This week the Crusader got a call from a Hollister resident
complaining about cars outfitted with bone-rattling stereo systems
cruising city streets and shattering the evening calm, making it
impossible to relax after a day at work.
This week the Crusader got a call from a Hollister resident complaining about cars outfitted with bone-rattling stereo systems cruising city streets and shattering the evening calm, making it impossible to relax after a day at work.
“More and more our streets are sounding like a war zone. If you blindfolded a person and put them in Iraq, they’d think they were in Hollister,” said our caller, clearly at his wits’ end. “These jackasses are turning our streets into a noise pot. … I’m sick of it. When I get home at 5 o’clock, I want to relax. I don’t want to hear someone’s damn noise. They just don’t give a damn about other people.”
Aside from precluding, “peaceful enjoyment of property,” loud car stereos are harmful to health, the caller said.
“It’s disorienting. It changes peoples’ heart rate,” he said. “We need to insist that our police enforce car music volume limits we put into law.”
While the Crusader had no luck getting a hold of Hollister police Tuesday (which is a rare occurrence – local cops are often quick and helpful in their responses to the queries and concerns of our callers) in a previous interview Capt. Richard Vasquez said that officers do cite drivers for having their music playing too loudly.
Motorists, according to state law, cannot play their music so loud that it is audible from 50 feet away from the vehicle, which is about the width of many city streets. In San Benito County, people cited for blasting their music face a $146 fine for the first offense. The fine is increased with each subsequent offense.
County Offers Option for Syringe Disposal
Our caller asked about where in San Benito County she can dispose of used syringes, which she and others she knows use for injecting insulin and other medications.
“I can’t find anywhere where they accept them,” she said.
The Crusader posed our caller’s question to Frankie Valent-Arballo, director of marketing and public relations for Hazel Hawkins hospital.
Ever helpful, Valent-Arballo was able to aid the Crusader and track down an answer.
People with used syringes to get rid of should first buy a plastic “Sharps” container from a local pharmacy, she said, to hold the syringes. Then, once the container is full, they can bring it to the John Smith Road landfill between 9am and noon on the third Saturday of every month.
The landfill is located at 2650 John Smith Road. Sharps containers are available at pharmacies and cost about $3.
