Dear Editor,

As the owner of Monterey Bay Laundry on Wayland Lane in Gilroy I have had innumerous encounters with the homeless in Gilroy.

With the risk of sounding insensitive, city management, through either direct action or inaction continues to put our citizens and businesses at risk by encouraging the homeless to make Gilroy their home. The results have had a significant negative impact on the town.

As communicated to me by several members of the Gilroy Police Department, the problem is beyond their ability to correct. The fact is that while the homeless wait for the shelters to open a large number of them ramble through the streets, often intoxicated, finding any number of ways to cause trouble.

This poor girl - a victim of rape - is now a direct victim of the policies of our city management. The time has come for Gilroy to decide against being the get-away destination for the homeless and transients.

Shut down the homeless shelters in town. If the city chooses to continue to fund or otherwise support homeless shelters it is time to erect temporary or permanent structures somewhere far away from our citizens and businesses.

Tom McMahon, owner/general manager,

Monterey Bay Laundry Co.

Marijuana dispensary has no place in our family-oriented town

Dear Editor,

This has absolutely no place in a family oriented town and I'm disgusted that these men think they can come in and destroy what we have here.

Kathie Bachman, Gilroy

Why not just call it 'another prescribed pain pill' and allow it?

Dear Editor,

Are they smoking a joint

And just getting high

Or trying to ease the pain

Before they eventually die

For the victims

Of a terminal disease

Do we deny them

This particular release

Just to ease their pain

In their time of need

By giving them some relief

From the benefits, of this "illegal" seed

The government says

It's the law, that they're breaking

But what kind of statement

Is our government, really making

They show no compassion

For the people, that are ill

So let's consider this drug

Just another, prescribed pain pill

Tom Engebretson, Gilroy

Community responds to the need for turkeys in marvelous fashion

Dear Editor,

This past Wednesday, through one of the Gilroy Foundation's fund donors, Jacqui Merriman, we heard that St. Joseph's Family Center was in need of hundreds of turkeys by next Monday to give to families in need.

Mr. and Mrs. Merriman wanted to donate 200 turkeys and asked the Foundation for help in ordering and delivering them. Of course, our office staff jumped at the chance to help. Then, I sent a quick email to the Foundation's entire Board of Directors, Legacy Board and Advisors to the Board - about 50 people. I explained what the Merrimans were doing and asked them if they found themselves at the grocery store this week, could they pop a frozen turkey in their basket and drop it off at St. Joseph's.

Well, the response was tremendous. I had emails from our members offering to drop off from 1 to 5 to 50 turkeys!

Then, I started getting checks in the hundreds of dollars so my staff and I could go and buy more turkeys. Later in the day, I found out that these same Foundation members were all over Facebook asking their Gilroy friends to drop off a turkey or two.

Needless to say, St. Joseph's got the turkeys they needed, and we have extra cash to give them for other food needs. And, I wanted to stress that this was not Foundation "grant" money we use to support various organizations in Gilroy, these were individual community members that heard of a need and jumped on the wagon and solved a problem within

24 hours.

This may be just one small problem fixed, but it shows the commitment of our residents to reach out and help when needed. I wanted to publicly thank all our members that have continued to shown such generosity to other Gilroy families. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Donna Pray, Executive Director, Gilroy Foundation