Goleta Water District Directors Urged to Resign

Goleta Water District Directors Urged to Resign

Goleta Valley Voice

Board members of the Goleta Water district on Tuesday faced calls for their resignations and the suspension of all new connections, annexations and groundwater pumping in response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's declaration of a state drought.

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The Brown Act, the state's open meeting law, was once again the subject of heated discussion early in the meeting. ... At issue was why the creation of the two committees had never been reported publicly. ... When Ruskey asked Cunningham what he intended to do about the alleged violation of the Brown Act, Cunningham said he guessed he'd "have to suffer with it."

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 8/10

Front Page:
Pipe Dreams
Venoco will, sooner or later, have to stop shipping its oil by barge and use a pipeline. When they do it is the sticky issue.

News Briefs:
Council pushes ahead on General Plan changes
Despite protests from council member Jonny Wallis and community members regarding what they saw as lack of public involvement, the Goleta City Council on Monday voted 4-1 to go through with plans to initiate changes to the General Plan.

Park conversion ban stays; owner vows suit
The City Council on Monday voted to extend its interim moratorium on approvals of conversion of mobile home rental parks to resident-owned units, prompting attorneys for local mobile home park owners the Guggenheim family to file another lawsuit against the city.

In Brief

• Rehab worker accused of sexual assualt
• Zaca Fire information
• Red Cross offers disaster relief classes

Cyclist killed in Old Town crash
A man was killed in Old Town Wednesday morning when he apparently rode his bike into an 80,000 pound truck hauling sand and was crushed to death.

Sheriff's Blotter

• Lesson 1: Fights at 4:30 a.m. are not spectator sports
• Picture-taking pervert
• Scary stuff
• Return to sender
• Trippin’
• Another criminal genius
• Would you leave $2,000 laying around in Isla Vista?
• Bad place to pass out
• Climbing the walls

Viewpoint:
Mayor's Report: Life in the time of wildfires
As I write this on Tuesday, the skies are blue, the sun is shining and those clouds rising from the Zaca Fire are still white. Wildfires of this kind are so frightening — everything depending on the wind and its shifts. Forty-three years ago my family had to evacuate in the middle of the night due to a change in direction of the Coyote Fire. Believe me, that is an experience that one never forgets.

Community:
She’s calling the tune at Ellwood
When students return to Ellwood Elementary School for the start of another school year in just a few weeks, they’ll find someone new in the principal’s office — veteran educator Liz Rocha.

Goleta Scrapbook: Opulence on the hill
A prominent landmark even today, the 200-foot high hill that rises just west of the intersection of Fairview Avenue and Cathedral Oaks Road was once home to Dr. Walter Scott Franklin and his wife, Laura.

Business:
Raytheon gets contract for radar receivers
Raytheon Co. has won a $24.4million to supply the Royal Australian Air Force a digital radar warning receiver produced at the company’s Goleta facility.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 8/03

Front Page:
Born to dance: Goleta's Marissa Cordero steps out as Junior Spirit of Fiesta
With a megawatt smile and more poise than many ladies twice her age, Goleta girl Marissa Cordero is ready to stamp and clap her way through Fiesta as this year’s Junior Spirit.

News Briefs:
Parents urged to get school kids immunized
With the new school year fast approaching, Dr. Elliot Schulman, county health officer, is urging parents to be sure their children are fully immunized before classes begin. California schools are required to verify each child’s immunization record to ensure that all required doses are completed.

Sheriff's Blotter

• There's no law against being nice to a dog
• You can go home again
• Evildoers in Hope Ranch
• Delaying the inevitable
• Say what?
• Stolen firearm recovered on Fairview
• His lucky day
• Dine and dash

In Brief

• Foster parent orientation
• Town Hall meetings on mental health workers
• Anti-nuclear conference

Community:
Local Currents: Hitting for the life cycle
A lifetime of playing softball — 62 years — will be honored in October when Al Kumm of Goleta travels to Arizona to be inducted into the National Senior Softball Hall Of Fame, which boasts only 250 members since it was founded in 1995.

Schools of Thought: A simple goal for our children
Sometimes we want so much for our children, and our community’s children, that the task seems overwhelming. There are too many bases to cover, too many areas to nurture or protect to make sure our children get our best efforts and reach their full potentials.

Goleta teen to be awarded Eagle Scout
Alexander Wolff will be awarded the rank of Eagle Scout on Aug. 11 at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 380 N. Fairview Ave. Alex is the son of Les and Cathryn Wolff.

Goleta Scrapbook: When only ducks took off from here
You might not easily recognize this Goleta landmark now because these days it’s much drier, partially covered in concrete, and has a steady stream of airplanes landing on and taking off from it.

Business:
Strictly Local: A minor adjustment and a new career
Ismael Lira knew for a long time that he wanted a career in sports medicine, and after working three years as an assistant for chiropractor Mark Brisby he was ready to take the next step.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 7/27

Front Page:
A dream come true
Virgil Elings was first in the water at the Elings Aquatic Center last week, surprising the crowd gathered to celebrate the completion of the project on the Dos Pueblos High School campus.

News Briefs:
City gears up to tackle future
City staff will take another stab at the nearly 200 goals and objectives on its to-do list as it pushes forward with the Strategic Plan the council adopted at the City Council meeting on July 16.

UCSB shops its growth plans
UCSB’s Long Range Development Plan, a strategy that encompasses the next 25 years of the university’s anticipated growth, is in its early stages of review and revision and has been making the rounds in the Goleta community.

In Brief

• UCSB researcher awarded Fullbright
• Klein is Rotary president
• SB accounting firm buys Goleta office building

Sheriff's Blotter

• Side job pays for bad habit
• I always go out looking like this
• Would-be escape artist caught in act
• Man vs. wild
• You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here
• Getting her kicks behind bars
• Burgled in the 'burbs

Economic forecast sees uptick in valley
The Goleta Valley’s economic growth was slow in the years since incorporation, but there are signs that it’s picking up, according to the 12th Annual Goleta Valley Economic Forecast.

Viewpoint:
Mayor's report: City gets in the spirit of Fiesta
Your City Council had a very long meeting last week, but monotony was avoided by the absolutely charming Marissa Cordero, Junior Spirit of Fiesta, leading us all in the Pledge of Allegiance and then performing one of her beautiful dances. What a pleasure that was! We have so much talent in the city of Goleta that we are happy to share some of it with Santa Barbara and the gigantic Fiesta celebration.

Sierra Club: The threat to Naples
The development proposal at Naples threatens to overwhelm the rural character of the Gaviota Coast. Naples is a 485-acre ranch two miles west of the urban limit line at Cathedral Oaks that has historically been used for grazing and orchards. It sits astride the railroad and Highway 101 and has about one mile of ocean bluff-top frontage. The developer, Vintage Communities of Orange County, proposes to build either 54 luxury houses on the property or, in another alternative, 72 houses utilizing portions of the adjoining Dos Pueblos Ranch. The total build-out of the larger project is approximately 600,000 square feet.

Letters to the Editor

• Eyesore in paradise
• Kudos for water board

Community:
Surfing Goleta with a keyboard
Goleta has been known largely for its dirt-side products — walnuts, lemons and the like — but Tom Modugno wants you to know that it’s grown some pretty good surfers, too.

Goleta Scrapbook: The Irvines, from Scotland to the valley
Several members of the Irvine family were prominent in Goleta Valley in the early to mid-20th century.

Business:
Strictly Local: It was just what the doctor ordered
When Dr. Lexi Rudd bought Valley Animal Hospital in March, she knew it wasn’t going to be easy. She’d never owned a business before and the hospital had been through some difficult times with the illness and eventual death of its beloved former owner, Dr. Eric Westheimer.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 7/20

News Briefs:
City faces $22 million in new suits
The owners of Rancho Mobile Home Park plan to launch several new legal actions against the city of Goleta that could total nearly $22 million in claims.

In Brief

• Fire on More Mesa
• E-waste recycling
• Suicide barrier meeting

Water for new connections reduced
The board of the Goleta Water District rescinded an ordinance Monday permitting the carry over of unused water allocations for new hookups from one year to the next. The decision resulted in a substantial reduction of water available for new connections and development this year and in future years. Following the board’s action, an estimated 160 acre feet of water is available for new connections this calendar year, according to board member Bert Bertrando.

District raises sewer rates
Sewer rates for customers of the Goleta Sanitary District increased nearly 20 percent beginning this month, following action taken by the district’s board.

Sheriff's Blotter

• Intentional cliff dive could hit student in wallet
• Oh, that thing
• Next presidential hopeful
• Up in smoke
• Bruised ego, too
• Cash-filled briefcase stolen in 'smash-and-grab'
• Scooby snacks
• So close, yet so far away
• Garage grenade
• Midnight mass?

Viewpoint:
Letter to the Editor: Cooperation worked for San Jose Creek
Santa Barbara Channelkeeper commends the city of Goleta and the county Board of Supervisors, led by Supervisor Janet Wolf, for their recent decision to work with local stakeholders and agencies to incorporate fish passage into the San Jose Creek Flood Control Improvement Project.

Fire danger at eucalyptus grove
There is an area within Goleta city limits that appears to pose a very significant fire risk: the western section of the Santa Barbara Shores eucalyptus grove. My concern is that a fire there could rapidly escalate into a fire storm, which, depending on the wind direction, could result in a conflagration in the adjacent Santa Barbara Shores neighborhood, as well as the Ellwood neighborhood beyond to the east. If winds were blowing from the east, the new Bluffs neighborhood development might be showered with burning eucalyptus leaves.

Community:
Goleta Scrapbook: Boom times and land scams
After the second World War, Goleta, sleepy town that it was, awoke to find itself the site of massive amounts of development. The influx of newcomers made it necessary for more schools, roads, and other public services. UCSB was also busy transforming itself from a military base of operations to university campus.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 7/13

Front Page:
Party central, in its dotage
Traditionally a farming town, Goleta has always been the less glamorous sister to Santa Barbara. This was true even in the earliest days of the community, when well-heeled Goletans would take the hour trip south in their horses and buggies or Model Ts to attend some swanky event in SB.

News Briefs:
Organic solar cells, the next frontier
With a discovery made at UCSB’s Center for Polymers and Organic Solids, we’re going to have less and less of an excuse not to go green.

In this plan, locals rules
As part of a “toolbox” of methods for providing much-needed workforce housing in the area, the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce is kicking around the idea of a local preference policy whereby local workers would receive priority for housing in Goleta.

Planners get primer in housing
The Planning Commission, minus an absent Ken Knight, got an education in Goleta’s complicated housing situation Monday evening. Advance Planning Manager Anne Wells and Planning and Environmental Services Director Steve Chase gave the Commission the rundown.

Finishing the job
Demolition crews Wednesday took down what's left of a building at Rutherford Street and Dawson Avenue in Old Town that was destroyed by fire in March. The spectacular blaze gutted two businesses, Moore machining and Legend Eyewear.

Sheriff's Blotter

• Wish fulfillment
• Almost caught red-handed
• Feisty female settles civilly
• Young neighbor glimpses burglars
• Crackin' wise
• Heavy handed
• Sucker punched
• Another money-saving technique
• Early bird vandal

Time to trade pints
The local blood supply has again dropped to critical levels for some blood types, and is seriously low for others according to United Blood Services, which serves the Central Coast.

Water board OKs billing changes
Water bills will be higher for about 70 percent of Goleta Water District’s customers from now on following the board members’ approval Monday of a resolution to change the billing structure. The approval came on a 4-0-1 vote with Harry DeWitt abstaining.

Viewpoint:
Mayor's Report: A time of celebrations
What a show we experienced at Girsh Park on the Fourth of July! The entertainment and food were excellent and the fireworks were superb. Thank you Rotary Clubs of Goleta for a great community service.

Community:
A tour of Goleta the Green Land
There’ve been plenty of garden tours on the South Coast over the years, but not in Goleta — until now. Bonnie Freeman, a More Mesa resident, is heading up Goleta Valley’s first Garden Party Tour and Bazaar on Saturday from 12:30-5:30 p.m. It includes six award-winning gardens and landscapes, a green urban farm, and demonstrations of composting, vermiculture, tree planting and water-saving irrigation techniques.

Goleta Scrapbook: Good Land made for hiding
Judge Edward “Ned” McGowan, a portly fugitive from San Francisco vigilantes of the 1850s, reportedly fled south through the Good Land to Santa Barbara disguised as a Franciscan priest to avoid being captured and punished as an accessory to murder.

Business:
Strictly Local: He sees product as breath of fresh air
Goleta is home to a variety of entrepreneurs, and Steve Baker has joined the ranks with a practical patented invention: the Dus-T, a T-shirt with a built-in mask that can be tucked away in the neck of it when not in use.
Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Ushers Advertising Sales Rep Out The Door

Craig Smith is reporting that Cristina Wilson, who sells advertising for the Goleta Valley Voice, a Wendy McCaw owned publication, was let go. A part-time employee and the mother of three kids, she is a long-time resident of Goleta.

Wilson actually use to be one of four owners of the Valley Voice. That group sold the paper to Jim Farr who ran it for awhile then ultimately sold it to McCaw's Ampersand Publishing.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 7/6

Front Page:
A question of cash flow
A hearing Monday will be the last chance for members of the public to have their say about propsed rate increases in the Goleta Water District and to deliver written protests.

News Briefs:
Gas Co. looks deep for storage
Southern California Gas Co., in search of storage space for natural gas, has been in our neighborhood, and they’ve been shaking things up.

Sheriff's Blotter

• It all adds up
• The water fairies did it
• 'Blood in, blood out'
• Nice try, dude
• Their luck runneth out
• A compassionate landlord
• For mega-margaritas?
• Things that go bump in the night
• Well, duh
• The pride of UCSB

In Brief:

• Total burning ban in place
• Wanted: cell phone photos
• New class graduates from Firefighter Academy
• Low-cost insurance info

Viewpoint:
Schools of Thought: Water safety is as important as ever
Our county’s beautiful beaches allow families to enjoy boating, swimming, fishing, water-skiing and many other forms of water recreation. Summertime usually involves even higher levels of water recreation, and can be a source of great family fun.

Letter to the editor: A Goleta tea party
At a community meeting on May 22, rate-payers vigorously responded to the Goleta Water District’s recently proposed plan to change its rates. Speaker after speaker demanded that the board rescind its new idea. From across the political spectrum, all were opposed to the concept. An ex-member of the district’s Board of Directors eloquently informed the members that they’d failed to act as proper stewards of the public’s resource. It was a beautiful example of the power of democracy!

An unforgivable act
One day in 1975 my father took me to lunch at the old Pancho Villa on Calle Real and made a painful confession.

Community:
A fine 4th
The Good Land celebrated Independence Day with a bang Wednesday, starting with the annual Old Fashioned Fourth of July at Stow House.

‘King John’ More, no prince among men
The man who was known as “the Monarch of More Mesa” was different things to different people. Unpopular with his neighbors, but adored by the local kids, John Finley More arrived in the Good Land shortly after his brother T. Wallace’s gruesome murder in 1877.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 6/29

Front Page:
A hometown 4th
The skies above Goleta will once again be ablaze in honor of Independence Day, this coming Wednesday.

News Briefs:
Council OKs first two-year budget
The City Council voted to adopt its first two-year budget Monday evening, 4-0, with council member Eric Onnen absent.

Midnight fire destroys Goleta mobile home
Several fire crews knocked down a two-alarm fire just after midnight last Tuesday, June 26, at a doublewide mobile home at Rancho Santa Barbara, 333 Old Mill Road. The occupants, two women, were thought to have been trapped inside by neighbors who called 911. The women escaped the blaze, which had engulfed the structure by the time the firefighters arrived. One of the them had a minor injury, which was treated by paramedics at the scene.

GVJH teacher accused of giving pot to student
A temporary teacher at Goleta Valley Junior High School was charged Wednesday with allegedly furnishing marijuana to a student and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Following a nearly month-long investigation, detectives from the Sheriff’s Department presented their findings to Deputy District Attorney Joyce Dudley who filed the two counts against 32-year-old Melissa Dunning after reviewing the complaint.

I.V. apartments to become affordable housing
Two 10-unit apartment buildings in Isla Vista have been acquired by the county to create 20 units of affordable housing.

Sheriff's Blotter

• It's all a blur
• Perseverating, '80s style
• Dehydrated stage fright
• The devil made him do it
• Dumb luck
• On a mission
• An adventure he'll never remember
• Class uninterrupted
• Slim pickins
• Such poor taste

In Brief

• Mother arrested on child endangerment charges
• Driver survives trapped overnight in vehicle
• Sobriety checkpoint tonight [Friday 6/29]
• Free hoops clinics offered

Viewpoint:
Mayor's Report: Budget in, busy times ahead
Another big milestone for your city was reached this week as the City Council adopted its first ever, two-year budget. This year’s budget is balanced with little to spare.

Letter to the Editor: Scale back monster house
We live in an age of extremes, and there is no better example than the monstrosity planned for the top of Farren Road hill. No wonder county Supervisors are having difficulty. Having biked up the hill many times, I have come to appreciate the rolling, sloping nature of the area. The sketch you show is that of a structure so out of tune with the “sense” of the land that it represents an ugly intruder. I can only wonder if the initial approval took place at a wild party with no one knowing this area.

Community:
DP grad honored for service
Fatima Mendez, who graduated from Dos Pueblos High School this year, was the recipient of the top honor as a youth leader at the recent Teen Programs annual Youth Leadership Awards banquet.

The Day Tripper: From an egg collection springs a natural treasure
Santa Barbara’s Museum of Natural History has a colorful past that includes several name changes throughout the years. In 1890 professional and amateur naturalists formed the Santa Barbara Natural History Society and opened a museum at 1226 State St. Since those early days much has happened in the area of natural history.

Goleta Scrapbook: Good Land always up for a good time
Celebrations and social occasions were popular in the Goleta Valley from its earliest days, and one of the most popular sites for getting together was Tucker’s Grove, owned first by Capt. Reason P. Tucker and later his son Charlie.

Business:
Strictly Local: A career tailor-made to make you look good
Out here in the Good Land we’re known largely as a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops crowd. But sometimes even in Goleta a man’s gotta step out. And that’s where Jorge Larin steps in.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 6/22

Front Page:
Plans for giant house in limbo
After hours of testimony Tuesday afternoon, the county Board of Supervisors postponed a final decision on an appeal made by the Gaviota Coast Conservancy on a 13,000 square-foot home planned for a rural area along the Gaviota Coast.

News Briefs:
Going to the wall to fight graffiti
Some 36 volunteers helped turn a long, grim stretch of cinder-block fence into an attractively landscaped deterrent to graffiti.

City formally protests plan to hike water charges
The Goleta City Council put an exclamation point on its displeasure with a proposed increase in water meter fees.

Sheriff's Blotter

• Thank you for not sniveling
• It's the little things you notice
• Out on a limb
• Thieves and jerks
• Too special to be a victim
• Swap-meet rip off
• Baffled shoplifter
• Fingerprints at the scene
• Bad tip, dude
• Sealed with a kiss

Viewpoint:
Editorial: Noleta in the middle
What’s to become of the unincorporated area between the cities of Santa Barbara and Goleta?

Letter to the Editor: A word of thanks
Thanks to the 36 volunteers who contributed 174 service hours at the Hollister Avenue Anti-Graffiti Landscaping Project.

Balancing the schools budget
Santa Barbara School Districts have cut more than $5 million from their combined $125 million general fund annual operating budgets for 2007-08. Making budget cuts is not new to our districts. Student enrollment has been declining for a number of years and we have been paring the budgets accordingly.

Community:
Goleta Scrapbook: Next stop, hell in a hand basket
In the 1890s Goleta became a hotbed of activity, with workers descending on the Good Land to work on Southern Pacific Railroad’s coast line.

Business:
Strictly Local: MasterCare Home Cleaning System
Residential cleaning may seem a world away from the restaurant business, but Spencer Dean, proprietor of Woody’s Bodacious Barbecue in Magnolia Center for 23 years, says both businesses are all about service.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 6/15

Front Page:
Something new in Old Town
Willow Creek Townhomes in Old Town Goleta officially opened to the public last week, becoming the first new housing development in the city since the housing moratorium several years ago.

News Briefs:
Sheriff's Blotter

• Another youngster with some 'splainin' to do
• The revolving door
• In and out
• Caught in the act
• Bummer, dude
• How reassuring
• Nice try
• Apartment trashed
• A long walk home
• You! In the polka-dot boxers!

In Brief

• Burn a couch, pay big time
• Planners deny appeal of restaurant remodel
• City, enviros to discuss plans for creek

Council sides with mobile home residents
Despite an appeal made by David Guggenheim, owner of Rancho Mobile Home Park, tenants of the park moved a step closer last week to converting their rental spaces into for-sale units.

Viewpoint:
Mayor's Report: No rest for the city as summer rolls in
Summer is almost officially here (Thursday is Summer Equinox), college commencements continue this weekend, high school graduations are a thing of the past and elementary school students and teachers finish up the year today and start that wonderful summer vacation.

Community:
Goleta Scrapbook: When we said nuts to growing almonds
During the past 150 years, Goleta Valley has been known for its lemons, avocados, walnuts, pampas grass and vegetables, but almonds were also a cultivated crop here for a short while in the 1800s.

Business:
Strictly Local: He reigns where they learn to pour
It’s happy hour at Pacific Coast Bartending School. The lights are low, the music is loud, and owner John Rickman is calling out drinks to Kandis, his newest student.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 6/08

Front Page:
Project BudBurst is recruiting the public to observe, record plant growth — and maybe keep an eye on climate change
Now that the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have concluded that the warming of our globe is “unequivocal,” many have asked the question, “How are organisms and natural processes responding?”

News Briefs:
Graduation Dates
Goleta will be busting at the seams for the next couple of weekends as UCSB's commencement ceremonies will bring an estimated 35,000 people to the Santa Barbara area.

Council approves increasing creek capacity
The Goleta City Council last Monday voted unanimously to move forward with plans to increase the capacity of San Jose Creek, which runs through Goleta’s Old Town at the east end, terminating in the Goleta Slough.

Sheriff's Blotter

• Down a peg
• Unfulfilled contract
• Birthday bash
• Out in the wild
• Quick and dirty deed
• Thief hits the courts
• Like a needle in a haystack

KCSB: 45 years of community radio
On Monday mornings there’s the Freak Power Ticket. Wednesday evenings they’re Speaking of Sex. The Friday Riff takes us into the end of the week, and over the weekend they have us groovin’ to rock, reggae, jazz and Indian music. And it’s all in our backyard, on KCSB.

Community:
Local Currents

• It's a Birthday party!
• School's out forever
• Donate blood in G-Town
• Congratulations graduates

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 6/01

Front Page:
Council to wade into creek project
The Goleta City Council/Planning Agency will be conducting a public hearing on the proposed San Jose Creek Capacity Improvement Project on Monday at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

News Briefs:
Controlled burn for science set
On Sunday morning UCSB’s Lagoon Island will be ablaze in the second of a series of controlled burns conducted in the name of science.

Mobile home park owners appealing call for EIR
The owners of Rancho Mobile Homes in Goleta are in the process of applying for a conversion of the property from a rental site to condominiums, and Goleta's city staff has released findings stating that an Environmental Impact Report is necessary as part of the process.

Sheriff's Blotter

• Must've been some beer
• No good deed...
• Aryan grab-and-dash
• Say hello to my little friend
• Beer-bellied flasher
• Frizzy-haired forger
• Lame alibi of the week
• Nice job, dog

Viewpoint:
Mayor's Report: Break over, a busy day of hearings ahead
June is upon us already and graduations, weddings and summer vacations are right around the corner. I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend. I sure did — relaxing with family at Lake Nacimiento.

Editorial: Don't rush on Bishop Ranch
Is Goleta ready for the building of 1,200 or more homes in a single subdivision off Highway 101 between Los Carneros and Glen Annie roads?

Community:
Goleta Scrapbook: Uncle George: resourceful, ambitious
His last name may be common, but George M. Williams was anything but; he was a major player in the history and growth of the Goleta Valley in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 5/25

Front Page:
Water rate changes get icy reception
A standing-room-only crowd packed a Goleta Water District hearing about raising water meter charges Tuesday night and approximately 40 speakers — farmers and residential customers alike — bluntly expressed their reasons for opposing the increases.

News Briefs:
Old Town awaits hotel, condos
With only a little construction left, two new developments in Old Town could soon signal the start of the neighborhood’s revitalization.

Yardi drops housing plans
Plans to build worker housing in its proposed new building along South Fairview Avenue have been scrapped by software company Yardi Systems Inc. Yardi’s application to extend its development agreement with the city was withdrawn when it was determined that part of the housing would be located in a floodplain.

Costco gas plans fuel protests
Neighbors of the proposed Costco gas station in western Goleta showed up at City Hall on Monday to protest the wholesaler’s plans to put in a 16-pump fueling station.

Sheriff's Blotter

• Whining fails, guy joins ranks of busted in I.V.
• Random act of kindness unnoticed
• Heavy sleeper
• That'll do it!
• Old enough to know better
• Who knew?
• Excuses, excuses
• Burglar makes off with dirty gym clothes

City redesigns review board
After roughly 250 hours of study sessions, meetings and analysis of design review processes, the City Council put into effect an amendment to the Design Review Board’s bylaws and guidelines.

Community:
Around Town: Goleta honors its beautiful places
Goleta Valley Beautiful hosted its 33rd Annual Awards program at Goleta’s Holiday Inn Saturday. GVB board president Merlyn Cummings welcomed the crowd of over 100 people who support a variety of projects to keep the Goleta Valley beautiful and green. The nonprofit organization’s slogan is “Planting for Tomorrow.”

Goleta Scrapbook: When the bluebloods found the Good Land
The families of the Goleta Valley were simple folk, content with their rural lives. Get-togethers and celebrations consisted of hoedowns, picnics, church sociables, dances, clambakes and grunion hunts.

Business:
Strictly Local: The Ocean Floor
In Dustin Grossman’s store, clowns defend their territory, angels flit about, damsels chase each other and brains and hairy mushrooms sway peacefully in their watery homes.

Entertainment:
SB Theaters to accept tickets printed at home
Metropolitan Theaters in downtown Santa Barbara will begin accepting advanced tickets today purchased through MovieTickets.com and printed at home.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 5/18

Front Page:
On tap: Costco gas station
The long-awaited Costco gasoline station may finally become a reality, as the city prepares to hold a public meeting on its draft environmental impact report Monday.

News Briefs:
UCSB hunger strikers take case to regents
Hunger striking UCSB students went to the UC Regents meeting in San Francisco on Thursday to protest the UC system’s involvement in nuclear weapons labs.

In Brief

• 'Click It or Ticket' campaign stepped up
• Bike Team Challenge
• Fire season opens

Sheriff's Blotter

• Mystery at the ranch
• Guess again
• Unsecured load
• The dog did it?
• Busted

Water board delays hearing until July 9
A public hearing on proposed changes in water meter charges in water meter charges by the Goleta Water District is scheduled for Tuesday, and earlier this week a continuation of that hearing was scheduled for July 9, said Chuck Evans, president of the agency's board of directors.

New planners get look at work ahead
Member of the city’s newly-minted planning commission got to know each other Monday as they sat down to get up to speed on Goleta’s many upcoming projects.

Viewpoint:
Mayor's Report: Back in the saddle
Back at last! I’m on two legs once again and able to drive — after seven months it really seems strange but wonderful. I certainly want to sincerely thank all those wonderful friends, neighbors and co-workers who drove me to appointments all that time. (I fell on my steep, wet and slippery driveway last October and suffered a triple compound fracture on my right leg, just in case you didn’t know what happened to me.)

Editorial: Playing with your money
The flare-up at this week’s Board of Supervisors meeting gave a peek into the loose ways that county staff members propose to spend your dollars. It might as well be Monopoly money.

Community:
Thirst for Knowledge: Buried treasure, unearthed
There’s an excellent chance you’ve never seen the Ba’k Do’r, much less been inside.

Goleta Scrapbook: From doctor to señor, one lucky Irishman
An unfortunate turn of events for Nicholas Den’s family might have cut short the would-be doctor’s medical career, but it didn’t stop the young Irishman from making his fortune in the Good Land.

Business:
Strictly Local: It takes drive to park cars
Not too long ago, Jonathan Strashoon was couch-surfing and parking cars for a living. With energy and perseverance, not to mention an impressive set of contacts, today he’s still in the car parking service, but now he runs it as his own business as well as a limo service. No longer the couch-surfer, he also owns his own home here in the Good Land.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 5/11

Front Page:
A sea change in global warming
The ocean, one of our biggest protectors against the greenhouse effect, might not be as efficient or predictable in mitigating global warming as previously believed.

Correction
In last week’s article on Cabrillo Business park, the total number of jobs estimated tobe brought in as a result of the business park should have been 1400.
Also, access roads will be built to the park from Hollister and Los Carneros.

News Briefs:
Sheriff's Blotter

• Premature evacuation
• Ham on wry
• Brilliant
• Caring for her injury
• Family dog missing!
• Can't we all just get along?
• Singin' in the rain
• Lame excuse of the week

Housing project tops council agenda

• Village at Los Carneros
• No-parking zone
• Adjusting the books

Aceves retiring, not calling it quits
After 32 years solving crimes and bringing wrongdoers to justice, Goleta City Council member Roger Aceves is retiring from law enforcement. But he’ll still be fighting crime.

In Brief

• Teacher lay offs
• Goleta Valley Beautiful banquet on tap
• Two youth basketball teams take titles at tourney

City awards grants to social service groups
Court Appointed Special Advocates, AIDS Housing Santa Barbara, People’s Self-Help Housing and Transition House are the new social services recipients of funds from the Goleta’s Community Block Development Grants for fiscal year 2006-07. The city expects $276,874 in grants from the state department of Housing and Urban Development this fiscal year, $41,531 of which may be used to fund social services.

Viewpoint:
Letter to the Editor
This past weekend we had an experience that the community should know about. Last Sunday we awoke to find the privacy walls on both sides of Patterson Avenue between Calle Real and Parejo Drive adorned with gang-style graffiti — not something that had occurred in the past.

Sierra Club: Keep an eye on Venoco
Get ready for lots of oil action as Venoco Inc. proposes to move forward with three separate projects in the Goleta area.

Community:
A home away from home
We all know about the neighborhood bar where everyone knows your name and makes you feel at home, but there’s something to be said for the neighborhood bar that doesn’t know your name and still makes you feel at home.

Goleta Scrapbook: Good timing in the Good Land
New Englander German Senter found the Good Land via Panama, Northern California, New York and Illinois, where his first wife died of cholera. Following her death, Senter married his sister-in-law, but it was not a long partnership, according to Walker Tompkins in his book “Goleta the Good Land.” His second wife died not long after they were married.

Business:
It's finally pouring at Hollister Brewing Co.
Hollister Brewing Co., Goleta’s newest restaurant, boasts its own micro-brewery, double-deck pizza oven, a variety of appetizers and other dishes, and comfortable, sleek surroundings indoors and out. In the Camino Real Marketplace, the establishment is in the space formerly occupied by the Camino Real Café, around the bend from Borders Books and Music.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 5/4

Front Page:
Thirst for knowledge
So one night you’re sitting around the house and you develop a thirst. You don’t want water, soda or milk. You want a drink.

News Briefs:
Sheriff's Blotter

• Schooled in sleuthing
• The joke's on him
• Ammo unearthed
• Bunkmate beat-down
• Flipping the bird
• Passport pain
• A guilty conscience
• Cruel theft
• Doing her job
• Wrong man

City gives green light to business park
After almost 10 years of applications and studies, the Sares-Regis Group has finally gotten the city’s go-ahead to build Cabrillo Business Park, what could be the largest of its kind on South Coast.

In Brief

• Water board meeting reset
• Makeover for design panel
• Rehab Institute, Cottage explore merger
• USCB physics professor honored
• Chamber campaign begins
• Student group to host education summit

Community:
Passion for firefighting is a family affair
Firefighting and rescue service are a family affair for the Vegas: Chris, 20, and Amanda, 21, lead the local firefighter Explorer Troop, and their father, Vidal, is in his 30th year as a county firefighter.

Around Town: Vieja Valley School celebrates 45th year
The beautiful, newly completed Hope Ranch home of Kim and Tammy Hughes handled an overflow crowd of 300 guests who celebrated Vieja Valley Elementary School’s 45th birthday.

Goleta Scrapbook: A local hero laid low in Cuba
The Spanish-American War, which began with the sinking of the American Battleship Maine in Havana in the spring of 1898, had many theaters, including Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico.

Business:
Stricly Local: They've got your walls covered
“A paint store, not a paint department,” is how Goleta Valley Paint’s owners, Colleen and Steve Ozab, like to describe the business they’ve owned and managed since 1978.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 4/27

Front Page:
Forces collide in push for quick change
Potential changes to creek maintenance standards, coastal bluff setbacks and big box development policies are on the city planners’ priority list for the General Plan. Labeled “fast-track,” the 12 proposed amendments handed in by staff allow for more flexibility in the plan, a notion decried by slow-growth residents and encouraged by the business community and development interests.

News Briefs:
In Brief

• Sarvis to lead campaign for United Way
• UCSB chills, wins
• Phetteplace elected Elks Exalted Ruler
• Green Award Nominations
• Grand Jury applications

Sheriff's Blotter

• Hot tip: Don't bring your stash to jail
• Caught on tape
• That'll do it
• Stinking drunk
• The holy hookup
• When 'day' turned to night
• Two of a kind
• Dudettes!
• You talkin' to me?
• Smash and grab

Viewpoint:
Letters to the Editor

• The Church of Tiger Woods
• Time for the next revolution

Community:
Goleta Scrapbook: At 133 degrees, valley became the Hell Land
Famous for its temperate climate, the Goleta Valley was nonetheless the site of North America’s only simoon, a scorching hot wind that took the temperature to 133 degrees in the middle of the 19th century.

Business:
Strictly Local: An artisan with feet firmly planted.
If Ray Hale comes into the room with his eyes downcast, don’t be surprised: flooring is his business, and with more than 20 years in the field, it’s likely that he put in the floor you’re standing on.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.

Extreme(?) Makeover: Goleta Valley Voice Edition

Well by now you have surely walked to your driveway, and either picked up the copy of the newly redesigned Goleta Valley Voice, or you have left it on your driveway, only to run over it when backing the car out.

So, for those that actually picked it up and flipped through it, what are your thoughts? Good, bad, ugly?

I'll have the Weekly Roundup: Goleta Valley Voice posted up later on, for those who don't want to get their hands dirty.

Goleta Valley Voice Roundup - 4/06

Front Page:
Council backs plans for creek
Long-awaited improvements to San Jose Creek’s capacity took another step towards fruition Monday as the Goleta City Council took a look at the Draft Mitigated Negative Declaration/Environmental Assessment document for the project.

News Briefs:
In Brief

• City looks at proposed Measure D projects
• Two UCSB programs deemed among best
• Reservations due for Goleta's Finest
• Fund designates $1 million for scholarships

Sheriff's Blotter

• High-octane java
• Dude, missing something?
• Empties gone missing
• For nasty threats, press 1
• Loitering for malt liquor
• Another sore loser
• Genius at work
• Genius at work, part 2
• Juvenile prank carries heavy penalty
• Executive decision

Viewpoint:
The Duckpond: Itching to save San Jose Creek
I love creeks and have the scars to prove it. They’re on my left side, where middle age and gravity are trying to grow a love handle. I earned them the summer I caught chicken pox, measles and poison oak at the same time. The exact sequence of my afflictions escapes me, but I do remember that nothing could keep me out of San Pedro Creek, which ran behind our house on Valdez Avenue.

Community:
Local Currents: A month of activities for women
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center’s campaign, “Tools for Change: Building Lives Free From Sexual Violence,” kicks off a host of events:

The Daytripper: A station to another time
Is the Goleta Depot just another whistle stop between Los Angeles and San Francisco? You’ll be surprised at all the history the rails that run through Goleta have to tell. Goleta was on the route the Southern Pacific Railroad Co. would go through as it began constructing the Los Angeles to San Francisco Coastal Line.

Goleta Scrapbook: First in the foothills; last in pioneer skills
Who can name the first homesteader to lay claim to land in the Goleta Valley? Was it Catlett? Nope. Lillard? Close, but no.

Other articles at at the Goleta Valley Voice website.