Cover Story
Into the wild: Armed with little more than a catchpole and a leash, animal services officers strive to maintain a balance between humans, pets, and wildlife
In a popular cartoon, a dog catcher clumsily grabs a net from his truck and bumbles after a wily dog, his face grimacing, his teeth grinding as he chases his prey. Somehow this stereotype has made its way into our consciousness, so when we see an animal control officer (that’s their official title) approach our…
Community Notebook 8/25/16 – 9/1/16
THURSDAY, SEPT. 1 • The Santa Maria Planning Commission has a study session at 10 a.m. in the Community Development Department, 110 S. Pine St., Santa Maria. • The Santa Barbara County Local Agency Formation Commission has its regular meeting at 2 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, 105 E. Anapamu St., Santa…
What is your favorite local wild animal?
Katie Pearson assistant director at Wildling Museum of Art & Nature “I love raccoons. I think they’re really cute looking, but I love how promiscuous and tricky they are. They get into garbage cans, their little hands are so amazing, and they can really pick things apart and do incredible things.” Stacey Otte-Demangate executive director…
Mad for Mad & Vin: The Landsby hotel’s Solvang restaurant hits the spot
Mad & Vin—the phrase translates from Danish to “food and wine,” but the restaurant of the same name has much more to it than that. Located in The Landsby hotel in Solvang, Mad & Vin offers an extensive and unique menu, including well-priced and well-portioned happy hour offerings. I recently caught the restaurant’s happy hour—which…
Brooke Cuzick
The Nipomo High School girls’ golf team appeared to be primed for a climactic, successful 2016 fall season—until an unexpected crisis hit. “We had eight returning players. We were going to be strong,” Jim Delaby, head coach of the team, said. “Then, we lost half of them. Three girls moved out of the area. We…
Kickin’ it off: The Sun brings you a preview of Santa Maria area high school athletics for Fall 2016
Rejoice! The doldrums of summer are over. A new school year is upon us. And you know what that means: sports, sports, and more sports! The fall is shaping up to be another exciting and competitive season for the local high schools, and the Sun is here to make sense of it all—beginning with this…
Pre-gaming is pre-drinking
I recently noticed something very interesting about my wife when the two of us are preparing to go out for a night on the town. While we are both in the bathroom brushing, combing, and plucking, my wife has an open beer sitting on the bathroom counter. Last weekend I asked her, “What are you…
Political Watch 8/25/16
• A bill by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) to help disabled veterans who are transitioning from military service into a new career working in California’s public schools passed off the Assembly floor Aug. 19 on a bipartisan, 65-0 vote and is now headed to the governor. Senate Bill 1180 will give disabled veterans who…
The DANA Cultural Center closes its fundraiser summer concert series with Unfinished Business
The folks at the DANA Cultural Center have a lot to be excited about. They just broke ground on the organization’s biggest project to date, the DANA Cultural Center/Nature Education Center on Aug. 24, attended by SLO County Supervisor Lynn Compton, Sen. Bill Monning, and Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian. The massive expansion program will take more…
Elverhoj Museum opens new exhibit
The Elverhoj Museum in Solvang opened the new exhibit Manna from Heaven in its main gallery space on Aug. 20 with an event that welcomed artists Robert Burridge, Jim McWilliams, and Bob Nichols to speak on their work. The exhibit—which shows through Nov. 6—focuses on vessels used to feed the body and soul. The exhibit…
Santa Barbara County Arts Commission features exhibit highlighting the Mixteco community
The Santa Barbara County Arts Commission will bring the photography exhibit Campos de Ensueños to Santa Maria after a run in Santa Barbara. The exhibit shows from Aug. 31 through Nov. 25 at the Betteravia Gallery, located at the Joseph Centeno Betteravia Government Administration Building. The exhibit features the photography of Antonio Arredondo Juarez and…
Daytripper: Dinosaur Caves Park is a gorgeous gem of a park
Coastal fog enshrouds Shell Beach as my wife and I—filled with chorizo and eggs from Zorro’s Café and Cantina, naturally—make our way to Dinosaur Caves Park. It’s around 10 a.m. on a recent Saturday, and kids are playing on the playground as their parents watch. Across the green expanse of lawn, a group of people…
Wild inside: The Wildling Museum commissions new mural by John Iwerks
A gray-barked and green-leafed tree towers above the yellow savannah, with the distant rolling foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountain range dwarfed by its sprawling limbs. The faint ring of a cash register drifts in from the next room, a reminder that this beautiful valley oak tree is in fact indoors, and is a painting.…
Tunnell Elementary dedicates library to influential teacher
On Thursday, Aug. 25, at 6 p.m., Tunnell Elementary School will dedicate its library to former sixth-grade teacher Jim Galvez. A plaque in his name will be unveiled, and former students and colleagues of Galvez will speak. Galvez taught at Tunnell School for his entire 32-year career. He primarily taught sixth grade, though there were…
Spotlight on: SHARE Program
These days, hunting is done more for sport than survival. And while California has lots of open spaces for wildlife to roam, hunters often have a hard time getting access to land because much of it is private and the public portions are also transitioning to private ownership, according to Victoria Barr, an environmental specialist…
Save the Valley still trying to shut down Chumash Casino
Santa Ynez Valley-based land preservation group Save the Valley LLC is appealing a decision by the United States to remove a case by the group against the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians to federal court. The legal challenge began in 2015, when Save the Valley sought to intervene in a century-old case related to…
Juvenile mentorship program proposed for North County
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted Aug. 23 to give the county Probation Department six months to evaluate the possibility of establishing a post-incarceration mentorship program for youth in North County. The topic initially came up in a grand jury report that called Los Prietos Boys Camp, a delinquent youth camp located in…
When we don’t shoot
Canary’s note: We’re stepping aside to allow Pat Walsh, chief of the Lompoc Police Department, fill in for the Canary. When a street sergeant asks for the SWAT and Crisis Negotiation Team (CNT) to respond to a barricaded felon, it’s called “pushing the button.” On Saturday, Aug. 6, the Lompoc Police Department (LPD) did just…
Violent cycle
Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate but unequal.” No, this is not a recent statement. One year after the 1967 riots, then President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission, which issued a report including these memorable words. It is sad to note that the statement is as accurate today…
Reassessing a situation: A steep increase in taxes at Knollwood Village may force some senior residents to move
Dozens of Knollwood Village residents gathered on the second floor of the Far Western Tavern in Orcutt on the evening of Aug. 17 to hear The Towbes Group Chairman Michael Towbes address a sudden steep rise in their rent bills, some of which increased by thousands of dollars. Knollwood Village is an age-restricted mobile home…
Exoskeleton technology comes to Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital, helping injured Central Coast patients walk
When Larry Bartley fell out of a 30-foot tree in his backyard in Santa Barbara, his legs were pretty much the only things he didn’t break—and yet, they were unusable. Bartley sustained spinal cord injuries that essentially wiped out his body’s memory of how to walk. He had to start from square one. “I was…
Rey Fire chars more than 29,000 acres
As firefighters battle the Blue Cut Fire in San Bernardino County, the Chimney Fire in Northern San Luis Obispo (SLO) County, and the Soberanes Fire in Big Sur, Santa Barbara County firefighters are working on containing the Rey Fire several miles east of Cachuma Lake bordering the Los Padres Forest. As of 8 a.m. on…
School lunch applications due
Students and parents from Santa Maria, Pioneer Valley, Righetti, and Delta high schools are encouraged to fill out an online or paper application for Santa Maria Joint Union High School District’s (SMJUHSD) Free and Reduced Meal Program. The applications are available at all school sites, cafeterias, community liaison offices, and the Support Services Center at…
Golfers take positive swings to improve educational opportunities for Guadalupe students
The Guadalupe Kids Come First Foundation will hold its third annual Golf Tournament fundraiser at Monarch Dunes Golf Course in Nipomo on Saturday, Sept. 24. The nonprofit foundation supports the Guadalupe Union School District’s academic, athletic, and cultural programs. All money raised supports activities and programs that the school budget can’t cover. Last year, the…
Corrections
In the Sun’s Best Of issue (Aug. 10, 2016) under the category of Best Orthodontist, CEO and owner of Central Coast Orthodontics Dr. Kirk A. Specht’s name was misspelled. Also, in the Best Of issue, the Dine and Devour gateway featured a Klondike Pizza representative who should have been identified as Selena Sanchez.
