A supplement to the Hol
Eggstravagant Eggs THEATER CAMP P8 | WINE WEEK P16
THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF SAN BENITO COUNTY
APRIL 20, 2018
UT & ABO R OF NDA CALE TS EVEN
OUT
A supplement to the Hollister Free Lance
Aromas artist has a knack for folk art
Eggstravagant Eggs
San Benito Magazine INSIDE THIS ISSUE
THIS WEEK: Claudia Harden shares the folk art of pyansky
THEATER CAMP P8 | WINE WEEK P16
HOLLISTER • SAN BENITO COUNTY
A New SV Media publication
Friday, April 20, 2018
sanbenito.com • Vol. 145, No. 16 • $1
Pinnacles fees rise, cuts loom In future NATIONAL PARK ADDS NEW HIKING TRAIL By Barry Holtzclaw Managing Editor
Michael Moore
With poppies and other wildflowers in bloom, Bear Gulch filled with water and California condors soaring above volcanic peaks, Pinnacles National Park is in its peak season. Park rangers say that April is the most popular month for hikers of all ages to enjoy one of the newest jewelt in the National Park system, located at the southwest corner of San Benito County. The new year saw the opening of a new hiking trail from the western entrance to the park, east of Soledad, and another increase in vehicle entrance fees. A seven-day vehicle pass now costs $25—five times greater than when the new park opened five years ago—and another $5 increase is expected later this year. Drastic cuts to national park staffing that had been included in last year’s budget proposed by the Trump Adminstration are on hold, but loom in the new budget year.
COUNTY JAIL EXPANSION San Benito County Sheriff’s Capt. Don Bradley, the county’s special projects captain overseeing the jail expansion, stands in front of the facility construction site on Flynn Road April 12, with the current 26-year-old jail in the background.
Jail adds cells, needs staff
JAIL EXPANSION BOOSTS INMATE CAPACITY BY 50 PERCENT WITH $22M PROJECT Reporter
HOLLISTER CA. PERMIT #48
“medium security dorm style.” Construction has been underway for about four months, and Bradley said contractors have about a year to go before the expansion is ready to open. They’re about 24 days behind on the contract, mostly due to weather-related delays. Planning on the jail expansion began in 2007, when the county applied for and received $15 million for the project under ➝ Jail, 16
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whenever you’re dancing,” said 15-year-old freshman Bryanna Hernandez during the April 13 beginners class. Nichols, who is in her ninth year as a San Benito dance teacher and fifth years as Performing Arts Department chair, gradually allows her students to inject their own choreography as they move from the beginner to intermediate to advanced
of wood-fired oven used to 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
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An advocacy organization that repre college instructors across California symbolically walk out of the classro what they call a significant pay disp
KEEP YOUR CAREER ADVANCING WITH REAL PROJECTS AT TOP COMPANIES.
instructor/dance company advisor Heather Nichols. “She really opened up my eyes to different styles of dance.” When the music kicks on, the students start moving their feet, arms and bodies in choreographed poses to a variety of beats from hula to Ballywood to Latin to Hip-hop. “It’s very energetic, just a very awesome feeling
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When San Benito High School students walk into the brand new 2,000-square-foot dance studio on the ground floor of the $10.7 million Visual and Performing Arts & Academic Building,
they are now welcomed by bright lights, mirrored walls, ballet bars and a spacious, enlightening setting. “It’s big. It’s bright. It’s nice to look around and be able to see yourself and everyone else and it is not so dark,” said 17-year-old senior Olivia Lara, one of more than 200 students who take the popular dance elective that is led by department chair/
Cake, anyone?
“It will take us several years to reach capacity, we hope,” Bradley said of the 22,000-square-foot expansion. The new facility will also contain new space for health services for inmates, classrooms, outdoor recreation yards and a central control room similar to the one in the existing jail, but with modern technology. Sheriff Darren Thompson, in a draft of the sheriff ’s annual report, described the expansion design as a
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
San Juan resident: ‘Like our own
Project planned for Y Road
7
KATIE HELLAND •REPORTER khelland@freelancenews.com
HOLLISTER
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,”
NEW BUILDING FEATURES BIG DANCE STUDIO Reporter
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jail will offer educational opportunities aimed at equipping those inside with real-world skills they can use upon their release, The jail expansion is a “podular” design directly adjacent to the current jail, with two twostory pods, each housing 36 inmates, Bradley said. The current facility, which is about 26 years old and in need of repairs, houses about 140 inmates. Last Thursday, April 12, there were 136 inmates at the county jail.
Peforming arts are in spotlight
Scott Forstner
6
SPORTS
The expansion of the San Benito County Jail— which will increase the correctional facility’s housing capacity by about 50 percent—is well underway on Flynn Road in north Hollister. But the county has not yet
Soph surge
PAID
Michael Moore
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
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➝ Pinnacles, 8
budgeted all of the costs to open the jail and keep it operating when construction is complete. The $22 million jail expansion project is designed to provide more space for inmates who are serving longer sentences than they used to, with expanded capacities for the inmate population’s growing medical and mental health needs, San Benito County Sheriff ’s Capt. Don Bradley explained on a recent tour of the jail construction site. He also said the
classes. Each session is 100 minutes. “I hope that they gain confidence and understanding of who they are and (use dance as) an emotional release. I hope they can take all their new skills and confidence and apply them to other areas of their lives,” said Nichols of what she ultimately wants her students ➝ Dance, 19
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