MONDAY, MAY 4 • The Solvang Planning Commission has its regular meeting at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 1644 Oak Street, Solvang. TUESDAY, MAY 5 • The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors has its regular meeting at 9 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, 105 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara. Agendas […]
Community Notebook 4/30/15 – 5/7/15
Posted inNews
Hobnobbing with Helen
Scones, lemon curd, clotted cream. Shortbread cookies. Savory tea sandwiches (cucumber sandwiches are absolutely de rigeur). Champagne. Chocolate-covered strawberries (with long stems). These are the makings of high tea, and they were very much in evidence at the Minerva Club’s fifth annual Formal English Tea and Fashion Show. Held at the historically significant Minerva Clubhouse […]
Posted inNews
Costs pile up for the U-Haul murder trial
Most of Santa Barbara County’s residents didn’t even sit a day in court to listen to the brutal—and sometimes tedious—details of the murder of 28-year-old Anthony Ibarra, yet all of them will end up footing the bill in some small way. Ibarra was found dead in a rented U-Haul moving truck on March 19, 2013, […]
Posted inNews
Correction
• In the April 23 article ‘Water Town,” we incorrectly reported that the Allan Hancock College women’s cross country team was nixed to help pay for water polo. The cross country was actually suspended in response to low interest, and some of the money that move freed up is being used to help pay for […]
Posted inNews
Santa Maria police deploy ‘sponge round’ to end standoff
Santa Maria police arrested one man on the afternoon of April 27 following an hours-long standoff in the northeastern part of town, according to the SMPD. Lt. Dan Cohen said his department received a call to respond to the 1700 block of North Lynne Drive, where they found Juan Angel Salinas Peña allegedly trying to […]
Posted inNews
Lompoc commits $400k to update zoning ordinances
The city of Lompoc is reworking its economic development capacity from the inside out, specifically targeting its outdated zoning ordinances in an effort to drive more business into the city. On April 21, the City Council unanimously voted to award a $396,899 contract to San Francisco-based consultants Dyett and Bhatia to write new land-use ordinances […]
Posted inNews
Driscoll’s Berries faces Strawberry Festival protest
Protestors gathered outside the gates to call for a boycott of the Santa Maria Strawberry Festival over the weekend of April 25. Colorful signs painted with strawberries and “HULEGA!!”—meaning ‘strike’ in English—waved as sharply-dressed families walked by. They picketed in solidarity with massive strikes in Baja California, Mexico. Tens of thousands of berry pickers walked […]
Posted inNews
Rising water rates in Santa Maria are still relatively low
The Santa Maria City Council voted 4-1 on April 21 to raise water and sewer rates 5 percent annually for the next three years. The increase goes with the flow set by the city over the past 30 years, which have seen annual rate hikes of 5 percent. Starting on July 1, single-family households will […]
Posted inNews
Los Olivos mother coordinates earthquake relief effort in Nepal
Theodora Stephan has two daughters, Anita and Sunita Williams, whom she adopted from Nepal when they were children. She was able to bring them to the Central Coast through a humanitarian effort. Now, Stephan is part of another humanitarian effort, only this time she is trying to help bring relief to Nepal, which was struck […]
Posted inOpinion
Pay attention, people
Marching, protesting, and speaking out are one thing. Rioting, looting, and violence are another altogether. But if the dissatisfied recent echo that blasted through yet another U.S. city is any indicator of how people are feeling about the status quo, it’s explicitly clear: They’re unhappy, and they want things to change. Racism: It can be […]
Posted inOpinion
Deny Phillips 66 its rail spur permit
The only way to keep our county safe from fires and explosions caused by oil train derailments, with their accompanying clouds of oily, toxic smoke that sticks to everything and their groundwater pollution, is to prevent the huge increase in oil trains going through our county. And the only way to do that is to […]
Posted inOpinion
The Sheriff’s budget needs a closer look
During the recent budget and jail presentation by Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown to the county Board of Supervisors on April 6, I was shaking my head in disbelief. The supervisors could not make sense out of the disaster, and I’ve never seen all five board members so frustrated, but with good reason. Just […]
