Chef Liu– Not too exotic, but tasty WEEKEND | P.16 FEBRUARY 18, 2011 VOLUME 19, NO. 7
INSIDE: MOVIES | PAGE 19
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El Camino CEO fired ‘without cause’
NASA seeks $32.8 million for Hangar One rehab
HOSPITAL MUM ON DETAILS OF OUSTER
ASA is requesting $32.8 million to restore iconic Hangar One at Moffett Field, potentially ending a long battle over its preservation. The Hangar One funds are part of President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget request of $18.7 billion for NASA, which would send $754 million to NASA Ames Research Center. The Hangar One funds would have to survive routine changes to NASA’s budget by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, where Republicans want to cut NASA’s budget down to 2008 levels. While it is good news, preservationists aren’t about to stop their efforts. “There’s a long road ahead,” said Moffett Field Restoration Advisory Board member Steve Williams in an e-mail. Recent history is full of actions that seemed to promise Hangar One’s restoration. Just last December, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo’s earmark to save Hangar One failed when Republicans took control of the House. “These repeated efforts demonstrate the government’s commitment to Hangar One, matching the community’s,” Williams said in a blog post on NASA’s budget request. The U.S. Navy is in the process of having Hangar One’s toxic siding removed this year, which will leave behind a bare skeleton. The Hangar One funding request appears to be enough to “install new exterior siding, roof and windows” for “a weather tight structure” that will “best reflect the historic nature of this structure,” according to the
By Daniel DeBolt
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By Nick Veronin
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ast week El Camino Hospital announced — with very little explanation — that its CEO will leave the organization at the end of the current fiscal year, taking a severance package worth nearly $1 million. However, if the hospital has remained quiet on the issue, hospital employees and community members have not. Tej Singh, a vascular surgeon at El Camino, said he felt Graham got a raw deal. “He was a very good CEO,” Singh said, noting that he believed politics — not performance — were behind Graham’s termination. Pat Briggs, president of the hospital’s nurses union, said she does not feel strongly one way or the other about Graham’s departure, although she was not entirely surprised by the news. According to her, there had been signs that Graham might be asked to leave in the months preceding the announcement, including criticism from the board of directors about the communication of hospital financials. At 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 10, an official El Camino press release was sent to the local media explaining that Ken Graham’s contract will be terminated June 30, “without cause, at the request of the hospital’s board of directors.” See GRAHAM, page 8
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A BUDDING CHEF Anna Thatcher, a Huff Elementary School fourth-grader, spreads peanut butter around her “Flowers of Health” dish at the Kids Cooking Contest cook-off at Crittenden Middle School on Feb. 9. The “Iron Chef-style” contest challenged students to craft the most delicious culinary creation they could muster in the time allotted.
Council: thumbs up to teen center at Rock Church By Daniel DeBolt
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majority of the City Council on Tuesday gave life to idea that’s been a long time coming in Mountain View — an adequate teen center — by saying the city purchased Rock Church building is the spot for it. The council gave its opinion during a study session on a 30-year plan for Rengstorff Park. The Rock Church is just across Escuela Avenue from the park, and the city purchased in 2009 for $3.5 million. It is expected to become vacant in June. As for the Rock Church, “I think it’s time for a teen center, the kids have really gotten short shrift here,” said Councilwoman Laura Macias. “I think it’s really time for teens to have a space of their own.”
Margaret Abe-Koga and Mike Kasperzak clearly supported the idea as well. Tom Means and Ronit Bryant also indicated their support, but said that the Rock Church would also have to allow for some daytime use by seniors. The council’s statements encouraged a group of St. Athanasius church members that has been advocating for a good teen center in Mountain View for six years. “I thought they took a significant move,” said Phillip Cosby after the meeting. “I look forward to seeing it unfold.” Cosby had told the council that the ongoing responsibility for advocating for a teen center was on them, as the older teens who had lead the campaign before had moved on. The only significant obstacle now to operating a teen center out of the
GOINGS ON 20 | MARKETPLACE 21 | REAL ESTATE 23 | VIEWPOINT 14
church may be the costs of staffing it, which was not discussed at the meeting. The city’s position on the teen center was uncertain for much of the meeting as a city-hired consultant discussed four possible plans for Rengstorff Park and the Rock Church. Only one involved a teen center at Rock Church. Other plans involved using the Rock Church for senior center activities and put the teen center in a wing of a new community center at Rengstorff Park. That could save on long-term operation costs through certain efficiencies, such as combined community center and teen center staff. But that is an expensive, unfunded project, and council member Tom Means and See RENGSTORFF, page 13
See HANGAR ONE, page 7