Wednesday morning and your friendly neighborhood Red Phone has
been at it again
– seeking truth, defending justice, or at least doing its best
to answer calls from loyal readers. Have a question about life in
San Benito County, a comment on local news, or a concern to share
with the Crimson Crusader? Dial away! The Red Phone – always
listening, always online, always at 635-
9219.
Wednesday morning and your friendly neighborhood Red Phone has been at it again – seeking truth, defending justice, or at least doing its best to answer calls from loyal readers. Have a question about life in San Benito County, a comment on local news, or a concern to share with the Crimson Crusader? Dial away! The Red Phone – always listening, always online, always at 635-9219.
If you build it, they will sleep
Or so thinks a Red Phone caller concerned new benches downtown will have, in her opinion, unwelcome residents.
“Great new seats along the main street and Fifth Street and so on with the new redevelopment plan to beautify the city. Long seats – long enough for homeless to sleep on. I’m not sure. It seems we have a lot of single beds right there. We better watch it because we might have a lot of people sleeping on them. Anyway, just a thought.”
The benches were added last week as efforts on the downtown beautification project of the local redevelopment agency wrap up. Red Phone doubts the new benches will become homeless hang-outs, but anything is possible. Of course, if city efforts to secure the Armory at the Hollister Airport as a homeless shelter are successful, they’d be able to sleep there.
Water, water everywhere
Red Phone did some more investigation into the pool of water forming at the corner of Santa Ana Road and San Benito Street after a flood of calls over the last few months. Several callers have wondered why the pool of water is there every morning. Ray Rojas, Hollister’s street supervisor, said the city believes the water is coming from the Ranch Milk station on the corner of the two streets, but offered little detail.
“It’s a discharge from Ranch Milk,” he said. “I know they’re looking into it up in engineering. I don’t know if it’s from their equipment or what.”
Red Phone called interim Deputy Public Works Director Steve Wittry about the soggy corner and he said the engineering department is puzzled about the water but also believes the water drains from the Ranch Milk station. He said the water is causing problems with concrete and asphalt on the corner, degrading the material, and city engineers are still investigating the problem. He said he expects to have an answer in the next few weeks.
“One of our engineers is looking at it and we’re not sure where it’s coming from,” he said. “It’s a nuisance and causing problems with the pavement.”
Wittry said engineers do not believe the water is leaking from the station’s car wash, because water recycling equipment is in place.
“It’s a problem were looking into,” he added. “We should have an answer in a couple weeks or so, but it’s not a high priority for us.”
The Lake Santa Ana saga continues, but Red Phone will check back in with the engineers in a couple weeks to see what answers they’ve found.
