Month: December 2025

Tracy Lehr

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) The City of Santa Barbara is preparing to update its massage ordinance.

Before changes are made, a longtime massage therapist is sharing her concerns.

Kathy Gruver is worried the effort to crack down on criminal activity will harm legitimate businesses.

“It is really unfair, I mean we are healers, we are helping people in the community. I’ve got cancer patients, I’ve got motorcycle accident [survivors] I have pregnant women, and to be put into a category of people doing really illicit and illegal things that is harmful to he community. I want to see those gone, too, but this is not the way to go about it,” said Gruver.

Gruver owns Healing Circle and has a doctorate in natural health with an emphasis on mind-body medicine.

The proposal calls for random inspections, raising the current $25 fee by hundreds of dollars, and doubling the 250-hour licensing requirement.

“They are targeting us who are doing healing work. It is offensive and it is demeaning to the industry to those us that are really working hard to help the community be better.”

The city hasn’t updated its ordinance since the mid 1970s and the police department sent a letter about the updates proposed to massage therapist professionals last month.

Gruver said there is a problem, but she is concerned about the way the city wants to address it.

“I’d love to see some new things adopted, but I read what they want to update and the first paragraph is just offensive to us, it is like I’m sure there are some nice people doing this, but they are talking about staph infections and trafficking, destroying the fabric of the community.”

Her business on upper State Street is booked until the New Year.

“You are looking at my office, I am not destroying the fabric of anything, we are really doing the best we can, we are just trying to run our businesses as legit as possible and it is hard when we are having regulations thrown at us that are going to undermine what we are doing.”

Even so, she knows the problem exists.

“In the city of Santa Barbara there’s tons, I can point to 5 within a 2 block radius of here, it is obvious where they are, they are listed on websites, I want to get rid of these places, it is not good for our business, not good for our community, the families in our community,” said Gruver,” I’d love to see them go away. I can help you, put me in the car and I will drive down the street and go that one, that one and that one. It is really hard to get rid of, It is going to take a lot of time, a lot of money, that is why they have upped our fees, because they expect us to pay for the inspections, there has got to be a different way for them to do that.”

She is worried clients will be traumatized by inspections.

“I can’t be in the middle of massage or someone who has had trauma and have the police banging on the door to be let in, It just can’t work that way,” said Gruver.

She believes the city will listen when they take up the issue again at an ordinance committee meeting on Dec. 16 at 1 p.m.

“There has to be some kind of compromise and they seem to be open to a compromise so we will see what happens,” said Gruver.

Click here to follow the original article.

Dave Alley

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – A new furniture store has at last filled the long-vacant building that was the former home of Costco in Santa Maria.

Furniture Land officially opened for business inside the highly-visible building that is located along South Bradley Road, right off of Highway 101.

“It’s big for us and a big finally we’re open,” said co-owner Wail Ibrahim. “It’s big for the community because everybody’s been patiently waiting for our doors to open up here. It took a lot of planning, took a lot of time, but with everybody’s help, we finally did it.”

The opening completed a long renovation process inside the building that began last year.

Furniture Land, which also owns four other sites, all located in the Central Valley – two in Bakersfield, one each in Fresno and Visalia, has completed transformed the 100,000 square foot building into a modern showroom that ownership said is unlike any other in the immediate area.

“We brought the biggest, furniture showroom and all of Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County,” said Ibrahim. “When somebody walks in the door, they’re going to see the best priced furniture in all of Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County. We offer appliances. We actually have a huge mattress section as well. With the amount of manufacturers that we have that we carry, and with all the appliances, all the top brand appliances, and all the top brand mattresses, our goal is to make this place a one-stop shop place for your home.”

Situated between Stowell Road and Betteravia Road, the shopping area where Furniture Land is located has suffered over the past several years since Costco left.

The old Costco building has been closed since 2017 when the businesses moved a few blocks south down Bradley Road.

Now that its occupied once again, Ibrahim believes Furniture Land, which features a 70,000 square foot showroom, will benefit all of the nearby businesses located in the busy commercial corridor that runs adjacent to the freeway.

“It brings new energy to the city and new energy to the to the plaza and new life to this empty parking lot here that was vacant for for many years,” said Ibrahim. “We’ll help to actually bring in extra traffic to the plaza. It’s going to help out our neighboring businesses and is something new, something that the city does not have already, which is a massive showroom for furniture, and just bringing in new energy and a new life to this empty parking lot here that was actually pretty dark for many years.” 

While the business is now open, Furniture Land will hold an official grand opening and ribbon cutting sometime in the near future.

“We’re very happy to be here in San Maria,” said Ibrahim. “We couldn’t have done it without the support from the city and the whole community. We just want to say thank you. Thank you, Santa Maria.”

Ibrahim added the new business will employ at least 25 people and likely will add more in the future.

The Latest Breaking News, Weather Alerts, Sports and More Anytime On Our Mobile Apps. Keep Up With the Latest Articles by Signing Up for the News Channel 3-12 Newsletter.

Click here to follow the original article.

Dave Alley

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – The City of Santa Maria is reaching out to the community in an effort to help improve its public transportation system.

This week, a pair of public meetings will be held where community members can offer their input on ways the city can enhance services provided by Santa Maria Regional Transit (SMRT).

“This is our annual unmet needs process,” said Gamaliel Anguiano, SMRT Transit Services Manager. “This is an opportunity for the public to meet with us personally and share their thoughts and opinions on how public transit is working or not working for them, how we can improve it to better their lives.”

Anguiano pointed out a number of changes implemented by SMRT, including several recently, have been a direct result of previous public meetings.

“The unmet needs process and the feedback we get from the public, it ranges – quite a spectrum,’ said Anguiano. “Everything from where we might need to place a new bus stop, to where we need to create new routes or increase service windows, or just a service in any way, shape or form. Unmet needs has led to the consolidation of the Guadalupe service, the launching of our route to San Luis Obispo. It has adjusted service to Tanglewood, our service windows, our operating hours, where we place bus stops. The tremendous amount of feedback that we’re receiving ultimately delivers a service services seen today.”

Both public meetings will be held this Thursday, Dec. 4 in Shepard Hall at the Santa Maria Public Library.

 The first meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., with the second meeting scheduled from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

“We collect information and feedback from our riders and hear about their experience in ways that we can manage our system better for their benefit,” said Anguiano. “We want to hear more about those so that we can continue to improve our service moving forward.”

For anyone who will not be able to attend the meetings, but would still like to offer input, comments may be mailed to: City of Santa Maria, 110 South Pine Street, Room 221, Santa Maria, CA 93458.

Comments will also be received by email at: smrtcomments@cityofsantamaria.org.

Residents also may call (805) 925-0951 ext. 2170 for more information or to provide comment.

Comments will be accepted until Monday, Dec. 15.

The Latest Breaking News, Weather Alerts, Sports and More Anytime On Our Mobile Apps. Keep Up With the Latest Articles by Signing Up for the News Channel 3-12 Newsletter.

Click here to follow the original article.