Close to 35,000 Goleta residents and visitors enjoyed another fabulous Lemon Festival at Girsh Park. Once again, the Goleta Chamber of Commerce went all out to put on one of Goleta’s biggest celebrations of the year. This time, the Sheriff’s Mounted Enforcement Unit and several K-9 teams joined the festivities and enjoyed interacting up close with community members. Safety Street, the largest display of emergency response equipment around, now in its 15th year continued to be a crowd favorite. The entertainment line-up did not disappoint and neither did the vast amount of lemon flavored food and beverages, including 1,500 pies and 2,000 lemon bars sold.
In addition to all of the fun, there was a lot of great information to be found at the vast amount of booths located throughout the event. This year, the City’s new Community Relations Manager, Kelly Hoover, used the opportunity to meet residents at one of the City Booths and even got the chance to judge her first pie eating contest.
City staff took advantage of the foot traffic to do some community outreach on important issues such as the upcoming 2020 Census. ALL Goleta residents are encouraged to participate and to Make Goleta Count. An accurate count nation-wide is important for allocation of millions of dollars in state and federal funding and for redistricting purposes. In March, be on the lookout for an invitation in the mail from the U.S. Census to participate in an on-line survey, and remember your responses are confidential. For those who don’t have internet access, there will be options to fill out and mail in your responses. The information is used strictly for statistical purposes and, by law, can’t be used against you in any way.
The City also had representatives from the Goleta Valley Library sharing about library programs and downloadable services, as well as registering people for library cards. The City’s Planning Department provided information on the upcoming Creek and Watershed Management Plan and need for public participation. We hope you had the opportunity to stop by one or more of our booths. Thanks to everyone who was part of making this Lemon Fest a success, and for the hard work it took to put on this thoughtful tradition.