The following events, organizations and people deserve either a
Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down this week.
The following events, organizations and people deserve either a Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down this week.
THUMBS UP: For the City of San Juan Bautista which is now is open to sitting down with the San Benito County Water District to work on the terms of a $3.8 million grant to repair the city’s dilapidated water system. After weeks of tension between the two agencies, even something small like agreeing to meet is welcome progress. Now, we’d like to see the two boards go into the meeting prepared to hash out a deal that will make this important project fly. The grant is suspended and could be lost if the two entities don’t figure out a way to co-administer the grant. Our leaders have an obligation to end this standoff and make sure San Juan residents have a safe and reliable water delivery system. The sooner this gets resolved the better.
THUMBS UP: For San Benito County residents who opened their hearts and their wallets to help those ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The local Red Cross Chapter says it has already collected more than $40,000 for relief efforts. And all across the county you can see weekend carwashes to benefit the victims, cans to collect donations, students working on benefits and businesses giving a portion of their sales to help. In addition, several locals have gone to the South to give hands-on help. The generosity and caring of the people of our county is truly something to be proud of.
THUMBS UP: For the Hollister City Council, which approved creating an economic development manager position this week and gave City Manager Clint Quilter the go-ahead to start recruiting for the job. Hiring an economic development manager is a key component to creating a plan to attract jobs and commerce to our city. It is gratifying to see the city making progress on such an important issue. Boosting our local economy not only will improve the quality of life for our residents by providing more local opportunities for employment, but it will help expand our tax base so the city can deliver the services we expect like good roads, well-maintained parks and adequate police and fire protection.
THUMBS UP: For the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, which plans to plow ahead with building the Don Pacheco Y flyover that will relieve one of the worst traffic headaches in our area. San Benito County Supervisors are quibbling with the VTA over which flyover design is most appropriate because they worry that Santa Clara’s plan will dump too much traffic on local roads. The truth is, once drivers no longer have to make the suicide left turn from Highway 152 onto Highway 156, there will be more traffic on our roads. Right now the only deterrent to coming into San Benito County is that you have to take your life into your hands to do so. Any flyover will solve that issue. So, the VTA is right to seek Caltrans blessing on their design and move forward with the $33 million project and not risk losing the money to build the fix that has taken years to secure.
