Maybe we should put a disclaimer on the Red Phone limiting our
callers to just one or two complaint(s) per phone call.
Maybe we should put a disclaimer on the Red Phone limiting our callers to just one or two complaint(s) per phone call. While most of our callers do just that, we received one phone call this week that a reporter is still listening to and taking down notes. Talk about one unhappy Gilroyan …
“I find it very (ridiculous) that you’re going to jack the water rates up to cover the water district personnel money,” said that very angry caller, who actually called twice to gripe over that issue and several more. “As far as giving them raises, there’s no way they should be making six digits a year. Instead of dumping that into the water district personnel, you should be thinking about dumping it into education and into schooling for the kids.”
We also think the employee compensation costs being passed on to consumers is a gross misuse of funding. This reader must have been listening to Tuesday’s staff editorial calling for someone to run for a position on the water board. Or maybe he just needs a job …
“I’ll do that water district job for $75,000. I’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done, and a lot cheaper,” he said during his second phone call to the Red Phone. “I am unemployed. Some people are hungry for work, not hungry for getting fat behind a chair.”
The caller also griped about the “race track” at Sunrise Drive that needs more attention from Gilroy police, building mansions on small lots in town, a need for more parks and high schools and more cops and fire fighters. Did we get everything? Please call back again with any other issues. … We might have missed one in there somewhere.
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Another Red Phone caller was concerned about safety problems in regards to cars for sale on the curb of First Street in front of Safeway on weekends.
“On weekends, it looks like a used car lot,” he said. “What makes it more dangerous people are stepping onto the street to look at vehicles. I know there is a city ordinance against that, why aren’t police enforcing that?”
Well, that’s because there WAS a city ordinance against that. The ordinance was dropped after a court found a similar statute unconstitutional in another city, and the Gilroy Police Department has not been enforcing it for at least a year, said one GPD watch commander.
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“If the city wants to build a $30,000 (sic) police station, they should cite every truck driver that goes down Welburn Avenue because there is a sign that says they can’t drive down there. In no time at all, they’d have the money,”
While that certainly would help raise a good chunk of $30,000, it wouldn’t scratch the surface of the ballooning $30 MILLION station price tag.
Fortunately for the police, the money already is available for the police station. The problem The Dispatch editorial board, among others, has had is whether it’s the right – or smartest – use of funding.
As far as the trucks, Gilroy police do cite large trucks using the road (they are not allowed because Welburn was not built to handle the weight), but it is not high on the priority list. Truckers often slip through the cracks because officers are responding to calls.
Red Phone 408-842-9070
Have a question, a comment or a community concern? Call the Red Phone. It listens. It answers. It writes with wit and true grit.
If there’s a problem that needs fixing or an issue that needs airing, Red Phone will answer because it’s for sharing. Juicy tips it does take, leave a message – don’t wait. All we’ll need is a name and a phone number to take. But that won’t be published, the Red Phone won’t tell. It’ll just take your info, before raising a little hell. The Red Phone rings off the hook each Wednesday and Friday.
