NWGNA Friends & Neighbors Meeting Tonight!

Come join us tonight at Word of Faith Church on the corner of Delmas and Fuller at 6:30pm. Tonight's special guest will be a Command Officer from the San Jose Police Department to fill us in on the police-related activity in and around North Willow Glen. We will also discuss NWGNA's plans for 2012. The Produce Share will kick off soon and we are in the planning stages for our Neighborhood Garage Sale. We hope to see you there!

Learn about safe disposal of fireplace ashes

After several fatal fires across the country due to improper disposal of fireplace ashes, this information bears repeating:

If you scoop ashes, put them in a metal container and place it well away from the house. Embers can remain hot enough to start a fire as long as a day later.

You can read a bit more about fireplace safety in the Mercury News or the Examiner. The San Jose Fire Department offers a fire safety checklist, also.

Changes proposed for Dancin' On The Avenue 2012

Plans for this year's Dancin' On The Avenue have been announced with changes after feedback from last year's event. Read in the Mercury News about how changes are being proposed to the event time and how sales of beer and wine are handled.

NWGNA Holiday Decoration Contest Winners

Congratulations to the Holiday Contest winners!
4th place: 538 Fisk won two free meals at Mojo Burger
3rd place: 552 Coe won two free drinks and two meals at Aqui Cal-Mex
2nd place: 546 Atlanta won two free drinks and two meals at Aqui Cal-Mex plus three free cups of coffee and a discount on beans from Peet's Coffee
1st place: 477 Atlanta won a $50 gift certificate to Taqueria Tlaquepaque

Thanks go out to all who gave their homes a little extra this holiday season and to all our generous sponsors for providing the prizes.

Supervisor Ken Yeager's Jan. 12 newsletter

Topics for this newsletter include:

• Yeager Kicks Off Year as Chair of VTA Board
• Three Creeks Trail Passes Major Milestone toward Completion
• Yeager Focuses On Transportation, Health, and Environment In 2012
• County Offers Housing Rehabilitation Loans for Residents in Need
• County Seeks Input on Work Life Balance
• Calendar of Events

Three Creeks Trail land purchased

Exciting news from the City of San José, the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority and the Parks and Recreation Department of Santa Clara County! The land for the western alignment of Three Creeks Trail has been officially purchased and set aside for trails. When completed, Three Creeks Trail will provide a 2.8-mile east-west link that connects Los Gatos Creek Trail, the Guadalupe Trail, and the Coyote Creek Trail. This will enable travel on trails from Palo Alto to Morgan Hill, Los Gatos to Alviso.

Read more about this project:

• Press release describing the purchase
• San Jose Business Journal article
• Save Our Trails, the local advocacy group that has worked to support the project

And, here's a message from County Supervisor Ken Yeager who has been supporting this effort for many years.

Greetings -

Over ten years in the making, San José’s Three Creeks Trail project took a great leap forward just before the new year. Thanks to combined funding from three public agencies, land for the Western Alignment of the trail has finally been acquired. Having worked on this project since I represented the area on the San José City Council, I am happy the completed purchase will protect the trail from developers. Now we need to get it built.

The Western Alignment of the Three Creeks Trail is 7.5 acres of land that stretch from Lonus Street at the Los Gatos Creek Trail to Minnesota Avenue located in Willow Glen. Many of San José’s trails run north to south. When completed, the Three Creeks Trail will provide a 2.8-mile east-west linkage, connecting the Los Gatos Creek Trail, the Guadalupe Trail, and the Coyote Creek Trail.

The City of San José serves as the lead negotiator and title holder for the land. Santa Clara County and the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority will jointly hold a conservation easement over the property to ensure that it is preserved as open space and open to the public in perpetuity. Advocacy from the community organization Save Our Trails was also instrumental in moving the project forward.

The land—a former rail right of way—was purchased for $6 million from Union Pacific Railroad on December 23. The County contributed $2 million from its Parks Charter fund toward the purchase, while the City provided $1 million and the Open Space Authority gave $3.25 million.

There are currently 53 miles of trails open in San José with a plan to develop 100 miles total, making it one of the nation’s largest jurisdictional networks. The Three Creeks Trail will expand recreation and transportation options within the urban core.

The City worked with the former property owner, Union Pacific Railroad, and the California Department of Toxic Substance Control to ensure that chemicals remaining in the soil from past railway use were removed, and that the site is ready for future recreational development. The City has already received a grant from the Santa Clara Valley Water District to begin the rebuilding of the trestle bridge at the western edge of the trail. The City is currently pursuing funding for master planning the trail system and its future design and construction.

Going forward, I remain committed to working toward land acquisition for the eastern alignment of the Three Creeks Trail, another railroad right of way that runs from Highway 87 to Kelley Park. A fully interconnected trail will provide residents with more recreational outlets and provide an alternate transportation route for those navigating through the City by bike and foot.

Many, many thanks to all who worked to achieve this goal!

Feds recommend full funding for BART to San Jose

After six decades of work, federal officials are recommending full funding to extend BART to San Jose. From today's Mercury News:

On Tuesday the U.S. Department of Transportation will recommend to Congress that more than $900 million in federal aid be set aside for BART over the next decade -- the entire amount sought by local transportation officials for the $2.3 billion extension from Fremont to San Jose.

San Jose ranked healthiest metro area by The Atlantic

The Atlantic has ranked San Jose as the most healthy metropolitan area in the nation. From the Mercury News:

The rankings were calculated by Richard Florida, The Atlantic columnist and director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, based on the level of smoking and obesity in 315 regions using data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The full Atlantic article is available online.

Have you seen this cat?

Andy is a dark gray and white cat, about 14 pounds, who has been lost for almost two months. He has been seen in North Willow Glen in the last week, so please contact Madeline at maddy1210@sbcglobal.net if you see him.

His family misses him!

NWGNA Needs Your Help Removing Holiday Decorations

We had a lot of helpful volunteers to hang the holiday decorations around the neighborhood. Now we could really use help taking them down and storing them until next year. Believe it or not, it's actually fun working with neighbors and meeting some new ones. We will be meeting tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 9am at the bocce courts in Fuller Park. We hope to see you there.