Airmen’s association, business owners and manger divided over
development idea
Second in a three part series on the Hollister Municipal
Airport
A casual visitor would see Hollister Airport for what it is
– a historic relic that houses hobby aircraft and a handful of
small businesses. But for those with a more direct stake, it’s a
place rife with conflict, intrigue and even deception.
Airmen’s association, business owners and manger divided over development idea
Second in a three part series on the Hollister Municipal Airport
A casual visitor would see Hollister Airport for what it is – a historic relic that houses hobby aircraft and a handful of small businesses. But for those with a more direct stake, it’s a place rife with conflict, intrigue and even deception.
Welcome to the Balkan Republics, Hollister style.
Take Ernie Persich, part of the airport’s business community. Persich does not think that the Hollister Municipal Airport has changed much since he first started flying out of it in 1983.
“Changed physically, not really,” Persich said. “There’s more aircraft. It’s busier.”
Persich and his wife Beate own Vintage Wings and Wheels, an aircraft repair and maintenance business at the airport.
“Hollister would be a good airport if it was developed correctly,” Persich said. “There’s a lot of headaches and a lot of growing up that the airport is doing right now.”
Persich offers a pragmatic assessment. Much of the rest of the aviation community is frank, and it is angry.
“I think there’s different factions,” Persich said, “and of course everyone’s looking out for their own interest.”
To develop the airport successfully, everyone has to work together, he said.
The only thing that the various factions seem to agree about is that nobody likes the airport manager.
The lightning rod for much of the controversy swirling around the airport is its manager, Bill Gere. Gere was appointed by the city three years ago. His mission was spelled out clearly. Gere is a change agent, the person charged with turning the airport from an aging relic into one of the key economic lynchpins for the San Benito County of tomorrow.
An amiable and rather soft-spoken man, Gere does not seem like the kind of guy who would be the object of such vitriol. But to some, he is.
“We’ve got a bad airport manager,” said Jerry Gabe, who said he rents space to the owners of jets. “Everything was running smooth until Bill Gere got here.”
Enough of them agree that a petition to remove Gere from his position garnered 115 signatures, said Ruth Erickson, president of the Hollister Airmen’s Association.
The petition began circulating in August, she said. It was presented to the Hollister City Council and Hollister’s city manager in October or November, she said.
“We keep hearing from the powers that be that changes are coming, but they won’t tell us what, and they won’t tell us when,” Erickson said. “And so we keep waiting.”
Airport users include a diverse mix of recreational and business aviation, including flight training, gliding, a skydiving operation and a WWII aircraft museum.
“This base was originally built by the Navy in the ’40s,” Persich said.
It was an auxiliary field called Naval Auxiliary Air Station Hollister, Gabe said.
Before that it was a farmer’s field, Erickson said.
“People with biplanes started landing there and it gradually became an airport,” she said. “In 1947 the Navy deeded the airport to the city.”
The Hollister Airmen’s Association was formed in 1946, she said. The organization’s goals were recreation, public education and to be part of the government transportation system.
The Association serves the same purpose today, she said.
“We’ve had a great relationship really with all the tenants, because you work as a team,” Erickson said.
Stakeholders need to, Persich said.
Space at the airport was well designed for use by the Navy, but there is not enough ramp space for more jet traffic, he said. Ramp space is like a parking lot for airplanes.
There is barely enough ramp space for current users, Persich said.
“On a weekend, the ramp gets kind of tied up,” he said.
Gere, the airport manager, would like to see more jets at the airport. The problem stems from where he wants those jets to go.
ABVision, a company based in Saratoga, wants to lease a 20-acre parcel at the airport to build a jet center, according to Andrew Barnes, chief executive officer of ABVision.
Developers would build 16 hangars for large jets and conduct an aircraft-related business from the airport, according to the proposal. The jet center would create 150 jobs and generate more than $250 million for the local economy in its first five years, Barnes said.
Gere agrees that the jet center is an opportunity to create jobs and revenue in Hollister.
“Aren’t we the city that’s almost broke?” Gere said. “Aren’t we the city that desperately needs jobs?. We have an opportunity to do a really good thing for Hollister.”
Staff from CALFire, formerly known as California Department of Forestry, wants to lease the same plot of land for a new air attack base for fighting fire.
Their base is more than 40 years old, said Reno DiTullio, division chief of the San Benito-Monterey Unit of CALFire. It is out-of-date and dilapidated, he said.
Various representatives from CALFire have been negotiating a lease for the parcel with Hollister officials off and on for 10 years, DiTullio said.
“The CDF must be allowed to exist here in an optimal location,” Gere said. “That doesn’t mean they should just be given whatever they want.”
Some airport users disagree.
“We have an airport manager that doesn’t think CALFire is worthy of the land they want,” Gabe said.
Deane Judd, who owns an airplane at the Hollister airport, has a slightly different interpretation.
“What bothers me is that everyone is ignoring the Master Plan,” he said.
The Airport Master Plan was adopted by the Hollister City Council in 2004. Prepared by Coffman Associates Airport Consultants, it details a preferred plan for how the airport should be developed.
The Master Plan depicts CALFire in the plot of land they are still negotiating with the city for. It also depicts all business aviation in another section of the airport.
When officials discuss developing the airport, “nobody thinks, ‘what does it mean to the airport users?'” Judd said. “That’s what the Master Plan was supposed to address.”
Other members of the aviation community also feel they have been unfairly treated by Gere.
Quest Richlife teaches people how to fly gliders. He owns and operates the Hollister Gliding Club, a gliding business, out of the airport.
He bought the business two years ago.
“Glider riding is very social, and we had a great location,” Richlife said.
The old owner had a month-to-month lease, he said. That lease was terminated after Richlife bought the business.
“When we moved, we actually had nowhere to go,” Richlife said.
He operated the business out of two gray storage containers that had no bathroom, light or electricity, he said. They hooked a car battery up to an inverter so that they could power a laptop, Richlife said.
“We feel like we’re being pushed off the airport,” Richlife said. “If I was dealing with a professional person who can sit down and talk to us, that would be fine.”
Richlife does not feel like he can sit down with the airport manager and have a conversation. Gliders have slightly different needs from other aviation users, Richlife said.
He wants, “an attractive, socially inviting location that’s away from taxiing aircraft and spinning propellers.”
At a contentious city council meeting Dec. 17, Brad Pike, a city council member, spoke at some length in support of Gere’s vision of the airport as a recreational and business center re-igniting Hollister’s economy.
“What Brad said last night is right on,” Gere said. “There’s more than enough space out there to accommodate everybody. We all need to give a little and do what is best for Hollister.”
