Week in Review: City Manager Dan Rich, Google Buys Motorola and MVFD Donates

Did you miss the news in Mountain View this week? Here's a quick recap of local issues, personalities, events and photos.

Sunday, Aug. 14

Every year during the month of Ramadan Zuhair Saadat, a resident of Richmond, visits 30 mosques in the Bay Area in 30 days and he documents his experience in his blog. He visited the Peninsula Muslim Associations in Mountain View for Saturday prayer and he wrote about it here.

Monday, Aug. 15

In the first of a three part interview with Mountain View's new City Manager Dan Rich, we learn how he plans to adapt his management style from Campbell, the much smaller and less complex city he previously served.

Mountain View-based Google announced that it will acquire Motorola Mobility, based in Libertyville, IL, for $12.5 billion dollars. To be sure, the acquisition puts Google–which doesn't create handsets–in direct competition with the Apple iPhone, Microsoft and other hardware makers, all in embroiled in a patent battle.

The Citizens Redistricting Commission for the State of California released the final assembly, senate, congressional and board of equalization maps to be used in the electoral process for the next 10 years and there are lots of new district numbers to memorize.

Tuesday, Aug. 16

In the second of a three part interview with Mountain View's new City Manager Dan Rich, he speaks about the General Plan and how he plans to work with the department heads to help see that the city's visions materialize. This include, he explained, continuing the trend of conservative spending of years past.

Playball, is what Tyler Goeddell will do but not at UCLA, where he got a full academic scholarship to, but at the Tampa Bay Rays. Goeddell, the 41st pick in the 2011 MLB draft, signed with the team for $1.5 million bonus on Monday night.

We love to do video and since our network is now close to 900 strong, Mountain View Patch partnered with Cupertino Patch and Libertyville Patch in Illinois to get crowd reactions to Google buying Motorola. Should Apple be worried?

Wednesday, Aug. 17

Read part three of Mountain View Patch's Q&A with the city's new City Manager Dan Rich. Beware, these aren't the typical reporter questions. Here we talk about the important stuff, like his video-game playing habits and his dream superpower.

The city of Mountain View will temporarily prohibit the use of the Whisman Park bridge at Stevens Creek Trail from Tuesday, Aug. 25 to Thursday, Aug. 27 during the hours of 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The parks division will replace the decking material on the entire bridge.

Thursday, Aug. 18

Shari Storm, author of Motherhood is the New MBA: Using Your Parenting Skills to Be a Better Boss, shared with a group at a seminar on Tuesday at Xceed Financial Credit Union on Showers Drive about how parenting builds business skills.

The Mountain View Fire Department, and their colleagues in the South Bay and Peninsula, have adopted the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation as their charity and they fundraise each to support the organization's services. This Thursday, the MVFD presented a $13,500 check to foundation staff as part of an annual fire truck relay up El Camino Real to San Francisco.

Friday, Aug. 19

In a series of articles to mark the 50th anniversay of El Camino Hospital, Patch reporter Jennifer Van der Kleut will take a look at the hospital's past, present, future, it's success and challenges, and its impact to the community. In this first part, she explains how the hospital came to be.

Patch's sustainability columnist Jarrett Mullen takes on trash in this week's post. He suggests that the city of Mountain View should make a bigger effort to encourage composting since garbage emits methane, which doesn't produce energy but instead abosrbs it. Read and leave a comment or sugguestion.

Santa Clara County District Attorney warns homeowners who face potential foreclosure to beware of 'con artists' who may promise to help if payments is made in advance. That's illegal Rosen explained and is what some people, who have now been convicted, had done.

Saturday, Aug. 20

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) received $156.5 million in state funding for two highway projects to relieve traffic congestion on Interstate Highway 880 and state Highway 85. Nearly $85 million will go toward the construction of auxiliary and carpool lanes between Highway 85 in Mountain View and Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto.