HOLLISTER • SAN BENITO COUNTY
A New SV Media publication
Friday, March 16, 2018
sanbenito.com • Vol. 145, No. 11 • $1
IS IT A PLANE? A CAR?
Submitted illustration
PILOTLESS AIR TAXI This company-supplied image shows the dronelike craft that’s been tested in Hollister.
GOOGLE TAPS HOLLISTER AS ‘KITTY HAWK’
THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF SAN BENITO COUNTY
MARCH 16, 2018
Bryce Stoepfel Reporter
The long-anticipated wait for flying cars may soon be over, and Hollister may find its place as a modern-day Kitty Hawk in the annals of modern aviation as the birthplace of the first personal aviation craft. On Monday Google co-founder Larry Page began to reveal
AR and Fred Pointer of Aromas pull for the public good
Serving With Dignity By Wallace Baine
Inside this issue: Ministering to the needy in Aromas
WILDFLOWER RUN P8 | GRAY LODGE RESERVE P12 | PASSPORT MONTH P16
Wright Brothers famous 1903 flight—but perhaps a veritable Area 51 like design center for further space-age innovation? Those mysteries are still tightly guarded by the company, and aside from their website, details are in short supply. Cora, an all-electric air taxi, seats two people, can reach 110 MPH and an altitude between 500 and 3000 feet. The vehicle takes off like a helicopter, ➝ Plane, 2
HOLLISTER CA. PERMIT #48
****ECRWSS**** Residential Customer
BOSTON | CHARLOTTE | SEATTLE | SILICON VALLEY | TORONTO | ONLINE
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
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
TURN TO BRIDGE • A8
LOOK FOR IT ON THE WEB
An advocacy organization that re college instructors across Califo symbolically walk out of the clas what they call a significant pay d
GAIN IN-DEMAND TECH SKILLS WITH LEVEL BOOTCAMPS.
“It keeps getting bigger,” said ARTI-Culture supporter and volunteer Rolan Resendiz of the event held the second Saturday of each month. “We are very humbled and grateful that we have this opportunity and we want to give back,” he said. TURN TO PIZZA • A8
San Juan resident: ‘Like our own
PAINT PARTY Rolan Resendiz assists Cindy Benzon and her children, Mimi, 10, and Austin, 3 during ARTI-culture’s monthly family painting event.
Cindy Benzon and her children Mimi, 10, and Austin, 3, are no strangers to ARTI-Culture events and classes. So, they wouldn’t have missed its monthly Mommy/Daddy & Me Paint Party Saturday, March 3, which boasted nearly 50 attendees.
Cake, anyone?
PAID
the aircraft we had been dreaming of, Cora,” Kitty Hawk said in a press release. “An electric, autonomous fully fledged air taxi that takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane. The first step to a world where the freedom of flight belongs to everyone.” Can San Benito County, with available land and proximity to Silicon Valley, become, not only a new Kitty Hawk— the North Carolina town made famous by the
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
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
SPORTS
Project planned for Y Road
KATIE HELLAND •REPORTER khelland@freelancenews.com
7
HOLLISTER
58015 02002
In June 2016, Bloomberg reported that Page had personally invested $100 million in Zee.Aero and Kitty Hawk. Kitty Hawk has now merged with Zee.Aero, and its New Zealand operating unit has gotten the green light to begin commercial service next year. And the once tightlipped company is now talking publicly about its ambitions. “After almost eight years of exploring new frontiers, we had built
Parents and kids share painting fun
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,”
6
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
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE
A supplement to the Hollister Free Lance
OU T & AB OU T CA LEN DA EV EN R OF TS
details about Cora, a compact pilotless air taxi, that could completely alter the way modern people move from place to place. Since the Hollister Free Lance first reported on Zee.Aero’s flying car project and rental of Building 19 at Hollister Airport in 2014, Google co-founder Larry Page’s stealth venture has been one of the worst kept secrets in town. Airport neighbors reported sightings of the electric powered aircraft and shared photographs.
Resendiz said his partner and owner of ARTI-Culture, Joel Esqueda, was determined to provide a platform for everyone to access the arts and since December 2016 ARTI-Culture has been collaborating with local businesses to engage people in the community who many have not been exposed to art.
ACCELERATE YOUR CAREER THROUGH THE
TAKE THE
NEXT STEP northeastern.edu/pan/experience