Restoring a neighborhood treasure Friday, August 27, 2010 By Melissa Flores Grant money provides funding for Dunne Park project On a recent Thursday afternoon, a group of teens gathered in Dunne Park. The students had clipboards in hand, and staked out different sections of the park to monitor the activities. The students marked down everything they saw - positive and negative - noting frequency and duration. The afternoon monitoring is the first step in the Dunne Park Restoration Project and a long-term goal to make the park more family-friendly for the community. Read More......

Nick Lovejoy Members of the Hollister Youth Alliance's Change Team Samantha Hernadez and Rafael Rojas spend time in the rose garden at Dunne Park, taking notes and evaluating positive or negative activities as part of the Dunne Park Restoration Project. The Hollister Youth Alliance received a grant from the Health Trust to increase positive use of the park.

When it comes to inter-district transfers, Hollister School District Superintendent Gary McIntire said he has been seeing more students transferring into the district than out.

"I honestly don't see a flood of students out and I've had many, many students in," he said, adding that he has been directly monitoring the requests himself. "It's been a bit of a challenge for us, dealing with large classes and trying to be very mindful of our budget."

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Ryland Urtnowski, 5, runs through the water whale at Valley View Park Aug. 25 to stay cool during a heat wave that included a record 109 degrees on Aug. 24.

Photo by: Nick Lovejoy

'The heat just stops everything'

For the first time this year, temperatures soared past triple digits this week, sending parents, workers and kids scrambling for shade and water.

Younger kids and their parents enjoyed the wonders of water while others tried to bear the heat while setting up booths for the Wednesday Farmer's Market. But a common theme from everyone was that it could have been worse.
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