Community

Softball teams from Gilroy and Christopher high schools came together with members of the community for the annual Sarah Villar Memorial Game on May 8.  The event honors and memorializes Villar, a former Gilroy softball pitcher and graduate who was killed by a drunk driver...

It is heartbreaking to see so many San Benito County families suffering from the floods that recently wreaked havoc on the northern part of this community, near Lovers Lane and close to where San Felipe Road meets Shore Road.

A bicyclist was killed July 18 when a tree branch fell on her in Gilroy, the California Highway Patrol said.  The 65-year-old woman was traveling southbound on Roop Road north of Leavesley Road at an unknown speed when a large tree branch broke off and...

Every year,  lawmakers in Sacramento introduce a flurry of bills, most of which are eviscerated during the legislative process and end up on the Assembly or Senate trash heap. A select few make it to the governor’s desk, and assuming they dodge the veto...

While 2023 was an eventful year for San Benito County, I am particularly excited about three endeavors coming in 2024 that will undoubtedly improve the quality of life in our community.  Those efforts include the county hitting its stride with $28 million in unincorporated road...

Downtown business leaders and city officials have a good plan in place to narrow main street from four lanes to two lanes, but the timing of construction work is not ideal.

No matter where supervisors end up locating a permanent homeless shelter in San Benito County, it is clear that government officials initially pushed through the consideration with little interest in getting input from residents near the previously chosen Southside Road location.

Hollister’s baseball program captured the school’s first Central Coast Section championship in late May. The Balers won the CCS Division II title with a 3-0 victory over Wilcox, paced by pitcher Trent Roach’s seven-inning complete-game two-hit shutout and Jake Esparza’s two-RBI third-inning double. When Hollister...

All too often in San Benito County, local government leaders have tried to push property or parcel taxes to fund initiatives or deficits caused by irresponsible budgeting. An example was the Hollister School District’s failed 2011 attempt to pass a $96 parcel tax at the depths of its financial problems, with the special election costing local taxpayers close to $150,000.

Re: Hospital proceeds with negotiations, Free Lance, April 18, 2025 Instead of the Easter Bunny, we get the Big Bad Wolf and he is trying to blow the house down.  The Easter basket from the San Benito County Health Care District over-flowed with attractive colors,...