The Red Phone happily reports the lines are lighting up and residents of San Benito County are calling the Crimson Crusader. So far this week, the Red Phone heard from one resident keen on watching local government in action, a caller distraught over the bumpy ride on Highway 25 and a comment about the state of affairs at the Hollister Police and Fire departments. That’s right, your tireless Red Phone is listening all day, every day.
Seen but not heard
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but if you’re watching local government on television you need to hear what they’re saying, a caller reported.
“For the past two City Council meetings on Channel 17, as soon as the roll call and Pledge of Allegiance is done when it comes time to know what is going on, the audio goes dead and there is no audio whatsoever,” she said. “It isn’t right for people sitting at home who want to know what is going on in the city – unless you can read lips – to have to miss it.”
Red Phone called the program manager at CMAP to question the inactive audio and learned the organization just discovered the problem after Monday’s City Council meeting. Problems in the fiber optic lines at the local studio were cutting out the audio and CMAP was unaware of the problem because the station at the Gavilan College cannot pick up Hollister’s cable feed. However, a technician is hard at work fixing the complicated system, they report, and the audio is up and running now. CMAP apologized for the problem and asked viewers to call their local hotline first at 636-4397, then 408-846-4983, ext. 8 if they notice a problem with broadcasts.
Police Department under fire
A Free Lance reader wants to put the heat on the city and their plan to cut the Fire Chief position from next year’s budget.
“I have followed with some interest the budget issues with the city of Hollister over the past year,” he wrote to redphone@freelancenews.
com. ” I do not understand why the city is forcing the fire chief to retire, yet leaving the Police Department top heavy with three managers, a chief and two captains. When Police Chief Sanchez was there, they eliminated one of the captain’s positions and the position wasn’t brought back until some time after Chief Pierpoint came on board and the department had grown from 24 to 35 sworn. It would seem more reasonable to eliminate a captain’s position from the Police Department and save the fire chief’s position. The current plan for rotation fire chiefs doesn’t seem very wise. What fire captain, while acting fire chief, would make his normal peers do something that he wouldn’t want to be ordered to do when he was back to his permanent rank? Leadership by consensus.
As for skills and experience, the city will have to look for a long time to find a fire chief with a resume like their current chief.
As for costs, the fire chief and the police captain make about to the same salaries.”
Chief Bill Garringer, who was on the city’s layoff list, has opted to take an early retirement package offered by the city.
On track
Highway 25 still has many unhappy commuters making the daily drive down its bumpy surface. Apparently the rough ride has gotten worse in one caller’s mind.
“Highway 25 seems to be a big target for the Red Phone, but they’ve done weird stuff where, before and after the railroad tracks and before and after bridges, they have scraped up the asphalt and now it’s this rough stuff that, when you drive over it, you bump up onto the tracks or bridge and bump back down it at the end. It’s been like this for a couple of weeks now. What the heck are they doing? The tracks are bad enough without tearing up the road.”
Apparently, the bumps are anywhere from 39 millimeters to 54 millimeters in depth, but won’t last much longer. Tong Ly of Caltrans District 4 said the cuts have been made to facilitate an asphalt overlay that will smooth out the rough ride. He said the overlay should begin this week.
