Red Phone’s back again, running twice a week every Wednesday and
Saturday. Got a question, need an answer, call the Red Phone
– always waiting, always online, always at 635-9219.
Red Phone’s back again, running twice a week every Wednesday and Saturday. Got a question, need an answer, call the Red Phone – always waiting, always online, always at 635-9219.
Counting cars
No it’s not a new way to get some Z’s on a sleepless night, though one caller wonders if anything ever comes from the traffic counters placed throughout the county.
“I noticed a traffic counter on Monday and wondered why it was there. It seems like these things just show up from time to time, stay a couple of days, then disappear – never to be heard of again. Who’s in charge of those counters and what do they do with the information. I see them quite a bit, but nothing ever seems to change because of them.”
The traffic counter likely belongs to Caltrans District 5, which keeps tabs on state roads in San Benito County. Counters will be placed throughout the county this week gathering the traffic data Caltrans uses to make planning decisions such as where to place stop signs, traffic lights and safety improvements according to Susana Zavala, a public information officer with Caltrans. The median barrier project on Highway 156 west of San Juan Bautista is a good example of how traffic data is used to make decisions, she said. Caltrans gathered data such as numbers of cars that use a highway and peak traffic times and compares the results to different benchmarks on which they base their decisions for safety improvement projects. She said the data warranted the median barrier and now the project is underway. Traffic counters can be found this week on Fairview Road, Hwy. 152 and Hwy. 156.
“It’s one of the deciding factors we use to make decisions on what projects we do,” Zavala said.
Weed whacking
A caller is concerned about some weeds growing out of control near the new addition to San Benito High School.
“I just came from walking in the area and I just wanted to know if you could find out about the area of the new high school addition right on Nash between Sutter and West. The grass, the weeds that are growing there is getting really bad. I saw a rabbit there the other day and when it rains skunks come in the area. I was wondering if you could get in touch with someone there and do something about it.”
Red Phone called up Steve Delay, fiscal services and operations director at San Benito High School, to check on the weed problems. According to Delay, the High School has taken action to chop down the growing grass.
“We do own the property and we disc-ed it two weeks ago, after it was dry enough to do that,” Delay said in reference to mowing the grass on the empty lot. “There are some areas that the disc couldn’t reach and we hope to go in and mow them this week. We have to use a hand-mower out there and that’s been on order and should be here this week. As soon as it arrives we’ll go out there and knock those down.”
