HOLLISTER • SAN BENITO COUNTY
A New SV Media publication
Friday, January 5, 2018
sanbenito.com • Vol. 145, No. 1 • $1
Long list of trust records was not given up DABO IGNORED FOUNDATION RECORD REQUEST IN 2015 Barry Holtzclaw Managing Editor
Nicholas Preciado
As San Benito County District Attorney Candice Hooper considers whether to charge Mitchell Dabo with crimes in connection with his transfer of funds out of a charitable trust, she won’t have to look very far. In addition to a 217page evidence binder detailing Dabo’s draining of more than $640,000 from the Matulich Charitable Trust that was presented last month at a civil trial in Superior Court, documents on record also furnish her with a long list of potential pieces of evidence that had been ➝ Dabo, 4
NEWBORN Parents Sylvia and David Hernandez stand in Hazel Hawkins Hospital with their newborn daughter Ellisha Naomi Hernandez, the first baby born in San Benito County during 2018
THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF SAN BENITO COUNTY
Meet the 2018 New Year’s baby
Hollister yoga studio inspires self-improvement
HOLLISTER BABY BORN JUST TWO HOURS INTO THE NEW YEAR
JANUARY 5, 2018
OUT & ABOUT CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Inside this issue: Start the year with Kula SENIOR PERSPECTIVE P12 | TOXIC GARDEN P13
said Jim Brumfield, whose 14-acre horse ranch on San Juan Highway is a short walk from the site of the planned bridge. The riverbed crossing will be funded completely with federal money from the Federal Highway Administration's Toll Credit Highway Bridge Program, with construction slated for the spring of 2017. “The key to a better transportation
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Vice Mayor Karson Klauer I’d like to do a salary study for all the different positions. It’s something we can probably do inhouse. I think it would be good to have a firm grip overall of where we’re at and be able to refer back to that. I think having a public safety strategic plan for fire and police would be important. It’s on their radar. My hope next year
is that we can get that in place. I’m optimistic that next year will be the big year for the west gateway. I think we’ll finally get around to getting a roundabout in. We got help from an apartment project going in. By this time next year that road could look a lot better. I think we started the process last year, but we need to take it a step further with council goals. Instead of just having them, have those goals be portrayed in the budget for next fiscal year so
if we have areas we want to increase service levels we need to make sure we’re providing resources to those areas. A big thing for next year is going to be the fire contract. When I look at the big topics I think the general plan update is one of the biggest. Those are probably the two main things that will see a lot of focus.
make his pizzas. In starting the business, he is also bringing a taste of his family’s home country to his family’s hometown in Hollister. The Felice family is from the Calabria part of Italy and has deep roots in San Benito County as well. With the opening of Forno, meanwhile, Hollister will once again
The new year is here and with it comes a fresh set of responsibilities and challenges in San Benito County. Roads still need to be repaired, cannabis policies remain under discussion and much debate remains on economic development policies. Here is what local elected officials said about their goals for 2018.
And of course continue to improve our budget.
TURN TO PIZZA • A8
San Juan resident: ‘Like our own
Mayor Ignacio Velazquez I really want to get an answer to our road issues. We need to put a focus on that as a community and understand the need for a better road network system and repair our roads. Also, I want to make sure we’re planning correctly for our growth. A majority of the public needs to be on the same page with what we’re trying to accomplish—otherwise we won’t succeed as a community. I think it’ll take many more conversations.
Project planned for Y Road
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KATIE HELLAND •REPORTER khelland@freelancenews.com
Staff Report
Hollister City Council
Cake, anyone?
David shared his family’s hopes for their newborn daughter: “We hope that she’s going to be a healthy girl,” he said. “We hope that she’s going to help the community one day when she can. We’re super thankful to the staff here at the hospital.”
The San Benito County chapter of the national nonprofit organization Birthday Cakes 4 Free started last spring and group members have been bringing cakes, cupcakes and muffins to low-income seniors and children ever since then. Since the group started in June, its members have delivered about five cakes a month to the Emmaus House, Chamberlain's Children Center and the assisted living facility Whispering Pines Inn. Now they're looking to expand to individual homes in the county. A2
Solar revisions
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perfect middle name to match,” said father David Hernandez. The newborn baby’s mother, Sylvia, works as an activity aide at the Mabie Southside Skilled Nursing Facility just around the corner from the hospital.
Leaders list goals for the new year
A $16 million bridge stretching 900 feet across the San Benito River is planned to connect Y Road and San Juan Bautista. But in this rural area, the number of people it will serve is small. “It's like our own bridge to nowhere,”
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and David Hernandez. The newborn is 22 inches long and weighed nine pounds, eight ounces at birth. Dr. Zarin Amin delivered the baby. “My wife had been thinking about[the name] Ellisha for a long time and Naomi was the
The company vying to build a 247-megawatt solar farm in Panoche submitted a draft supplemental environmental impact report addressing plans to examine impacts under a revised, reduced proposal. PV2 Energy filed the supplemental draft EIR on Dec. 23. The prior company overseeing the project, Solargen Energy, had an initial EIR approved by the county board in late 2010. A5
Storks were eager to take
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flight last weekend as the first baby of 2018 in San Benito County was born only a couple hours into the new year. Ellisha Naomi Hernandez was born at 2:15am on Jan. 1 at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital in Hollister to Sylvia
Soph surge
A year ago, Brad Sparrer was the No. 5 player in the lineup on San Benito High’s golf team. But entering the 2015 season—practice starts on Feb. 1—the 5-foot-8, 140pound sophomore will likely be the Haybalers’ No. 1 player. Sparrer’s meteoric rise came the good old-fashioned way: hard work. B1
Nicholas Preciado
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE
A section of the Hollister Free Lance
Calm &Kula
Councilman Ray Friend Continue work on the adult use of marijuana
➝ 2018 Goals, 11
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