see to it that the barbecues are installed sometime next year. How?
If Parks can do this without a City Council approved budget similar to the more than one year long process we just went through why weren't barbecues installed by them between 1981 and 2000?

I hope this little glitch can be resolved so we have working barbecues before Memorial Day 2001. That would be a good day to hold our Neighborhood Celebration BARBECUE for La Colina Park's renovation. (The date was last pushed back to Dec. 2000) If you would like to let our bureaucracy know how you feel about getting the "complete" project finished contact ALL the following:

Todd Capurso	277-4915	todd.capurso@ci.sj.ca.us
Jim Norman (Parks Director)	277-4573	jim.norman@ci.sj.ca.us
Charlotte Powers	277-4282	charlotte.powers@ci.sj.ca.us

Possibly Charlotte has some of her "discretionary funds" left and could get this taken care of now..... That's how the fence was finally erected to keep out four wheelers and motorcycles - discretionary funds thanks to a previous Councilmember who cared. Without making some noise again we might get to wait another 19 years.

Please call or email all three ASAP. Thanks!

Mike Murphy, President
La Colina Park Association
murphysmailbox@juno.com