Category: keyt-local-news

Mike Klan

UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT). -UC Santa Barbara secured a 2-0 victory over CSUN on Thursday evening at Harder Stadium. This victory marked the Gauchos as the first Big West team to defeat the Matadors this season. UC Santa Barbara’s defense was highlighted by a shutout performance from their goalkeeper, Maddie Buckley, who tallied six saves. The home team scored once in each half, with the game-winning goal coming early in the match.

FROM HEAD COACH PAUL STUMPF”We faced some challenges with a few players being out and not 100 percent,” said Head Coach Paul Stumpf. “But our young players gained valuable experience. Maddie [Buckley] was crucial, making a key save on a breakaway that could have changed the game.”

HOW IT HAPPENEDThe first half began with UC Santa Barbara establishing an early lead as Olivia Howard found the back of the net in the eighth minute, assisted by Caitlyn Simons. The home team maintained offensive pressure with multiple corner kicks and shots on goal, including a significant attempt by Mya Delaney that was saved by the Matadors’ Riley Liebsack.

UC Santa Barbara continued to create scoring opportunities throughout the half, with Isabella Ong and Emma Corcoran both challenging the Cal State Northridge goalkeeper, who made several key saves. Maddie Buckley also contributed defensively with a crucial save against the Matadors’ shot, ensuring the Gauchos held their 1-0 advantage as the half concluded.

The second half commenced with a strategic push from UC Santa Barbara, earning a series of corner kicks that set the stage for an offensive breakthrough. In the 55th minute, Corcoran capitalized on an assist from Delaney to extend the lead to 2-0.

While the Matadors attempted to respond, Buckley remained vigilant in goal, registering key saves. With solid defensive efforts and sustained offensive pressure, UC Santa Barbara maintained the 2-0 advantage through the end of regulation.

UP NEXTUC Santa Barbara will wrap up their 2025 home slate on Sunday, Oct. 26, as it hosts UC Riverside in their final regular-season home match. Prior to the game, the Gauchos will honor their seven seniors for senior day. The Gauchos and Highlanders will kick off at 12 p.m.

(Article courtesy of UCSB Athletics)

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Mina Wahab

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) —The play “Jonny and the Baptists” is about two friends trying to overcome trauma. It showcases Paddy Gervers and his friendship with Jonny Donahoe, a creative partner he’s known since childhood. Gervers says the play is based on his experience losing his mother decades ago. He says it’s a mixture of storytelling, standup, and songs, tackling heavy themes using British humor. “There is no one else who I rip on harder than Johnny. And he does. And that’s what makes the show work, because I think otherwise we wouldn’t be able to talk about it, particularly on stage,” said “Jonny and the Baptists” actor Paddy Gervers. “People I know who’ve lost someone can’t even think about them ever again because it’s too painful. And I understand that. But they’ve also lost so much more because they can’t remember the wonder of that person,” said “Jonny and the Baptists” actor Jonny Donahoe.

The show takes place Thursday at 7:00 pm and Saturday at 7:30 pm at the Center Stage Theater.   All proceeds go to helping non-profit New Beginnings.

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Dave Alley

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – An opening day has been announced for the new Chick-fil-A restaurant in Santa Maria.

The popular chain will open its second restaurant in Santa Maria on Thursday, Nov. 6.

It will join the other Chick-fil-A in Santa Maria, which is located along Betteravia Road in the Enos Ranch shopping center on the south side of the city.

The new location is at the north end of the city just off of Highway 101 at the busy intersection of North Broadway and Presiker Lane, next to the Hampton Inn and Suites and Wendy’s restaurant.

Due to the popularity of Chick-fil-A, long lines of cars are usually seen at its restaurants and there have been some concerns how the location will be able to handle what is expected to be a heavy amount of traffic.

To help traffic flow at the busy location, city planners and the developer have worked together creating a plan that is intended to limit the potential impacts.

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Alissa Orozco

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – Local market Tri-County Produce, known for having the freshest produce grown/made right here on the Central Coast, is hosting a Harvest Homecoming Block Party!

Taking place on Saturday, October 25th, the event invites the community to visit the store to do their part in supporting local farmers, while enjoying family-friendly activities and great food!

Father-son duo, Jaime Desales Sr. and Jaime Desales Jr., took some time out of their busy day to speak to Morning Anchor Joey Vergilis about the block party, and what its been like to take over the beloved market.

We’re just trying to bring the community all together and show that we all can be together and just have a lot of fun,” said Desales Sr. “Doing pumpkin painting, face painting. All our food vendors will be sampling out a bunch of food and live music, and I just expect everybody to have a good time and come together and enjoy the moment, enjoy the weekend.”

The Desales pair took over as owners earlier the year after long-time owner John Dixon announced his retirement back in March. The market was heading towards shut down until the long-time employees decided to take over, keeping fresh produce available to the community, with the help of Philanthropists Wendy and Eric Schmidt.

“It’s makes me feel happy and I enjoy it. You know there’s a lot of, a lot of work to do, but together we’re doing very well, and we, I think we can take the store to another level that it should be.”

The block party will take place Saturday, October 25th from 11:00am – 2:00pm. Local vendors and farmers behind the very products you see sold at Tri-County Produce will be there to join in on the community celebration.

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Alissa Orozco

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (KEYT) – A Reseda man has been arrested after he was connected to a residential burglary in the City of Thousand Oaks back in September.

On September 24th, patrol deputies were called out to a local church to a report of a burglary that happened at a residence located on the church’s premises a couple days before on September 22nd. It was determined that an unknown suspect had forcibly entered the residence and stole property.

Using recovered surveillance footage and other “law enforcement investigative tools,” detectives determined Bladimiro Dominguez, a 50-year-old from Reseda, California, was responsible for the crime.

Dominguez was located by detectives in the City of Sherman Oaks on October 22nd, and taken into custody without incident and booked at the Pre-Trial Detention Facility for Penal Code Section 459(a) – Residential burglary.

His bail is set at $50,000 and is expected in Ventura County Superior Court on October 24th at 1:30 PM.

A booking photo was not provided by officials.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office encourages homeowners to install alarms, cameras, and lights to deter criminals.

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Jarrod Zinn

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – A significant portion of the nation is now caught in the unfolding drama of Vandenberg Village’s missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard.

Now almost a week and a half after she was declared missing, Melodee’s mother is still being uncooperative.

When she was a baby, Melodee’s father Rubiell Meza died in a motorcycle accident.

After years of custody drama, Rubiell’s mother (Melodee’s grandmother) was contacted last Thursday to tell her the child had been reported missing.

“She hasn’t let us see her for a few years,” says Bridgett Truitt, Rubiell’s sister and Melodee’s aunt. “And all of us have tried. But we never stopped thinking about her or loving her or praying for her.”

Lilly Denes, Melodee’s paternal grandmother, is inviting the community out to a sunset candlelight vigil on Friday at the 500 block of Mars Avenue, to pray for Melodee’s safety.

“We just wanted to invite you that we’re going to have a vigil candlelight tomorrow night, at 5:00,” says Melodee’s grandmother Lilly Denes. “We’ll be over there and we will appreciate it if you guys can come and join us for the vigil.”

The family began to gather in support of each other on Thursday night.

Santa Barbara County Sheriffs and the FBI continue to ask the public’s help in locating Melodee, who may have been driven by her mother Ashlee as far away as Nebraska.

If you have seen Melodee or have any information, you can call he Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division (805) 681-4150. Those wishing to remain anonymous can provide information through the tip line at (805) 681-4171 or online at https://www.sbsheriff.org/home/anonymous-tip/.

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Jarrod Zinn

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – Eight days of drug prevention education begin today in Santa Maria with the official start of Red Ribbon Week.

Since 1985, Red Ribbon Week has been paying tribute to fallen DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.

The prevention of drug abuse and violence are presented to school kids of all ages through educational activities and “spirit dress” days.

At Taylor Elementary School in Santa Maria, Red Ribbon Week kicked off with “pajama day.”

Several local schools have already participated in “wear red day” as well as “crazy hair day.”

School officials acknowledged the wide range of agencies that collaborate on a daily basis to keep kids safe and engaged.

“Everything that we do here every day is a partnership between, you know, our staff and families and outside organizations and our district office,” says Stefanie Hardgrave, principal Of Taylor Elementary School. “And it takes all of those people equally engaging in order for us to support students and help everybody to be successful.”

On October 28th, Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley is holding an adults-only seminar called “Hidden In Plain Sight” which will be at El Camino Junior High, educating parents about the signs of drug and alcohol use in kids and teens.

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John Palminteri

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.  (KEYT) – At a time when funding issues are washing out some of the Santa Barbara financial safety net, a big check is on the way from the federal government.

Between 2022 and 2024 there were historic storms and directional swells that pushed tons of sand into the parking areas from the Yacht club to the Harbor West Parking lot, along with destruction of the asphalt in many areas.

It left the area vulnerable to more storms and damage, to not just businesses in the area, but the U.S. Coast Guard offices. Some of the harbor areas impacted were around the Santa Barbra Fish Market and Brophy’s On the Alley.

It required an all-out effort by the crews to clean the area out and open drains.

Santa Barbara Waterfront Director Mike Wiltshire told the Harbor commission recently a request for repair cost reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been approved.

He says the impact and repairs at the time were “enormous.”

In just days, at the time, “one of the larger actions was to install a 400 foot rock revetment. This was critical,” he said.  ‘This revetment followed a previously designed plan.”  That sped up the process to defend the property.

T go after FEMA money “is long and tedious and takes a huge amount of staff time,” said Wiltshire.

All along they were unsure about the results.

“We heard back from FEMA and they are going to reimburse us roughly for $2-million of the $2.6-million in claims,” said Wiltshire.

Wiltshire called it “a huge win for the Waterfront department.”

This week, the City Finance Committee received a report showing overall revenues are trending down and expenses are going up citywide. All departments were asked to suggest ways to trim costs or generate new fees.

Also the Harbor Commission recently looked at concerns going forward. Questions have been raised about harbor dredging with dwindling funds for one more clearing  possibly in January.

Harbor commissioner John Stedman asked if the Coast Guard Vessel Blackfin would be stuck here in a storm. “Is it conceivable that federal government wouldn’t dredge if we were in emergency conditions  given that have that Coast Guard vessel?”

Wiltshire said, “they’ll dredge essentially the minimum about to get passage for that Coast Guard cutter and our operations, as opposed to clearing a channel for the normal width (for all vessels.)”

The city also saw an insurance deductible for Stearns Wharf go up from $250,000 to $3-million in case there is a damage issue there.

The recent FEMA money is going back into the waterfront reserves.

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Dave Alley

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – The long-running effort to revitalize downtown Santa Maria is finally taking place.

City leaders have been working to bring a restored vibrancy to the downtown area around the busy intersection of Broadway and Main Street for decades.

Now, with a handful of residential and commercial developments either in construction or soon to be on-the-way, Santa Maria is now beginning the process that stakeholders believe will dramatically remake and reimagine the important downtown core.

“This is absolutely a transformational point in our downtown revitalization efforts,” said Chenin Dow, Santa Maria Community Development Director. “This really has the capability of transforming our downtown in a new and different way, to really be what our community needs for the next generation of Santa Maria.  

Ten years ago, Santa Maria adopted its Downtown Specific Plan, a document created to establish its vision, regulations, and guidelines to revitalize, beautify, and redevelop the downtown area. Santa Maria leaders use the Specific Plan essentially as a road map to focus its efforts, attract investment and be a catalyst for improvement.

“The Downtown Specific Plan was first adopted back in 2015, but these last few months we’ve really started to see the rubber meets the road in terms of projects coming out of the ground,” said Dow. “We are looking to build over 1,000 units of housing within the downtown core. There’s more than 130,000 square feet of commercial being developed or redeveloped.”

The first major development project in the downtown area is already complete, The Gateway mixed-used development on the northwest corner of Broadway and Main Street.

Located at the site of a former stereo store, the three-story building includes the now open Efren’s Mexican Restaurant on the bottom floor, and housing units on the top floors.

Within the past few weeks, construction began on the redevelopment of the former Falla’s/Mervyn’s building in the Santa Maria Town Center West shopping center.

Santa Barbara-based developer The Vernon Group has been working for five years on the project that will transform the long-vacant two-story 85,000 square foot building into a 104-unit residential complex called Heritage Walk Lofts.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in early August and now construction crews can been seen working on the well-known building on a daily basis.

Heritage Walk Lofts is the first in a series of other major developments The Vernon Group has planned for the downtown area.

Other projects The Vernon Group is working includes the proposed Perlman Apartments on the northeast corner of Broadway and Main Street and right across the street on the southeast corner, the Alvin Newton Apartments.

Both of the those two developments are planned to be six-story structures and have been approved byte Santa Maria City Council.

The Perlman building is set to be an affordable housing complex with about 250 unites and the Alvin Newton building to have a mixed-use concept that includes under 100 units.

The Vernon Group also has two other longer term projects in the works in the area, including what is known as “Lot 1,” the site of the former Boot Barn, and “Lot 4,” which is property located just north of the Heritage Walk Lofts.

Should all of these projects come to fruition, downtown Santa Maria will look and feel much different than it does today.

It’s a complete evolution,” said Suzanne Singh, Santa Maria Valley Chamber Vice President of Economic Development and Government Affairs. “We’re shifting to what the younger generation wants. I think we’re moving to what our younger generation is looking for, which is revitalized downtowns where they can live in high rise apartments, go down, get their coffee, do their shopping, all that right where they live, and so I think we’re listening to that younger generation and we’re trying to accommodate them, in addition to making Santa Maria look awesome.”

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Mike Klan

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT). –

CIF-SS Division 1 Round One Flag Football:

Dos Pueblos 20, Etiwanda 0 (DP at Edison in quarterfinals on Monday)

(Kacey Hurley threw 3 td passes in DP win. Entenza Design).

San Marcos 13, Saint Joseph Lakewood 7 (SM hosts Orange Lutheran in quarterfinals on Monday 5pm)

(Victoria Aldana threw a td pass and added a 40-yard punt return td in Royals win. Entenza Design).

Camarillo 38, Oxnard 6 (Camarillo hosts Huntington Beach in quarterfinals on Monday)

CIF-SS Girls Volleyball Round One:

Division 5: Santa Barbara 3, Paraclete 2 (SB hosts Sacred-Heart LA in 2nd round on Saturday)

(Blake Saunders celebrates one of her 13 kills in five set thriller).

Division 5: San Marino 3, Camarillo 2

Division 5: Valencia 3, St. Bonaventure 1

Division 5: Royal 3, University 0

Division 3: North Torrance 3, Agoura 1

Division 3: Flintridge Prep 3, Newbury Park 0

Division 7: Cate 3, Laguna Blanca 0 (Cate at Castaic in 2nd round on Saturday)

Division 9: Beacon Hill 3, Cathedral City 0

Division 9: Nordhoff 3, Cobalt 1 (Nordhoff hosts Estancia in 2nd round Saturday 6pm)

Division 9: Estancia 3, Santa Paula 1

Channel League Tournament Championship:

Buena 9, Dos Pueblos 8 (Bulldogs win league tournament)

San Marcos 16, Ventura 3 (Royals take 3rd place)

Santa Barbara 14, Oxnard 4

Santa Barbara 15, Rio Mesa 8 (Dons finish in 5th place)

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