Category: keyt-local-news

Dave Alley

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – The issue of human trafficking on the Central Coast was discussed Thursday during an annual forum held in Santa Maria.

The event was hosted at the Santa Maria Country Club by the Rotary Club of South Santa Maria and was intended to shed light on a growing crime that is taking place not only nationally, but locally on the Central Coast.

“The purpose is to really make people aware of the fact that we do have this issue here on the Central Coast, that our children and youth and even adults are sometimes at risk,” said Event Co-Chair Victoria Conner. “It’s especially important for first responders, for law enforcement, the medical profession, teachers, counselors, anyone working with youth to understand that this is an issue that affects us here, as well as in metropolitan areas.”

Conner pointed out the geography of the Central Coast actually makes it an ideal location for trafficking to take place.

“Most people don’t know the Central Coast and Santa Maria area are hubs for human trafficking because they’re halfway between Los Angeles and the Southern California area and San Francisco and the Northern California area, and it’s also a hub for people coming from the (Central) valley. Most of us don’t recognize that.”

During the course of four hours, audience members heard from a lineup of speakers that includes survivors of human trafficking, as well as advocates, members of law enforcement, and other government agencies that are helping fight the issue on a daily basis.

“Right here in Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara and everywhere humans congregate, we have more powerful people taking advantage of less powerful people,” said keynote speaker Russell Wilson, who himself was a victim of trafficking, but is now a nationally-regarded speaker and subjet matter expert. “The way we’re going to put an end to this is by having these conversations and bringing this topic to light. Nothing goes away in the dark. We have to bring it into the light.”

“Every single person has a role in combating trafficking,” said speaker Alia Azariah, a trafficking victim who is now the director of Aftercare at Safe House Project. “Whether it’s just being a safe person for the neighborhood kids, being a safe person for their own children’s friends, teaching digital safety to their own kids, or whether it is stepping into this work as a law enforcement officer or prosecutor or a case manager, every single person in our community has a role to play in combating trafficking and in helping people heal.”

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Michael Yu

OXNARD, Calif. (KEYT) – Oxnard Police Department responded to a fatal vehicle-bicycle collision.

The incident happened around 6:30pm Wednesday on Wooley Road in Oxnard.

Officers found a bicyclist suffering from major wounds at the scene when they arrived.

He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the bicyclist had been traveling when the vehicle, also traveling eastbound, collided with him.

An investigation is ongoing.

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Michael Yu

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – A man believed to be involved in multiple car crashes was arrested Wednesday night.

Santa Barbara police arrested the man around 9:25 Wednesday night after a crash at Del Monte and San Pascual Street.

The suspect had initially fled from the scene but was arrested after.

It comes after another collision on Wentworth Street around the same time-frame.

The incident remains under investigation.

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Mike Klan

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – Aidan Conlan did his damage in the second quarter while teammate Koji Hefner took charge in the second half as San Marcos beat Rio Mesa 65-41 in Channel League boys basketball.

Conlan erupted for 14 second quarter points on the strength of four 3-pointers. He finished with 17 points and led San Marcos to a 32-19 halftime lead.

The senior Hefner scored 15 of his game-high 19 points in the second half as the Royals pulled away to improve to 7-2 in league, one game back of first place Santa Barbara.

(Brody Green helps the Royals improve to 16-6 on the season. Entenza Design).

Santa Barbara 83, Pacifica 65: Dons lead the Channel League at 8-1.

Oxnard 81, Buena 35: Mikey Duran-Morales scored 27 points with 7 assists, 7 rebounds and 6 steals for the Yellowjackets. Oxnard is tied with San Marcos in league at 7-2.

Ventura 65, Dos Pueblos 59: Cougars jumped out to a 36-22 halftime lead and held off DP. The Chargers got 17 points apiece from both Coulter Jay and Evan Pinsker.

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Mike Klan

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – Senior Damien Krautmann scored 13 of his game-high 16 points in the first half as Bishop Diego built a 34-17 lead at the break and cruised to a 57-34 win over St. Bonaventure.

The Cardinals defense had 17 steals as they improved to 6-0 in the Tri-Valley League and 17-2 overall.

(Bishop Diego has won 8 straight games and will host Thacher on Friday at 6 p.m. Entenza Design).

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Tracy Lehr

CARPINTERIA, Calif. (KEYT) Lake Cachuma may be spilling now but that wasn’t the case a decade ago when the Carpinteria Valley Water District saw the need for a locally controlled drought resistant water supply.

“We learned this lesson in 2016 when Cachuma was a puddle and we were one year away from severe shortages and all the agencies on the South Coast were really stressed about what are we going to do about this drought in 2016 and 2017, “said the district’s former General Manager Bob McDonald, “fortunately we had some rainfall that saved us, we can’t rely on that in the future, and in the future there is likely going to be a drought that will stress our water supplies and so this will enable us to fill the gaps of droughts in the futures.”

On January 14th the board awarded the contract to Walsh Construction that is currently working on a similar project in Calabasas.

Walsh to build the Carpinteria Advanced Purification Project known as CAPP.

“It is a project that will reclaim wastewater that is currently discharged to the ocean and utilize that for drinking water, so we will go through a secondary process, an advanced water treatment process is what they call it, to purify that water and then we will move it through a pipeline and inject it through two injection wells on Linden near St. Joseph Church,” said McDonald.

It is different than a desalination plant.

“With desal you have a higher level of salt than with wastewater so its is less energy that a standard desal plant would use,” said McDonald, “We are taking wastewater rather than discharging it to the ocean after the wastewater treatment process, we are capturing it and treating it again to a level where we are calling it pure but it is essentially distilled water,” said Mcdonald.

In case customers are wondering it is no longer urine or waste.

It potable water, safe for drinking, and taking showers and other household needs.

“Many people don’t understand in most cities wastewater treatment plants discharge into rivers and downstream water treatment plants capture that water and treat it that is called adhoc use, we are actually doing an engineered solution that we are making sure we are cleaning the water really well, we are then injecting it into the groundwater basin where it will travel a distance to get further clean and once we pull it out of our wells it is pretty high quality water,” said McDonald.

But it doesn’t come cheap.

More than a third of the $90 million total capital cost will be paid by grants and customers will see their water bill rates increase by 7.5 percent this year with more increases to follow.

Construction on the purification facility at the Sanitary District Treatment Plant will begin this summer.

For more information visit https://www.cvwd.net

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Alissa Orozco

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – Your News Channel welcomed back Dory from Santa Barbara Humane, and her special friend Chuy!

Chuy is a nearly 8-year-old purebred German Shepherd with a sweet demeanor and a voice you can’t miss. Chuy was surrendered to the shelter due to no fault of his own – his previous owner had to move out of the country, but left behind a great pup.

His foster mom and SB Humane CEO says Chuy is completely house trained and a total couch dog – with the occasional zoomies of course.

Dory took the opportunity to discuss the importance of spaying and neutering your animal. SB Humane is largest provider of affordable veterinary care in the county, assisting in over 8,000 spays and neuters in 2025.

Santa Barbara Humane just expanded access to its weekly walk-in vaccine clinics, offering a low-cost option for dog and cat owners across the region.

“Please if you have an animal out there that you’ve been putting off medical care or you know your cat needs to get spayed just reach out to us we wanna help.”

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Beth Farnsworth

SANTA BARBARA, Calif (KEYT) – For the first time in 80-years, a trip to the Caribbean Sea beat out a Hawaiian vacation as the top destination for West Coasters.

“People are wanting new things, new experiences,” said Chris Olvera, Manager of Automobile Club of Southern California’s Santa Barbara Branch. “AAA wants to see more people go back to Hawaii, it out-priced itself in recent years. They realize that now.”

But taking a flight to the Caribbean may not necessarily be the most popular option.

“2026 is expected to be one of the largest travel years for cruising,” said Olvera. “And, the Caribbean is the number one destination, followed by Alaska.”

Olvera added that cruising “exploded” after the pandemic; cruising companies seem to be coming up with new ships each year to out-do each other.

Courtesy: Allison Winslow/KEYT

He shared other great travel tips and top trends Wednesday afternoon from AAA’s State Street hub. Those include a spike in multi-generational trips (yes, cruises are also popular with that demographic), wellness vacations and, trips with so-called bragging rights.

“Expedition travel. We’re talking Antarctica, we’re talking the Galapagos Islands, we’re talking the Arctic regions. We’re seeing trends that people want to be associated with going new places, experiencing new things.”

Olvera admitted, those are considered bucket list trips. Japan might be another.

Courtesy: AAA

“Europe is still hot but Japan was number one last year,” he said. “For most Americans, Japan was the number one travel destination. Japan is just exploding. People are not afraid to go to Asia, the yen to dollar ratio is in our favor and so that has attracted a lot of people. Whether they want to go to Tokyo and do Mario Kart or they want to travel throughout the country, they want to experience something different and that’s a trend throughout the U.S.”

Courtesy: AAA

Olvera said travel deep into Mexico is also popular, rather than the typical tourist spots.

“People are not just going to Cabo anymore or Mazatlán or Puerto Vallarta. They’re going deeper into Mexico — Mexico City, Mérida, Huatulco. And they’re still just a couple hour flight.”

He believed safety concerns linked to well publicized cartel violence are more relegated to border regions and not resort destinations. He said, personally, he felt no danger while traveling with his family throughout parts of Mexico.

Trips to our national parks are still highly popular. And, Hawaii will always beckon travelers to its islands of paradise.

“They’re coming back with extraordinary deals and trying to get people to come back.”

Travel insurance, when you’re lucky to take that trip, is always recommended.

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Dave Alley

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – The Santa Maria City Council cut into a $25.1 million deficit on Tuesday night by approving a number of a number of “budget amendments.”

“The staff brought for the City Council recommendations to reduce, the budget,” said Chuen Wu, Santa Maria Assistant City Manager. “The council approved the recommendations, so I feel like we’re making progress on addressing the city’s budget deficit and yesterday was kind of a big step towards that.”

Among the proposals that were approved by councilmembers were a number of capital improvement projects that must now be delayed, cancelled, or funded with another source.

The Recreation and Parks Department in particular received significant budget reductions totalling more than $4.3 million.

“The council approved last night a reduction plan to put on hold a lot of the capital projects that we had planned for the future,” said Dennis Smitherman, Recreation and Parks Department Interim Director. “Things like sports field ADA access (at Simas Park), new lights (at Elks Field), different aspects for the department to help continue to grow as we grow in the community. They’re not canceled. They’re just on pause for right now. andwe’re looking to keep those items on that list and to make sure that they stay front and forward, and as funding becomes available, either through general fund dollars or potentially grant dollars, we’ll be able to go out and ask for that funding again.”

The Fire Department will also have a large amount of funding rebalanced with City Council approving more $3.8 million in reductions, including $3.629 million earmarked for the expansion of Fire Station 1.

“The Station 1 expansion has to be done,” said Santa Maria Fire Chief Brad Dandridge. “With the future growth that our city is expecting, and with the expected downtown infill projects that have been approved for the community, we need to expand station one to hold additional firefighters to ensure that the service levels that are provided our community stay at the level that they need to be. The project isn’t being delayed. The project isn’t being canceled. We have Congressman Salud Carbajal that has proposed that $1.23 million grant for us to allow the project to continue. We’re also looking at alternate funding to ensure that that project continues on path.”

In addition, the city will continue to operate with a smaller work staff as hiring to fill open positions will now be paused indefinitely.

“There were 24 full-time positions that have been vacant,” said Wu. “Many of these positions have been vacant a while and so we decided to remove the budget allocations for those positions. There were also part-time hours that we’re going to remove off the books, and so we’re really trying to be efficient and lean with the people that we have, but still try and provide the same level of services.”

Among the open positions that will remain unfilled are 10 with the police department and eight with the fire department.

“We are not reducing the service that we’re providing our community,” said Dandridge. “Although those positions are unfilled on paper, we continue the minimum daily staffing levels that we have contracted with our community to ensure the service that we provide is at the level that our community deserves and expects.”

With the first round of budget amendments now approved, City Council is now looking at new ways to increase future revenue streams.

On Tuesday, City Council approved up to $36,500 in funding to hire DHM Research to provide PublicOpinion Survey Research and Ballot Measure Polling Services.

“We’re exploring potential revenue options,” said Wu. “We’ve enlisted a polling services to just kind of gauge community sentiment on the potential of whether it’s, sales tax or a parcel tax, or rental tax, those are options that are being explored, but we want to get a sense of what the community feels and we also want to have direction from our council. It’s a discussion that we’re having at the moment and we’re having those conversations within the next couple of months. Everything that we’re talking about really has lead into the next, budget that we intend to adopt for ’26 through ’28.”

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John Palminteri

ISLA VISTA, Calif. (KEYT) – A new effort is underway to have an organized Spring celebration in Isla Vista that reigns in the crowds known to show up for the unpermitted Deltopia event, which was recently silenced by the County Board of Supervisors.

Santa Barbara County Supervisors voted to have a noise ordinance, banning amplified music on and near the dates when Deltopia would be taking place.

To still bring the community together for a festival event under more sanctioned activities, the Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD) has a plan in the works. The organizers and board members did have alternative activities last year to get the crowds away from the overloaded Del Playa Drive and reduce issues with medical calls, first responder access, and the dangers of cliff falls.

It was well received in the park settings with live bands, free water, tacos and safe resting areas.

A similar festival vibe is on the drawing board and funding has come in that amounts to about $240,000 from the IVCSD and also the A.S. Board at UC Santa Barbara nearby, which has been joining the recent events that serve the student population in Isla Vista in a safe way.

The festival has no name as of now, but organizers are looking for suggested names as part of their outreach.

Last night was a work session and town hall meeting to lay out the plan, show a color map and give the timeline that has to be met for approvals prior to the April 4th festivities.

Even if the event falls short on the approval, the IVCSD will be providing extra bathrooms, water stations and resources to help with safe community services, in anticipation of an active scene.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department is already budgeting to have resources on duty that would be in line with a large event.

In a presentation to the Board of Supervisors recently prior to the noise ban,  the Sheriff’s Isla Vista Foot Patrol cited the burden of the unpermitted event with numerous calls for service, medical emergencies, injuries, overloaded emergency room beds, a broken crowded balcony and over the past 15 year, two deaths.

The report also cited thousands of dollars in county funds spent on managing the event needs beyond what a normal weekend would need. This is taking place as the county budget is forecasted to be facing a multi-million dollar deficit.

(More details, photos and video will be added here later today.)

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