Registration is open now at www.southvalleyflag.com.

By Robert Airoldi

Robert Airoldi

We got some good news from Jeff Dixon, this year’s Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year, who runs the South Valley Flag Football League. This spring, SVFFL is expanding its operations by adding a girls-only 5-on-5 flag football division. The new league offers 6-8, 9-11 and 12-14 age brackets, played on Sunday afternoons at Sobrato High School in conjunction with its existing co-ed flag football divisions.

The league offers girls an exclusive opportunity to join the flag football wave crossing the United States.

“Together with our partner, Gridiron Football, we are able to offer female athletes a chance to enjoy everything flag football has to offer,” league founder Dixon said. “The expansion of girls flag football is essential to the growth of the game and demonstrates that football is for all. It goes without saying, the greater the participation, the stronger the game, and most importantly, the greater opportunity for young women to build the transferrable skills football provides for achieving success in life.”

Registration is open now at www.southvalleyflag.com. Dixon encourages girls and women passionate about football to come play, coach and/or officiate. You can contact Jeff at [email protected] or follow at Facebook.com/SVFLAG.

After a very wet start to the winter season, we just endured one of the driest Januarys on record. The warm, dry weather may be quite enjoyable during the wintry months but can lead to serious water supply concerns.

Santa Clara County saw virtually no rain in January, a month that averages about three inches. Statewide, the snowpack dipped below normal for this time of the year even after the record snowfall in December. If these conditions continue, that snow level represents only about half of what we normally would see in an average year.

The county is currently classified as being in a severe drought, and these conditions will likely worsen if we continue to see little or no rain in the coming months. That’s why Valley Water is encouraging everyone in Santa Clara County to continue to reduce their water use. The easiest way to conserve is to keep irrigation systems off, except for watering trees. About half of the water used in a typical house occurs outdoors.

Also, consider getting ready for longer and more frequent droughts by replacing a lawn with a beautiful drought-resilient landscape. Valley Water offers a rebate of up to $3,000 to help you upgrade your yard.

It is also essential to reduce indoor water use. Fixing leaks and making sure appliances are water-efficient is a great start. To learn how to detect leaks at home, check out multilingual videos at watersavings.org.

You can also request a free indoor water survey and water conservation tools. And, for a limited time, they are offering collapsible water buckets that will allow you to collect water from your shower as it warms up.

Water conservation is a California way of life. Let’s work together to save water and ensure we will have enough for the future, rain or shine.

Award-winning young string musicians Valery and Starla Breshears from the family string ensemble Stars Aligned Siblings will headline South Valley Symphony’s NextGen 2022 concert with a performance of Brahms’ Double Concerto for Violin and Cello.

Valery, 12, plays violin, and Starla, 14, plays cello. The two are students in the pre-college division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They have individually and as part of the family ensemble won multiple awards performing chamber music and solos.

In addition to the Brahms Concerto, the symphony, under the baton of Maestro Anthony Quartuccio, will perform Nicolai’s Overture to “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” The symphony will be joined by the Gilroy Chamber Singers, directed by Jonathan Souza, to present Wilberg’s “Anthem of Peace,” Faure’s “Pavane” and Tin’s “Baba Yetu.”

The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. March 12, at Advent Lutheran Church, 16870 Murphy Ave., Morgan Hill. Tickets are $30, free for children accompanied by a parent and for students with ID. No tickets will be sold at the door.

For tickets and information about upcoming concerts, visit southvalleysymphony.org.

The County of Santa Clara Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office launched an innovative online dashboard earlier this month that offers comprehensive case data as well as categorized and geographical breakdowns of all deaths reviewed by the office since 2018.

The state-of-the-art and technologically robust dashboard provides basic demographics — age, race, gender, ZIP code — as well as the cause and manner of death for all cases, with personal identifying information removed.

The dashboard also includes tools to assist in data research, covering specific areas such as cause of death, including homicides, suicides, accidents, and drug overdoses. There are analytic sections on deaths due to COVID-19, opioids, motor vehicle accidents, child deaths, deaths among the unhoused, and elderly fall deaths. GIS mapping shows deaths by ZIP code. A “John/Jane Doe” page provides case information and sketches for individuals who remain unidentified so the public can assist in identification.

“These case records and analytics provide a unique lens through which to examine different aspects of deaths in Santa Clara County, whether by cause, in a particular geographical area, or within a certain segment of the community,” said Dr. Michelle Jorden, County of Santa Clara Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner. “The analytical tools can also help government agencies or nonprofits identify possible trends for potential intervention opportunities.”

Dr. Jorden said the dashboard serves two main purposes: Providing real-time case data to researchers, law enforcement, journalists and the public; and providing immediate public access to maps and data sets that eliminate the wait-time for a California Public Records Act response.

The dashboard, along with user instructions, can be found at www.scc-mec.org. The County of Santa Clara open data homepage is at www.data.sccgov.org/.

Gavilan Community College welcomes Rosie Zepeda as its new public information  officer. She served as the director of media, governmental relations and marketing at City College of San Francisco and has more than 20 years of experience in public relations, community  outreach, internal/external communications strategies, and government relations. She holds a  masters in education from Herbert Lehman College, Bronx, N.Y. and a bachelors in theatre arts, Spanish, with a minor in communication studies from Santa Clara University.

“Gavilan College’s rich history as a Hispanic serving institution, with core values for a more personalized experience, match my goal to serve and provide outreach for both of our unique  south county communities,” she said in a press release.

Welcome to South Valley, Rosie! Best of luck with your new job.