Cover Story
Clean to green: Gray water systems can use your laundry water to quench those thirsty plants
Josh Carmichael started installing simple gray water systems with landscaping to accompany it in 2009, after California plumbing laws changed to encourage gray water use. At first, he constructed about one system per year as part of his environmental landscape and design work, but gradually, as the reservoirs emptied, that part of his business picked…
House committee slams pipeline safety chief
The U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce committee hammered Stacy Cummings, interim director of the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), during a July 14 hearing on federal pipeline safety efforts. The Refugio spill was a major focus, with Santa Barbara County Director of Planning and Development Dianne Black testifying and U.S. Rep. Lois…
What do you like to do outside?
Austin Wells student “I enjoy playing soccer, basically any sport. Running, biking.” Kayla ForesterSaunders works at Burger King “I go running around my neighborhood a lot. I like to go on walks and go running with friends.” Daniel Yowler student “I like to go to the beach. I try and get people to hang out…
Home improvement (or replacement)
I have one rule I live by: I never do things twice. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, like I will drink more than one beer. And, yes, I will also do anything that I think is fun more than once, like watching the Star Wars trilogy for the 11th time (I only…
Concerts in the Park in Santa Maria features local groups performing outdoors
Santa Maria has numerous parks that are more than welcome venues for a relaxing afternoon of lawn chair lounging and barbecue, but come summertime, the city’s Recreation and Parks Department supplements that already fantastic setting and climate with the sound of live music provided by the community’s favorite local groups. The Concerts in the Park…
Local volunteers, groups, and businesses aid Buena Vista Beautifiers’ support of historic Santa Maria park
Buena Vista Park was one of Santa Maria’s earliest parks, built more than a century ago by some of the city’s founders, and it’s today recognized as a historical landmark. The humble Camp Fire Cabin sits in the corner of the park at West Morrison Avenue and South Pine Street, right across the street from…
Celebrate Recreation and Parks Month with Santa Maria
The Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department is celebrating July as national Recreation and Parks Month with a number of free outdoor events for locals. A free gift is available for the first 200 residents who visit the Recreation and Parks Department Office while supplies last. The office is located at 615 S. McClelland, Santa…
Take in a PCPA student
PCPA The Pacific Conservatory Theatre is asking any Santa Marrians with an extra room to spare to consider housing incoming conservatory students beginning in August. Apartments, granny units, or guest cottages near the college are preferred, but anyone with a spare room to rent is invited to contact the conservatory. The bare minimum that incoming…
DANA features talk about William Goodwin Dana
The DANA Cultural Center features the organization’s namesake, William Goodwin Dana, for the upcoming installation of the Saturday Speaker Series on July 18 at 2 p.m. The talk, to be presented by DANA Cultural Center board member Alan Daurio, is titled William Dana’s Asian Trade Experience. Dana was a part of America’s burgeoning trade with…
A Place to Grow helps locals build a structure tailored to their outdoor-meets-indoor needs
In response to the craze of the Man Cave—usually indoor spaces designed by and for men to drink, watch sports, and play video games—a countermovement started, empowering the opposite sex to claim their own space and, at the same time, enjoy their yards. The outdoor structures are known as She Sheds, explained A Place to…
Spotlight on: Bruno’s Greenhouse
A customer utters the words “gorgeous,” “majestic,” and “beautiful” as she browses through the foliage along a meandering path at Bruno’s Greenhouse, an indoor/outdoor plant nursery in Nipomo. It’s the type of reaction that owner Christine Bruno intends when customers come to her greenhouse, or nursery. It’s actually both, but is mainly a nursery, since…
Los Flores Ranch Park gets in the summer groove
On the third Saturday of the month from 8:30 a.m. to noon Los Flores Ranch Park invites families to enjoy free Outside in Nature Play Days. On July 18, the mysteries just under our feet will be on display in Sand Secrets—Microhabitats for Invertibrates. A local expert from the Dunes Center will talk about the…
Learn to plant and love agriculture at the Discovery Museum
The Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum’s got plans, and the farming industry’s part of them. With a future of new exhibits in the works, the museum’s holding an informational/fundraising meeting on July 22 at from 6 to 8 p.m. On deck are three “wants” that will bring the community’s agricultural industry indoors for kids to…
The Pad crashes down: The Sun takes a tour of Santa Maria’s new climbing gym
Tucked away in a nondescript block of tan warehouses on the western edge of Santa Maria is a new business from the people behind SLO-Op climbing gym—The Pad. It’s a rock climbing gym with 10,000 square feet of space and 5,000 square feet of climbing wall, plus yoga, weightlifting, and the occasional climbing competition. Dustin…
Hoppy hour: Two friends experiment with growing hops in arid Northern Santa Barbara County
Buried deep within the Santa Rita Hills just outside of Lompoc near Cebada Canyon Road, Casey Birthisel and Brian DeBolt are growing a hops garden. Driving up to a password-protected gate, Birthisel punches in the code and takes a long, winding road up a hill lined with white fences. He drives up to another gate,…
Political Watch 7/16/15
• On July 9, the California Council on Science and Technology released the results of a study required by SB 4, a set of hydraulic fracking regulations authored by state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) passed into law last year. Jane Long, the report’s co-lead, spoke during a media conference call that day, saying that…
Community Notebook 7/16/15 – 7/23/15
TUESDAY, JULY 21 • The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors has its regular meeting at 9 a.m. in the Betteravia Government Center’s Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, 511 E. Lakeside Parkway, Ste. 141, Santa Maria. Agendas are available at http://santabarbara.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx#current. • The Santa Maria City Council has its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. in…
SLO County Planning Commission approves Ethnobotanica’s Nipomo medical marijuana dispensary
Visions of gun-toting gangsters didn’t deter the SLO County Planning Commission from approving the permit for Ethnobotanica’s brick-and-mortar medical marijuana dispensary in Nipomo, but it did stimulate a scintillating discussion about crime and business. Ethnobotanica would be the county’s only operating brick-and-mortar dispensary, unless it gets appealed to the Board of Supervisors, which is likely.…
Correction
• In the July 2 issue, the Sun published an article that noted SpaceX’s plans to move operations from Vandenberg Air Force Base. While SpaceX’s in-flight abort test was moved to Florida, the company is not completely leaving Vandenberg and still plans to use the facility for other launches.
Olive Grove program re-chartered after successful state appeal
Students, parents, and teachers of the Olive Grove Charter School program finally have the answer they were looking for. After months of agonizing decisions made by local school boards that pointed the program toward closure, persistence to keep the schools open paid off. The California State Board of Education voted to grant Olive Grove Charter…
Nipomo supplemental water is finally here
There’s good news and bad news when it comes to water supplies for the residents of the Nipomo Mesa. Phase one of the long-anticipated supplemental water project is near completion, and water supplies have already arrived, delivering at least 4 million gallons since July 2 to the parched Mesa from Santa Maria, according to the…
Body found on Tepusquet Canyon Road
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office is trying to identify a human body found near Santa Maria on July 12. According to a press release issued by the Sheriff’s Office, bicyclists were riding along Tepusquet Canyon Road, about 15 miles east of Santa Maria, around 7:40 a.m. when they discovered what appeared to be human…
Santa Barbara County inmate died from natural causes, coroner says
Raymond Herrera entered Santa Barbara County Jail in June to serve a short sentence for various non-violent probation violations, but he didn’t come out alive. On June 15, the 52-year-old Herrera suffered a medical emergency while in jail and died a short time later at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. According to a coroner’s report issued…
Ignorance isn’t bliss
This week is a depressing week for the oil industry and the federal agencies that govern it. I know, it seems like that’s all I talk about lately. But it’s a hot-button topic. It’s sexy, as long as you’re not covered in mucky, clumpy crude or toxic fracking chemicals. Unfortunately, it also seems like there’s…
Rational education is the right education
Everyone knows public education has lots of problems, but the question is, who’s responsible? Liberals say it’s because of conservatives who do everything they can to sabotage education so that only the wealthy have total access, that vouchers, charter schools, private academies, and Christian schools—almost all of which outperform public schools at a fraction of…
Rijo Jackson
On July 8, Lompoc High School and Allan Hancock College alum Rijo Jackson signed to play basketball for Northland College in Wisconsin. Jackson, a Lompoc native, is part of the Jackson family. “My grandfather and Michael’s dad, Joseph, they’re brothers, so that’s how he’s in the picture,” he explained. He remembers the King of Pop…
Hanger management: Lo Mejor de Jalisco offers a new experience
It was hot and muggy, and we were on a quest for Mexican food for dinner. Yes, there are a lot of delicious options on the Central Coast, but we wanted something specific. We wanted something authentic but original. We wanted an atmosphere that would transport us to someplace that matched the warm, unusually humid…
