Enjoy!
From the Editor
Holy summer? Well that’ s what if feels like today and it’ s barely spring. This has been such an interesting year, weather wise. I have my closets totally messed up trying to find the appropriate attire so that I won’ t be too hot or too cold depending on the whim of the day’ s J. Chris Mickartz climate. You just can’ t count on anything anymore and the weather is working it.
Enough about the weather. This has been a fun issue to put together. We’ ve enjoyed visiting all the wineries in the area, first the Gilroy wineries that we highlighted in our Gilroy Today spring publication and now the Morgan Hill, San Martin wineries. From the large established wineries like Clos LaChance to the small new, by appointment only wineries like Paradise Valley Vineyards, we found them to be friendly, inviting and each unique. And the wines are amazing. Back when we had our B & B, we had a couple stay with us who specifically came to visit from Napa to go wine tasting. Naturally we had to ask, why would they come here when they lived in the wine capital of California? They simply said“ this is what Napa used to be.” See pages 26-30.
Mike Wasserman spoke at our Rotary Club meeting a month or so ago. I must admit, I had not had the opportunity to hear much about the county and how some of the decisions made at the County Supervisor’ s office can impact our quality of life here in South County. Some of the numbers and figures he shared were a little scary. I encourage you to go on the county website and read his State of the County address— sccgov. org / sites / opa / newsroom / Stateofthe- CountyAddresses / Pages / State-of-the-County-Address-2014. aspx. You can get to know a little about the man on page 14.
This year’ s Leadership Morgan Hill’ s Excellence Award will be presented to George Chiala and his family for their contributions to the community. Our writer, Robin Shepherd, sat down with George and Alice and talked about their amazing journey as parents, farmers and food processing innovators, community leaders and philanthropists. It’ s a wonderful story of business growth and community involvement. We congratulate them on the award and thank them for helping make Morgan Hill such a special place to live and work.
We live in a historical 1885 Queen Anne Farmhouse so have a deep appreciation of older homes and the amount of work involved in restoring and maintaining them. So, the Giancola’ s home and property, known as The Rhoades Ranch, was a treat for us to tour and photograph. Joe and Sheila Giancola have done an exceptional job restoring their home. Instead of finding new replicas of the old fixtures, they took the old ones down and refurbished them. And the ones they couldn’ t fix, they painstakingly found replacements. We could only share a few photos with you within these pages, but will post all the photos on our website at morganhilltoday. net. See pages 32-37.
I want to thank Laura Lundy and Sherry Hemingway for sharing the story of their amazing adventure in Burma. I enjoy traveling vicariously through our friends so I was happy to visit Burma through the eyes of Laura and Sherry. I’ m sure you will enjoy readying about the their travels as well. See pages 58-63.
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Morgan Hill
T O D A Y A MAGAZINE FOR AND ABOUT THE COMMUNITY OF MORGAN HILL
PUBLISHED BY InfoPOWER Communications 7446 Rosanna Street / Gilroy, CA 95020 Telephone: 408.848.6540 Email: jchris @ morganhilltoday. net
EDITOR / CREATIVE DIRECTOR J. Chris Mickartz
EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Teri Nelson Rosy Bergin Lorraine Welk Laura Lundy Marilyn Librers Dennis Kennedy
COPYWRITING
Larry J. Mickartz Kelly Barbazette Robin Shepherd
Sherry Hemingway Christine Giusiana John Horner Laura Perry Jennifer Tate Rich Firato
J. Chris Mickartz Laura Wrede Stephanie Vegh
PHOTOGRAPHY Larry J. Mickartz
PROOFING Susan Patereau Kelly Barbazette
CONTRIBUTORS Aging Dorie U. Sugay Finance Daniel T. Newquist The Law Craig van Keulen Real Estate Teri Nelson Mortgage Banking Jenny Boffy / Laura Lundy Home Improvement David Domenichini Gardening Debbie Barncord Insurance Carl C. Schindler Solar Pam Garcia
WEBSITE / SOCIAL MEDIA Susan Patereau
ADVERTISING
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DISTRIBUTION Edgar Zaldana, Distribution Manager
COMMUNITY EVENTS & INFORMATION Submit for free inclusion, space permitting.
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