The City of Goleta has a new view for you—Community View. The City of Goleta’s Community View is a Geographical Information System (GIS) and is now available online and provides detailed information about properties from a geographic perspective. You can find everything from existing bikeways and beach access points to flood plains, legislative districts, and zoning maps.

To check out this new view, click here.

The Goleta Library received $15,000 to help create a warm and friendly space for families at the library. The Family Place Library Program is a statewide initiative that helps create family/early childhood space in the children’s areas of local public libraries. Goleta joins the nearly 300 libraries nationwide dedicated to providing services to families with young children. The Friends of the Goleta Valley Library have provided $5,000 in matching funds for the grant.

The new Family Corner will be equipped with toys, books and comfortable furniture, creating an attractive and exciting space designed specifically for young children. The library setting supports early-learning interactions between young children (ages 0 to 5 years), parents and caregivers, and encourages the use of public libraries by families with children. All the new materials were selected so that they would enhance the
development of young children’s learning, enabling them to become school-ready.

In addition the new Family Corner, library staff will partner with local professionals to offer frequent sessions of the Play With Me, Learn With Me Parent/Child Workshops that will meet weekly for five successive weeks. In these workshops, parents will play with their children using age-appropriate materials, have the opportunity to ask local experts about topics that concern them and learn nursery rhymes, songs and finger plays.

Goleta staff has also created a Parenting Collection with timely and pertinent circulating materials on topics of interest to parents and their toddlers. As part of the grant process, two staff members received three days of training on the program and are now training the rest of the staff on how to interact with families in a new way. The Goleta Library will be known as a place with knowledgeable staff that successfully focuses on
literacy, early childhood development, education and family services.

For more information, visit www.sbplibrary.org/hourslocations/goleta.html or call 964-7878.

A new spay-neuter ordinance encourages the spaying and neutering of cats and dogs and requires veterinary certification and licensing if an owner wants to leave an animal unaltered. The intent is to help prevent overpopulation. For a full version of the ordinance, visit the City’s website at www.CityofGoleta.org.

Copies of the 2012 Goleta Magazine are now available at the Goleta Library, Goleta Valley Community Center, at City Hall and at other locations throughout the City. This annual publication by the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce highlights the best Goleta has to offer. Inside you will find articles on the City’s first 10 years, education, business, real estate and more. Pick up your copy today!

The City of Goleta, Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce and the University of California at Santa Barbara launched the GEM (Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet) Initiative at Goleta’s fifth annual State of the City. GEM is a collaboration of business, government and education to strengthen the local economy by supporting new and growing technology entrepreneurs. GEM’s vision is to have the Goleta Valley recognized as a world-class regional center of excellence for entrepreneurial technology and growth. The next step for GEM is to create a Web-based resource for the Goleta entrepreneur wanting to start and grow a business from permitting, to finding a workforce, to everything in between. Look for more about this exciting new initiative in the coming months.