Politics

Richard Place: “I would like to see another motorcycle rally happen here. The biggest problem, of course, is being able to handle the law enforcement for the event. I don’t believe we need the over enforcement that we had during the last few events but with both our departments short handed from budget cuts, it would certainly be a problem just to plan and run the event. If we can go back to the old plan of putting all the bikes on San Benito Street and the vendors on the side street it would be more appealing to the public and better for crowd control. Maybe we can sell the old tee shirts to pay for the extra officers.”

The largest public utility company in the nation is now a partner in the Panoche Valley solar project as part of a move that should add construction clout for the venture expected to break ground sometime in 2014.

San Benito County supervisors reduced the car allowance for appointed department heads from $500 to $350 at last week’s board of supervisors' meeting, while there were concerns from one department head that there should be some exemptions to the allowance.

The San Benito County Parks and Recreation commissioners received word this week that they will receive a grant from the Health Trust. The Health Trust awarded the county $61,500 for the first phase of looking into creating a special district that would support parks and recreation in the county.

An effort to have Pinnacles National Monument reclassified as a national park received a boost Thursday when a key committee OK’d the legislation and sent it to the House of Representatives, according to a statement from The Wilderness Society.

The San Benito County Elections Office has released the final slate of local items on the November ballot.

San Juan Bautista’s City Council had given approval to the 2012-13 budget, but will have to go back and re-approve it because officials needed to add an unfunded $382,000 item to the capital improvements list for a future water softener plant.

Louise Ledesma: “No, public safety workers probably should be able to retire earlier than other government workers because of physical requirements necessary for their jobs. I don't think anyone should be able to collect more money when they are retired than when they were working. At 3% for each year worked, a person would only have to 34 years. Actually less because retirement plans usually give COLAs."

Gang Prevention Coordinator Al De Vos recently gave a presentation to the Hollister City Council about an application for a Promise Neighborhood planning grant due by the end of July. It would encompass work to the west side of Hollister, including the neighborhoods surrounding Calaveras and R.O. Hardin schools. It would provide $500,000 for planning and then open up the county for additional implementation funding of up to $20 million from future grants.