San Juan Bautista residents woke up April 13 to the entire block of Fourth and Muckelemi streets closed off with yellow police tape and “no trespassing” signs posted on traffic signboards in response to violations of the county’s shelter-in-place order. A few days before, San Benito County Sheriff’s deputies were called out twice to disburse teens playing football at the little league field in town.
“We have had an issue from the very beginning with 15-20 teens congregating not only in the parks, but hopping the fences into the school grounds,” City Manager Don Reynolds told BenitoLink. “We tried to keep some of these places open, but open parks are an invitation to actions like that.”
On March 26, the city declared active play areas and city park restrooms closed until further notice, and followed on April 10 by closing city parks entirely. The closures are in compliance with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s guidelines to flatten the coronavirus infection curve. An April 10 press release noted that “continuing congregation of people in city parks and other open spaces” was a direct violation of the county’s shelter-in-place order.
“We went out Friday and left the press release on every doorstep,” Reynolds said. “It talks of having to take this extra step because of problems with compliance.”
The release also warned that people violating the order could be cited, with fines ranging up to $500 and six months in jail.
“This is a problem with compliance in almost every one of the communities between here and King City,” Reynolds said.
Hollister Interim City Manager Brett Miller has seen the same kinds of problems.
“We did close down all our play structures and left the grassy areas open,” he said, “but we closed all our parks at Easter for fear of large gatherings.”
The grassy areas are open again, but there is still a problem with people jumping fences to play basketball.
“We have patrol and enforcement officers looking for those groups, and that is still a challenge,” Miller said. “Another problem remains with people having large gatherings or people having parties. When we hear about those we have people check on them. We have two officers we will dispatch on these non-emergency calls.”
At this point, misdemeanor citations are a last resort.
“We try to use education as our enforcement,” Miller said. “We want everyone to do their part. We don’t want to make this a financial issue.”
The city of Hollister has also taken direct action against one business, Smokey Pete’s Smoke Shop at 727 San Benito Street.
“They were not adhering to the orders so we took their business license,” Miller said. “We will do our part if the citizens do not do their part. If people violate the order, we have to respond.”