I’m sure glad that the city of Hollister is so excited about a
new Honda PowerHouse that might be coming to Hollister. I’m a
little confused though – who is behind this support? The local
residents of Hollister or just a handful of people in the city?
Editor,
I’m sure glad that the city of Hollister is so excited about a new Honda PowerHouse that might be coming to Hollister. I’m a little confused though – who is behind this support? The local residents of Hollister or just a handful of people in the city? I can think of about 160 local league bowlers who lost their bowling alley last summer to local businessmen, whom I believe do not even live in Hollister, as far as I know. These so-called local businessmen bought the bowling alley to save it for us. So much for that! In the last year and a half they drove away more business than they have tried to bring in, which I believe enabled them to claim there wasn’t enough support from Hollister residents.
Let’s look at the benefits as stated in the Nov. 11 Free Lance: Improving Hollister’s northern gateway. If the RDA has money to loan, give the old bowling alley a facelift. But make sure the people who own it are interested in making it a success. A good bowling alley would benefit a lot of people in this community.
The paper article states Honda PowerHouse “would draw people into town and generate sales tax revenue.” Why would out-of-town people come to Hollister when they can already get the same thing in Gilroy and Salinas?
As for jobs, how many of our small already established businesses might suffer from the insurgence of new bigger businesses? We already have about 30 different family restaurants and maybe 10 machine shops all within 20 minutes of downtown Hollister. They all generate sales tax revenues now, don’t they? So much for new jobs. What about the jobs that will be lost when our smaller, already established businesses cannot compete. I know eight jobs that were lost when the bowling alley closed.
You might be wondering why I’ve waited all this time to say or do something about it. Just before the bowling alley shut down, they gave me two weeks to raise $3 million. Unfortunately, I was unable to raise that kind of money. I bet you $3 million they would not have sold it to me.
If anyone else feels the same way I do, make calls or send a letter like I did. Show the city that there is plenty of support. Maybe it is not too late to save our bowling alley.
Rob Staben, Hollister
