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A SPECIAL EDITION OF SOUTH VALLEY & SAN BENITO MAGAZINES
Kids of Summer APRIL 12, 2019
& Recreation Guide
Kids of Summer & Recreation Guide inside
SUMANO’S IN GILROY P4 | CHRISTOPHER ARTISTS P8 | DOWNTOWN NOISE P16
ESTABLISHED 1868
A New SV Media publication
Friday, April 12, 2019
gilroydispatch.com • Vol. 152, No. 15 • $1
VTA could postpone route cuts one year SOUTH COUNTY BUS ROUTES ARE SPARED BIG CHANGES Jaqueline McCool Reporter
➝ VTA, 4
Jacqueline Ramseyer
Valley Transit Authority (VTA) staff has made seven recommendations for changes in service to existing local routes. Many of the changes include discontinuing or limiting routes primarily in San Jose, however a few proposed changes still affect South County riders. In January, the VTA released a 2019 Draft Service plan, which proposed making routes 14, 17 and 19 in Gilroy into a bidirectional route and changing the name of Route 16 in Morgan Hill, which connects Live Oak High School to San Martin Caltrain, to Route 87. Both of these changes are present in the VTA’s proposed final plan. Routes 17, 18 and 19 would be replaced in the new plan with Route 84 and 85. The new routes will go in a “two way loop” to serve Gilroy. Routes 17 and 18 currently connect the Gilroy Transit Center and St. Louise hospital, while route 19 goes from the Gilroy Transit Center to Wren and Mantelli. The VTA also proposed, in January, cutting two “commute period trips” on Express Route 168, which connects the Gilroy Transit Center with Diridon Station. This change would have brought the number of trips down from seven to five. The original plan
EYE TO EYE Faviola Bataz embraces her son Alex at St. Joseph’s Family Center dinner.
A van was home GILROY FAMILY STRUGGLES WITH HOMELESSNESS AND SON WITH DISABILITIES Barry Holtzclaw Managing Editor
Alex Bataz is 9 years old, the oldest of three children; his brother Bruce just turned 8, and sister Destiny will be 4 this year. Alex has a dog named Rocky, a little brown Chihuahua who licks
the boy’s face and bounces in circles in his lap. Alex loves all kinds of music and loves to sway to the music and watch his brother and sister dance. He can only watch them because cerebral palsy has taken away his ability to walk. He can’t sing or talk with them because autism interferes with his ability to speak. Alex spent the first few months of his life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. He
has spent most of the last four years living in a Honda Odyssey minivan with Rocky, Bruce, Destiny and his mom and dad, Faviola and Carlos Bataz. The Bataz family is one of an estimated 100 homeless families in southern Santa Clara County, among the approximately 1,260 homeless individuals in South County in the most recent homeless census taken in 2017. A new homeless census was taken in January and is expected to be released next month. Local
agencies expect the numbers of people—and families—without homes in and around Gilroy, Morgan HIll and San Martin will increase. After months of misfortune, including a broken wheelchair, the Bataz family has new optimism. For two months, they lived at Santa Clara County’s temporary shelter for homeless families at the Arturo Ochoa Migrant Center on Southside Road in ➝ Homeless family, 10
‘Best year ever’ for Gilroy Gardens PARK LOOKS TO CONTINUE 2018 GAINS Erik Chalhoub Business Editor
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“There will be ups and downs, but there is no reason to believe that this property isn’t sustaining,” she said. In 2008, the City of Gilroy purchased the 536 acres of land that includes the park and hillside for $13 million, paying off the park’s remaining bond debt. The city receives a percentage of the park’s earnings, and in 2017, that number was $164,086, according to the most recent Form 990 available, which lists revenues and expenditures. In 2016, Gilroy Gardens embarked on a 10-year master plan, ➝ Gardens, 2
File Photo
Gilroy Gardens experienced its “best year ever in 2018,” thanks to a water park expansion that spiked attendance and profits, general manager Barb Granter told the city council April 1. The park, which is operated by a non-profit corporation and sits on land owned by the city, experienced a bump of 50,000 in annual attendance, bringing 2018’s numbers to 457,000, far better than a low of
329,000 in slow years, according to Granter, who presented the annual report to the council. Membership sales increased to 66,400, up from 40,900 in 2017, and the park netted a 12 percent profit margin. Gilroy Gardens’ profit margin has only exceeded 10 percent three times in its 19-year history, she noted. “In the last five years, we’ve had a nice sustaining net profit margin,” Granter said. “It is, in fact, the best we’ve ever grown.” If the park continues to net a 7 to 12 percent profit, it will remain sustainable, according to Granter.
WATER FUN Gilroy Gardens’ new water park was a hit with visitors in 2018.