Highway 156 Widening is a Bad Plan for San Juan Bautista
Highway 156 Widening is a Bad Plan for San Juan Bautista
Editor,
As a civil engineer who has spent his life designing streets and highways, I am concerned about the permanent damage the widening of Highway 156 will do to the city of San Juan Bautista and the agricultural vitality of the San Juan Valley. The noise and pollution caused by ever-increasing traffic, especially trucks traveling to the East Coast, is devastating to the quiet town of San Juan plus covering crops with dust in the San Juan Valley.
Presently the existing highway right-of-way between San Juan and Union Road is 29 acres. The proposed four-to-six lane interstate highway with frontage roads on each side will remove another 200 acres of prime farm land from the valley. An interstate highway of this magnitude for moving traffic from the Central Coast to the Central Valley and beyond should be built in the Bolsa where there is no need for frontage roads.
The cost of right-of-way and building six and a half miles of freeway from U.S. 101 above the flood plain of the Bolsa to the 156 bypass west of Hollister would be substantially cheaper than widening the present alignment of 156 and would be far safer for the residents of San Benito County. No existing signals or intersections on 156 would have to be replaced and improved with interchanges in the future thus saving additional millions of dollars.
Ted Thoeny, P.E.
San Juan Bautista
Easy Way to Participate in
the Rate Proposal Issue
Editor,
Although I am not an active participant in politics, the sewer question caught my eye. Can you imagine that in five years our sewer bill could be $125.00 a month? I felt helpless. What could I do? I went back and reread the notice to property owners on rate increases. Lo and behold there is something I can do. I can vote! “How,” you say? Simple. If I approve, I do nothing. That is a yes vote. If I disapprove, I protest.
1. Get an envelope, a piece of paper, and a stamp.
2. On the paper write that you protest the proposed sewer plan.
3. Give your name, address and/or assessor parcel number.
4. Address the letter to:
City Clerk, City of Hollister
375 Fifth St.
Hollister, CA 95023
5. Be sure to sign the letter.
6. If you rent, talk to your landlord.
7. Must be in the clerk’s office by Sept. 4.
Virginia Drummond,
Hollister
