Opinion

I joined the Hazel Hawkins team 26 years ago as a per diem nurse in the ED. I wanted to join a team that was small enough to be a family and help grow services in Hollister where my husband and I were raising...

Concerning our beloved hospital, the feeling is like the wager in the movie “Around the World in 80 Days.” Do we bet the difficult task of restructuring with a business plan and do we bet that it can be done in 80 days? This...

As a resident of San Benito County and the City of Hollister for 36 years, and as an elected Board Member of the San Benito Healthcare District, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past two years and shed light on...

As someone who was born and raised in Hollister, whose mom was a nurse at the original hospital when it was downtown, I feel a special connection to this community—like so many of you. I was born at Hazel Hawkins, and today, as interim...

The best chance for Hazel Hawkins Hospital to survive this fiscal crisis is for district leadership to embrace outside professional guidance—an objective third-party consultant—to develop a business plan in order to stabilize a deep structural deficit while pursuing an acquisition partner.  In my role as...

I am entering my 37th year as a resident of San Benito County, which by many metrics is a long time, but by local standards I am just a “whippersnapper.” Many families can trace their heritage back seven or eight generations—having received land in...

When a fiscal crisis hits our beloved hospital like a tornado we seem to become like Dorothy searching for a wizard to save it. Let’s follow the yellow brick road to Oz to learn with Dorothy and her companions about the wizard, who is...

San Benito County took a step forward Jan. 17 when the Board of Supervisors approved an updated Affordable Housing Ordinance, but that step forward should be even bolder.  Supervisors unanimously approved an update to the ordinance after months of meetings in 2022 by the Housing...

As we worry through another year of possible drought, we are blessed with an atmospheric river of storms. Yet another dam proposed by Dan Walters of CalMatters.org will not fit the situation. Building a dam is not the only means to solve this problem...

As a longtime Hollister resident I try as much as possible to buy local and deal with local businesses. I have tried to give almost every store, gas station, restaurant, retail business and trade business a shot in my 37 years in Hollister, and...