Highway 9 closure begins soon for bridge work
Beginning June 22, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) will perform a full closure of Highway 9 Big Basin Way, at Sanborn Road, to begin the installation of a temporary bridge for the Saratoga Creek Bridge Rehabilitation project.
The closure is needed to install a temporary bridge adjacent to the existing Saratoga Creek Bridge. The temporary bridge will allow the highway to remain open during the rehabilitation of Saratoga Creek Bridge.
According to Caltrans, the road closure is taking place now to keep pace with an accelerated schedule to complete the overall project by the end of the year and reduce the duration of impact to traffic and the community. The overall goal of the project is to safely rehabilitate the Saratoga Creek Bridge so it can continue to provide connectivity to Highway 9 in the event of an earthquake.
The project is scheduled to be complete in December.
The full lane closure on Highway 9 at Sanborn Road (no access between Sanborn and Pierce Road) will run from June 22 at 9pm to June 26 at 7am. Detours will be in place.
CHP will be on site and emergency vehicles will be granted access.
For information, visit tinyurl.com/2fbxufj7.
FEMA Disaster Recovery Center opens in Los Gatos
County of Santa Clara officials urge community members who have been impacted by the January storms to apply for federal disaster assistance. The application period is open now until July 25, to provide affected community members an opportunity to seek financial assistance for disaster-related costs.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) amended its Major Disaster Declaration on May 25 to include Santa Clara County for the Individual Assistance Program, which includes temporary emergency housing or money for home repairs of primary residences and help with medical, dental, personal property, transportation, and moving-and-storage expenses that are disaster-related.
“Since the storms began, the County and our partners have been working to get as much assistance as possible to help community members who were impacted,” said Darrell Ray, deputy director of the Office of Emergency Management. “If you were affected by this disaster, be sure to apply now. There are a number of locations available to help walk residents through the process of getting the resources they need.”
To provide on-site assistance, the County has set up a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) at The Pavilion at Redwood Estates, 21450 Madrone Drive in Los Gatos, where officials from FEMA and several state agencies will be available to help residents with registration. The DRC is open daily through June 27 from 9am to 6pm, and June 28 from 9am to noon.
To apply for individual assistance, community members will need to bring with them the following documentation:
• Personal information (address, Social Security number, contact information, etc.)
• Household income
• Insurance information
• Bank account information (to deposit funds into your account)
Santa Clara County residents can apply for disaster assistance 24 hours a day, Monday to Sunday, by calling FEMA at 800.621.3362. For relay service, such as a videophone, Innocaption, or CapTel, call TTY 800.462.7585 and provide FEMA with the specific number assigned to that service during registration.
For recovery information, visit PrepareSCC.org/Recovery.
County’s MedAssist program reaches milestone
Santa Clara County’s MedAssist program helps combat high prescription drug costs for qualifying residents who have been diagnosed with diabetes, asthma or severe allergies. More than 1,000 individuals have now enrolled in the program and are receiving grants for the high out-of-pocket costs of prescription medications like anti-diabetics (including insulin), asthma inhalers, and epinephrine auto-injectors (EpiPen).
The County hit the 1,000 mark last week.
“If you use an EpiPen, an asthma inhaler, or medications to treat diabetes, you need the meds. They’re not ‘nice’ to have; they’re ‘must’ haves. They’re life essential,” said County Supervisor Joe Simitian, chair of the County’s Health and Hospital Committee, who proposed the program. “But they cost too much. MedAssist was specifically designed to ensure that folks who need these life-saving medications can afford them.”
“It’s a tremendous milestone,” he added. “We’ve launched a program unlike any other. And it’s already pushing down the cost for more than 1,000 local residents. I’m hoping more and more folks access the help we’ve made available.”
In Santa Clara County, there are nearly 120,000 adults who have been diagnosed with diabetes, more than 250,000 adults and children with asthma, and more than 20,000 individuals who are prescribed epinephrine auto-injectors for allergic reactions.
MedAssist provides eligible residents with a monthly grant to offset paid medical expenses, prescriptions, co-pays, or health insurance premiums based on their annual gross household income.
The eligibility criteria for this program are:
• Resident of Santa Clara County.
• Must have valid prescription for asthma inhaler, diabetes medication or epinephrine auto-injector.
• Must have household out-of-pocket health care expense in the previous calendar year.
• Maximum annual gross household income limits.
“MedAssist helps offset high out-of-pocket medical expenses,” Simitian said. “I encourage people to apply. The program is designed to help folks in the so called ‘missing middle’—people who may make a pretty good income but are just getting slammed by these high-cost drugs. Our goal here is to keep you well and cut your costs.”
Apply online at GetMedAssist.com or call 408.970.2001 for information.
Los Gatos students honored at University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi announced two Los Gatos students were named to the Spring 2023 Dean’s Honor Roll list.
The following students made the list:
• Gabriel Gallmann, majoring in Sport and Recreation Administration.
• Bayley Roberts, majoring in Public Health and Health Sciences.
The Dean’s Honor Roll is reserved for students who earn a semester GPA of 3.50-3.74. In order to be eligible for honor roll designation, a student must have completed at least 12 graded hours for the semester and may not be on academic probation during the semester.
Local students recognized at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Two more local students have made the Dean’s Honor List for the Spring 2023 semester at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. They are:
• Helena Rozas of Los Gatos, studying Computer Science
• Chengyu Zhang of Monte Sereno, studying Computer Science
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Dean’s Honor List is compiled at the end of each semester to recognize undergraduate students who have completed 12 or more credit hours with a 3.5 grade point average or better for that term.
The educational institution announced earlier that Alice Bibaud of Los Gatos, studying Computer Science, had also made the list.
