Pizarro: There will be fireworks after all in San Jose

LOCATION: San Jose America

DATE: Posted: 03/22/2010 02:00:51 PM PDT and Updated: 03/22/2010 09:03:04 PM PDT

BY:  Sal Pizarro spizarro@mercurynews.com

 

DETAILS: For the second year in a row, the San Jose Giants may make sure there's lots of boom for the Fourth of July. After hearing last week that the San Jose America Festival was again called off, team president Jim Weyermann started making some calls. He's tentatively lined up Comcast, radio station KRTY, San Jose State University and Happy Hollow Park & Zoo to help stage a July 4 celebration at Municipal Stadium.

The Giants are out of town on the Fourth (and there were already fireworks scheduled for July 2 and 3), but Weyermann has a fun plan in mind.

KRTY would bring in a big-name artist for a country music concert at Muni, followed by a pyrotechnic display.

There would be a "low" admission price for the concert to help recoup some of the production costs, said Weyermann, who has not yet determined the cost.

And the fireworks show will be free for those watching outside the stadium on SJSU's adjacent fields (which will be open early so people can hear a broadcast of the concert). Happy Hollow also expects to have a special event for families during the day.

It's still in the planning stages, so details could change in the next three months, but Weyermann sounds confident that they'll all pull it off.

"There is no way that our city isn't going to celebrate the Fourth of July," said the baseball guy, who could wind up being drafted as a politician if he keeps making smart, popular decisions like this.

HISTORIC END: A two-week demolition is set to begin today at the historic Letcher's Garage building in downtown San Jose. Erected in 1906, the building has been on the endangered list for most of the past decade to make way for a Barry Swenson condo project.

The building, originally owned by Clarence Letcher, was remodeled and became the Oasis nightclub in the late 1980s. The club closed in 1996 after a patron was beaten to death there. In recent years, the site has been used as a youth center.

"We are very sorry to lose another piece of San Jose history," said Brian Grayson, interim executive director of the Preservation Action Council. "The story behind Letcher's Garage is a fascinating one and every time one of our historic buildings is demolished, we lose another part of the story that is San Jose."

And while preservationists lament the loss of this piece of San Jose lore, at least the dilapidated First Church of Christ, Scientist next door won't be demolished, too. Plans are to have the building seismically retrofitted and incorporated into the condo project.

Contact Sal Pizarro at spizarro@mercurynews.com or 408-627-0940.