Community members concerned with traffic and safety are calling
for city and county politicians to take a stand supporting the
closure of Nash Road next to San Benito High School.
At its Monday morning meeting, members of the Traffic Safety
Advisory Committee (TSAC) again voiced concern over the safety of
students crossing Nash between classes as well as before and after
school.
Community members concerned with traffic and safety are calling for city and county politicians to take a stand supporting the closure of Nash Road next to San Benito High School.
At its Monday morning meeting, members of the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee (TSAC) again voiced concern over the safety of students crossing Nash between classes as well as before and after school.
Superintendent Jean Burns Slater is pushing for closing Nash Road before the Westside Boulevard extension is complete since that project may take years.
Members who have been on the TSAC for a while expressed frustration over nothing happening, especially Capt. Bob Davies with the California Highway Patrol.
“I don’t understand, I’m still frustrated as to why a barrier hasn’t been instituted,” Davies said. “We need politicians to get the political will (to support closing the street).”
Davies argued the TSAC needs to send a message to the Hollister City Council and County Board of Supervisors that the closing of Nash needs to be done.
While different organizations have been working on closing Nash, if only temporarily during school hours, they have gone full circle in their pursuit, said Alice Flores, TSAC member and Hollister School District Trustee.
“Two years ago, we voted our support of closing it and it went nowhere,” Flores said.
Davies and Flores also said there has always been a project that needed to be completed before closing Nash – first, getting a permanent bridge built on west Nash, then the Westside Extension. There will always be another project, Davies said.
Closing down Nash would also be unpopular with some residents who surround SBHS.
“Our political leaders are not willing to take a hit,” Davies said. “I don’t know how to move this thing forward. Who’s stopping this?”
Slater said the school seems to be the only partly interested in Nash Road’s safety risks and closing the road. She said she hasn’t seen anyone take it on as a priority.
Slater invited former SBHS District Superintendent Richard Lowry to the meeting for history of the struggle to close the road. Lowry and Flores agreed that city and county agencies always direct them somewhere else and end up blaming the California Department of Transportation.
Also making the issue complicated is that the south side of Nash Road running along SBHS is considered county land and the north side city land, Slater noted.
Most of the members favor a K-Rail that would shut down Nash between West and Monterey streets at least part of the day. But even after school, people are crossing the street to get to sporting events and plays, Slater said. At that time, there are no campus supervisors to watch traffic.
The committee asked city and county engineering staff to look at a report surveying where traffic would go if Nash was closed between Monterey and West streets.
Since statistics are available on pedestrian use and traffic flow, the report shouldn’t cost as much or take as much time to complete, committee members hopefully said.
The TSAC members could then take the report to the City Council and County Board of Supervisors looking for a public resolution supporting the closure.
The Traffic Safety Advisory Committee meets once every two months. The next meeting is March 22 at 11 a.m. at City Hall, 375 Fifth St. For more information, call Matt Atteberry, assistant city engineer, at 636-4340.
