Author: KEYT

John Palminteri

SUMMERLAND, Calif. (KEYT ) – A local farm stand and non-profit in Summerland is producing and delivering more no-cost chemical free vegetables than ever before.

In part, the recent government shut down has stranded many people from their normal food programs.

Some are medically fragile and government provided foods are not always precisely right for them, which makes the Sweet Wheel Farms a life saver in every way.

Lesle Person Ryan is the farm CEO and the founder of the Santa Barbara Agriculture & Education Foundation non-profit. She had about 200 recipients in 2024 – today, that number is 1,200 with a sizeable increase recently. “It jumped very quickly,” she said.

She says nothing stops her team of volunteers, even the historic rains this week. It was pouring during the group’s work Monday morning, going in and out of the rain showers with produce and loaded to-go shopping bags.

“One of the volunteers said, ‘no one goes hungry on my watch'”, said Ryan.

They were bringing in plastic bins of vegetables from the farm, and those were all around her bagging headquarters at the Farm to Paper store on Lillie Avenue. Everything was sopping wet but quickly bagged, sorted, and sent out to addresses for those with little or no healthy food.

Each one can serve multiple people.

Bags were loaded with carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, beets, basil, dill, berries and many other vegetables and fruits that can be found on the farm nearby on the back side of Summerland. 

Deliveries are sent out Monday and Thursday each week.

She says many of the homes are “horrifically food insecure” with no food in the house.

It has been operating since 2018.

The volunteers making deliveries are vital to the operation. Some have been using electric bikes to get the food to recipients and also to reduce pollution by doing it without a car.

The most recent surge came during the government shutdown of over 40 days that upset the flow of fresh foods for many people. There’s also been a sign posted for anyone who knows a family or children that are not getting nutritious foods. The farm wants to help. The need is apparent.

Funding is coming from the farm stand sales, grants and straight donations into a box at the Farm to Paper store.

Some of the recipients say they have been able to slow or reverse some illnesses because of the healthy food they are eating, which makes the deliveries so vital. Ryan says it is “extending lives and creating community health.”

She says there is an urgent need for volunteers, drivers, people packing and people on the farm.

For more information go to:  https://sweetwheelfarm.org/

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Jarrod Zinn

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – Local agencies spoke at this morning’s Santa Barbara County Board Of Supervisors meeting with data from the rainstorms over the last four days.

While the southern portions of Santa Barbara county did see some fallen trees and road closures, officials acknowledged a rather smooth weekend for the northern portions of the county.

“While overall it was a good storm there were areas where if it had kept raining at some of the intensity that did, we could have had some issues or we’re fortunate that we didn’t,” said Chris Sneddon with Santa Barbara County Public Works.

Of significant concern to local agencies were the Gifford and Madre burn scar areas. But officials say they held up better than expected for rain levels at 400% of our annual average at this time of year.

“This is kind of some weather we usually don’t see this early on,” says Anthony Stornetta, Santa Barbara County’s Deputy Fire Chief of Emergency Operations. “And if you look at our current precipitation, we’re already at 50% our annual rainfall right now with what we’ve received so far.”

Attention is turning now to the next storms.

Warming centers have been activated for the homeless population in order to keep the Santa Maria and Lompoc riverbeds clear.

“We have what we call a storm risk decision meeting whenever we get big storms,” says Stornetta. “And that’s where we really look at our protective actions. Do we need to do anything to shelter in place? Do we need to do evacuation warnings or orders?”

Officials remind the public to sign up for emergency alerts at readysbc.org.

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Joey Vergilis

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – Locals on the hunt for holiday deals can now pass along the savings to their friends and family because Visit Santa Barbara is bringing back its Locals Lodging Promotion – offering 30% discounts for residents from Goleta to Carpinteria who book overnight trips within the Santa Barbara South Coast.

Kathy Janega-Dykes, president/CEO of Visit Santa Barbara, stopped by The Morning News to tell us what we need to know to snag this outstanding offer. The promotion has added more than 25 South Coast hospitality partners than previous years – providing deals just for locals like Blackbird, J. Wilkes Winery, The Abalone Farm, Marisella and Goat Tree just to name a few.

“So the holidays are right around the corner, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the holidays than vacationing in your own backyard or inviting your friends and family to enjoy our beautiful community,” says Janega-Dykes.

The deal is valid through early 2026 at a dozen South Coast properties, including luxury resorts such as Hotel Californian and Kimpton Canary Hotel, boutique options like Hotel Santa Barbara and The Steward, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, as well as The Eagle Inn.

Janega-Dykes says this is great way for locals, and their family and friends, to experience truly everything Santa Barbara has to offer.

“This is the third year that we’re doing this, and it’s really a, a great way for locals to celebrate other local businesses, many of these businesses are family-run and owned businesses, great opportunity to help them thrive during the holidays.”

Additional deals from area businesses are available on Visit Santa Barbara’s website, but make sure you click the link for the direct website for the discount or enter santabarbaraca.com/locals.

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Mike Klan

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – San Marcos High School and Orcutt Academy cross country took away most of the awards at luncheons in Santa Barbara and Orcutt.

Elsie Tuttle and Wyatt Degnar claimed the Male and Female Athlete of the Week Awards at the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table luncheon at Harry’s.

Tuttle turned in the third fastest girls time in San Marcos cross country history by running three miles in a time of 17 minutes and 37 seconds.

Tuttle finished third overall and led San Marcos to a first place team finish in the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 prelim race and qualified for this weekend’s CIF Final.

Degnar finished fifth overall and his time of 15 minutes and 5 seconds is the second fastest time in program history. He advances to the individual CIF Final.

Orcutt Academy runner Aiden Kaufman is the Male Athlete of the Week at the Northern Santa Barbara County Round Table luncheon. He is the Ocean League champion in the three mile race.

Rowan Elkin is the Female Athlete of the Week but was unable to attend the luncheon. The Orcutt Academy cross country runner was one of the top finishers in the Ocean League.

The Santa Ynez doubles tennis team of Haley Towns and Keegan Withrow were honored as Female Athletes of the Week for the luncheon that was missed due to Veterans Day. They finished as semifinalists in the area CIF Individual Tournament.

(Kaufman Towns and Withrow show off their Athlete of the Week honors).

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Mike Klan

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT). – One last ride!

Powerhouse San Marcos girls water polo beat Buena 20-8 to begin the final season with Brian ‘Chuckie’ Roth as the Royals head coach.

Roth made a decision that is best for his family so he is stepping away from leading one of the premier programs in Southern California.

The Royals have won CIF-Southern Section titles under Roth and last year San Marcos competed in the elite Open Division playoffs featuring the top eight teams in the CIF-SS.

Roth will continue teaching physical education at San Marcos and he will remain as the head coach for the Santa Barbara City College women’s water polo team. He recently added a new position to his resume, becoming the Director of the High School Boys Program for Santa Barbara Water Polo Club.

As for the Royals opener senior and USC-commit Charlotte Raisin scored the first three San Marcos goals of the game and four of their first five goals and the game was never in doubt.

Two other players from San Marcos signed last week to play D1 women’s water polo with Sophie Yonker choosing Michigan and Bethany King committing to Harvard.

San Marcos plays at Ventura on Tuesday.

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Mike Klan

UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – UCSB junior guard Miro Little scored 9 points in the final :41 seconds of regulation to force overtime but the Gauchos comeback falls short losing 78-74 at home to Loyola Marymount.

Trailing 66-60, Little scored on four consecutive layups and added one free throw to tie the game at 69.

But Myron Amey Jr. continued his hot shooting after halftime by sinking a three-pointer with 2 minutes left in overtime to put LMU (6-0) ahead for good at 74-71.

Amey Jr. scored a game-high 29 points including 22 after halftime as he helped the Lions erase a 52-38 deficit with 13 minutes left. He made 6-of-7 of his three-point shots.

Little led UCSB with 19 points while Colin Smith and Aidan Mahaney added 18 and 17 points respectively.

UCSB(3-1) led 40-31 at halftime with Mahaney scoring 14 points in the first twenty minutes.

The Gauchos made 6-of-8 from 3-point distance in the first half but went just 2-of-16 after the break from beyond the arc.

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Dave Alley

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – Despite receiving an unseasonably large amount of rain over the past four days, the City of Santa Maria experienced only a few minor impacts during the recent rain storms.

“Things are looking good,” said Brett Fulgoni, Santa Maria Public Works Director. “It was definitely a good sized storm. We’ve had a lot of rain over the weekend, but things are holding up. In general, we’re looking pretty good.”

As of 8:00 a.m. Monday, Santa Barbara County reported Santa Maria had received 3.65 inches of rain over the past four days, which did not include the heavy amount of rain that fell throughout much of Monday morning.

“The latest totals I saw, and these will go up, puts us about 460% of average today,” said Fulgoni. “This has got to be one of wettest Novembers that we’ve had. It’d be interesting to see the data on that.”

As the rain fell throughout most of Monday morning, Santa Maria workers were active responding to storm-related issues.

“The rain, it’s been steady,” said Julian Ruiz, Santa Maria Public Works Street Supervisor. “We have a crews out there patrolling, making sure everything’s safe and the roads are safe. We have some potholes all over the streets so we are pot hole patrolling. We’re also making sure there’s no standing water on the roads.” 

Black Road, on the far western edge of the city, was closed for a time as typically happens during times of heavy rain.

By Monday afternoon, the busy roadway that connects Highway 166/West Main Street to the north and West Betteravia Road to the south was open to through traffic.

Other issues that cropped up were relatively minor, including a clogged storm drain on South Bradley Road, near In-N-Out Burger.

“We’ve had typical localized flooding where the drainage inlets are getting flooded, things like that,” said Fulgoni. “We’re starting to see our basins fill up in the area because of the prolonged period of rain and so that’s something that we’re keeping an eye on with Flood Control.”

While the amount of rain that fell over the city since Friday caught some by surprise, Fulgoni was breathing a sigh of relief the rain began to taper off early Monday afternoon.”

“The good news is that was spread out over a few days,” said Fulgoni. “If we had another couple inches on the heels of this storm, we would be looking at some more serious impacts.”

One impact that will be felt for a few days is the immediate closure of two of the city’s most popular and busiest recreational areas: Crossroads Basin and Adam Basin.

The two parks are active daily hosting mostly soccer players of all ages, who use the grassy areas for practices and games.

However, both facilities double as basins and collect massive amounts of water that runs out from storm drains and spills onto the fields during times of heavy rain.

“It’ll take a few days for the water to flow out of those basins, but they are doing exactly what they’re designed to do, and that is to control the flows of water from the east side of Santa Maria out to the river,” said Alex Posada, Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Director. “The rain is great to have and it helps us out in our parks. This will help our parks turn green again.”

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John Palminteri

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – It was unlike anything most people in Santa Barbara had ever seen in November. Strong, intense and damaging rain for several days.

Saturday night during a massive downpour, furniture in downtown Santa Barbara was pushed down the street and pedestrians were jumping waves on State Street and Anacapa Street.

Several blocks were overwhelmed and water was above the curbs and, in some cases, getting inside into smaller parked vehicles.   

It is unknown how many businesses were impacted by the water cascading down the street when it went over the sidewalks and towards front doors.

The National Weather Service says rainfall totals in the Santa Barbara area has been recorded as high as 13 inches.

This is radically different than the normal month of November.

Cars were swamped at the intersection of Cota Street and Salsipuedes Street Saturday during a driving rain. Several were pulled out or pushed out by Good Samaritans and the Santa Barbara Police officers who responded.     

That intersection was barricaded off but some drivers got through. The smaller vehicles were overwhelmed by the water and stalled out.

At Santa Barbara City College, the lower parking lot by the football stadium was filling with water from a drain pipe that brought in a fast moving stream.  

In Montecito, one resident said, “I live Montecito Creek and we have that experience of being impacted so we get worried – especially Saturday night,” said Jeff Slaff. “We had a lot of water around our house, everything else is good we haven’t had any flooding or anything.”

Large trees were down in the San Roque neighborhood, on upper La Cumbre, off Ontare, on Torino Street and on Elm and Dorrance in Carpinteria.         

It continued with trees down along East Beach by the volleyball courts and Modoc road at Ferrara Way. Public works crews were busy with barricades and the Forestry division was out with chain saws to chop up the branches.

The National Weather Service says much of the moisture is being pulled in by a circulating low pressure system picking up a long stream of rain clouds coming up from the Pacific Ocean out towards Hawaii.

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Beth Farnsworth

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – A local bridge project is holding up well under historic and unusual rainfall this time of year.

The De La Vina Bridge Over Mission Creek Replacement Project is being tested for the first time with back-to-back storms and heavy runoff.

Behind the green fencing and idle earthmovers, Mission Creek is flowing fast through its newly widened banks and beefier abutment walls, thanks to ongoing and extensive excavation work.

City officials said they spent more than a week preparing for forecasted rain. The two year long project will widen the bridge, originally built in 1915, and more than double the creek’s flow capacity in anticipation of 25 year storms.

The series of more than three significant storms is expected to delay the expansion project for an unknown period of time, including pouring and completing the channel walls downstream — that can’t be done until the weather cooperates.

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Patricia Martellotti

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) — The holiday season is taking on new meaning this year as local organizations encourage families to talk about something often left unsaid: their future healthcare wishes.

Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics and Hospice of Santa Barbara are teaming up to prompt residents to start advance care planning — the process of deciding and documenting what kind of medical care they want if they become unable to speak for themselves.

The campaign offers free bilingual appointments with witnessing and notary services, helping residents complete their healthcare directives with ease and confidence.

Organizers say the holidays provide a natural setting for these conversations because families are already coming together.

“End-of-life conversations can be difficult, but they can also bring comfort and clarity,” said representatives from the participating agencies. “Planning ahead allows families to focus on love and connection rather than uncertainty.”

One Santa Barbara resident who took part in the program said a serious car accident prompted her to complete her advance care plan.

She now encourages others to do the same, calling it “a gift of peace of mind” for herself and her loved ones.

Community organizers hope this seasonal push reframes advance care planning as an act of compassion — one that turns holiday tables into spaces for understanding, preparation, and care.

Those interested in learning more about the MyCare document or scheduling an appointment can reach out to Hospice of Santa Barbara for individual or group consultations.

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