Author: KEYT

Tracy Lehr

VENTURA, Calif.-The first Summer Dead Fest brought four days of music to Ventura.

Grahame Lesh, the son of the late Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, performed with Cubensis.

The musicians headlined the show on Friday night in the Crown Plaza’s top floor ballroom.

The ballroom that had a floor that used to spin, was filled with spinning people taking in every tune,

Some of the fans remember the historic Grateful Dead shows at the nearby Ventura County fairgrounds.

“The Grateful Dead used to play at the Ventura fairgrounds in the 1980s, ’82, ’84, and ’87 and it was amazing,” said Dandy Productions co-founder Dan Stein, “They would have weekends at the fairgrounds and every night after the show all the heads, spinning kids would come over here, they would walk back to their hotels and their campsites, they’d come up to the Holiday Inn at the time, they would walk up, go up the elevator, Top of the Harbor, look at the menu, scoff at the prices, get back in the elevators, go back down in the lobby with their dogs, their tents and they would hang out and wait for the next show to start, waves crashing on the shore, it was a blessed time to be alive and we are just still spinning in that energy, still doing the same thing, honoring the Grateful Dead’s music here in Ventura, now it is the Crown Plaza and we are still connected to all of that and we are going to keep the music alive as long as we can.”

Stein, who joined on the final set on guitar, noticed plenty of young people getting into the music, too.

“This is the first annual Summer Dead Fest and this is going to be the first of many. We plan to do this every year. We also do New Year’s Eve up in the ballroom, we did that this past New Year’s Eve and that’s actually when, right before we opened the doors for that the hotel asked us if we wanted to do a summer music festival, ” said Stein.

The festival also included oceanfront sets, a  Shakedown Street and music workshops.

Some people who attended the Summer Dead Fest will be heading to San Francisco next weekend to see Dead & Company.

They can’t get enough of the music they love.

For more information visit https://summerdeadfest.com

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Caleb Nguyen

ORCUTT, Calif. – The Santa Barbara County Fire Department took two people to Marian Regional Medical Center after a rollover crash in Orcutt, just before 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Both patients were the only people in their cars and suffered moderate injuries after one car landed on its roof, according to the SBCFD.

The crash happened on Clark at Orcutt Road and the rollover required extrication for one patient detailed the SBCFD.

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Christer Schmidt

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Santa Maria Police Department arrested two juveniles in Santa Maria after responding to a possible firearm incident in the area of Pine Street and Cook Street.

Witnesses reported seeing what they believed to be a juvenile pulling a firearm from his waistband before concealing it again around 7:20 pm.

Officers arrived at the scene and began searching the area. Two juveniles were found who they say matched the description.

Both subjects fled on foot, prompting a brief pursuit.

Officers say both juveniles were apprehended without incident.

Santa Maria Police Department say that one was found in possession of a handgun and the other in possession of loaded magazines.

They were both booked into Santa Maria Juvenile Hall.

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Christer Schmidt

VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. – SpaceX is set to launch its Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East on Saturday night.

The launch is targeted at 8:55 pm, with additional opportunities available until 10:00 pm.

Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship in the Pacific Ocean.

People in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura County may hear one or more sonic booms during the launch.

You can view it on their website live.

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John Palminteri

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – With just a light breeze blowing the Santa Barbara to King Harbor race began in the waters off of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club Friday afternoon.

It is a tradition that is celebrating its 53rd year.

The impressive lineup of dozens of vessels caught the eye of many onlookers at noon when the race took off towards the Channel Islands.

Some of the boats will finish in Redondo Beach tonight. Some on Saturday.

The Yacht Club had events leading up to this race including a pre-party and concert Thursday night.

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John Palminteri

MONTECITO, Calif. – It was timed to get in and out at the lowest tide of the day, and that’s how a beached vessel was removed from a Montecito Beach Friday.

It started at 4:30 a.m. with a crew from Marborg Industries and the non-profit Heal the Ocean, which funded the removal.

The owner was not able to deal with the wreckage. It was on the beach for more than a week.

The heavy equipment and a roll off to collect the vessel came in from Santa Barbara’s East Beach around a tight point under the cemetery and made it to the western end of Butterfly Beach.

The vessel was a 30-foot sailboat.

It was crushed and scooped up in just a few minutes.

After that, the team of workers went thorough the debris location to collect the splinters by hand to make sure the beach was cleared of hazards when the project was done.

They made it out as the tide was beginning to rise again.

Marborg and Heal the Ocean have responded several times to rid the beaches of crashed boats that are left unattended.

This insures they are not a risk to the public or the environment.

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Andie Lopez Bornet

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.- A severed cable made it impossible to call 911 in Santa Barbara County and parts of San Luis obispo counties earlier this week.

Officials encouraged texting 911 as a workaround, and they want folks to know this is an option even when phone lines are working.

On Tuesday, emergency phone lines and air traffic control towers on the central coast were knocked offline when a fiber line was cut on De La Vina street in Santa Barbara

While lines were out of service, the option to text 911 was still available. an option some may not be aware of.

Officials say the service is essential for those in danger, or have other circumstances that make speaking difficult.

“A lot of community members that benefit from text to 911-if you’re hearing impaired or if you have a speech impairment that makes it difficult for you to communicate,” said Raquel Zick, Santa Barbara County spokeswoman. “If you’re in a situation where you can’t talk either because you don’t want to be heard because maybe you’re hiding, you can still communicate without being over heard.”

Your Newschannel went to the Santa Barbara county Sheriff’s Dispatch Center to see what the 911 text service looks like

“All of these outages affect services in different ways so this is just another opportunity for us to outline that when services are impacted in one way our communications dispatch center has many different ways that we can pivot to make sure we are available to answer calls for service,” said Zick.

“Call if you can, text if you can’t. So if you are unable to speak or talk text us, otherwise if you can call us, call us,” said Dispatch Supervisor, Ben Johnson.

Ben Johnson has been a dispatcher for 20 years.

He says including a precise location helps them work faster when receiving text messages, because text to 911 doesn’t automatically give a location the way a phone call does.

When texting 911, it’s best to stick to actual text and avoid other media like pictures and emojis.

After the recent outage it is a good reminder of the ongoing availability text to  911 option, made available in many different languages including Spanish.

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Christer Schmidt

CENTRAL COAST, Calif. – Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner will be temporarily suspending service north of the Goleta station due to the La Cañada Honda Bridge Replacement Project. 

The closure will allow Amtrak to work on the 127-year-old steel viaduct over Honda Creek in Santa Barbara County.

All rail from the Goleta train station through the San Luis Obispo station will be closed.

An alternative bus route will be made available during the closure. Bus connections will be available for southbound trains 774 and 794 from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara, and for northbound trains 761 and 779 from Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo. The buses will follow Route 17 between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, with stops in UC Santa Barbara, Solvang, Buellton, Santa Maria, and Grover Beach.

In addition to these bus connections, Route 17 will operate on its normal schedule and route. 

The closures will last from August 1st to August 16th.

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John Palminteri

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Santa Barbara City Fire Department put its newest and most sophisticated fire apparatus into service Friday. It is a truck with a ladder reach of 107 feet.

“This apparatus is capable of reaching the tallest building in the city, which is the Granada Theater,” said Santa Barbara City Fire Chief Chris Mailes.

The truck was ordered in 2022 in anticipation of future needs.

It has a cost of $1.67 million. If it were to be ordered today, the price would be $2.28 million.

The crew from the previous truck transitioned their equipment after a morning ceremony, which included pushing the truck into the station house (with engine assist). That is a tradition.

This vehicle will be able to handle fire calls for all mid-rise or high-rise buildings primarily in the city of Santa Barbara, but also on mutual aid to Montecito and Carpinteria which do not have a ladder truck. “Having an aerial ladder attached to an apparatus that can extend over even a smaller building. It is by far the safest for the crew to operate. So that ladder goes up quite often,” said Mailes.

There are four in the county with the next closest in Goleta. The other two are in Solvang and Santa Maria.

“This rig has to be really, really maneuverable up to the narrowest streets of Santa Barbara,” said Mailes. It also has to make its way into the State Street promenade or for example, behind the Granada Theatre.

Fire Captain Bob Kendall said many response functions will not change, but there is a learning curve with some of the new designs and technology. “They learn mostly the equipment and everything that’s on it when they go to their engineer task. They learn how to operate it and operate safely, effectively, quickly.”

The truck has battery powered equipment stored in the side compartments.

It has a “clean cab” that will be free of fumes that could lead to health problems.

The fire truck was build by Pierce Manufacturing in Wisconsin. A special team from the fire department went back in person to make the precise order for the needs of the Santa Barbara community.

From the order and manufacturing, the rig was delivered to a site in Ontario for final testing and then it came to Santa Barbara.

It will operate out of Station 1 on Carrillo Street.

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Jarrod Zinn

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Cal Poly held the swearing-in ceremony for its new police chief this morning.

The new chief brings plenty of experience, and the previous one was promoted.

Last year, previous Cal Poly police chief George Hughes was promoted to vice president of public safety for both this campus and the one in Solano, and today he officially swore in his successor for SLO’s campus police chief.

Robert Plastino brings nearly three decades of experience in public safety with the Santa Barbara county sheriff’s office in various capacities.

“I was the chief deputy of law enforcement operations there,” says Cal Poly’s new police chief Robert Plastino. “So handled patrol from Carpinteria up to Santa Maria out to Cuyama and then all of our detectives in our detective bureaus.”

He also worked for public safety at Isla Vista, giving him a range of experience and knowledge of the central coast.

“The university is like a city,” says Chief Plastino. “I mean, it’s its own city. It’s got almost everything you can think of, you know, in the way of what a city might have. So it’s very similar. And I kind of look at it from that perspective.”

After Plastino was sworn in by Hughes, Plastino then swore in a total of six new officers which included a canine unit named Dex.

“Our previous K-9 Zeus retired about a week ago and Dex is coming in, bring in a fresh new perspective from the K-9,” says Cal Poly Public Safety’s executive director Anthony Knight.

Public safety officials for Cal Poly say this event was somewhat rare since new chiefs don’t come along often, but the old chief isn’t really leaving, either.

“I’m excited to be here,” says Chief Plastino. “I have got a great department to work with. I have a great boss that has stood in my shoes before, which is unusual. That’s not something that normally happens. Chiefs come in and they don’t get to work directly for the previous chief. So that’s a positive. That means that it’s going to be a seamless operation.”

Cal Poly public safety leaders are encouraged by the smoothness of this last year, and they look forward to working with the student body as much as the community to enhance student experience and maintain safe operations.

Chief Plastino says the middle of summer is an ideal time for him to get settled, before normal classes resume in about a month’s time.

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