The San Benito County Board of Supervisors’ West Nile Virus Task
Force may be getting some help from the North Salinas Valley
Mosquito Abatement District in its effort to keep the potentially
deadly virus off county land.
Hollister – The San Benito County Board of Supervisors’ West Nile Virus Task Force may be getting some help from the North Salinas Valley Mosquito Abatement District in its effort to keep the potentially deadly virus off county land.
The Health and Human Services department has estimated preliminary mosquito abatement measures for Hollister, San Juan Bautista and county land would cost the county $109,000 to $119,000. This would cover the cost of purchasing larvicide pellets and paying trained mosquito abatement workers to place them in the county’s roughly 10,000 storm drains.
However, because the county currently has no employees certified in mosquito abatement and its tight budget didn’t anticipate this cost, the NSVMAD may be lending San Benito County one of its abatement workers to work in county-controlled areas.
The county is also looking to team up with the city of Hollister, which is home to about 90 percent of the storm drains in the county and is therefore the most susceptible to the mosquito-borne virus as the insects hatch in standing water.
The County and the City will hold a joint meeting later this month to discuss a collaboration of funds and resources.
