SOLEDAD — A joint City Council and school district meeting, a collaboration between the four South County cities regarding tourism, a Hartnell College satellite campus, Assembly Member Anna Caballero office hours and more are in the works for the future by the City of Soledad.
On Nov. 2 the City and Soledad Unified School District board will have a joint meeting with Bridget Masse as the facilitator. According to City Manager Michael McHatten, the November meeting will be one of the first meetings that the City and school district will have together in a long time.
“(Superintendent) Tim (Vanoli) and I worked on key things that we share in common and that’s going to be the focus,” said McHatten.
The City of Soledad is also working with Gonzales, Greenfield and King City concerning tourism. The four cities are working with Craig Hoffman, executive director of tourism for the State Visitor’s Center in Salinas.
Hoffman is working on a plan for the four cities and tourism.
“We have the Visitor’s Center here,” McHatten said. “It’s well attended, well documented and we have people traveling all over the world to stop there. It’s not just about the Pinnacles, it’s about the Mission, our wine and more.”
According to McHatten, the goal is to have the tourism plan soon and have all four South County cities meet as a unified council and adopt the tourism plan together.
The City is also in the process of updating its website. Currently, the website has 455 pages and the city’s goal is to reduce those pages down to approximately 100 pages.
“We’re working on that, but we are also working on social marketing at the same time,” said McHatten.
The City has identified a location for a satellite campus for Hartnell College in the new annexation area between Orchard Lane, Gabilan and Metz Road.
According to McHatten, who spoke with Hartnell Superintendent/President Willard Lewallen, the city is in the first tier of funding for the satellite project.
On the outreach front, Assembly Member Anna Caballero is interested in having an office at the Soledad Fire Station once a month to hold office hours. Caballero’s office hours should be starting in the next few months.
As far as council goals, the City is in the middle of conducting a transient-occupancy tax audit. The transient-occupancy tax applies to out-of-town visitors who stay in city motels and hotels, a certain portion of the cost goes to the city.
“We’re doing an audit to make sure we are getting everything we are supposed to be getting,” McHatten said.
The movie theater is also going to come to Soledad, according to McHatten. The developer is still working on plans for the theater.
