Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor (September 16, 2005)

Council's conflict of interest on Shoreline

Editor:

I enjoyed reading your article, "Shoreline's operator may owe city millions" (Sept. 2). However, unlike the San Jose Mercury News , you forgot to mention that the Mountain View City Council members, each year, receive box seat tickets worth $8,750. Sounds like a conflict of interest, doesn't it? If the city council had spent more time negotiating the contract and keeping an eye on what was going on, instead of thinking about whom to give or sell their tickets to, Mountain View would have millions more in the bank. Konrad M. Sosnow Trophy Drive

What to do with train station

Editor:

Fellow Mountain View residents, our city council needs our help. The 2002 council built a big train station on Castro and Evelyn with no plan for its use. It stands today with a bathroom rented to the VTA, an elegant bike locker (with 10 bikes today), a large porch with six park benches really too far from the train stops, and a big, empty, partially finished room. (Oh, and an ATM.)

So how about this: Go and peek in the window of that big, empty room, come up with a good idea for its use (be sure to consider parking issues) and call the city at (650) 903-6300 or write the city manager's office at P.O. Box 7540, Mountain View, CA 94039 and share your idea. Ask them to send it along to the council. I'm sure they will be most grateful for your input. Greta Heinemeier Cypress Point Drive

Solar hangar won't fly

Editor:

NASA has come up with a novel approach for saving Hangar One at Moffett Field. They are looking for a public-spirited developer or donor to clad the hangar with solar arrays at no cost to NASA.

I am enthusiastically in favor of saving the hangar and in favor of using solar energy as much as possible. Unfortunately, the NASA approach depends entirely on finding a donor that is willing to contribute tens of millions of dollars to the project. I feel that success for this approach is very unlikely. Unfortunately, it is the alternative that everyone has been talking about, and it tends to divert attention from developing other solutions that might be much more workable and attainable.

NASA officials say the solar arrays should produce between 2 and 5 megawatts of power. This implies that NASA would like to cover the entire hangar with solar panels, which would cost about $65 million to construct and maintain. The electricity generated by the system over its lifetime would return only about $15 million in income. We have a lot of billionaires and large corporations in the West, but they are not usually that generous in making building project donations. If such a donor were found, it would probably represent one of the all-time-high donations for a construction project.

The only way I can see to appeal to a donor would be to scale back the project to a power level of 500 kilowatts or less, which could be achieved with solar panels mounted only on the roof. This would make far more economic sense than what NASA has requested. Melvin N. Cobb Evandale Avenue

Thank you note to a Good Samaritan

Editor:

Last Saturday, my 81-year-old grandfather decided to walk downtown and enjoy the Art & Wine Festival. On his way home he started to feel ill and couldn't continue to walk home. He didn't have a cell phone or any way to call someone in the family. Thank goodness, a kind woman passing by noticed he was having trouble. She stopped him, had him sit down and since she lived close by, she ran and got her car and drove him home. He's doing fine now. We don't know who it was that helped him but our family would like express our thanks for a modern-day Good Samaritan. Lisa Roquero Garcia Mountain View Avenue

Time for council to support bringing Guard home

Editor:

Prior to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, the city council considered a resolution calling on the president to allow inspections to take their course.

At the time, the argument was made that this question was not properly within the purview of the council. Hurricane Katrina has brought home the fact that commitment of National Guard troops is clearly a city issue, and I would like to call publicly on the council to pass a resolution asking the governor to call California's National Guard troops home.

Aside from the outrage of Bush's bloody adventure, and the needless danger to California Guard troops, the danger that the state faces in case of earthquake is clear. Bill Michel Ortega Avenue

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