With the news of the Hollister City Council’s recent approval of
more than $1 million in budget cuts comes the hope that the worst
has passed and that our fair city will not have to resort to even
more drastic measures, like selling our naming rights.
With the news of the Hollister City Council’s recent approval of more than $1 million in budget cuts comes the hope that the worst has passed and that our fair city will not have to resort to even more drastic measures, like selling our naming rights.
“R.J. Reynoldsville.”
“Harleytown.”
“Ozeki Sakeburg.”
Who knows what we’ll have to do if this budget mess can’t be solved.
Let’s hope we can afford to keep our name, at least. Nothing beats good old Hollister, named for a colonel who owned a bunch of land here in the 19th century.
Recent stories have offered highlights of the city’s deficit reduction plan, from eliminating full-time staff positions and the periodic closure of City Hall to limitations on the availability of fire department truck companies.
A Jan. 12 memo from City Manager Clint Quilter to the City Council paints a more specific, grim picture:
In addition to no longer filling potholes less than three inches deep, suggested service reductions include no longer performing weed abatement, alley maintenance or downtown cleanup. Park restrooms will be closed, grass at parks will no longer be fertilized or watered as much as it is now, sound wall maintenance will be halted except for cases where landscape and lighting districts fund the work, and median landscape maintenance will cease.
Ah, but there’s more:
The memo discussed having the police department make no response to hit-and-run accidents that have no suspects, or to theft or vandalism incidents with no suspects. They wouldn’t handle traffic collisions in which there are no injuries, vacation or security checks of homes or businesses would be eliminated, and reports of an uncontrollable juvenile would not be handled. Add to that the suggested elimination of SWAT training and equipment and the Juvenile Impact Program and we’ve got ourselves a true Wild West town, where tumbleweeds grow in the unfilled sidewalk cracks and residents need to chase down criminals by themselves.
Adult and youth recreation programs, which go a long way to helping at-risk youth find an outlet for their energy, face a one-third increase in fees, though a department memo warns, “If fees are increased too high, participation will decrease, resulting in less revenue generated.”
There is not a whole lot of positive news to take out of the city’s outlook. Many locals are saying that since the city got itself into this mess, it needs to get itself out. Others say resorting to a sales tax increase to help the general fund would be, as my grandma would say, “like pouring water down a rat hole.”
Others say that regardless of how we got into this mess, we are in it and we have to work as a community to get out of it.
At Tuesday night’s meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission, of which I am a member, Community Services Director Clay Lee said “anything the community can do is going to be helpful.”
Because of the cutbacks in staffing and hours, volunteers could aid the Recreation Department, for example, by sorting information packets that will be mailed to youth sports participants, he suggested. Businesses could sponsor programs to help offset costs. Commissioner Bruce Lewis even offered to drag the city’s youth baseball fields around town to help pick up the slack.
Clay Lee is an honest and hardworking guy who argued successfully – for now at least – against the complete elimination of the city’s recreation offerings. At this week’s meeting he wasn’t putting on a show or giving a political speech (there was just one audience member, not counting my 10-year-old son) when he said “it gets worse after November” if the previously-attempted 1 percent sales tax measure makes it on the ballot again and is defeated.
Call it scare tactics, or call it grandstanding, but the service cuts are coming. We can all sit back and say “I told you so” to city leaders as Hollister falls into disrepair or we can figure out how to fix this mess.
Maybe hitting rock bottom – complete with rampant lawlessness, overgrown vegetation and cancelled recreation programs – will shock us to action. Let’s hope we have the foresight to steer clear of the proverbial potholes on the weed-choked road ahead.
Adam Breen teaches journalism and yearbook at San Benito High School. He is former editor of The Free Lance.
