Category: keyt-local-news

Mike Klan

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – San Marcos boys volleyball was not in the sharing mood.

After dropping a lopsided first set at Santa Barbara, the Royals won the next three sets to complete a season sweep over the Dons and claim the outright Channel League championship.

A loss to Santa Barbara would have created a 3-way tie for first place with Dos Pueblos who now ends up second and the Dons in third place. All three teams are CIF-SS playoff bound.

The Dons celebrated Senior Night beforehand and then opened with an impressive 25-15 first set victory.

Hayes Costner led the way in that opening set win.

But the Royals bounced back to take set #2 behind the strong play of sophomore Matteo Burdick.

With Luke Zuffelato booming several kills the Dons led for much of the third set including a 22-18 advantage late.

But the Royals stormed back and captured the third set 25-23 on a powerful kill by Calvin Frissel.

San Marcos held off the Dons in the fourth set 26-24 and celebrated the championship.

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Mike Klan

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – First round CIF-Southern Section Beach Volleyball results

Division 2:

Santa Barbara 5, Foothill Tech 0 (SB at St. Joseph/Lakewood on Thursday)

Dos Pueblos 4, Hillcrest 1 (DP at Wilson/LB on Thursday).

Division 3:

Laguna Blanca 5, Bell Gardens 0 (LB hosts Pacifica Christian/OC on Thursday).

Mayfair 3, Bishop Diego 2

Camarillo 3, Irvine 2 (Cam hosts Canyon/A on Thursday).

Costa Mesa 4, St. Bonaventure 1

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Dave Alley

GUADALUPE, Calif. — Guadalupe school officials toured the district’s still-under-construction junior high school and Early Learning Center (ELC) on Tuesday morning, getting a chance to see firsthand the soon-to-be-completed project.

Officials taking part in the 45-minute walk-through included members of the Guadalupe Union School District (GUSD) Board of Trustees, along with Superintendent Dr. Emilio Handall and Guadalupe Mayor Ariston Julian.

“We saw tremendous progress on all the different buildings, from the classrooms to the gymnasium to the Early Learning Center,” said Handall. “All of the necessary utility lines are being placed in and installing the field as well, so got a lot of things going on simultaneously.”

The effort to build a third school campus to join Mary Buren Elementary School and Kermit McKenzie Intermediate School has been a goal GUSD has been working on for 30 years.

In January 2024, after gathering the necessary funding, groundbreaking took place on a 17.6 acre site located in the Pasadera housing community.

“I think it’s very exciting for us as board members, as a school district because our community has waited for this for so long,” said Board President José Pereyra. “It’s a big investment. We’ve needed it for a long time. Both of our campuses are pretty impacted now with students, so having this third and fourth campus will allow us to expand and provide better services for our students.”

In addition to the junior high school, the project also includes what will be an entirely separate campus for the new ELC, which will be located adjacent to the junior high school, on the south end of the property.

“The Early Learning Center was actually a bonus that we threw in using state funds and federal funds,” said Handall. “We believe this is going to be a tremendous opportunity here in town to bring in all of our three and four-year-old students to give them a head start before they get to kindergarten. That project is very personal to me because I felt that there were so many students coming to us that weren’t ready for kindergarten. Now they’re going to have at least two years to come into kindergarten fully prepared to meet all of the necessary standards that need to be met. We are super excited about that.”

During the tour, the school leaders went into several rooms and buildings throughout the campus, including the highly-anticipated 11,000 square feet multipurpose building/gymnasium, as well as classrooms and the administration building.

“I went to school in the old City Hall that was built in 1929 and to see that as a comparison to what we have going here, it’s just a one thousand percent difference,” said Julian. “What a joy this is going to be for the families who live here and for the kids that come here. They’re going to see this as the community cares about them and the school district cares about them. It’s a big investment in kids. As they go to Righetti (High School) and as they go to Pioneer (Valley High School), they’re going to be well prepared after they get through our school system here.”

The tour came just a few days after the construction site was damaged by vandalism inside the junior high school gymnasium and administration building.

According to the builders, the damage was significant, but not enough to derail the opening of the junior high, which is slated to be ready for first day of school in early August.

“It was a little bit of a setback, but in talking to the construction folks, we’re still on track,” said Handall. “If anyone knows about who who inflicted the vandalism, we’d love to know. If you let the Guadalupe Police Department know, we’d love to find out who actually vandalized our campus. We’re moving forward and we know this is just a bump in the road.”

Once the new school is built, GUSD will adjust the configuration of its three campuses.

The new junior high will be for students in the 7th and 8th grades, while Kermit McKenzie Intermediate School will be for students in 4th through 6th grades.

Mary Buren Elementary School will be for students in kindergarten through third grades, and the new ELC will be for preschool and transitional kindergarten students.

The new junior high will be named Guadalupe Junior High School and will accommodate just under 500 students and include 16 classrooms, plus the multipurpose building/gymnasium and library.

The ELC will support about 200 students on its site adjacent to the junior high school.

Handall said the cost to build both sites will be about $50 million, with funding provided through a variety of sources, including the passage of two school bonds over the past several years.

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Caleb Nguyen

TEMPLETON, Calif. – CAL Fire SLO crews helped with a structure fire on Spanish Oak Lane in Templeton just after 6:00 p.m. Tuesday.

CAL Fire SLO evacuated everyone from the residence without injuries and received help from Templeton and Paso Robles’ fire departments in the incident.

No other structures are threatened from the fire and no traffic delays are anticipated from the incident, according to CAL Fire SLO.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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Mina Wahab

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—Santa Barbara County Supervisor Laura Capps’ Office says roughly one third of county employees commute dozens of miles just to get to work in the morning. And that has some negative ripple effects not just for worker retention and the environment, but also the economy and private-industry workers. Laura Capps is excited to see the County Probation building in downtown Santa Barbara fully transform into affordable workforce housing available to everyone. “It’s an experiment. I believe it’s going to go really well. We just put out a request for proposals to help us develop this so that this will be about 60, 70 units,” said Capps. From one story buildings to partially-vacant parking lots, Capps is starting a new initiative to collaborate with developers to turn parcels of county-owned land into housing. “I mean, someone who lived here and worked at the county or worked at a public school, they could walk to restaurants, they could walk to their doctor’s appointments.” said Capps. The county has identified 21 parcels of land that could be viable starting points for housing development, including sites in Santa Maria and the County Administration building in Santa Barbara.  Community Services Department Director Jesús Armas says the Administration building would be an even bigger project than the Probation building “We potentially could see somewhere in the in the range of 100 units here. And being able to leverage a county facility or a county asset to produce housing that’s desperately needed. Pretty impressive step for a public agency,” said Armas.  Supervisor Capps says once the County Probation building housing project gets off the ground it’s likely that future developments like the County Admin building will gain more traction. 

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Tracy Lehr

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Renovictions refer to all kinds of renovations leading to evictions.

Some renters see them as an excuse to evict and raise rents.

The Santa Barbara City Council approved three extra provisions or amendments to a tenant protection ordinance approved last year.

When this debate started the makeup of the council was different.

Only four council members are attending the meeting in person today.

Eric Friedman is out for health reasons until May.

Meagan Harman and Oscar Gutierrez voted virtually.

They joined Wendy Santamaria and Kristen Snedden by voting yes.

“What we did today is that we have closed a loophole to no longer allow a claim an unverified claim of renovations as a reason to evict a Tenant,” said Santamaria, “What we have done is we have helped secure families and local workers to be able to have some stability in their home.”

Mayor Randy Rowse said he didn’t consider is a loophole and that putting a thumb on the scales of the rental market can have negative impacts.

“It pits one side against another,” said Rowse.

Mike Jordan who represents the area that includes the 215 Bath Street apartment also voted no.

The sections approved include letting tenants recover possessions before completion of renovations, a change that states the ordinance protecting portions of the plan will not be impacted by other portions declared unconstitutional.

Another amendment states that the ordinance does not require environmental review.

Corina Svacina has rented at the Bath St. property for 7 years.

“It is really my home where I have become an adult, my friends and neighbors and family, it is where I call home and it is awful to live in a place that is not peaceful and that is that we want back is a peaceful for all use,” said Svacina.

She asked the council to regulate multimillionaire developers who she said are buying up big properties worth tens of millions of dollars.

The item was the last one on Tuesday’s agenda.

A large number of residents speak during public comments.

Rick Lang said he rents but understands how landlords and property owner feel.

“When people buy property they expect to get market rent for market expenses,” said Lang.

He would like to see people paying large rents buy property but admits more affordable homes need to be built.

The council also directed staff to research an appeals process and return with a proposal at a later date.

Councilmember Santamaria said there will be a final reading of what they voted on next week and then the changes will take affect in 30 days.

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John Palminteri

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – 55 years after the first Earth Day, changes continue to take place for governments and citizens in many areas of the world, but it started in the Santa Barbara area with a tragedy.

The 1969 offshore oil blowout from Platform A off the Santa Barbara-Summerland coast was the key event to start the Earth Day movement with the help of Congressional leaders a year later.

Since the first Earth Day in 1970 there have been major strides in air and land ecology.

These days it is common to see solar panels in parking lots and schools, charging stations for electric vehicles, e-bikes next to those with pedal power, community cleanups, recycling and countless environmentally related non-profit groups.

On Saturday and Sunday Santa Barbara will hold its Community Environmental Council Earth Day events at Alameda Park with numerous demonstrations, earth-friendly vendors, awards and forward-looking information. There will also be a green-car display and test rides of e bikes.

In Goleta, the city’s sustainability department has recently opened a public electric vehicle charging station at City Hall. It also offers has reusable utensils and cups that are given out at community outreach events to encourage the public to buy these items for themselves or families.

Goleta Sustainability Manager Dana Murray says, “we want to walk the talk. If we want to see more people  to put renewable energy at their homes and businesses,  we want to do that right here at City Hall, solar, battery storage or  EV chargers.  “

She has seen schools embracing the reusable utensils. “In fact there’s been whole schools that the parents liked them so much they’ve done fundraisers for the whole school  so they can all go reusable.”

Murray is encouraged by what she sees going forward even with a growing population and many challenges. “Part of the main reason we all live here is the beaches, the creeks, the mountains and we don’t want to leave our liter there. I think kids get the reason. It makes me hopeful for the future.”

Artist Brad Nack remembers the spill and how it shaped his environmental decisions. “The waves couldn’t break because they were covered in tar so it was like watching jello wobble and to really see something as a kid go so wrong leaves a big impact. “

These days he says, ” I’ll be very conscious about recycling but if you go out to the dump and see all the stuff that is being thrown away… ” He said there is still work to do. He handles his leftover paints with a carefully planned environmental disposal plan.

In addition to air and water issues, Kelli Osajima said, “I think the biggest thing for me is clothing.  I try to thrift and upcycle and push that  with my friends alot.”

Montecito resident Maude Feil says she juices often and wants to step up her efforts to compost. “You know I don’t do as much as I should with used vegetables and stuff.”

Many events throughout the year including the California Avocado Festival in Carpinteria have been able to collect and sort waste on-site, and even with 100,000 visitors over three days, it is a zero-waste event.

For more information go to: Goleta Sustainabilty, Santa Barbara Sustainability, Carpinteria Sustainability

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