Cover Story
Growing pains: From cut flowers to cannabis, Lompoc grapples with its past while eyeing economic opportunity
Dan Vordale’s boots crunch loose dirt and crumpled dead grass as he stomps through a neat row of waist-high flowers. “Ever since we came into this valley, the one flower we’ve grown is called stock,” he says. “It’s a big part of our company’s sales.” Vordale is a vice president for Ocean View Flowers, a…
Santa Maria-Bonita School District and employee union reach tentative agreement
The Santa Maria Elementary Education Association (SMEEA) and Santa Maria-Bonita School District reached a tentative agreement on June 1, after months of negotiations and spats over salary increases and benefits. At a negotiating session in February—where the district and SMEEA disagreed on a number of key issues—the groups reached an official impasse, and discussions were…
Sun and New Times win honors in national newspaper contest
The Sun and its sister paper in SLO, New Times, won awards in the National Newspaper Association (NNA) annual Better Newspaper Contest. Early results show the Sun won a first place, second place, and two honorable mentions in a lineup of awards that will be issued on Sept. 29 at the NNA’s annual convention in…
Generation X-It: From the archives
Award-winning writer Rebecca Rose once had her heart broken by a cat named Mr. T and clearly has not gotten over it. 6/7/18: Cozy up 5/10/18 Procrastination station 4/12/18 Dude: I am not dressing up for you 3/15/18 Importand advice to millennials 2/15 Wedding planning is more fun when you don’t do any actual planning…
The lemon family: Grant and Jen Sanregret’s Los Olivos Lemons serves up sweet concoctions on the go
There is something unique that sets Jen and Grant Sanregret’s business apart from the others in Los Olivos. It’s not just their physical location—a giant, bright yellow lemon parked neatly in a small space at the end of Grand Avenue, surrounded by a welcoming array of wooden lawn chairs. It’s not even their unique product,…
New beginnings: Jody Williams takes on the role of assistant director at the Elverhoj Museum
On May 30, the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art announced that Jody Williams, co-owner of the Wandering Dog winery in Solvang, was hired to fill the newly created position of assistant director. Williams sat down with the Sun to discuss the new job, her background, and her longtime love of art history. Sun: How…
Dance divas: Santa Ynez Valley Performing Arts Company launches its 31st season of dance in the valley
Christine Fossemalle is looking forward to the future. As the director of the Santa Ynez Valley Performing Arts Company, she’s spent 30 years on the Central Coast teaching young dancers and watching them perform the annual An Invitation to Dance recital after long hours of preparation and hard work. “It’s been the title of our…
Mural installation set for iconic Guadalupe building
The Squire Foundation’s Artist in Residence, Ruben Espinoza, will begin working to install a new temporary mural on the side of the former Far Western Tavern building in Guadalupe, the future home of the Dunes Center. The mural is a result of a collaborative effort between Santa Barbara’s Squire Foundation Artist in Residence Program and…
CORE Winery hosts annual art show for VTC artists
Artists from the Vocational Training Center (VTC) in Santa Maria will participate in an art show at CORE Winery, with a reception set to take place June 30. The event features artists sharing their work from the past year, as well as wine from CORE and appetizers for attendees. Artists’ works have been completed during…
The Lompoc Pops Orchestra to close season with guest soloists for ‘Pops Extravaganza’
Ever since Brian Asher Alhadeff became the Lompoc Pops Orchestra’s artistic director, the conductor well versed in classical music and opera has tried to sneak classical repertoire past the board of directors into the orchestra’s season programming. Modeled after the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Lompoc Pops performs exclusively American orchestral music, Alhadeff explained, and any…
Ballot boxed
We made it through the June 5 primary without any too-close-to-call races, recounts, or tantrums thrown by the losers. Whew, now we get to do it all again in November! While it would have been interesting to see Sheriff Bill Brown face a challenger in November, neither Lts. Brian Olmstead nor Eddie Hsueh got the…
Law Enforcement Torch Run
More than 30 local law enforcement officials recently participated in the last leg of the Law Enforcement Torch Run, an annual event that kicks off the Special Olympics Southern California Summer Games. Santa Maria City Park Rangers ran alongside officers from the Santa Maria and Guadalupe police departments, Santa Barbara County Probation, and the Department…
Spotlight on: RATP Dev USA
There’s a new manager in town for Santa Maria Area Transit (SMAT). RATP Dev USA, an international transportation systems company, will manage transportation services in Santa Maria beginning July 1. Santa Maria officials announced they had awarded a contract to RATP Dev on June 7 and said the agreement would run for three years with…
Race for the fourth
Recent announcements from current and potential City Council members made the first week of June an important one for Santa Maria’s upcoming elections—the first round of district elections in the city’s history. Rafael Gutierrez, a longtime Santa Maria resident and attorney specializing in criminal defense and personal injury, announced his candidacy for the District 4…
Supervisors adopt balanced budget for 2018-19 fiscal year
Santa Barbara County’s Board of Supervisors adopted its recommended budget of $1.1 billion for the 2018-19 fiscal year on June 11, a 2.5 percent increase from last year’s iteration. “The board adopted a balanced budget with no layoffs, few service reductions, replenishment of reserves, and increased maintenance funding, while continuing a commitment to long-standing priorities…
Santa Maria-Bonita School District hosts first meeting in Mixteco
Roughly 10 percent of families with children attending schools in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District speak Mixteco as their primary language. That’s about 1,800 Santa Maria-Bonita School District students, according to Assistant Superintendent Mark Muller, who said the population of Mixteco-speaking students within the district has doubled in the last five years and more than…
Orcutt teens suspects in rash of car vandalism incidents
Three Orcutt teens are being investigated by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office for their suspected involvement in a recent string of car vandalism incidents in Santa Maria and Orcutt. The suspects were stopped by a sheriff’s deputy just after midnight on June 9, according to a Sheriff’s Office press release, while they were sitting…
Oxnard’s Chief Financial Officer tapped to manage Lompoc
The search for Lompoc’s new city manager is over. Jim Throop, formerly the chief financial officer for Oxnard, will take over the position vacated by Patrick Wiemiller, who resigned in November 2017 following months of budget deadlock between members of the City Council, two of which called for the review of Wiemiller’s performance on three…
Trumpflation!
People are worried that President Donald Trump’s economic policies could overheat the economy. When he was elected, the stock market exploded. Now, many economists fear runaway inflation could harm our economy. Gas prices are on the rise, groceries will be next. The real danger is we’ll find inflated numbers everywhere. Tucson could become Threecson, and…
Lompoc, a city in decline
I keep trying to remain optimistic that there will be a dramatic turnaround of new growth and an influx of prosperity and wealth in Lompoc, but all the signs point in the opposite direction. In many ways a tone-deaf City Council majority has contributed to a reversal of improvements that have been made by previous…
Political Watch 6/14/18
• Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers reached a $200 billion budget agreement on June 8, which Brown’s office stated “makes record investments in schools and universities, creates the state’s first online community college, fully fills the Rainy Day Fund, boosts child care, and combats homelessness and poverty.” “After detailed discussions, California is on the…
County launches cannabis regulation and licensing website
There’s now another resource prospective cannabis business owners in Santa Barbara County can utilize to get their operations up to snuff. The new website, cannabis.countyofsb.org, offers a step-by-step guide to legally running a marijuana-related business, along with maps for zoning and permitting, as well as information on business and state licensing. The site also has…
