Feb 3, 2004

Yeager offers plans for
second term, if re-elected

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Editor’s note: The Willow Glen Times conducted a special question and answer session with current City Councilmember Ken Yeager to find out what his plans are if re-elected.

Q. What are your plans and goals if you are re-elected to a second term?
A. I want to continue to improve parks and build new parks. I plan further work on unknotting the traffic congestion that plagues the people living in District 6. There are projects to build a new library on Bascom, a new community center on Fruitdale and Southwest Expressway and to renovate Willow Glen’s Library, and I’d like to see those projects completed. I also plan to hold a neighborhood meeting to talk about gangs and what the city is doing about them and a community forum to discuss the programs people want most.

Q. What exactly do you want to accomplish with the parks?
A. I want to build a new park on Fuller Avenue. It’s a very long piece of land, about a one-half to three-quarters of a mile stretch on the east side of Bird. There are already places to jog and walk but I’d like to see playground equipment for a tot lot, for example. I think there are some really good opportunities for other recreational uses for the land.

I’d also like to extend Los Gatos Creek Trail to downtown. We can purchase the Willow Glen spur of the abandoned Union Pacific Railroad by River Glen School and connect the Los Gatos, Guadalupe and Coyote Creek Trails.

Q. What about the traffic congestion?
A. I want to continue to work on minimizing traffic congestion. Changes at Highways 87 and 280 are creating a bottleneck. It needs to be reconfigured. We got funding in the last couple of weeks that can take care of that.

Q. The other day a 15-year old boy was stabbed on his way to Willow Glen High School. Some people are concerned about the locality of the bus stop, can it be moved? What can you and the City Council do to prevent further tragedies in our neighborhood?
A. No doubt people in the neighborhood are very concerned. We’ve [his office] received e-mails from people concerned about changing bus stops previously and normally it isn’t too hard to move. We can look at moving the bus stop much nearer the school to alleviate some problems.
I hope to have a neighborhood meeting to talk about what the city is doing about gangs and its gang prevention work. I believe the city needs to put as much resources as possible where it needs to, to prevent other such problems. The city has a good anti-gang task force, a full unit that works closely with the county. I want to make sure during the budget hearings that we fund the task force at its full level.

Q. What is happening with the Alma high rise?
A. Nothing right now. Barry Swenson received the entitlements, but there’s a lot to do with marketing and financing. The development has approval, it just depends on a lot of things. There’s any number of things that can happen. Sometimes developments get approval and nothing happens. Other times it takes years for construction to begin and financing doesn’t provide for the original plans. There’s a complex at Lawrence Expressway and Highway 101 that started out as a high rise but the funding didn’t come through and ended up with more of a low-rise complex.

Q. How bad is the budget?
A. It looks bad. It looks worse if the governor’s $15 million bond measure doesn’t pass. We could be looking at a $100 million shortfall. It’s just hard to know right now. I plan to protect the services that people want most. That’s why I plan to hold a community forum to find out what programs my constituents want most.
Proposed cuts include a 10 percent reduction in the police and fire departments and a 20- to 25 percent reduction in all other departments. That would mean cuts in libraries, parks and recreation, transportation, street paving, garbage, street cleaning, crossing guards and homework centers.

Q. What are you doing about the parking situation in downtown Willow Glen?
A. We are close to being able to open up parking at the Bank of America branch on Lincoln Avenue. We’re looking at 70 spaces for the public with an additional 40 spaces reserved for Bank of America customers. We’re also working to be able to get permanent sidewalk cleaning on Lincoln Avenue. My office has been working with the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association, and we’re working out an agreement with the city and the business association.
I also want to work on attracting more businesses to Lincoln Avenue. I plan to promote Lincoln Avenue with the Office of Economic Development.

Q. Any other plans at the moment?
A. No grand plans right now, I’m just focusing on getting elected again.