Daily Archives: January 31, 2019

Fire is Everyone’s Fight – Electrical Fires

There are close to 45,000 home electrical fires each year. Most occur between midnight and 8:00 a.m. and peak months are November – March. Three out of five home electrical fires involve lighting equipment or home electrical wiring. Ways to avoid electrical fires include: plug only one heat-producing appliance directly into a wall outlet at a time and never use an extension cord with a heat-producing appliance. Heat-producing appliances include coffee makers, space heaters and microwaves.

There are additional ways to prevent portable space heater fires. Place them on a solid, flat surface and keep them a minimum of three feet from anything that can burn. Always check your space heater for cracked or damaged cords and plugs.

Learn more about fire prevention from the U.S. Fire Administration at www.usfa.fema.gov/prevention.

Goleta Continues to Go Green!

The Green Business Program of Santa Barbara County (GBPSBC) will be hosting its annual luncheon to honor over two dozen green businesses that were certified and re-certified this past year on Wednesday, March 13, 2019. The luncheon will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Hotel Corque, located at 400 Alisal Road in Solvang.

Among those to be recognized at the luncheon is the City of Goleta, which was re-certified this past year as a Green Business by the GBPSBC. The City of Goleta is proud to renew and strengthen its commitment to sustainability by implementing environmentally friendly practices throughout the organization. In addition to the recertification of our city, the Goleta Sanitary District, Sweet Cheeks, Brighten Solar Co., and AC4 Fitness in Goleta were all certified as green businesses within the past year.

The keynote speaker for the event will be Seth Streeter, the Founder and CEO of Mission Wealth and of Sustainablefuture.org.  Sustainablefuture.org is an impact-making organization designed to align and empower Santa Barbara County to become a leading sustainable region for the world to follow. The Sustainablefuture.org platform educates and supports community members in making environmentally friendly behavior changes, tallying positive individual and team impacts on the environment.  For more information on SustainableFuture.org, please visit their website at www.Sustainablefuture.org.

For the past 10 years, the GBPSBC public/private partnership program has helped over 100 local businesses and organizations save money and improve their environmental impacts through simple, yet effective green strategies. Currently, businesses in the following sectors are eligible to apply for certification:  general office/retail stores, restaurants, lodging establishments, automotive shops, multi-family residential complexes, breweries and small manufacturers.  Other sectors will be added in the future based on available resources, demand, and community interest.

To obtain more information about the GBPSBC and to RSVP for the Luncheon, please visit the GBPSBC website at www.GreenBizSBC.org. Want to find more green businesses in Goleta? Click here.

2019 Brings New Traffic Safety Laws to California

On January 1, 2019, California enacted several new laws geared toward traffic safety and vehicle equipment. Here is a sampling of the new laws that went into effect with the new year.

  • License plates (AB516): Paper plates with just a dealership’s name on it will be a thing of the past. This new law requires new and used car dealerships to affix temporary license plates to a vehicle before it is driven off the lot if it does not already have DMV issued plates.
  • Bicycle Hit & Run (AB1755): This law extends the felony hit-and-run law to bicyclists on bike paths. Any cyclist involved in a collision is required to stop at the scene of an accident.
  • Loud Mufflers (AB1824): Previously, citations for vehicles and motorcycles with modified or excessively loud exhaust or muffler systems could receive a “fix-it” ticket and pay a reduced penalty if they corrected the problem. This law now requires a fine be paid for the violation.
  • Passing Garbage Trucks (AB2115): This law now requires motorists to pull into an adjacent lane when passing or approaching a garbage truck with amber lights flashing. If there is no adjacent lane, the driver must slow to a “safe and reasonable speed”.
  • Kids and Helmets (AB3077): This law now provides law enforcement with the ability to issue a “fix-it” ticket to minors who are riding a bicycle, skateboard or roller skates without a helmet. The violation can be correctable if the minor completes a safety course and obtains a helmet within 120 days of receiving the ticket.

“Ocean Country” at the Goleta Valley Library

The Goleta Valley Library has received a number of grants, including the Book to Action grant. The Library is preparing a number of programs around Liz Cunningham’s book, “Ocean Country.” After a near-drowning experience, Ms. Cunningham decided to travel the world to view different areas’ efforts to rehabilitate our endangered oceans. This led to her writing her book, “Ocean Country,” which is poetic, stirring, and above all hopeful. Some of the activities the Library will host include a community-wide book discussion, children’s programming based on ocean crafts, a presentation by talented underwater photographer Richard Salas, a visit from the author herself, and to celebrate International Ocean Day, a family beach clean-up day at Haskell’s Beach. More details on the activities will be available soon at www.GoletaValleyLibrary.org.

Get all the latest news from the Library by signing up for their e-newsletter, Goleta Valley Library’s Reading Corner, here. You can also follow the Library on Facebook.

Historic Preservation Update

The City of Goleta has been working with a consultant team lead by Historic Resources Group to create a Historic Preservation Ordinance. The first step in this process has been the creation of a comprehensive Historic Context Statement to place local resources in the appropriate historic, social, cultural, archaeological, and architectural context. A historic context is not intended to be a comprehensive history of the City of Goleta but rather highlight trends and patterns. After several public workshops and hearings that started in 2017, the Planning Commission accepted the revised context statement on January 28, 2019. This document will be presented to the City Council shortly. Once the revised context statement is accepted by the City Council, then the work on the eligibility criteria, identification of significant historic resources and development of regulations will commence. The revised context statement is available at  www.HistoricGoleta.org. To be notified by email or text message about future public workshops/meetings and updates on this topic, sign up here.

New Sidewalk on Fairview Avenue by Goleta Valley Library

As part of the City’s efforts to improve travel of all kinds (pedestrian, bicycle and automobile) around town, improvements will be made to the area on north Fairview Avenue near Fairview Gardens (at Stow Canyon Road) and the Goleta Valley Library. Currently, there is no sidewalk between the Library and Fairview Gardens. The City Council awarded a construction contract to Lash Construction, Inc., at the January 15, 2019, City Council meeting for the Fairview Avenue Sidewalk Infill at Stow Canyon Road Project.

The project will construct the sidewalk in front of Fairview Gardens and 370 feet south heading towards the Goleta Valley Library. Other improvements include widening Fairview Avenue to include a second northbound travel lane, and adding a 5-foot wide bicycle lane and a 5-foot wide sidewalk. In addition, a pedestrian crosswalk will be installed across Stow Canyon Road that will have ADA compliant curb ramps and a streetlight. Construction will begin later this month.

Cathedral Oaks Paving Project Has Begun

We are excited that work has begun on the Cathedral Oaks Pavement Rehabilitation Project! We know residents have been waiting a long time for this, and with the help of California Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) funds, we are able to move forward with this project. As you may recall, SB 1 was signed into law in April 2017 and provides more than $5 billion annually to make road improvements, fill potholes, repair local streets, freeways and overpasses and invest in public transportation throughout California communities. In addition to SB 1 funds, this project is being paid for by other gas tax funds and additional funds set aside in the City’s budget.

The project covers Cathedral Oaks Road from Fairview Avenue west of Carlo Drive to the San Pedro Creek Bridge, and Cathedral Oaks Road west from Los Carneros Road to the Los Carneros Bridge. Concrete and utility work will begin first, with paving anticipated to begin near Fairview Avenue in early February (weather permitting). Click here for a map of each area. The anticipated project completion date is mid-April. There will be lane closures, so please consider driving an alternate route. For questions regarding this project, please contact Marti Milan at mmilan@cityofgoleta.org or 961-7562.

Jonny D. Wallis Neighborhood Park Opening Celebration!

Drumroll please! The City of Goleta is about to have access to a world-class 4-acre park in Old Town! Join us for the Jonny D. Wallis Neighborhood Park opening celebration on Saturday, March 30 from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.! Located at 170 S. Kellogg Avenue in Old Town, by the corner of Hollister and Kellogg Avenues, this new park has countless amenities for children and adults of all ages. Park features include a skate plaza, multi-purpose field, basketball court, handball court, concrete ping-pong tables, bocce ball court, pickleball court, Bankshot basketball court (the first of its kind on the west coast!), walking path, picnic areas, fitness nodes and more! We couldn’t be more excited and we hope you will come out and celebrate with us! There will be activity demonstrations, food, a ribbon cutting at 11:00 a.m. and more. Stay tuned for more details. Information on this exciting new park is available here.  

City of Goleta’s Homelessness Efforts

Homelessness is a nationwide problem which affects Goleta as well many other communities throughout California. On a single night in 2017, 553,742 people in the U.S. were experiencing homelessness. 65% were staying in emergency shelters or transitional housing, and 35% were staying in unsheltered locations.

Locally, according to a 2017 report by the Central Coast Collaborative on Homelessness (C3H), there were 99 people living on the streets in Goleta. The Federal government mandates these Point-in-Time counts occur once every other year. The number of homeless persons within Santa Barbara County has remained steady over the past six years, but there have been shifts within the County, including a 111% growth in Goleta from 2013 to 2017. There are several efforts the City is currently doing to address homelessness. Additionally, a team from the City is working with agencies and jurisdictions for a more comprehensive and collaborative approach for this difficult issue and exploring grant opportunities to fund potential new approaches to homelessness.

The City provides financial support to homelessness prevention efforts and services undertaken by nonprofit agencies through Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding, City Grant Program funding, and Support to Other Agencies funding representing $137,060 in contributions over the past five years which include the provision of transitional housing at the Salvation Army, emergency shelter during extreme weather conditions at the Freedom Warming Centers, emergency housing for homeless families at Transition House, the Safe Parking Shelter and Rapid Re-Housing Services provided through the New Beginnings Counseling Center, landlord liaison programming to assist people transitioning out of homelessness to rent affordable units, and support to the former Central Coast Collaborative on Homelessness (C3H). Also in 2018, the City provided grant funds to support to the Interfaith Initiative of Santa Barbara County, which provides free showers to the homeless through Showers of Blessing.

Goleta’s Community Resource Deputy (CRD) Dave Valadez is also an important law enforcement asset to addressing issues surrounding homelessness in Goleta. CRD Valadez oversees the Goleta Restorative Policing Program, which connects homeless individuals with the services they need and is a member of the Sheriff’s Office Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) which addresses issues between the homeless and law enforcement. CRD Valadez is coordinating weekly efforts to conduct regular patrols, monitoring and timely clean-up of homeless encampments in response to citizen complaints all over the City. CRD Valadez also partners with other organizations and has started a Business Watch, Creek Watch and Park Watch where residents can contact him directly to let him know about a homeless individual or encampment. Finally, CRD Valadez is also coordinating homeless encampment clean-up efforts with Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol and the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) in areas along the 101 Freeway Corridor. CRD Valadez can be contacted directly regarding homelessness issues by sending him an email (dvaladez@cityofgoleta.org), or calling him at work (805-968-3878) or on his cell phone (805-319-9773).

New Play Equipment at Winchester II Park

The City’s 2015 Recreation Needs Assessment identified a handful of local parks as needing playground improvements. Over the last two years, the City has received feedback through public meetings and surveys that indicates the residents in these affected neighborhoods want improved and expanded play areas at these parks. At the February 19, 2019, City Council meeting, Council will be deciding on the upgrades to make at Winchester II Park (on Calle Real and Jenna Drive), and if so, where to place the new equipment. It is important for City Council to hear your thoughts on new playground equipment at this park. Come to the meeting on February 19 at City Council Chambers (130 Cremona Drive, Suite B), or email City Council at citycouncil@cityofgoleta.org. The Council meeting agenda and staff report will be available at https://tinyurl.com/GoletaMeetings on February 14. Additional information on upgrades to the local parks identified in the 2015 Recreation Need Assessment can be found here.