Hollister
– The old Fourth Street water main has broken again, and
resident Steve Caro isn’t happy about it.
Hollister – The old Fourth Street water main has broken again, and resident Steve Caro isn’t happy about it.
“It’s a pain in the butt,” he said.
After each breakage, the city closes portions of the street, forcing Caro and other drivers to find new routes through the city’s smaller roads. The breaks can also interrupt water service to Caro’s house, forcing him to travel to homes of friends and family to shower.
The water main broke again Sunday. Clay Lee, the city’s community services director, said the most recent break is the fourth in 2007. All of the breaks occur along an old, stainless-steel water main that runs from San Benito Street to Line Street, he said.
“(The pipe’s) been in the ground for decades,” Lee said.
During the most recent break, several Fourth Street blocks lost water service from Sunday afternoon until Monday morning, Lee said. Fourth Street remained closed Monday between College and Line streets, but Lee said it should reopen this afternoon.
The closures affect the entire town, Caro said, because Fourth Street is a major thoroughfare. He said the city needs to just replace the main rather than repairing each break and waiting for something to go wrong again.
“I don’t know where the tax money’s going,” Caro said.
Lee has been surprised by the frequent breaks, he said, and the city may soon decide to follow Caro’s suggestion.
“We can only patch stuff so many times before it becomes cost-inefficient,” Lee said.
After each break, the city has to pay workers overtime, hire someone to cut through the asphalt and supply all the needed materials, he noted.
“It takes all the resources in the utility division for three or four days at a time,” Lee said.
Lee is investigating how much each repair has cost and comparing those costs to the expense of replacing the entire main. One thing is certain: Replacing it would be time-intensive and costly.
“It would be significant, especially for the City of Hollister at this time,” he said.
Not everyone is complaining about the closures. Adam Bocanegra, assistant manager of True Value Hardware on San Juan Road, said the closures actually have brought new people to the store.
“We hear it from our customers,” Bocanegra said. “They don’t want to cut across the backroads to go across town (to Ace Hardware). … Some people said they didn’t even know we were open here.”
At the same time, Bocanegra also noticed that some of True Value’s regulars haven’t been showing up.
“With some regulars blocked off and some new people showing up, it’s probably about even,” he said.
