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Hollister council members Monday will consider an idea for an employee retirement/resignation program that would pay workers lump sums – at least $25,000 if an individual has reached five years of service.

Hollister officials Monday will weigh a three-year extension to the garbage contract with Recology while helping to prepare for stricter regulations ahead pertaining to green and food-waste collection.

BIRTHS: Harper Elise Flores: Harper Elise Flores was born Aug. 24 to Rebecca Gutierrez and Chuck Flores of Hollister. She weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces.

Supervisor Anthony Botelho supports Measure J, the ballot initiative aiming to ban fracking and other enhanced extraction practices along with barring all petroleum activities in rural residential zones. He also acknowledged that given the opportunity, he would consider allowing oil exploration on his own land.

To paraphrase Hamlet, the young opossum literally suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous (mis)fortune. It was walking along the top of a fence just minding its own business, perhaps looking for an evening meal of fallen fruit or crunchy snails, when a person deliberately shot it down with an arrow. A neighbor saw the poor creature desperately struggling and notified the Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center. Staff at WERC found the arrow had pierced the top of the front leg and through the chest, narrowly missing vital organs, but leaving him extremely weak and causing severe nerve damage in the leg. X-rays showed the humerus bone was shattered. It was with very sad hearts that this little opossum was euthanized.

Reddog is a 15-year-old Australian shepherd who is available for adoption at the San Martin Animal Shelter. He is a little shy of people and dogs but very sweet and loves to hang out in the yard. For more information, call (408) 686-3900.

It’s easy to get caught up in the hectic and demanding schedules surrounding life, especially in Silicon Valley. But when life gets a little too overwhelming, Satori Cellars is there to center you.

The orange-red turkey trills and stretches her long neck up to take a look at Tres Pinos resident Paul Hain. 

Before the county board OK'd placing Measure J on the ballot, supervisors had the option of delaying the process to conduct an economic analysis but chose to bypass that choice and send the proposal to voters. Without a county economic report to precede the November ballot decision – whether to ban hydraulic fracturing, cyclic steaming and acidizing as extraction techniques along with all petroleum activities in rural residential zones near the two cities – the local farm bureau went ahead and conducted a study of its own.