Tarmo Hannula/Register-Pajaronian On completing his last day of work at Birds Eye Foods Jeremiah Valdez (left) bids farewell to long time employee Joel Ramirez earlier this month.

The closure of the Birds Eye plant was viewed as the biggest story of the year by a majority of Pajaro Valley residents quizzed Friday.

With 2006 coming to a close Sunday, we asked community members what story they considered to have the most impact.

“The closure of the Birds Eye plant was a big story,” said Chuck Allen, general manager of the Red Roof Inn. “It’s a horrendous hit for Watsonville. We’ll hopefully get something to replace it and a couple hundred jobs.”

Ray Rodriguez, owner of Green Valley Grill, Farmers Processing and Cold Storage, agreed.

“I think that the closure of the Birds Eye Plant and the elimination of 550 jobs has quite an impact for Watsonville,” Rodriguez said. “People are still stung about it. I feel like with my little company that we’re all survivors and the global economy has been hit.”

Lee Mercer, director of education and outreach at Second Harvest Food Bank, said the closure of Birds Eye will have an impact on the food bank.

“I think the largest story locally that has economic and symbolic impact is the closure of Birds Eye,” he said. “We’ve had a long history of losing food manufacturing. From the food bank’s point of view, we’ll have more people that will need food. I think we at the food bank and other social services agencies as well as the city and county are looking at ways to stimulate job development in this area.”

“It was such a major industry and the global restructuring of frozen foods is detrimental to our economy,” said Brooke Johnson, executive director for Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry and Kitchen. “It’s affecting us at Loaves and Fishes. We’re seeing an increase of 14 percent of people needing emergency food with an additional 550 people out of work.”

Residents also felt that the defeat of Measure E in June was significant. Measure E was a retirement tax repeal that would have required a property tax to be collected for the purpose of paying the city of Watsonville’s obligations to public employees’ retirement.

“I think that Measure E was a very big issue in Watsonville,” said David Koch, Public Works and Utilities director for the city of Watsonville.

Johnson also said that the defeat of Measure E was important to her.

“We should be thinking about our priorities as a city and continuing the need to fund local services and our quality of life in Watsonville,” she said.

Newly elected Mayor Manuel Bersamin was pleased that Measure E was defeated.

“All of us who have worked on this team would have had damage to the infrastructure,” he said. “With the whole emotional struggle, Measure E was a catharsis for the city. Even though that was a difficult issue, there was a lot of good that came out of it.”

City Manager Carlos Palacios being named Man of the Year also stood out in Bersamin and Koch’s opinions.

Pajaro Valley Historical Association volunteer Jane Borg named several events that stood out for her.

“I think it was just wonderful about the Buddhist church restoring their altar,” she said. “They did a fantastic job of preservation for the 100th anniversary. Also the building of the bridge across the slough is amazing.”

Borg said Carol Trengove leaving the Pajaro Valley Arts Council was also important.

“She did so much for that gallery that changes exhibits so frequently,” Borg said. “Also, the library is so gigantic and we’ll be really proud of it. The community is not only able to keep the library open, but also build one and that is stupendous.”

John Kegebein from the Agricultural History Project thought that the food safety scare in September was significant.

“The spinach scare and the resulting ideas we shared about how to make the handling of food safer was important,” he said.

Jean Piraino, a member of Pajaro Valley Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, said that the immigration debate was an important issue.

“I feel like immigration is the biggest story,” she said. “It was one of those local, national and international issues — and a huge issue for the community.”

Bruce Woolpert, president and CEO of Graniterock, named several events.

“The increase in oil prices didn’t have as big an effect on the economy as people thought they would,” he said. “It had half of the impact that we might have expected. I think it’s confirmation that our country is not oil dependent. The countries that have oil — we don’t want to depend on for economic and security interests.”

Woolpert said the biggest local story was the November election being all about student achievement.

“I’m very optimistic on the dedication and focus of teachers and everyone. We’re moving the process forward,” he said. “I don’t remember a better time for our public schools. It’s been so long since we’ve had this.”

Ray Belgard, retired Watsonville police chief and former member of the county Board of Supervisors, was saddened over the unexpected death of Judge Arthur Danner III.

“I think the most important part was the loss of a great personal friend Judge Arthur Danner III. He didn’t smoke or drink, and was Mr. Fitness.”

Belgard, a registered Republican, said that the Republicans lost their majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives was a big story as well.

Don Cooley, a retired community volunteer, said he thought the biggest story of the year was the installation of the Iraqi government constitution and the trial and conviction of Saddam Hussein.

Local business owner Rocky Franich said he was excited about the new construction projects in Watsonville.

“I feel like there’s a new energy in Watsonville after the election of the new council,” he said. “Watsonville is growing up as a town. I see the civic center starting to move forward and the redevelopment of Auto Center Drive. Watsonville is the greatest place to be in the world.”



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(Published in 12/30/06 edition)

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