County of San Benito Board of Supervisors Supervisor Ignacio Velazquez

At a Jan. 14 meeting, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors discussed the future of Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital. By a unanimous vote, they decided to approach the San Benito Health Care District in an effort to stymie the potential lease-sale of the hospital to the Michigan-based Insight Health. 

Construction of Riverview Regional Park, the 46-acre recreation zone planned for the area between the Hollister High School campus and the San Benito River, will begin this fall, a year later than originally expected.

For the second time, San Benito County has canceled a town hall meeting to discuss the future of the county’s fire protection services. The meeting—which was supposed to take place in December but was then rescheduled for Jan. 9—has been indefinitely postponed.

On Jan. 6 the San Benito County Board of Supervisors unanimously chose Kollin Kosmicki to be its chair for 2025. Among his duties, he will preside over board meetings, rule on questions of procedure and appoint committees to study issues. 

In many elections, voters will cast a ballot selecting candidates at the top of the ticket but skip voting on “down-ballot” races—resulting in what election officials call “undervotes.” In the Nov. 5 election, a number of San Benito County races had more undervotes tallied than the margin between the top two choices, which means the undervotes may have determined the outcomes of those races.