Published in the December 24, 2014 – January 6, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
Janus is the Roman god of gateways. The month of January is named after the two-faced mythical divine being who is portrayed with one face looking back to the past and the other face looking toward the future. With Jan. 1 almost here, we decided, like Janus, to look back on what successful enterprises the Morgan Hill community accomplished in 2014. With our Jan. 7 issue, we’ll try to peer into the future and see what 2015 has in store for our community.
Among notable accomplishments by the city of Morgan Hill we include the grand opening of a new City Council Chambers that offers a much more comfortable forum for civic engagement — as well as a splendid techie-friendly capability to allow for more innovative ways to use modern media to present information to the elected officials and the public.
The complicated issue of the Southeast Quadrant moved forward in 2014 with the city’s negotiations with property owners proceeding in a direction where the community might benefit from land in that agricultural area of South Valley.
In October, the city initiated a two-day trial of its Complete Streets proposed project by closing down two lanes in the downtown section of Monterey Road. Although some traffic congestion was created at certain times of the day — particularly the vehicle-heavy Friday evening commute hours — the experiment in civil engineering showed there is some potential to improve the downtown’s ambiance and make it more human-friendly. The information gathered from the trial period will be used by traffic engineers in designing a six-month lane closure of the downtown corridor starting in early February.
Youths in Morgan Hill also benefited from various developments during 2014. The nonprofit organization TeenForce opened an office at The Friendly Inn to serve young people, especially those who have gone through a foster home upbringing, find local jobs that can help them build career skills and make a living.
The Morgan Hill Unified School District has been using Measure G funds to improve the facilities at many of its campuses with new roofs and heating/air-conditioning units installed, paint jobs in the interiors and exteriors of campuses, new more ergonomically safe desks and chairs, and other physical benefits.
Measure G was a nearly $200 million bond measure passed by voters in November 2012. Money raised by the bond sales are also going into updating the district’s information technology systems — and young minds are getting the benefit of the brand-new Chrome laptop computers to prepare them for a 21st century digital world of education.
In August, the MHUSD inaugurated two more new magnet schools — the first in the district is the successful Jackson Academy of Math and Music which opened two years ago. P.A. Walsh STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) Academy and San Martin/Gwinn Environmental Science Academy have been getting rave reviews from parents and students because of their innovative ways of teaching children.
Throughout the South Valley, wine signs popped up in 2014 along rural roads during the summer months with the creation of a 28-mile Wine Trail to guide people to the various excellent vineyards and wineries in the region. A grand opening celebration was held Aug. 22 at Guglielmo Winery with officials and citizens attending.
The project was put in motion by local citizens who want to help people discover the high quality of our region’s wine industry. Thanks go to many people, but we especially want to put a spotlight on District 1 County Supervisor Mike Wasserman who played an important role in cutting through the red tape and getting the Wine Trail up in record time.
There are many other accomplishments we as a Morgan Hill community experienced in 2014. The god Janus should be mighty proud.
