Hollister Councilman Raymond Friend announced that he will run for his third term for District 1 in the November election. No one has announced they want to oppose him on the November ballot, but it’s early yet, he said. The dates to pull papers to run for city council are July 18 through Aug. 28.
Friend said he is seeking a third four-year term because he feels that the city, through the council’s efforts, is just about at the point to where quality-of-life issues can finally be addressed.
“For years, we’ve been fighting the budget so much that we’ve finally gotten those non-secure assets paid down to where we can start doing a lot more things for the community, such as improving the roads and building more parks,” he said. “I think it’s important that the team that’s together now stay together so we can complete these items we started.”
Of the issues he has backed, he said the annual motorcycle rally, improvements downtown and bringing more employment to the area are at the top of his must-do list.
“We need to bring more jobs here by using our industrial park,” he said. “Now that we’re getting the airport brought up to date we should be able to talk to more people that need the airport.
Friend agrees with Mayor Ignacio Velazquez that the increase in building homes needs more scrutiny.
“We have to be slow on our home building because we’re running out of space if we don’t take on more county area,” he said. “And until that tax agreement is complete, that’s going to be difficult. The problem is if a major industrial person wants to come into town you need to house the employees. We’ve got to be careful how we develop, but we also have got to bring in new jobs to fill home instead of just commuters.”
In addition to being a city councilman for the past eight years, Friend served on the Hollister Planning Commission for 10 years. He’s a member of the gang task force supervisory committee and the Intergovernmental Committee.
“I think the Intergovernmental Committee is one of the most important committees we have because it’s made up of an equal number of council members, board of supervisors, members from San Juan Bautista, and the school district all get together and plan how development is going to go,” he said. “We were the ones that got the Hollister Fire Department to help the county and San Juan Bautista by taking over that duty. And we’re in the process of building another firehouse.”
As a major backer of the rally, Friend said he feels if handled right this time it will “put the city on the map.”
“We have not yet reached the potential to where we can use it to actually bring more people into the city other than just on the Fourth of July,” he said. “It’s a vicious circle. You’ve got to bring them into town and you have to have a place for them to stay, but you can’t built hotels until you have something going on that brings people to town.”
He said this is the reason he and the mayor are pushing to develop a sports center in order to bring softball, soccer, basketball and other tournaments. He said plans have already been drawn up for a community swimming facility and that financing efforts are underway.
A Vietnam-era Navy vet who served five years aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, Friend is a member of both the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts. He helped organize the running of the Veterans Memorial Building.
For more information, contact Ray Friend at 831-313-3099 or rmfriend3@yahoo.com.
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