By MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Managing Editor
editor@sbnewspaper.com
Seen here is the notice city officials posted at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel earlier this week.
It’s safe to say that the building and fire code violations city inspectors recently reported at San Benito’s historic Stonewall Jackson Hotel are not, by any means, au courant discoveries.
In fact, citizens of San Benito have long considered the hotel synonymous with dilapidating, deteriorating and downright debilitating conditions that City of San Benito officials have only now attempted to rectify; this by posting not one, but two notices in less than as many weeks’ time. The notices, citing “unsafe” living conditions that city officials believe poses a threat to tenants’ health and safety, urge residents of the hotel to vacate Stonewall “immediately.”
This begs the question that’s on the minds of many with an opinion: Why has a building in disrepair never prompted red flags during previous inspections, until now? “That is the exact question I have asked my staff,” City Manager Manuel Lara said. “We’ve had a change in personnel, and it’s very likely that the personnel who were overseeing that function before were very lenient.”
“There’s no question that it should have been enforced and looked at,” Lara admitted. “These are some of the procedures that have not been done on a regular basis in the past. We need to do these things and implement these things, and some of these issues need to minimize cost so they don’t continue escalating and deteriorating.
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