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The Canoas Garden Neighborhood Association
August, 2007
Hello Neighbors!
I hope you are having a pleasant summer. Thank you very much for your dues donations and for filling out the questionnaires. Our bank account now has almost one thousand dollars in it. Our committees are working on organizing the data we gathered in the questionnaire.
The Neighborhood Picnic will return on September 22 nd from 11am to 3pm. The Social Committee is working hard to make up for the years we missed. Councilman Oliverio and some of his staff will be there. An officer from the San Jose Police Department’s Canine Unit will demonstrate how he works with his four-legged partner. We will also be visited by a Mounted Unit from the SJPD. An engine from the San Jose Fire Department is scheduled to come by to boot! As in the past, we will provide food and drinks. Be sure to mark that date on your calendars, and come by the park to meet your neighbors.
Other news from the Association
Last May we met with Denelle Fedor and Aaron Quigley of Councilman Oliverio’s office to discuss some of our most important issues. We covered our traffic, parking and construction concerns, but we especially wanted the City to work on mitigating the flooding hazard in our neighborhood.
Oliverio’s staff put us in touch with Michael O’Connell, who is the Division Manager of the Department of Public Works. We explained the flooding situation in our neighborhood to him, and he was very receptive. The City will be better prepared to respond with portable pumps in the event of flooding, and a permanent pumping solution is in the works.
Now that the reconstruction of the Ironwood Drive / Almaden Expressway intersection is complete, we have asked the County to address some minor adjustments. We talked with Masoud Akbarzedah who is the County Traffic Engineer. There have been reports that the sequencing of the lights is not right, so we asked him to check that and also make sure that the car sensors in the street are working properly. We also asked him to paint a line in the intersection directing the left turn traffic from southbound Almaden into the proper lane on Ironwood Drive.
Some of you may have noticed the new wiggle in the road where Old Almaden road merges with northbound Almaden Expressway south of Koch Lane. The County put that there intentionally to slow the auto traffic, so the Expressway bicycle traffic can take the right-of-way safely. BE CAREFUL! Tire marks are witness that several cars have hit the curb there.
The County also changed the lines painted in the roadway where the frontage road connects with the Expressway near the end of Redbird Drive. Now northbound Expressway traffic can enter the right turn lane by Wren Drive and zoom in it all the way to Ironwood Drive. Again, BE CAREFUL!! We have asked the County to repaint the island in the street back to the way it used to be. We have also asked Oliverio’s staff to request policing of the speed limit south of Wren Drive to slow the Expressway traffic. One more thing--The right turn onto northbound Almaden Expressway from Ironwood is much more dangerous than it used to be. PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!
Meadowbrook Plaza is no more. JSM Enterprises plans to start construction on 32 luxury town homes this fall.
Cliff Inman has resigned from the Board, because he plans to do a lot of traveling. We would like to thank him for volunteering to help the new CGNA get off the ground. Gary Smith, who lives on Lanewood Drive, has graciously agreed to finish out Cliff’s term, and has been duly elected by the Board.
News from the Committees
The Social Committee is working overtime to keep us entertained. I already told you about the neighborhood picnic. Redbird Drive had a very nice block party in June. We hope that this will be an annual event, too. Check out canoasgarden.org for some pictures. Lanewood and Kingfisher Drives are up next for their block parties. We hope to help the residents on every street in our neighborhood organize a party. If you want to help with staging a party on your block, contact Bill Aaron at 978-9678, and the Social Committee will get in touch with you.
The History Committee is interviewing some of our long-time residents. They plan to put together a history of our neighborhood. We can look forward to some very interesting stories.
The Demographics Committee is working on compiling a database for our neighborhood, and they are still building our web page at canoasgarden.org.
The Beautification Committee is out eradicating weeds and cleaning up litter. They will be working with JSM to create a beautiful frontage along Almaden.
CGNA Annual Neighborhood Picnic
Saturday, September 22
11:00 am to 3:00 pm