For the second time in three years, city council members in
November canceled the Hollister Motorcycle Rally
– the one condition being they would support the event if
another party paid for the July event’s costs up front.
July; Last official biker rally?
For the second time in three years, city council members in November canceled the Hollister Motorcycle Rally – the one condition being they would support the event if another party paid for the July event’s costs up front.
The historically divisive issue came to a head at a recent council meeting where members voted unanimously against sanctioning the rally. It came after a year in which city leaders invested taxpayer funds in rally merchandise with hopes of generating revenue – while Hollister ended up losing $125,000 on the deal.
Questions remain about 2009 – whether another party will step up to fund the costs, which reached $365,000 in 2008; whether the security level could potentially decrease; and how many bikers will show up in July with or without a sanctioned stamp of approval.
The rally survived a similar decision before 2006. Whether it lives strong after a turbulent 2008 remains to be seen.
September: Local foreclosures, through the roof
At the heart of San Benito County’s economic collapse has been a skyrocketing foreclosure rate that finally took a turn for the better in October after months of painful increases to the rate of local citizens defaulting on their mortgages.
San Benito County has been devastated by this national housing downturn. Stretching back to early 2007 locally, the housing market downturn took a steep slope south in 2008 and rippled throughout the area economy.
The rate of local homes entering the foreclosure process increased staggeringly throughout the year and peaked in August and September, when there were more than 500 in those two months combined. To put it into perspective, San Benito County at one point this year had the second-worst per capita rate among 58 counties in a state with the worst foreclosure numbers in the country.
Fortunately, the numbers for October fell 59 percent from the prior month and, for the first time in more than a year, showed signs of a potential turnaround.
November; Voters turn out for key races
While voters throughout the country turned out in record numbers for the presidential election, San Benito County followed suit with 82 percent of registered voters taking part. Aside from the presidential race – for which 60.2 percent of county voters chose Barack Obama and 37.5 percent chose John McCain – there were many local races of significance as well.
While only one of three open council seats had contested races, the District 5 seat to succeed Monica Johnson was highly sought after by three candidates. In the end, though, Victor Gomez posted a decisive victory over Roy Iler and David Huboi.
Other major races included those for seats on the San Benito High School District Board, the Hollister School District Board, the county water district board and the health care district board. City voters also agreed to exempt the downtown district from Hollister’s 244-unit annual growth cap.
November: Mother suspected of killing toddler
On Nov. 19, 19-month-old Donna Busch died a horrific death, from two .357 Magnum gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Her mother, 39-year-old Cheryl Busch, is suspected of the unimaginable shooting and she told a 911 dispatcher that she had killed her own daughter.
Busch has pleaded not guilt to the homicide charge, and in January, the court proceedings continue.
In his press conference after authorities had discovered the toddler’s body outside the family’s Shore Road home, San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill reflected on the tragedy and said that in his long tenure, he had not recalled another case involving a mother suspected of killing her child.
Authorities, in the meantime, will continue their efforts in trying to figure out what drove Busch to the suspected killing.
December: State lifts Hollister moratorium
Six painful years without the legal right to connect new constructions to the city sewer plant ended earlier this month, when the regional water board voted unanimously to lift the moratorium against new connections.
Stemming from the 2002 sewer spill into the San Benito River bed, the primary focus for city officials since that time has been construction on a new wastewater plant to replace the old one that had been outpaced by Hollister’s rapid growth earlier this decade.
Its progress has been funded through dramatic hikes to citizens’ bi-monthly sewer bills. Fortunately for those local residents, the levies recently dropped by $40 when the plant’s cost came in $20 million under budget.
For the city as a whole, although the poor economy casts a dark shadow in the short term, the state’s decision allows Hollister to look forward and plan for better days ahead.
