The following events, organizations and people deserve a Thumbs
Up or a Thumbs Down this week.
The following events, organizations and people deserve a Thumbs Up or a Thumbs Down this week.
THUMBS UP: For City Manager Clint Quilter who gave the City Council a Feb. 6 deadline to decide whether there will be a Hollister Independence Rally this summer. The debate about the rally’s future stretches back for months and it is frustrating to see the speed that government operates at. The rally is a big project to organize, and the Fourth of July is not that far off. If the council wants to keep the rally – which we hope they do – then organizers need time to address the issues that have thrown it’s existence into doubt and make it a success. If the council doesn’t want it, then vendors need to be notified, and the word needs to be spread that there will be no event this year.
THUMBS DOWN: For the Hollister Independence Rally Committee, which appears to be headed to bankruptcy court. The beleaguered organization lost its contract to host the Rally, and now it’s leaving vendors in a lurch. Many of the vendors who sling their wares at the Rally have put down deposits for a space at this summer’s event, but now are being referred to a bankruptcy attorney when they call to ask what has happened with their money. Shabby treatment indeed. And, what happened to the money?
THUMBS UP: For Airport Manager Bill Gere, who has asked the Federal Aviation Administration for $43 million to fund a Hollister Airport expansion including purchasing new land and building new taxiways for planes. A large portion of the money would be used to buy 200 acres of land adjacent to the airport, some of which could eventually be used to build a new restaurant and hotel. Other funds would improve the runways to attract larger plans and relocate hangars. The bottom line is we need to go as far as we possibly can to make the airport an economic engine for our community, and this proposal promises to do put us on the right track. We hope the FAA agrees.
THUMBS DOWN: For the whopping PG&E price increases that are hitting Hollisterites in the pocketbook this month. Huge energy price increases rob consumers of buying power and increase debt. Conservation can help, of course, but the deregulation of the energy industry in California has allowed unbridled increases without significant review.
