The new year will be a time for preparation, local leaders said
Wednesday.
HOLLISTER
The new year will be a time for preparation, local leaders said Wednesday.
Mayor Doug Emerson and Councilwoman Monica Johnson noted that there are two major projects scheduled to open by the end of 2008 – the new wastewater treatment plant and the Highway 25 bypass.
If the treatment plant is finished on schedule, Hollister’s building moratorium would lift less than a year from now, and Emerson said the city needs to be ready.
“This should be the year we look ahead and really plan,” he said.
Emerson, recently appointed by his fellow council members to serve a one-year term as mayor, hopes to hold a retreat in the next couple of months so the council can hammer out its short-term and long-term plans.
Johnson agreed that 2008 will be a crucial year for planning. City staffers have been working hard to prepare a new zoning ordinance, she said, and council members need to complete the rules and priorities that will govern development in the coming years.
She added that over the next 12 months, residents will finally be able to see benefits of the council’s decisions over the past few years – particularly the controversial sewer rate hikes needed to fund the treatment plant.
“Hollister has struggled for the past few years and not seen any of the fruits, so to speak,” Johnson said. “I look forward to the fruits coming ripe.”
Johnson also noted that she, along with Emerson and Councilman Brad Pike, are up for reelection this year. Even if new council members take charge, the current panel has worked hard to ensure the city runs smoothly from now on, she said.
There are other big developments coming, Emerson said, including the completion of the Hollister Downtown Association’s new downtown vision plan and continuing discussions about growth at the airport.
“I don’t know what it is, but we will have something in place that will balance economic development and recreational use,” Emerson said.
Like the rest of us, Emerson and Johnson said they have personal goals, too. Emerson said that since he’s retired, he’s been making fewer New Year’s resolutions. But he does have one goal, and it’s an old chestnut – to do more jogging and “get back in physical shape.”
Johnson said her goal is a little more general.
“I just want to be as good a human being as I can be,” she said.
