The following events, organizations and people deserve either a
Thumbs Up or a Thumbs Down this week:
THUMBS UP: Although traffic has increased on Highway 25 between Hollister and the Highway 101 interchange over the past five years, motorists are a whole lot safer today on this 12-mile stretch of road than they were just five years ago. According to the California Highway Patrol, the number of crashes on Highway 25 has dropped from 84 in 2001 to 46 so far this year. The number of crashes resulting in injury is down from 36 in 2001 – when five crashes resulted in fatalities – to 14 this year. There hasn’t been a fatality on the highway since 2002. What has happened? The highway got a safety makeover in 2002, with a widened median including rumble strips and double-yellow lines designating the entire stretch of highway a no-passing zone, and the CHP has beefed up its traffic patrols and emphasized education of drivers.
THUMBS DOWN: Vandals put a Meals on Wheels delivery truck out of commission just a couple of days before Christmas. The damages truck was one of four used by Meals on Wheels to deliver hot meals to senior citizens and other homebound county residents. “It’s demoralizing, especially this time of year,” said Pauline Valdivia, executive director of Jovenes de Antaño, the senior center that runs the local Meals on Wheels program. “We’re supposed to be helping each other.” Valdivia noted that the buses the senior center uses to take the elderly on outings have also been vandalized recently.
THUMBS UP: San Benito County is enjoying some of its lowest monthly unemployment rates in more than a decade. According to California’s Employment Development Department, the county’s jobless rate of 5.7 percent last month was the second lowest for the month of November in the last 16 years. A year ago, the local unemployment rate was 6.7 percent. Since November of 2005, the county’s labor force has grown by about 100 people to 24,900 workers, and the county has 300 more jobs than it did a year ago. Al Martinez, executive director of the Hollister-based Economic Development Corporation, said the low rates are due in part to a reemerging Silicon Valley economy and strong national and statewide economies, and some local companies that are doing very well.
THUMBS DOWN: A loss of grant funding has all but gutted San Benito County’s transitional housing program. The program has not only provided homeless local families with temporary housing, but it has also provided job training and other help to get those families back on their feet. The program still has three mobile homes it will make available to homeless families, but that’s down from 12. And the training programs are history.
THUMBS UP: Nearly 350 people turned out on Christmas Day to enjoy a traditional holiday meal with all the trimmings. The dinner was put on by friends of the late Marley Holte, who with his wife had put on big community feasts each Thanksgiving and Christmas for more than a decade. About two-thirds of the people who enjoyed this year’s Christmas dinner were children – who also got a visit (and gifts) from Santa Claus. It’s wonderful to see people come together to keep such a great local tradition alive.
