LETTERS.

I write on the anniversary of a horrendous car accident that took the lives of four people five years ago on Soledad Canyon Road. Thursday night there was a vigil to celebrate those lives and remember the way those lives were so brutally taken. About 50 people attended the vigil to remember. Unfortunately, these people have suffered a great loss.

Thursday night's result, however, is that this vigil disrupted the lives of thousands of others that evening. I don't blame the people in the vigil, but rather city of Santa Clarita officials. They closed northbound Soledad Canyon Road. They did so without any consideration for the homeowners in the area. As a result, there was a huge traffic problem. People were coming home from work or from the store, trying to get to their families or trying to get their families home, and they could not do so without having to take alternate routes.

If notices or signs had been placed sometime up to a week in advance, many people would have been able to plan ahead. Because there was no warning, traffic was horrendous, and it took people an extra 30 minutes or more to get home to their families.

- Stuart Blair

Santa Clarita

I'd like to enlighten the public about Alzheimer's disease. The truth is that Alzheimer's isn't contagious. It's not hardening of the arteries or mental illness. It's not a direct result of stress, grief, neglect, family conflict, vitamin deficiency, poisoning, a blow on the head, chronic alcoholism, the normal aging process or a lack of blood or oxygen to the brain.

It's a terminal, incurable illness that shortens one's expected life span. It's the fourth leading cause of death in American adults. An estimated 4.5 million Americans are affected by Alzheimer's disease. It's increasing, and no one seems to know why.

Research is ongoing, but even with the full use of stem-cell research, any kind of cure is years, possibly decades, away.

My lovely and dear wife Blossom was a victim of Alzheimer's disease and has passed on.

-Harry Gratz

Canyon Country

A special California Highway Patrol enforcement team cruised the Santa Clarita Valley on Wednesday, checking on use of car seats and seat belts. A special enforcement team to check on seat belts? What a total waste of cop time. These people must not have enough to do.

When the seat belt law was passed, we were told that the law would be enforced only when an officer pulled someone over for other reasons. That's the right way to handle the enforcement of such a minor infraction.

We don't need a CHP task force for something so inconsequential. My advice to the CHP: Change your priorities; patrol for serious traffic crimes.

- Robert Penoyer

Santa Clarita

Friday's Daily News article about high school auto shop closings tells me that the William S. Hart Union High School District is working hard to match the 50 percent dropout rate of some of the Los Angeles high schools.

Hart district officials couldn't find an auto teacher because those who could teach the course make too much money working as mechanics. Instead they will offer courses for which ``cheaper'' teachers can be had to teach our kids trades that apparently don't pay very well.

-Tom Fortune

Canyon Country