Hollister’s Own Form of Road Rage
Although some people call the Red Phone with polite suggestions or mild-mannered complaints, one caller this week called in mad. And her fury was directed at the city’s public works employees who, as far as she’s concerned, fail to do anything about the “embarrassing” condition of the streets in downtown Hollister.
“Downtown Hollister is one of the worst places for street un-repair, it’s so embarrassing,” she said. “It looks trashy, is trashy and is getting worse.”
The streets she says have not been repaired in far too long are portions of West, South, Washington and Fifth streets – and she was only getting started, believe us.
And unfortunately, many of our callers ring the Red Phone with complaints of shoddy streets – grumbling about potholes, cracks, ruts and all other sorts of other damages – which is why we keep the Public Works Department’s phone number on speed dial and know most of the employees over there by name.
And say what you will about the city’s streets, the folks at Public Works are first-rate, always willing to do whatever it takes to get a Red Phone caller’s question answered, and hopefully a solution to their problem.
And if money grew on the lovely Crepe Myrtle trees planted in downtown Hollister, the guys and gals at the Public Works Department would spend every waking hour repairing the streets that are in dire need of work… unfortunately the green you see on those trees are leaves, not dollar bills, and streets get repaired when the funding is available, according to engineer manager Steve Wittry.
Hollister has an ongoing program to repair the city’s streets – we’re currently in year three of a five-year phase. The city recently spent $6 million of Redevelopment Agency funds to pave a host of city streets, and a number of roads are slated for repaving this summer. Whether the downtown streets our embarrassed caller complained about are scheduled for repairs will be left to the head honchos at the Public Works Department who decide which streets get repaired this summer and which ones have to wait. However, Steve told us that a portion of South Street near the cannery was slated for repairs, however construction was held off because a pipeline project is, you guessed it, coming down the pipe and the road will be paved after the pipeline is installed. That should be coming up in about 12 to 15 months.
And while we try to be as helpful as possible to the street-savvy callers who solicit our aid, there’s only so much we can do when dollars, or a lack there of, are at stake. Our advice? Keep calling the Red Phone about your street repair woes, and we’ll keep calling the folks at public works, and hopefully the streets in question will be put on the city’s priority list come this summer.
A pothole make you spill your coffee all over the new pants? Where’s it at? Call the Red Phone at 635-9219, let us know, and we’ll see if we can do something about it. There’s nothing worse than walking into work covered in coffee.
