The closing of Lindeman Dodge Chrysler Jeep Wednesday sent a
shock through Hollister’s business community. And it should shock
our political and business leaders into action in the coming
year.
The closing of Lindeman Dodge Chrysler Jeep Wednesday sent a shock through Hollister’s business community. And it should shock our political and business leaders into action in the coming year.
Hollister’s economy is losing ground. To reverse the slide, the city, county and area chambers of commerce should join forces to create an economic task force specifically charged with finding ways to improve the area’s short- and long-term business prospects.
There is a definite need for creative ideas that will keep cash registers ringing while obstacles preventing the economy from growing – the building moratorium being an obvious one – are removed. Short-term strategies to keep the current economy afloat – whether it be allowing new businesses to use holding tanks for sewer needs rather than connecting to the city system, or doing more to promote shopping locally – are needed because when a local business goes under, it is not just the owner who suffers.
In Lindeman’s case, Hollister lost a business that has been around in one form or another since the 1940s. The city lost a sales tax revenue stream that helped pay for police protection, fire service, park maintenance and a host of other city services that all residents rely on. Twenty people lost their jobs right before Christmas.
“It’s sad for Hollister. It’s sad for the employees and it’s sad for the downtown. As I’ve always said before, when you shop locally you not only employ your neighbor, you keep your town alive,” owner Mark Lindeman said.
Focusing on the future economic growth of San Benito County and Hollister will be just as important if we are going to be a community where people can live and work in the years to come. We need a comprehensive plan, a roadmap, to guide us to a thriving future, and an economic task force can create one.
It can study other successful cities to see what they have done. It can recommend business incentives that would attract companies with decent-paying jobs to the area. It can create a vision for where we want to be economically and devise a strategy to get us there.
The Hollister City Council and the San Benito County Board of Supervisors should make a focused, deliberate study of methods to grow our economy one of their top priorities in 2005. We don’t need any more bad news like what happened to Lindeman.
To comment on this issue, please send or bring letters to Editor, The Hollister Free Lance, 350 Sixth St., Hollister, Calif. 95023 or e-mail to ed****@fr***********.com.
