Whether CDF stays or goes will be up to the Hollister City
Council
The City Council will soon become a key player in whether the
CDF will keep an air base in Hollister or move elsewhere.
Whether CDF stays or goes will be up to the Hollister City Council
The City Council will soon become a key player in whether the CDF will keep an air base in Hollister or move elsewhere.
Established in the 1960’s, the Hollister Air Attack Base covers the region from Alameda to Merced to Carmel Valley to Santa Cruz. The CDF pays $15,600 yearly for more than an acre of space, and while the lease is up next April, fire officials say city foot-dragging is forcing them to look elsewhere for space.
CDF officials want to build a new 10-acre base at the Hollister airport to attack regional wild land fires, but they say the city’s $92,000 a year asking price set by Deputy Public Works Director Lawrence Jackson is too much.
Councilwoman Pauline Valdivia said she did not understand why Jackson quoted CDF a price for the land without council input.
“I don’t think that’s his responsibility to raise the rents,” she said. “I think that’s an issue that has to come to council before that happens. We need to keep those folks here. In terms of the rent, I would have to follow up on that, because I don’t want to give you misinformation on terms of what the figure would be.”
Jackson said the council would be the ultimate decision maker and the issue would likely come before them within the next two weeks.
“They’re going to set the parameters,” he said. “My function will be to execute the wishes of the city council.”
After initially saying he was not familiar with the issue, Councilman Tony Bruscia did some research and said the city is not necessarily the bad guy.
“CDF is a good thing for the community, particularly the surrounding communities,” he said. “Now, what is the appropriate cost?”
Councilman Brian Conroy, who is also the council’s liaison to the Airport Advisory commission, said he intends to meet with CDF officials within the next two weeks to become more familiar with the details.
“I think that CDF offers a community service,” he said. “I’d like to see them stay and hopefully we will approach negotiations in that manner.”
Robert Scattini, a member of the airport commission, wonders why his board was not apprised of the situation. Scattini, also a council candidate in District 2, agrees with CDF. He likened the city’s bargaining approach to chasing the police out of Hollister.
Scattini said he has since talked with CDF officials and learned they would be building the new base without any financial help from the city and would make the old base available for a city fire station.
“I can tell you this much: None of that information has been brought before the airport commission,” he said. “If anything, we should break our backs to keep them here. It’s ludicrous that we wouldn’t work with these folks to keep them here.”
Scattini said in theory it would be good to charge a business top dollar to use the land, but when lives and property are involved, the money issue becomes less important.
The new base would be designed with faster fuel and retardant pumps, and would include an extra loading pad. The new site would also have a generator – something lacking from the existing base. It would also increase the efficiency of firefighting operations by about 10 percent, according to the CDF
The threat of a pullout has concerned neighboring communities that also benefit from having a CDF air attack base in the region, though Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy does understand Hollister’s concerns over budgeting.
“It’s not surprising that Hollister is balking,” he said. “On the other hand, we need to have an air base facility in the region. There needs to be some sort of meeting of the minds.”
Meanwhile, a CDF firefighter reported to Chief Reno DiTullio that said he saw Jackson poking around the air base without signing in at the main office. Jackson’s conduct last week was taken very seriously, because of the heightened concerns after 911, DiTullio said.
“Our guy had to ask him to leave a couple of times,” DiTullio said. “He was out looking around.”
Jackson said the CDF was mistaken and that he was on city property at the time of the incident. DiTullio said that part of the reason for considering a move is that in the past Jackson would not even return CDF’s phone calls. DiTullio said state officials plan to meet Friday in Sacramento to determine how much money the state could really afford to spend for a lease.
“We’re meeting with them tomorrow to discuss the next step,” DiTullio said.
