The Red Phone’s back on Memorial Day weekend, ready with more
answers to caller questions. Don’t forget Red Phone rides every
Wednesday and Saturday in the Free Lance. If you do not feel like
calling, Red Phone is online too
– send your queries to [email protected]. Got a
problem, need an answer, call the Red Phone – always waiting,
always online, always at 635-9219.
The Red Phone’s back on Memorial Day weekend, ready with more answers to caller questions. Don’t forget Red Phone rides every Wednesday and Saturday in the Free Lance. If you do not feel like calling, Red Phone is online too – send your queries to [email protected]. Got a problem, need an answer, call the Red Phone – always waiting, always online, always at 635-9219.
A bargain hunter’s bane
Ever see those signs advertising a garage sale, and as you search for a beacon to the bargains, realize the “big” event actually occurred weeks ago. This caller has a problem with residents who scatter signs all over town, but forget to pick them up again.
“What are folks thinking when they leave their garage sale signs up for eons after the sale is long over? Don’t they see how they litter up the place to say nothing of the pole they put them on. Could there be a way that someone goes around to collect these signs and sends a stern letter to the household that put up the sign? Perhaps if caught they should be fined. One way for the City to make a little money.”
The city does prohibit, for lack of a better word, “garage-sellers” from leaving their signs littered along city poles, but it falls under the jurisdiction of the code enforcement office and Hollister only has one officer. According to an employee in the City Clerk’s Office, code enforcement officer Mike Chambless can remove the signs and cite the offenders – though he has numerous complaints to investigate as the sole servant of code enforcement.
“We only have one code enforcement officer and he can’t get to them all. It’s well within his authority to go and take them down if he has time,” the employee said.
She didn’t know exactly what the citation would be and how much, if any, the fines would cost offenders. Chambless was out of the office on Friday, but should return next week. His phone number is 636-4356.
More Caltrans Complaints
Red Phone already tackled a similar complaint about two weeks ago concerning crappy Caltrans road repairs, but another caller is angry about poor repairs on a local pot-holed highway.
“Caltrans has just finished up a project where they just finished patching up pot holes between Hollister and San Juan on 156. The road is worse now then it was before. Do they check their work? Is there a superior we can contact to complain?”
Caltrans does check their work according to Susana Zavala, a public information with Caltrans District 5 – which includes San Benito County. She said each project has its own supervising engineer that is supposed to ensure quality control on Caltrans projects. She didn’t know of the problems on Hwy 156 though. To lodge a complaint with Caltrans, visit their Web site at www.dot.ca.gov/dist05 or call 831-372-0862 or
831-753-0187.
