Cover Story
Safety on the tracks: A rail project proposal has caused debate among coastal residents, but how safe is rail transport in general, and are first responders ready to handle a potential emergency?
Miles and miles of railroad track snake up the California coast though big cities and small towns. For coastal residents in SLO and Santa Barbara counties, those rails and the trains that run on them were a seemingly banal part of every day existence. Walking in cities like Santa Barbara, Guadalupe, Pismo Beach, and San…
What is your biggest safety concern living on the Central Coast?
Caroline Martinez barista “Walking around town with not enough lighting with all the dangerous activity going on.” Grace Davis barista “Would it be bad to say I don’t really have one? Like, I’m not really concerned about anything. I’m just chillin’.” Brittany Rincon barista “I would like to see more police patrols in certain areas…
Toymaker donates wooden creations to Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum
Local toymaker Gene West and his wife, Patricia, recently gifted the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum with dozens of handmade wooden toys, representatives of the local nonprofit museum said in a press release Nov. 13. The various wooden contraptions have an elegant simplicity, but lay docile until interacted with, the typical design for toys made…
Growing Grounds Gallery showcases work of John Michael Byers
Growing Grounds Gallery and Gifts, part of Transitions-Mental Health Association (TMHA), usually shows only the artwork of its members, but the gallery in Santa Maria also showcases local guest artists for short shows, including an upcoming showcase of the work of John Michael Byers on Nov. 27 and 28. Byers began sharing his art with…
Daytripper: Living large in the tiny Western town of Santa Margarita
It’s a little after 10 a.m., and I’m working behind the bar of Ancient Peak’s tasting room in Santa Margarita. Soon, folks will be coming in for bottles of cabernet sauvignon, wine tasting, and cheese and charcuterie boards. Zip liners—flushed from their flight across four Margarita Adventures zip lines, will retell the story of that…
Nipomo’s new community theater group, Central Coast Theater Works, presents ‘It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play’
A new community theater group has formed in Nipomo. It was born out of the small community’s love of the stage, and a deficit it’s felt since the Adobe Players disbanded nine years ago, explained Angi Herrick, one of the founding members of the new Central Coast Theater Works. Herrick, who used to act with…
The Santa Maria Philharmonic Society presents a holiday concert featuring brass, organ, and voices
One can hear centuries of celebration in Christmas and holiday music, from Handel’s Messiah or Bach’s Magnificat with its massive scope and joyous fanfare, all the way to the modern holiday tune. Humanity has never stopped celebrating the season that has come to mean so much to so many, that a kind of idyllic style…
Big thanks for the little things
There’s a careful little gymnastics routine I have to perform on most days, in the dark before I leave the house. I quietly tiptoe out of my bedroom holding my running shoes, careful not to wake anyone. Blindly I try to recall the layout of my path—three steps toward the hall, 12 lunges to the…
America’s top chefs choose Santa Maria’s Babe Farms for fresh specialty vegetables any time of year
Many of the finest restaurants in the United States and Canada count on Santa Maria’s Babé Farms for year-round, high-end produce. This isn’t where you’ll find the ordinary. Babé Farms grows and hand-harvests 80 unique vegetable varieties—some almost too beautiful to eat. We’re talking nine different colored radishes, including slim white icicles, red-and-white finger-shaped French…
Exclusive plans
Black Friday. I’ve got mixed feelings about it. I’m definitely not flying the coup early on a day that I don’t have to get up for work just to save a little money. But, there are birdies that do, and I guess that’s their prerogative, especially if they’re shopping for my non-denominational holiday gift! Well,…
Helping children navigate challenging times
Like millions of people around the world, I watched TV coverage of the chaos and carnage in Paris with growing revulsion and dread. My heart went out to the victims and family members of those so profoundly affected by such barbarism and terror. In a thoughtful Time magazine article on the impact of tragedies on…
Majority of neighbors reject Pioneer Valley High School’s offer to erect fence
The fence line bordering the west side of Pioneer Valley High School and 25 private residences will remain as is after a majority of the homeowners rejected the school district’s offer to build a fence to keep students from passing through the properties. In October the Santa Maria High School district sent the homeowners a…
Santa Maria Public Library Foundation seeks funds for homework help center
The Santa Maria Public Library Foundation is spearheading a fundraising campaign to develop after-school homework help centers in the Santa Maria Library system to assist children in grades K through 6 with tutors and technology that may not otherwise be available to them. City Librarian Mary Housel said organizers are hoping to launch the program…
Spotlight on: CALM
CALM, or Child Abuse Listening Mediation, is a Santa Barbara-based nonprofit with a satellite office in Santa Maria. Establishing a North County branch in 2010, CALM recently moved its Santa Maria headquarters to a bigger office on Enos Drive. The nonprofit’s mission is to assess, prevent, and treat child abuse in Santa Barbara County. …
Political Watch 11/26/2015
• UC Davis just released its annual report of California Women Business Leaders, a study of how many women hold the highest-paid executive positions and board seats in the state’s 400 largest public companies. In response, Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus and author of the nation’s strongest equal…
Community Notebook 11/26/15 – 12/3/15
TUESDAY, DEC. 1 • The Vandenberg Village Community Services District has its regular board meeting at 7 p.m. in the District Office Conference Room, 3757 Constellation Road, Vandenberg Village. • The Santa Maria City Council has its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, City Hall, 110 E. Cook St., Santa Maria.…
Hobnobbing with Helen
Cinderella—now playing at PCPA—is a campy confection. It will undoubtedly delight hundreds of showgoers of all ages this month and next. When you have a show where the fairy godmother appears and gets a huge, spontaneous outburst of applause, you know you have a hit. Fairy godmothers, it would seem, are in. To celebrate the…
Santa Maria Area Transit system is in line for fare and route changes
As he patiently waited for the bus at the Bradley Road stop in front of Allan Hancock College, Darryl Rojas recalled his service in the Navy. The 77-year-old man barely missed both the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. “I was aboard the USS Wasp participating in the blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Rojas said. The…
Jordan Farms in Lompoc put under agricultural conservation easement
Santa Barbara County has a long tradition of agriculture, and some groups want to keep it that way. The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County and The Trust for Public Land (TPL) came to an agreement with Jordan Farms owner Steve Jordan to preserve the 780-acre farm near Vandenberg Air Force Base. The announcement was…
Lompoc drops exclusive negotiating contract with California Space Center
The city of Lompoc ended a plan to build a $460 million space-themed multiplex on city-owned land. Lompoc’s City Council members voted to end the exclusive negotiating contract with Eva Blaisdell and the California Space Center (CSC) at their Nov. 17 meeting. The one-year contract, which was signed between Blaisdell and the city in June,…
String of gang-related shootings in Santa Maria leaves 17-year-old dead
Several people were shot and one teenager is dead following a series of Friday night shootings in Santa Maria on Nov. 20, according to the Santa Maria Police Department. According to the SMPD, there were three separate shootings spread throughout various parts of the city. The call for the first shooting came just before 6…
Santa Maria’s 2015 Elks Rodeo receives national award from Women’s Professional Rodeo Association
It was a pleasant surprise to the members of Elks Recreation Inc. and the Santa Maria Elks Rodeo Committee when the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association announced the annual Santa Maria Valley event won 2015 Medium Rodeo of the Year. The honoree was chosen from rodeos nationwide, explained Phil Harwick, president of the rodeo committee and…
Katie Barbarick
Sometimes dreams seem to come true rather quickly, and other times it takes a lot of hard work to make them happen. Righetti High School senior Katie Barbarick, dreamed of playing college softball since she was a young girl. She dedicated years to making her dream a reality, and recently it came true when Barbarick…
On a path to victory: Santa Maria boxer Karlos Balderas qualifies for Olympic team
As a kid, Karlos Balderas liked to get in trouble. His uncle, Emiliano Balderas, a pastor, took him to a gym to help him work out energy in a more focused way. What nobody knew at the time was that with that one simple action—redirecting a troubled 7-year-old child’s energies—a fateful path was set in…
