Spotlight

For more than a century, the Santa Maria Valley Railroad has helped local businesses ship products across the country.  The railroad company picks up produce, lumber, and other items from businesses within the city and transports the products across 14 miles of local tracks to the train station in Guadalupe. From there, the railcars are […]

Almost exactly a year after VTC Enterprises closed the doors of its beloved Santa Maria thrift shop in February 2018, it opened a bigger and better version of its Lompoc store in a new location. Now, with the store and its staff finally all in order, VTC Enterprises is ready to celebrate.  VTC Enterprises and […]

Parks in Santa Maria and Lompoc could receive overdue updates if the cities are successful in securing millions of dollars in grant funding from the state.   In June 2018, California voters approved a $4 billion bond referendum that funds, among other projects, parks in low-income neighborhoods. According to state documents, projects are only eligible […]

Hordes of Central Coast residents took to their social media pages on June 26 to cheer the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport’s announcement that it will soon offer direct flights to Las Vegas, a move that could impact the Santa Maria airport’s limited flight options.    Santa Maria Public Airport General Manager Chris Hastert […]

For the first time in decades, the Santa Maria Public Library will soon be open for at least a few hours every day of the week. At a recent meeting, City Council approved the library’s hiring of two librarians and six additional support staff positions, which will give the library the staffing it needs to […]

About 140,000 gallons of crude oil gushed out of a corroded pipeline and into the ocean just off the coast of Santa Barbara in May 2015, killing wildlife and blackening beaches.  The pipe was owned by Plains All American Pipeline—the Texas-based oil company that was later convicted of a felony for failing to properly maintain […]

Despite these gloomy days, it’s supposedly the beginning of summer, which for a lot of people on the Central Coast means sunshine, warm temperatures, and days spent at the beach. However, to animal shelters and other organizations, the onset of summer means the beginning of kitten season. As adorable as that may sound, it can […]

Before there were walk-in clinics and urgent care centers, there were family doctors—the doctors grandma talks about, who spent years looking after the health needs of entire families; made house calls; and, on the less rosy side of things, worked about 100 hours a week.  Those long weeks proved unsustainable for most, leading many family […]

About eight years ago, Annie Looysen and her husband acquired a few pet finches and purchased a table to place the birds’ cage on. Unfortunately, the avians didn’t work out as pets in their 800-square-foot home, so Looysen painted the table and sold it on Craigslist for much more than she anticipated.  Although the birds […]

Millions of senior citizens in the U.S. are threatened by food insecurity and malnutrition each year. Nearly 7.8 percent of all senior households in the country were food insecure in 2016, according to data collected by the National Council on Aging, including 18 percent of Latino seniors.  Seniors face a number of challenges when it […]

Forty years ago, Transitions-Mental Health Association (TMHA) was founded with the goal of helping people leaving state mental health hospitals reintegrate into the community by teaching them basic skills such as cooking or budgeting. Four decades later, TMHA has expanded on this goal with numerous other programs offered throughout Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo […]

Not everyone knows all of the ins and outs of adequately running a school district, but in most cases, the old adage “it takes a village” is fitting. Aside from their many teachers, administrators, and other employees, most school districts partner with outside organizations and businesses that help schools provide enhanced services, educational opportunities, and […]