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By Tiffany Lam | Special to the Almanac

Incumbent Larry Hassett and challenger Brandon Lewke are running for the Ward 6 seat on the board of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District in the Nov. 4 election. The ward encompasses Woodside, Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, and five other cities.

Mr. Hassett, former owner of four hardware stores, including Palo Alto Hardware, has served in the district’s Ward 6 seat since 2000. The stores, currently owned by his sons, are now called Hassett Hardware.

He has been involved in several community organizations, including Achieve, a school for autistic children. He said he is the only member of the open space district board who lives next door to district preserves (Skyline Ridge and Long Ridge).

Mr. Lewke works as a project analyst at The Tech Museum of Innovation, a nonprofit technology and science museum in San Jose. He said he has volunteered for several organizations, such as the Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto. He has also participated in local athletic events, such as the Wildflower Olympic Distance Triathlon.

Of the seven seats on the open space district board, four are up for election Nov. 4, but local residents will only vote for candidates for the Ward 6 seat.

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1 Comment

  1. I thank Larry for his service in repping our area for 14 yrs.
    However, I support Brandon Lewke for the seat that Larry currently inhabits.
    Having a board member like Brandon, one that has a better handle on providing multi use(M/U) access to properly designed trails within MROSD lands is a good plan IMO.
    Larry’s stance against M/U access to the Mindego Hill fireroad-trail showcases his just plain wrongheadedness in trails access on publicly funded lands.
    This specific fireroad-trail former ranch road had been used for years by mt bike riders,horse+hiker alike w/o one single documented negative impact on habitat.
    The shaky justification by Larry to vote a ban mt biking from this trail(fireroad) due a to a questionable sighting of an endangered species by a MROSD funded biologist and allow 4 wheel drive MROSD trucks to continue barreling around on the same fireroad was-is just plain wrong.

    Time to shake up the MROSD board of stale members such as Larry, I support multi use trails,balanced access of recreational entity’s such as mt bike riding.
    I support Brandon Lewke for MROSD board

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