Talk less, drive more
Driving along the streets of Hollister and observing other
drivers, it would seem that the new cell phone law does not apply
to our city. I have heard the comment,
”
the fine for violating the new law is only $20, so what’s the
big deal?
”
Technically, the fine is only $20 for the first offense, but
there is more that every driver should know.
According to
”
Mr. Roadshow
”
at the San Jose Mercury News the following items of expense will
also be added to your citation.
· State penalty: $20
· State courthouse security fee: $20
· County penalty: $14
· County prior search fee: $10
· State court construction fund: $7
· State criminal penalty surcharge: $4
· Proposition 69 (DNA sampling): $2
TOTAL COST: $97
Mr. Roadshow states that these figures apply to Santa Clara
County and
”
fees will vary slightly from county to county.
”
All of a sudden the violation becomes a big deal for many of us.
Just think, if you obey the new law, and save yourself $97, you can
now take the money that you don’t have to pay for the citation, and
instead buy yourself a tank of gas. Happy driving!
Bill Miller
Hollister
Don’t pave San Juan Valley
Cal Trans seems to have an abundance of money to spend in our district but not enough money to start and complete the future tie-in of Hwy. 101 and Hwy. 152 across the Bolsa in San Benito and part of Santa Clara County.
Maybe we should loan our money to Santa Clara County.
Many San Juan Bautista residents do not think it necessary to build a new four-lane Hwy. 156 for 5.2 miles, taking away approximately 286 acres of prime Class 1 soil. Our valley has become popular with organic fields of lettuces and vegetables
Thus the question:
Does the building of a new four-lane highway mean it will be a safer highway for trucks and autos to travel side by side?
Cal Trans has proposed to add a new four-lane highway, 5 feet above the valley floor, to aid in the traffic flow between the Alameda and Union Road – approximately 5.2 miles
The question raised by many San Benito County residents is, “why can’t the existing two-lane Hwy. 156 be improved upon?”
The loaded eastbound trucks should remain on Hwy. 101 north and then connect with Hwys. 156 and 152 as a future plan indicates.
Local residents have been impacted over the years by the increase in jake brake noise as trucks stop at the traffic light at the Alameda. Emissions from the trucks are a concern at the local grammar school and were documented by a seventh-grader’s science project as being 10 times worse at the intersection and school then at the other end of town – 1 mile away.
The trucks currently have three signals to either stop at or slow down to in less than 6 miles. The new proposal may add a fourth signal which again adds to the trucks slowing, shifting gears, getting into the one lane which will take them across the San Benito River. Then they continue their trek east on Hwy. 156 (two lanes) until they join Hwy. 152 (four lanes), traveling approximately 15 miles on a two-lane highway.
We are a unique, beautiful, tranquil, valley and village with a much slower pace of life that is appreciated by the locals and tourists.
Please don’t rush in and out of our county, pollute our clean air, impact the Mission and Church with more traffic noise, endanger the school children and pedestrians who want to cross the highway. at the Alameda, asphalt over our Class 1 soil and build sound walls which hamper the views of our farming fields and hills.
Patricia Riley,
for San Juan Neighbors
Have your fun close to home
If you haven’t heard, the Broken Wing closed Aug. 16. Although I wasn’t a “regular” I have been there quite a few times and the closing makes me very sad. The owners, Larry and Julia, worked hard to renovate that space (remember it was under construction forever before they opened?) and to make it an establishment with class. The Broken Wing was a great spot for a little nightlife featuring different bands and dancing along with pool and darts and great service.
We had a business mixer at the Broken Wing this past spring. Julia was talking to a few of us as things were winding down and the ladies who I was with told Julia that their kids liked coming to the Broken Wing. Of course Julia knew their kids and reported that they were good boys! When I remarked that it was great that she knew her patrons, she said she treats the younger set like they are her own kids. She even told us that she kept an eye on how much they were drinking and made sure they had designated drivers. If they didn’t have a designated driver, she was known to make them stay there while she finished cleaning up and then she drove them home! Now that is hometown service!
A lot of people complain about our little town – we need an Applebee’s or we need nightlife, etc., etc. I think we need to step back and appreciate what we have here. Would an Applebee’s bartender care enough about how much your son has had to drink and then drive him home? Small businesses do not have the benefit of a corporate cushion when times are bad. If we don’t support them, they will not be here for us. In the last year we have lost DiMaggio’s, The Vault, and now the Broken Wing. When you want a night out, please try a local restaurant before heading to Gilroy. You’ll save gas, keep our tax dollars in Hollister, and support a local family.
Rochelle Fischer
Hollister
Nothing excuses rudeness
This letter goes out to Hazel Hawkins Hospital. I’ve been taking my wife for some needed therapy that takes about one hour each time. That gives me time to observe the progress around the hospital. I see that they are spending tons of cement and money. I hope all plans will be successful for the future.
With so much going on I feel more parking has disappeared, when we went to the voters to find an ample piece of land with all the room needed and build a new hospital for convenience and to last. The way they are doing it will always be patching.
I have been spending this hour walking up to the hospital kitchen and then I come out, sit in the entrance room where people are waiting to be called where there is a good television. The other day I sat there with half a dozen people. The television was on with no sound and Oprah was on. I turned it up a little without any complaints from others. Suddenly coming out of nowhere this person I believe might have been a volunteer, kind of upset that we have the television too loud. I thought he was going to lower it a little but to all our surprise he shut it off leaving all of us with our mouths open, wondering why he was so rude. I questioned what the television was there for. He answered me that if I didn’t like it to go someplace else.
I felt he hurt our feelings and I told him I had been around almost 50 years and in all this time we have paid many thousands of dollars in taxes to support this hospital. That does not give me or anybody else the right to change the rules. The hospital needs these volunteers but I feel they didn’t give them or anyone else working there the power to be rude to people. This is our hospital that I have all the respect for. Great people work here but it only takes some bad apple to make the other ones look bad. I am not writing to stand up for me. I am 80 years old. I don’t need people to baby sit me. I am standing up for the hurt faces I saw when that happened. This is only my opinion.
Amadeu M. Lima
Hollister
What’s community without values?
I fully understand our current real estate problems can be directly linked to greed (by everyone involved) that has now unbalanced supply and demand and therefore lowered just about everyone’s property values. What I can’t understand is why property owners in established neighborhoods should also suffer the loss in the pride of ownership? It used to be easy to tell an owner’s yard from a renter’s yard but these days it’s getting pretty blurry.
Cars parked on sidewalks and front lawns, landscaping nightmares, abandoned cars, reckless driving, yards full of what can only be described as garbage, neglected dogs that bark at all hours and owners who justify allowing their dogs to leave piles on their neighbors’ front lawns or sidewalks while others scoop the mess and toss it onto the side walk or street. My guess is all this must be illegal in one way or another, but have any of you tried to get a positive response from any city agency including animal control, City Hall or the Hollister Police ( although this should be addressed in a separate letter once I figure out just what these groups really do for the community. All I have discovered so far is what they don’t do.)?
Times are hard and getting harder, but do we really want to become a city of blight? (Look it up.) Don’t give in to despairing times. Take pride in your neighborhoods. It’s the only way to keep a bad situation from getting out of control. If you see problems you should insist our public officials make this a priority and law enforcement agencies enforce the laws and regulations they are hired to uphold. After all, what is a community without values?
Timothy King
Hollister
Talk less, drive more
Driving along the streets of Hollister and observing other drivers, it would seem that the new cell phone law does not apply to our city. I have heard the comment, “the fine for violating the new law is only $20, so what’s the big deal?”
Technically, the fine is only $20 for the first offense, but there is more that every driver should know.
According to “Mr. Roadshow” at the San Jose Mercury News the following items of expense will also be added to your citation.
· State penalty: $20
· State courthouse security fee: $20
· County penalty: $14
· County prior search fee: $10
· State court construction fund: $7
· State criminal penalty surcharge: $4
· Proposition 69 (DNA sampling): $2
TOTAL COST: $97
Mr. Roadshow states that these figures apply to Santa Clara County and “fees will vary slightly from county to county.”
All of a sudden the violation becomes a big deal for many of us. Just think, if you obey the new law, and save yourself $97, you can now take the money that you don’t have to pay for the citation, and instead buy yourself a tank of gas. Happy driving!
Bill Miller
Hollister
Freedom comes at a price
I remember where I was and what I did when the atomic bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945. It was the correct decision then and nothing has changed in the last 63 years to alter that decision. It eliminated the need to invade Japan and the estimated 1 million U.S. casualties that would have resulted. Keep in mind that there were between 5 and 10 Japanese causalities per U.S. casualty on Okinawa. The toll on the Japanese would have been unimaginable.
Wikipedia reported an estimated 80,000 died at Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and 40,000 died at Nagasaki on Aug. 9. By comparison, the Tokyo Fire Department gave a low-ball estimate of 97,000 killed during the firebombing of that city on March 9-10, 1945.
The Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) strategy during the Cold War prevented the use of atomic weapons. Neither side wanted to die. That is not the case with our current adversaries in the War on Terror. We had best hope they do not get the bomb.
The Hollister-in-Black peace group has good intentions, although somewhat misguided. My answer to Patrick Henry’s question asked at Christ Church in Richmond, Va., on March 23, 1775, “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?” would probably be different than theirs.
Marvin L. Jones
Hollister
A misguided protest
Every Aug. 6 brings protests against the 1945 atomic bombing of Japan, but the protesters are misguided. Seventy million people died as the result of World War II and the primary causes were not bombs – they were totalitarianism, oppression and radicalism. All of them still exist today; wouldn’t it make more sense to protest the real causes of human misery?
Instead of protesting, they should celebrate Japan’s formal surrender on Sept. 2. After all, that ended the war, thus avoiding millions of additional casualties on both sides. America was the only nuclear power on earth for four years, but we enslaved no one; meanwhile, the Soviet Union turned Eastern Europe into a totalitarian police state.
The protesters’ adopted slogan, “never again” is closely associated with the Holocaust. Six million Jews were murdered with bullets, gas, starvation and disease, not atomic bombs. The Japanese Empire used similar tactics against those they considered inferior.
The Japanese imprisoned J.E. Hendricks in March 1942. He was worked nearly to death as a slave laborer in Japan for three years. After liberation, he was treated and moved to the Netherlands where he died only three days after finally arriving in January 1946. The atomic bombs gave him a few months of medical care, freedom and life; J.E. Hendricks was my father-in-law.
Perhaps someday the pacifists will get around to protesting the real causes of human misery and mega-death – totalitarianism, oppression and radicalism – it might do some good.
Marty Richman
Hollister
McCain shows his stuff
If anyone has any doubt who should be our next president after watching the Rick Warren interview at the Saddleback Church I would be surprised. After watching Barack Obama stumble with almost every question and John McCain answering every question with confidence and looking like a president, unlike Obama who was at a loss without his teleprompter, it was no contest!
Watching these Obama events, I wonder if, indeed, youth is wasted on the young, and seeing older people in attendance I also come to understand that age does not always bring wisdom.
John Lemos
Hollister
Corporate victory in Iraq
A Bush, McCain victory in Iraq is close at hand. In July 2007 America borrowed $12 billion to allow KBR, Blackwater and Halliburton to profit from their “No Bid” contracts and add 87 dead and 348 wounded in support of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. None of the deaths were by electrocution from KBR showers. In July 2008 America borrowed $12 billion to allow KBR, Blackwater and Halliburton to profit from their “No Bid” contracts and add 15 dead and 63 wounded in support of “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” We now have Mobil, Exxon, Shell and BP with “No Bid” contracts in Iraq. Who can deny that victory is right around the corner?
Frank Crosby
Morgan Hill
Voters need to read this
I would recommend everyone, Democrats, Republicans, others, read Jerome Corsi’s book, “The Obama Nation,” before the November election.
Reba M. Jones
Hollister
Remembering the horror
Saturday evening (Aug. 9) on San Benito Street a candlelight vigil was held to honor the 220,000 people who died almost instantaneously from the dropping of an atom bomb and plutonium bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. This was Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945. I remember the day the bomb was dropped. I was 10 years old and when I got back from school, my father greeted me with these words, “my dear, an atom bomb was dropped today and the world will never be the same.”
Mr. Yamamoto who attended the vigil was not yet born when the bombs were dropped, but the memories and consequences of those days are remembered each year in his native Japan and he has visited the memorial in Hiroshima which is the most famous anti-war memorial in the world.
It was interesting to note that two young recent college graduates, Caley and Doug, were there. They had heard of the dropping of the atom bomb, but had no knowledge of the details, such as whet, why or where it happened. It was a day of learning and honoring the past for them. As the famous historian and philosopher, Santayana noted, “He who does not remember the past is doomed to repeat it.”
There was a flyer distributed at the vigil, documenting the scientists and military commanders who urged President Truman not to drop the bomb stating that it was unnecessary as Japan was going to surrender. These names included Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, Gen. Douglas MacArther, Herbert Hoover, Albert Einstein and Adm. William Leahy
Natasha Wist
Hollister
