It's '04 No More: The Year in Review By Kaustuv Basu and Lisa Toth As ol' Father Time drags away 2004 to make way for 2005, so too does the city of Saratoga look ahead to a new year with optimism and enthusiasm. But before popping the cork to welcome in 2005, it's important to reflect on the passing of 2004—a year to remember in Saratoga. It was a year when the county sheriff's department decided that its facility in the city was too small and opted to leave to take up new residence in nearby Cupertino. But it was also a year when the city's firefighters moved into a brand new, state-of-the-art facility with the completion of their impressive building at the corner of Big Basin Way and Saratoga­Los Gatos Road.

It was a year that started out on a scandalous note when students were accused, and eventually expelled, for cheating at Saratoga High School, and when another student was arrested on bomb-making charges. And, sadly, it was a year when Saratoga resident Gina Loveday was killed by a motorist while trying to cross Highway 9, and when Kathleen Davey, wife of popular Saratoga High basketball coach Mike Davey, suffered cardiac arrest and slipped into a coma.

But as heartbreaking as those events may have been, 2004 was still a year for Saratogans to celebrate.

City residents came together for four popular annual events—the Rotary Art Show, Celebrate Saratoga!, Building Bridges and Treelighting Ceremonies—and Mayor Ann Waltonsmith spearheaded a successful effort to bring together the city, West Valley College and the college neighbors with an agreement to ban any stadium on the campus.

The city also began a façade improvement program to aid downtown merchants and started a shuttle service to move patrons from Big Basin Way to Villa Montalvo, encouraging shopping in the downtown.

Waltonsmith was re-elected and Aileen Kao elected to the Saratoga City Council, and Kathleen King became the new mayor with Norman Kline named the vice mayor. At the same time, voters overwhelming opposed the passage of a utility users tax.

Measure B, a library tax, failed in March, but Measure H, a bond to improve the West Valley­Mission Community College District, passed.

Dr. Kevin Skelly resigned as principal of Saratoga High; Kerri Walsh won Olympic gold and Patricia Miranda won the bronze; Hakone Gardens was featured on Home and Gardens Television; and Saratoga Elementary School celebrated its 150th birthday.

It was quite a year.

—Dick Sparrer

January

A new ad hoc committee was formed to help revitalize the downtown Saratoga Village, which had been suffering from an unstable economy and increasing competition from neighboring areas such as Los Gatos and Santana Row.

Saratoga city officials reconsidered making changes to fire protection services. The city of Saratoga was being served by two fire districts, the Santa Clara January

A new ad hoc committee was formed to help revitalize the downtown Saratoga Village, which had been suffering from an unstable economy and increasing competition from neighboring areas such as Los Gatos and Santana Row.

Saratoga city officials reconsidered making changes to fire protection services. The city of Saratoga was being served by two fire districts, the Santa Clara County Central Fire Protection District and the Saratoga Fire Protection District. The two groups entered a boundary drop agreement in August 2001, meaning if one fire department received a call, crews from the other department would also be notified due to a shared dispatch system.

A memorial service was held for 9-year-old Kaitlyn Langstaff, a Saratoga resident who died in December due to complications from toxic epidermal necrolysis—a form of Stevens­Johnson Syndrome. Kaitlyn contracted the disorder a year before, as the result of a severe allergic reaction to Children's Motrin. The effects of the reaction were permanent blindness, lung damage and scarring of the esophagus and mucous membranes.

An attack by a mountain lion that killed one man and injured a female biker on a Southern California trail shocked many Saratogans. It was also what some Saratoga hillside residents were afraid would happen if proper authorities didn't take immediate action against an ongoing problem of hungry coyotes lurking around residential neighborhoods.

The Walden West Foundation launched a $7 million campaign to upgrade existing facilities and build new structures at Saratoga's Walden West Outdoor School and interactive learning center, which served children from throughout Santa Clara County.

Eight Saratoga High School students were suspended for three separate incidents of cheating, but four were considered for expulsion from the school district. The incidents raised questions of academic integrity on the campus. The first problem included a group of students who used a small computer device which records keystrokes—known as a KeyKatcher—to obtain a password from a teacher's computer. Another student broke into a school computer and attempted to change a grade, while two other students took a printed test out of a classroom and made copies.