The city of Carpinteria and the Santa Barbara County Flood Control finished clearing out the Carpinteria Valley debris basins Wednesday, according to Olivia Uribe-Mutal, public information officer for the city of Carpinteria.
The operation, which began Jan. 17, involved clearing out 43,000 cubic yards of material from local basins and depositing tested sediment and rock on the Carpinteria Beach at Ash Avenue. The city will regrade and “groom” the Ash Avenue beach area in the next two weeks.
Uribe-Mutal said all tests showed the materials moved to the beach was “environmentally safe” for the area.
“The safety of our community is our priority,” City Parks and Recreation Department Director Matt Roberts said in a press release Wednesday.
“From sediment testing to protecting properties, this storm response has been a collaborative effort with various City departments, Santa Barbara County Flood Control and adjacent jurisdictions. The winter berm will remain in place a little longer this year as a precaution against late season storms in the forecast, but we’re all certainly looking forward to spring.”
KARLSSON
The Carpinteria City Beach is temporarily closed while the city removes wooden debris.
Carpinteria City Beach is temporarily closed, the city announced this week, for wooden debris removal operations. The late February storm brought wooden debris up to the city’s shoreline, which must be removed; the operation is scheduled for completion on March 9.
“Typically, woody debris that arrives on the beach during winter storms is naturally swept back out to sea in the extreme tides of December, January and February,” the city said in a social message posted this week.
“At this later point in the season, however, it is unlikely that the large logs and branches will be removed naturally. Motivated by public safety, the removal will protect swimmers from potentially dangerous floating debris and reduce risks associated with structure building and illegal bonfires. The operation will also facilitate the removal of the winter protection berm in coming weeks.”
Carpinterian Tessa Kaganoff is now on the board of directors for the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. Goleta native Kaganoff, a policy analyst who directed research at UC Los Angeles, received her bachelors’ degree at Vassar College, a master’s degree in public policy at Duke University and an MBA from UC Los Angeles.
According to a press release from the Scholarship Foundation, she also has extensive community service history under her belt, including with the Upward Bound House in Santa Monica, Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles, Congregation B’nai B’rith and more.
“Tessa’s impressive background perfectly aligns with our organization’s stated purpose. Specifically, we are eager to put her considerable fundraising skills to work as we seek to provide Santa Barbara County students with greater levels of financial assistance. We are very pleased to welcome her,” said Interim Scholarship Foundation President and CEO Mary Dwyer.
The foundation can be reached at sbscholarship.org.
See BRIEFLY continued on page 6
9 am - 1 pm WITH THE FOLLOWING MODIFICATIONS
1. Remain in your vehicles.
2. Bring ONLY accepted items & keep them together in your trunk where staff can easily access them. Staff will NOT enter the vehicle cabin.
Fried Chicken &Waffles, with Hominy Grits
Buttermilk battered chicken breast on grits with two waffles.
Served with sweet potato fries. Lettuce, tomato, and pickles on side.
Buttermilk battered chicken breast on bun, with dill pickle chips, alfalfa sprouts, tomato, and house made special sauce. Served with onion rings, french fries, or sweet potato fries.
Avocado, alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, pepperjack cheese, red
tomato, and house made special sauce. Served with onion rings, french fries, or sweet potato fries.
Gluten Free Avocado Sandwich
Friday March 17 • 2pm Goleta
Avocado,
vinaigrette.
Carpinteria’s GranVida Senior Living Center recently welcomed a new owner: Santa Barbara native Blake Parsons.
Parsons, who took over in mid-February, told CVN his dad was born in Carpinteria. His parents met on Carpinteria State Beach when they were young adults.
“My parents used to own the old Carrillo Hotel,” he said. “That was the first assisted living community that they owned, with a partner. I grew up there… after school, I’d get picked up and taken to the property.”
Parsons graduated from Santa Barbara High School in 2000, attended UC Irvine for his undergraduate education, and came back to Santa Barbara to work for his parents’ company several years later. Eleven years after returning he started his own company, and, in 2019, bought his first assisted living building.
“I knew the (GranVida Building) – I actually toured it when it was an office building before they had converted it,” he said.
Parsons said the GranVida property had been on the market “for a little bit,” and decided to purchase it to bring the operation back under local control.
“In a community like Carpinteria and Santa Barbara, you really have to be in the
community and invest in the community,” he said. “That’s not particularly what the larger private equity groups (do).”
“The residents seem to really like that they know someone is invested in their home – it’s not to say the group before didn’t do that, it’s just a little more challenging if you’re further away,” he added. “I don’t know if I can impress upon enough our desire to really be involved
in the community.”
The business is managed by Mallard Senior Living Management, co-owned by Ryan Test. A new executive director, Eric Terrill, also started in late February.
GranVida Senior Living and Memory Care is located at 5464 Carpinteria Ave. in Carpinteria. The business can be reached at granvidaseniorliving.com or at (805) 566-0017.
“It is less likely for a woman to be hired as a Head Chef than a CEO.”
Construction is set to begin on the San Ysidro Roundabout. SBRoads will host a pre-construction community meeting on Thursday, March 9, at 5 p.m. at Montecito Union School.
Most of the construction will occur near the intersection of North Jameson Lane and San Ysidro Road, and the northbound on-ramp at San Ysidro Road. The on-ramp is set to close on March 13, and will remain closed until 2025.
Work on the Olive Mill Roundabout continues, and some night construction will be conducted from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. from Sunday, March 12 until Tuesday, March 14. All other work will occur between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. as construction crews work drainage improvements, roadway base and paving.
Along Highway 101, the southern onramp at Olive Mill Road will be open by March 8, and the southern off-ramp at North Padaro Lane will be open by March 10. The southern off-ramp at Olive Mill Road will remain closed for up to seven months.
Closures on the northbound side of the highway include one lane from Santa Monica Road to Sheffield Drive and the on-and-off ramps at South Padaro and Santa Claus Lanes, which will be closed Monday through Thursday from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., and from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Sundays.
On March 12, one lane from Sheffield Drive to San Ysidro Road, excluding ramps, will be closed from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. in preparation for San Ysidro Roundabout construction.
On the southbound side of the highway, one lane from Sheffield Drive to Carpinteria Avenue will be closed from 9 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Sundays. From March 13 to March 16, the off-ramp at South Padaro and Santa Claus lanes will be closed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
––Jun Starkey
BY JUN STARKEY
The Carpinteria Unified School District has reached a tentative agreement regarding salary increases and school calendars with the Carpinteria Association of United School Employees (CAUSE), negotiating an eight percent retroactive raise for all certificated staff employed by the district as of July 1, 2022.
“We are pleased to reach tentative agreements for 22-23 certificated salary increases and school calendars for 22-23, 23-24, and 24-25,” said CUSD Superintendent Diana Rigby. “We look forward to completing the 22-23 classified negotiations in the next month.”
There are 150 certificated staff who will receive this raise, Rigby said.
Other salary negotiations include increasing the stipend for teachers who hold the Board Certified Coach (BCC) or the Bilingual, Cross-Cultural, Language and Academic Development (BCLAC) credentials, and are “actively employed teaching within the scope of that credential” from $1,000 to $3,000, and increasing the amount the district pays for retirees’
medical premiums.
Originally, the district paid $3,500 toward retirees with 20 years of service, $4,000 to those with 25 years of service and the total cost at the time of retirement for those with 30 years of service. This was increased to $10,000 for retirees with 20 years of service, and $15,000 to those with 25 years of service.
The union also negotiated for compensation for union members at their daily rate of pay for attending an additional Professional Development day; one more day to the school year; and one-time, off schedule payments of $5,000 to kindergarten teachers, and $10,000 for transitional kindergarten (TK) teachers.
The district will also provide an extended day, to 2:30 p.m., to TK students, every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for the entire school year, and the same extended days to kindergarten students for the first six weeks of the school year.
Members of CAUSE will review the documents and let their representatives know if they support these changes.
BY JUN STARKEY
The Carpinteria Unified School District Board of Trustees got a first look at the Carpinteria High School robotics team’s robot at its meeting last week. The team and its advisor, George Cadiente, went over recent accomplishments and some goals for the previous and upcoming school years.
The team recently received the Motivate Award during the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Tech Challenge, which Cadiente described as the “middle level” of the robotics competition, in late February.
Goals for the 2023-24 school year, Cadiente said, include expanding the program to create one or two Carpinteria Middle School teams. This will be done through recruiting enough students to have 10 per team, recruiting parent volunteers, industry professional volunteers and teachers.
Five students from the Warriors Robotics team spoke about their experiences and what they learned while in the program. Students said they improved their software and communication skills, and focused on team building, problem solving and networking with other students and instructors.
Later in the meeting, students demonstrated how the robot moves, controlled through a gaming console controller via WiFi signal. The rotating wheels allow the robot to spin in complete circles while staying in place, which came in handy for competitions involving moving or avoiding obstacles. The robot also has a large claw that extends out from the top.
“This is really the application for robotics,” said board member Andy Sheaffer. “The fact that you guys are getting in now and you’re learning about it and you’re enthusiastic, is going to pay off huge in the future.”
Students also went over challenges they faced while building their robot, including issues with getting the motor to start and securing pieces of the robot in place. At recent competitions, they faced issues with meeting the requirements for tournaments, the robot’s claw breaking twice, a misunderstanding of a manual and learning time management with other courses.
The team’s favorite part of their robot, they said, were the wheels, which were a challenge to place and code. Once students got the hang of them, it was fun to drive around, they said. “Driving at the beginning was rough… our robot was only able to push stuff ,” said student Evelyn Calkins. “But then throughout every tournament, we were progressing more and more.”
The board approved the warrant for the period of Feb. 10 through Feb. 24, in the amount of $611,357.95.
“Driving at the beginning was rough… our robot was only able to push stuff (...) But then throughout every tournament, we were progressing more and more.”
– student Emily Calkins
Continued from page 2
The Carpinteria Community Pool will be closed on March 15, 22 and 24 for Carpinteria High School swim meetings, starting at 2:30 p.m. each day. The Carpinteria Community Pool is located at 5305 Carpinteria Ave.
W. Susanne Puentes Gemeinhardt, better known and loved as Susan, Sue and Susie, passed away on Oct. 22, 2022. Her passing occurred in Mesa, AZ, under hospice care, after a long battle with melanoma. She was 75 years young.
Flagstaff Buick GMC and Team Nissan Oxnard. She was well respected by her co-workers. In her “free” time, she loved spending time with her family, cooking, sewing and scrapbooking. She enjoyed many genres of music, including music of the 60s, Jazz and Johnny Mathis. She was the number one top fan of Benise. She traveled to many cities to hear him perform.
Covid-19 numbers as of March 2
Santa Barbara County reported one new death related to Covid-19 last week. Covid-19 cases in Santa Barbara County increased slightly, with the weekly average of PCR cases now up by 8.5%. Cases are often underreported within the county, due to the rise in at-home testing.
Covid-19 community levels still remain low within Santa Barbara County. The dominant strain of Covid-19 reported on the southern West Coast is XBB.1.5. Everyone six months and older should receive an updated bivalent booster; see more at vaccines.gov.
Santa Barbara County released a Climate Adaptation Plan survey late last week, asking community members who have dealt with climate hazards to provide their input. The county will use the results to develop a “stronger” Climate Adaptation Plan, according to a press release released last week.
“Our local communities are continuously being faced with new and more intense weather conditions and time and again they have demonstrated how resilient they can be,” First District Supervisor Das Williams said. “We highly encourage all residents to take this opportunity to share their thoughts, concerns, and experiences as we look to implement strategies that will benefit community members countywide.”
The survey can be found at bit.ly/SBCAdapts. See more at countyofsb.org/adaptationplan.
Sue was born in San Francisco, CA, to Rudy and Betty Puentes on March 13, 1947. She attended Carpinteria schools and graduated from Carpinteria High School in 1965. In 2013, Sue and her husband moved to Prescott Valley, AZ. She was a dedicated comptroller for many years at various car dealerships, including
Sue is survived by her husband Steven Gemeinhardt; her daughter Tiffany (Shad) Haller; her sisters Peggy Puentes and Teri (Carlos) Gonzales; her niece and nephew Nikki (Greg) Nielsen, Alejandro (Charlotte) Medina, Hollister Puentes and Hunter Nielsen and stepchildren Marian (Doug) Guy, Bo Gemeinhardt, Anna Gemeinhardt and Joanie (Timothy) Beschorner. “Mana” adored her grandchildren, Ashley (Cody), Chance, Taylor (Sam), Logan, Grace, Mason and Greylee. She will be remembered by her family and friends for her unconditional love and support, her gracious spirit and infectious laugh, and will be deeply missed by all that knew her.
A celebration of her life will be held at the Lions Park, Carpinteria, on Monday, March 13, Susie’s 76th birthday, at noon. In lieu of flowers, please send donations in her name to the Carpinteria High School Boosters Club, at P.O. Box 444, Carpinteria, CA 93014.
Stefanie and her team are great. They are super compassionate and care about their clients!
STEFANIE HERRINGTON
— Kevin CarrollATTORNEY
STEFANIE HERRINGTON
Elizabeth (Betty) Webb Woodworth died of natural causes on Feb. 20, 2023, in Santa Barbara. She was born on Aug. 17, 1921, in Hamden, Connecticut to Anne Pinkney Webb and Paul Webb. She was the fifth of six children. Betty attended a junior college in Connecticut and later earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago in Library Science.
In 1939, Betty met the love of her life, Stanley Woodworth, and they married in 1943. They welcomed their first son, Stephen, in 1945, while Stan was attending Japanese Language school in Oklahoma. In 1948 the family moved to California; Stan became a language teacher at Cate School in Carpinteria, which would become Betty’s home for 68 years.
The family grew in number to five children. Betty became actively involved in the Junior League and the Music Academy of the West. In 1957, Cate School hired Betty as its first school librarian, a role she loved and the initial source of her legacy on the Cate mesa. She was an avid hiker and tennis player. She loved to play Scrabble or Backgammon, engage in social interactions and cook gourmet feasts.
Betty took up lawn bowling and played for almost 30 years. She was a regular volunteer at the Carpinteria Valley Historical Museum. She was always up for traveling opportunities. She became Cate School’s archivist after retiring from being the librarian and was a fierce champion for preserving the history of the school and its traditions. After serving for 48 years, she retired and from then until she left the mesa, at the age of 96, she was the unofficial hostess at a variety of events at the school. She was loved and admired by many at the school, both by staff and students. Among the students especially close to Betty was their Turkish Exchange student, Haluk Topaloglu, who has remained in constant contact for 50 years.
In 2016, Betty left the mesa to live in assisted living quarters in Santa Barbara. She maintained her interest in activities and games and especially music. She was 101 when she died peacefully, and she was surrounded by family, love, laughter and joy the last week of her life. Betty will be missed by all who knew her. She will be remembered for her kind and welcoming spirit.
Betty is survived by her five children, Stephen Davis Woodworth (Robin), Peter Webb Woodworth (Beverley), Susan Slade Johnston, Anne Allcott Parkford and Elizabeth Ives Hansen (Brooks). In addition, she is survived and loved by twelve grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. She is preceded in death by her husband Stanley Davis Woodworth, her parents Paul and Anne Webb, her brothers Peter Webb and Charles Webb and her sisters Mary Webb, Helen Mulvey and Anne Haas.
Betty nourished people around her with love and kindness. A celebration of life will be held at Cate School Chapel on June 4, 2023, at 10:30 a.m., with a reception to follow. There will be a memorial mass for Betty at St Joseph’s Catholic Chapel, located at Ash Avenue and Seventh Street in Carpinteria, on March 18, 2023, at 11:30 a.m.
559 SAN YSIDRO ROAD, SUITE J MONTECITO, CA 93108
ATTORNEY
STEFANIE HERRINGTON
STEFANIE HERRINGTON
559 SAN YSIDRO ROAD, SUITE J MONTECITO, CA 93108
ATTORNEY
ATTORNEY
559 SAN YSIDRO ROAD, SUITE J MONTECITO, CA 93108
(805) 293-6363
559 SAN YSIDRO ROAD, SUITE J MONTECITO, CA 93108
WWW.MONTECITOLAWGROUP.COM
(805) 293-6363
Betty and Stan lived in many countries with their family, as their sabbaticals allowed them to live in France, Spain, Italy and Greece. As a result, they made some close and enduring international friendships – in particular, the Leredu family in Paris. Stan died in 1989, on Bastille Day. His life was cut short too soon, but it was a life full of shared adventures.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Betty’s honor to the Woodworth Family Music Fund at Cate School (cate. org/donate), or to Hospice of Santa Barbara (hospiceofsb.org), (805) 563-8820.
559 SAN YSIDRO ROAD, SUITE J MONTECITO, CA 93108
(805) 293-6363
stefanie@montecitolawgroup.com
(805) 293-6363
stefanie@montecitolawgroup.com
MONTECITOLAWGROUP.COM
stefanie@montecitolawgroup.com
MONTECITOLAWGROUP.COM
(805) 293-6363
MONTECITOLAWGROUP.COM
stefanie@montecitolawgroup.com
MONTECITOLAWGROUP.COM
I have just submitted a request to our city council, asking them to put on its agenda an effort for our city to reinstate our Seaside Shuttle. Santa Barbara Transit has ignored many requests. We’ve all seen Representative Salud Carbajal’s posts telling us how much federal money is coming to Santa Barbara County to update our transportation systems. Now is the time to get our fair share of taxes we’ve paid, and not let us be ignored again. Our non-driving seniors, school kids and tourists all need this service.
The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission recently spent more than seven hours listening to testimony and debating whether to grant ExxonMobil permits to repair Pipeline 901/903.
This pipeline ruptured in 2015 and spilled more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil. At least 21,000 gallons of that oil ended up in the ocean off the Gaviota Coast, north of Refugio State Beach.
Dozens of local residents and activists, including me (on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity), attended the commission meeting to oppose these permits for ExxonMobil. We simply cannot risk
In CVN Vol. 29, No. 24, “Carpinterian aids in search and rescue efforts in Turkey,” Bob George is a fire captain for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, not a chief.
another disaster like Refugio, or even the smaller spills that inevitably come with oil pipelines.
The Refugio spill damaged a one-ofa-kind coastal habitat, killing at least 200 birds and 99 marine mammals. But the true death toll will never be known. Another spill could have even worse consequences for the endangered blue whales who frequent the Santa Barbara Channel and countless other species.
Federal data show 707 hazardous pipeline incidents in California since 1986; these incidents killed nine people and spilled almost 9.5 million gallons of oil. Pipeline 901/903 was built in 1985, and is corroded and decayed.
Media reporting suggests that Exxon’s real plans may be to revive the pipeline and sell it to a company called Sable. The last company owned by Sable’s current owner filed for bankruptcy, and Sable could do the same if an accident occurred, leaving taxpayers responsible for cleanup.
The Planning Commission will revisit this issue at the April 26 meeting. For the sake of the whales, abalone, kelp, surfers, swimmers, paddleboarders and so many more who rely on a healthy Santa Barbara coast, join me in urging the Planning Commission to deny any project associated with this deadly, corroded pipeline.
Brady Bradshaw Topanga“For the sake of the whales, abalone, kelp, surfers, swimmers, paddleboarders and so many more who rely on a healthy Santa Barbara coast, join me in urging the Planning Commission to deny any project associated with this deadly, corroded pipeline.”
–Brady Bradshaw
Linda Graham Carpinteria
As a child, Carpinterian Louis Force Torres would sneak into his father’s office to admire his book collection. He would lie on the floor and gaze at the shelves of books above, examining each title and reading what he could.
“That was the book church,” Torres told CVN. “That feeling of a kid, of just being able to read what they want.”
In March 2022, inspired by his childhood self, Torres founded Bookchurch, an organization in Carpinteria dedicated to recycling books and sharing the joy of reading. He and his volunteers collect books from organizations and private donors, categorize each title and deliver them to other local nonprofits.
Torres said he was inspired to start Bookchurch in part after seeing, through his publishing company Polyverse Publications, how many books go to waste.
“Many times, there are brand new books that arrive as advanced reader copies. There are books with a simple typo classified as misprints,” he said. “I would see these boxes of books just being tossed in the recycling bin or their garbage, and I said, ‘Why waste these books?’”
He considered storing donations from places with extra books, like Friends of the Carpinteria library, but it wasn’t until Torres took a walk on the bluffs that his idea for Bookchurch came to fruition.
“I saw a group of vans for the Wilderness Youth Foundation,” he said. “I looked them up, and I thought to myself, ‘I have these books on local plant life and these children’s books on animals, and I don’t want them to go to waste. Why don’t I call them up and see if they can use these books?’ And low and behold, they could.”
“I wanted to take back the word church. Bookchurch is non-religious,” Torres said. “It’s meant to get books to anyone who wants to read.”
With the funding from Polyverse, Torres formed a board with a group of his authors and filed the nonprofit paperwork for Bookchurch. Current board members include Guy Galzerano, Amy Plesetz, Tenley Force, Steve Larios and Andrea Fleck-Nisbet.
Galzerano, a Santa Barbara native and the chief financial officer for Bookchurch, told CVN he met Torres over 13 years ago. “He’s always reading, and then he’s writing too, and it’s our little church, that’s our religion,” Galzerano said. “It’s not Christianity. It’s nature and books.”
In July, Galzerano used his skills as a stonemason to build a portal around the free neighborhood library outside his house. “It’s a portal to your story. You’re
reading and escaping from the stresses of real life,” he said. “It’s like a little sanctuary or a church, and that’s how we both feel, Louis and I.”
Bookchurch’s first donations came from The Thrifty Flea, a second-hand store in Carpinteria that went out of business late last year. “They donated their entire book collection to Bookchurch,”
Torres said. “We basically saved those books from a dumpster.”
In its first year of operation, Bookchurch repurposed 2,000 books, Torres added. Those books have gone to several local organizations, including Apples to Zucchini Cooking School in Santa Barbara and Roxanne’s A Wish and a Dream, a knit shop in Carpinteria.
“Some (books) were rare, hard to find, some were regionally based,” Torres said. “If a child or an adult or anyone interested in cooking finds a recipe from one of those cookbooks and makes it and loves it and talks about it, I’m happy.”
Bookchurch made a monetary donation to Planned Parenthood in September, which held its annual book sale at Earl Warren Showgrounds. Torres offered to take any excess books Planned Parenthood received and store them, returning them once the organization has additional warehouse space.
Bookchurch also donates books to prisoners through a program in Seattle,
he added.
Torres said the organization hopes to work with Goodwill of Carpinteria and the Court Appointed Special Advocates of Santa Barbara County in the future.
Bookchurch is also in the process of applying for federal nonprofit status. “As soon as we receive that, we’ll be able to start a donor campaign to expand our facilities,” Torres said. “Then what we want to do is just reach out to more and more organizations and offer books.”
Torres stores Bookchurch donations in his garage on bookshelves that line an entire wall. He said pending grants would help cover the rent of a warehouse, fuel for deliveries, shipping costs and website fees.
“Now that we’re in our first official full year with our full board, we are making big strides,” Torres said. “The domestic organizations helping us that range from coast to coast want us to do articles, talk about this concept, and get others on board.”
The Alcazar Theatre hosted Songwriter Soiree, a collection of performances curated by local songwriter and musician, Cecilia James, on Sunday, March 5 for Women Making Change in celebration of Women’s History month.
James hand-picked a mix of indie-folk, female-identifying songwriters from Carpinteria and Santa Barbara, including James, Camila Lemere and Sophie Rose from Carpinteria, and Alexandra Riorden and Jenna Iris from Santa Barbara.
The Alcazar Theatre will host other events throughout the month in celebration of Women’s History Month. See more at thealcazar.org.
The Friends of the Carpinteria Library and Artesania para la Familia will host a free children’s literacy program on Saturday, March 18 at the Carpinteria Memorial Veterans Building, in celebration of National Literacy Month.
The program will include face painting, book giveaways, music, dancers, a youth marketplace, children’s authors and literacy activities. The event will also include a book character costume contest, of which the best costume will be chosen by Radio Host, Sonia Aguila.
The family program is sponsored by Montecito Bank & Trust, the Ann Jackson Family Foundation, the Carpinteria LatinX Collective and LaCentra-Sumerlin Foundation.
The event will take place on Saturday, March 18, from noon to 2 p.m., at the Carpinteria Memorial Veterans Building, at 941 Walnut Ave.
The Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center will hold a free event expo on Saturday, March 25, to connect vendors and businesses with local residents planning events. The event will include a DIY floral centerpiece workshop from PacWest Blooms and a raffle prize drawing, as well as pop-ups from other local vendors such as Carp Kitchen and Dirt Botanicals.
The event is free to attend on March 25, from noon to 4 p.m. at the arts center, located at 865 Linden Ave.
The Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center recently opened its latest exhibit, titled “Shape and Soul,” on March 3 in the Charles Lo Bue Gallery. A reception for the exhibit will be held on Saturday, March 11, 4–6 p.m. at the arts center, 865 Linden Ave.
The exhibit features works from several local artists, including two pieces from local photographer Ted Rhodes, and works from Amie Rodriguez, Beverly Decker and Nancy Freeman, among many others.
The Carpinteria Unified School District and the Carpinteria Children’s Project joined schools across the United States last week in celebrating Read Across America, a nationwide initiative that encourages students to boost their reading skills.
The national event is held in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday; according to Canalino Elementary School Principal Jamie Persoon, local students also read books that are “culturally inclusive in both the authors of the books and the characters that are featured.”
“We celebrate literacy each and every day on our campus, and we’re so thrilled to have so many guest readers this week to highlight reading,” Persoon said.
ABOVE, First District supervisor Das Williams reads to Carpinteria Children’s Project students. BOTTOM LEFT, Chris Gocong, a former NFL star and a Carpinteria Unified School District graduate, reads a book about sports to the students.
tions for beachfront property and second, or third, holiday-homes owned by the ultrarich, when too many Hawaiians live under tarps in the bushes, or must leave Hawai’i altogether, having been priced out of their own land.
January 16, 1893: the Hawaiian monarchy is overthrown by a provisional government organized by American businessmen and backed by a contingent of United States Marines. Population-decimating diseases and evangelism had already altered Hawaiians’ traditional cultural structures.
This is not to say, however, that the Hawaiians were done for, that their language and world view, their music, cuisine and practices were stamped out. Indeed, not. “Hawaiian-ness” never went away, even as it hybridized, as all cultures have, throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. But the effect of the coup d’état of 1893 (not so far back in history, after all) still reverberates in Hawai’i – the stamp of those Yankee imperialists manifested in theme restaurants and luxury shops, dive bars and bovine tourists strolling the boulevards of Waikiki.
And heading out to the North Shore, as I recently did on a quick solo surf trip, another layer of Mainland influence becomes apparent: an Instagram-ready playground of food trucks and palm-lined backdrops, perfect for selfies, along with a seven-milelong traffic jam. I recognize that I am not somehow “above” the current state of affairs in Hawai’i. I laid down my credit card just like everyone else, paid for my share of jet fuel and contributed to the traffic by driving myself out there in my
The author recently took a solo surf trip to Hawai’i.
buddy’s car that he rented to me. Nevertheless, I envision an alternate history for the Islands, and for indigenous lands everywhere. A history that we can begin writing now. I cannot account for the violence that underpins the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, nor the colonial enterprises of Great Britain, both of which brought my people here to California and earlier, to Ngati Ruanui territory in
Taranaki, Aotearoa, New Zealand. But I recognize that the histories of all the people alive today are intertwined, and I can advocate for this new, alternate history for the immediate, as well as the distant future that I envision.
This new history does not include time-share condos, cruise ships or vacation package deals. This new history, being written today, is critical of justifica-
Some will no doubt resist my characterization of “foreigners” (as Hawaiians might well consider haoles born on the mainland) buying up limited real estate. “It’s America,” the argument would go, “land of the free.” But just because a person can do something, doesn’t mean he or she should
What would I like to see in this “new history?” I’d like to see Hawai’i be more for Hawaiians and less dependent on the Mainland for goods and food; I’d like to see fewer people visiting (even if that means I cannot go); I’d like to see the people who live there learn the Hawaiian language to a level of basic conversation; I’d like to see a revival of the traditional Hawaiian agriculture and aquaculture systems built on each watershed; I’d like to see fewer cars, and more opportunities to get around by bicycle.
I suppose it’s a utopia I’m describing. And what about the chemicals required for the surfboards I so love? What about the livelihoods of the families, “native” or not, who live there and educate their children for life in the contemporary world? Am I calling for a Khmer Rougestyle agrarian revolution, complete with education camps and killing fields for those wicked haole capitalists dragged screaming from their beachfront homes?
Surfers are uniquely poised to blend cultures, not via bloodshed but through meaningful engagement. While contemporary surfing exists in a direct line of appropriation and hucksterism reaching back nearly to the overthrow of the monarchy, it also involves a unique mindset. At its core, surfing represents a mindset of repurposing: wartime aerospace materials become surfboards, the dangerous “wasteland” of the surf zone becomes a place of play and rejuvenation.
Where the Outrigger Canoe Club was a whites-only establishment in the time of Duke Kahanamoku, Duke and his buddies (by far the better and more-knowledgeable surfers) formed Hui Nalu comprised of native Hawaiians and haoles. Where the boosters of Waikiki tourism-built hotels and brought-in mainlanders by, literally, the boatload, surfers like John Kelly, Fran Heath, Wally Froiseth and a much younger George Downing, refined the redwood plank into the “Hotcurl” design, putting surfing on its trajectory of radness.
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Then two-year-old Reef, a local Labrador, was captured in CVN 14 years ago. Now 16, Reef is still popping around Carpinteria, this time with his fellow friend Shore. His owner said he still loves the beach.
And these boards were for the cognoscenti – those in the know, not the tourist masses. Yet somehow – I suppose by the all too human tendency to do a lot when a little will suffice – surfing has long sought a greater circle of participation and is susceptible to the most-rapacious aspects of free-market economics, right down to industrialized levels of production, and, yes, beachfront real estate acquisition. It could be so much cooler, I’m saying. That goes for life on the planet, generally. Yes, strife and a burning desire to succeed are integral to the human condition, but a willingness to bend and give a little, pays surprising dividends.
Christian Beamish took leave of his position at Coastal View News in October 2020, to pursue his surfboard business, “Surfboards California,” full time. He continues his monthly column, and shapes at the surfboard factory showroom at 500 Maple Ave., in Carpinteria. The former Associate Editor of The Surfer’s Journal, Beamish is also the author of “Voyage of the Cormorant,” (Patagonia Books, 2012) about his single-handed expedition down the coast of Baja California by sail and oar in his self-built Shetland Isle beach boat. He now lives with his wife and two children in Ventura.
Carpinteria High School’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) sold a record number of tri-tip dinners at its annual drive-thru BBQ last Saturday, with 338 meals sold. Each meal comes with tri-tip, beans, salad, rice and salsa, meant to feed four-five people at $60 a meal. The money helps FFA students attend the state of California’s FFA conference, led by FFA Director Salvador Lopez.
A member of the Lions Club of Carpinteria uses their Spot Vision camera to check the vision of sophomore Sawyer Kelly.
The Lions Club of Carpinteria completed its annual vision screening program with Carpinteria Unified School District and welcomed its newest member Randy Carrasco recently. Carrasco lives in town with his wife, Brandee, and their children. He has worked in law enforcement for 25 years, currently serving in the Oxnard area.
The Lions’ annual vision screening project is designed so that all students in Carpinteria are screened every three years. Club members visit a new school site each day, under supervision of a medical professional, to perform the vision tests. This year, under the guidance of School Nurse Kristina Calamia, the Lions screened a total of 714 students.
“The Lions main goal is protecting people’s eyesight and this project will let a student know if they would benefit by a visit to an eye care professional,” said project chairperson Doug Treloar. “The Lions members also enjoy this opportunity to interact with the students.”
Local organization Carpinteria Beautiful will hold its next meeting on Saturday, March 11, at 9 a.m. at City Hall located at 5775 Carpinteria Ave. The meetings are open to the public.
The American Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) of Santa Barbara is offering funding assistance to two local students interested in studying in Scandinavia for up to eight weeks.
The grants will award $3,000 to help cover the costs for the trip, which would last between six to eight weeks. The application deadline for the scholarships is March 31.
The foundation stated that preference will be given to students with a serious interest in Scandinavia, and those seeking to enroll in a formal academic setting with specific academic goals.
“We hope that students will not only succeed in achieving academic goals but will also benefit from exploring that country’s culture, history, and social structure,” read the press release from the foundation.
The American Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) of Santa Barbara has announced its new board as of January 2023, which includes Peter Haslund, Sandy Evans, Cheryl Wright, Greta Liedke, Bonnie Yonker Hammett, Heidi Poley, Ellen Zissler and Brooke
Members of the Playa Del Sur 4-H officer team delivered socks to Transition House in Santa Barbara on Tuesday, Feb. 28.
The 4-H club collected over 50 pairs of socks during its winter sock drive, and Transition House accepted all the socks ranging in sizes from infants to adults. “No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted,” 4-H President Gizelle Lopez said.
This is a wonderfully hearty vegetarian soup for the chilly days of winter. Quick and easy to prepare, tomatoes and fennel pair nicely with vegetarian sausage to make a tasty soup. Sherry elevates this soup to another level. Make a double batch and save some for another day.
Makes 2 servings
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large fennel bulb (diced)
3 Lightlife Italian Style sausage (sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds)
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon dry sherry
4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon Vegetable Base
3 sprigs of fresh Italian parsley
Directions:
Heat oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add fennel and sauté for three to five minutes. Stir in sausage and fennel seeds and cook for five to seven minutes, or until fennel seeds are slightly softened and bits of sausage are stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add wine and cook for five to ten seconds, scraping to deglaze the pan. Add broth, tomatoes, vegetable base and parsley sprigs. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for ten minutes. Remove parsley and season with salt and pepper, if desired. Serve with a slice of fresh Ciabatta bread. Robin likes a grilled Havarti cheese sandwich with this soup. You might try that too!
Tip: This soup freezes well.
Sometimes, with a title, you know exactly what you’re going to get – Wendy’s “Baconator,” for example, or 1980s comics superhero, “Arm-Fall-Off Boy.” In the cinematic realm, you might think, “Snakes on a Plane.”
Or now, “Cocaine Bear.” What you see is what you get. Yes, there’s a bear in this movie. Yes, it does cocaine. A lot of it. Black bears are supposed to be pretty harmless. Unlike brown bears, which will hunt you down and tear you limb from limb, black bears are wusses. The official advice on black bears, if one ever attacks you, is to fight back. Fight back! A bear! I’m pretty sure that’s not the advice on, like, opossums, let alone a 500-pound, muscle-bound beast with claws the size of Bowie knives. I guess black bears are chill. Unless they do cocaine. Then they’ll hunt you down and tear you limb from limb. Evidently.
So, in 1985, when drug smuggler Andrew Thornton (Matthew Rhys) tosses bag after bag of cocaine out of his
getaway plane as it crosses over Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia, he really is tempting fate – and the resolve of one unusually large black bear. Just ask European hikers Olaf (Kristofer Hivju) and Elsa (Hannah Hoekstra), who think it’s totally fine and not at all risky to snaps pics of a black bear in the wild. Or ask the two middle-schoolers –Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince) and Henry (Christian Convery) – playing hooky in the woods. You could likewise ask Dee Dee’s mom, Sari (Keri Russell), as she marches into the forest after her delinquent child.
There are also drug dealers, who are looking for their stash; cops, who are looking for the drug dealers; a band of misfit teens; and Ranger Liz (Margo Martindale) and her goofy wildlife expert/romantic interest, Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson).
All of these people become apprised of the bear. They all make the mistake, at some point, of thinking that black bears are no big deal. Of course, they didn’t expect the black bear to be doing cocaine; so, fair enough.
There’s a lot of carnage – bloody carnage, gross carnage, over-the-top carnage, even silly carnage. It’s like one of those gruesome Quentin Tarantino revenge flicks (e.g., “Inglorious Basterds,” “Django Unchained”) except this time it’s the bear getting revenge … for getting gifted a bunch of coke, I guess.
That’s how filmmaker Elizabeth Banks thought of this movie. In an interview, she said she thought the bear deserved a perspective. So, she made one up. Although the movie is “based on a true story,” it’s more like those fantastical Tarantino movies. No drug-addled bear ever killed a bunch of people. Yes, cocaine was dropped into the forest, but all anyone found, bear-wise, was a poor Ursus americanus who OD’d in the woods.
Anyway, Banks thought this bear deserved a voice. I disagree. Or maybe it was Banks’ voice – or cinematic tone – that was off key. Because “Cocaine
Bear” never tickles the ear, so to speak; it never finds an appealing rhythm. It is supposed to be a horror comedy, but it is rarely funny and never really scary.
“Cocaine Bear” is like a Wild Cherry Pepsi (another name that gives the plot away) gone flat. It is supposed to pack a big ol’ punch – whether it’s overcaffeinated, heart-pounding thrills or absurdly sugary laughs. But it doesn’t pop; at most it just kinda fizzles.
It’s boring. How is a movie about a bear, on cocaine, murdering people, boring? Well, get a bunch of people you don’t really care about except for the fact that some of them are decent actors and occasionally one of them does something funny, have them meander pointlessly through the woods gawking at a bear who is about to bite their legs off, and, well, you’ll find it’s a slog.
Unless you plan to watch this movie while using the bear’s product, it’s tough to recommend.
“Cocaine Bear” is rated R for bloody violence and gore, drug content and language throughout.
Matt Duncan, a former Coastal View News editor, has taken physical but not emotional leave from Carpinteria to be a philosophy professor at Rhode Island College. In his free time from philosophizing, Duncan enjoys chasing his kids around, watching movies and updating his movie review blog, duncansreeldeal.blogspot.com.
On his way to Antarctica, Stephen Joyce took time to visit Iguazu Falls, one of the three great waterfalls of the world, located on the Argentina/ Brazil/Paraguay border. “For sheer magnificence and ability to get really up close to all the different falls, I rate this the best overall,” Joyce told CVN.
Sunday, Feb. 26
0614 hrs / Incident / Plum Street
Two men were observed stealing a catalytic converter from a vehicle. The males were confronted by a resident and fled in a vehicle.
Monday, Feb. 27
0941 hrs / Incident / Lillie Avenue
Tuesday, Feb. 28
0602 hrs / Missing Person / Franciscan Court
The reporting party called and reported his at-risk brother was missing from their home. The reporting party stated at about 0530 that morning, his brother left the house heading to an unknown location. The man was located a short time later, and was returned home safe and unharmed.
Wednesday, March 1
2136 hrs / Incident / Via Real and Padaro Lane
Thursday, March 14
The reporting party operates a stand across the street from a Summerland café and called to report a theft. The reporting party stated two unknown men drove onto the property in a white van and stole a large hand trailer and umbrella. The reporting party was able to provide footage of the theft from a surveillance camera on the property. The reporting party estimated the stolen items to be about $1,300.
Library preschooler story time, 10:30 a.m., Carpinteria library, 5141 Carpinteria Ave., 684-4314
Rotary Club of Carpinteria meeting, 11:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m., lions Park Community Building, 6197 Casitas Pass road, non-members rSVP to 566-1906
1058 hrs / Incident / Malibu Drive
A traffic enforcement stop was conducted on a vehicle. A records check revealed the driver had an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for his arrest. The man was arrested and booked at Santa Barbara County Jail without incident.
Bingo, 1 p.m., Veterans Building, 941 Walnut Ave.
Farmers Market and Arts & Crafts Fair, 3-6:30 p.m., linden Ave. downtown, Craft fair: 684-2770
Friday, March 3
1840 hrs / Incident / Meadow Circle
Free Stress Relief Veteran’s Acupuncture Clinic, 6-7 p.m. drop in, 4690 Carpinteria Ave. Ste. A, 684-5012
Karaoke, 8 p.m., Carpinteria & linden Pub, 4954 Carpinteria linden Ave.
Dusty Jugz Country Night, 9 p.m., the Palms, 701 linden Ave., 684-3811
Friday, March 15
CVCC Lunch & Learn, noon-1 p.m., Curious Cup, 929 linden Ave., 684-5479 x10.
The Peace Vigil, 5-6 p.m., corner of linden & Carpinteria Ave.
Deputies were dispatched for a report of an adult female pushing down a 7-year-old to the ground. Upon further investigation and interviews, the woman was intoxicated and admitted to pushing the 7-year-old to the ground. The woman was placed under arrest, and was transported to Santa Barbara County Jail without incident.
Music in our Schools Month Concert, 7:30 p.m., CHS cafeteria, 4810 foothill road, 684-4701
Back Track, 9 p.m., the Palms, 701 linden Ave., 684-3811
The reporting party called and reported a man attempted to break into her car. The reporting party was still sitting in the car after arriving home, when she noticed a white van pull up next to her vehicle. When the van stopped, the man exited the sliding door, walked over to her vehicle and attempted to open the door. When the man saw she was inside of the vehicle, he fled the scene and got into a white van with two other men. The reporting party stated the van had either Minnesota plates or Michigan plates.
1421 hrs / Incident / Via Real
Saturday, March 16
0210 hrs / Incident / Hermosillo Drive
Carpinteria Salt Marsh docent led tours, 10 a.m., free walks start from the park sign, 684-8077
Magicarp Pokemon League, 11 a.m., Curious Cup, 929 linden Ave., (619) 972-3467
Energy Balancing, 2-4 p.m., Curious Cup, 929 linden Ave., free
The reporting party stated her vehicle was parked on the street and sometime between the hours of 0800 and 1300 on Monday when her catalytic converter was stolen.
“The Quiet Man,” 8 p.m., Plaza Playhouse theater, 4916 Carpinteria Ave., $5
The Groovie Line, 9 p.m., the Palms, 701 linden Ave., 684-3811
Deputies were dispatched to a report of a Spanish speaking male subject screaming on a homeowner’s property. The man was contacted in the rear of the property, and a records check revealed he was on parole and had a no bail felony warrant for his arrest. The man was transported and booked at County Jail.
Monday, March 18
Women of Inspiration, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Girls inc. of Carpinteria, 5315 foothill road, $70, 684-6364
Basic Bridge, 1 p.m., Sandpiper Mobile Village clubhouse, 3950 Via real, 684-5921 Mah Jongg, 1 p.m., Sandpiper Mobile Village clubhouse, 3950 Via real, 729-1310 Bingo, 1 p.m., Veterans Building, 941 Walnut Ave.
Celebrate Recovery (Hurts, Hangups, Addictions), 6 p.m., first Baptist Church, 5026 foothill rd., 684-3353
CVCC’s Cuba Trip Meeting, 6-8 p.m., Carpinteria library Multi-Purpose room, 5141 Carpinteria Ave., 684-5479 x10
Tuesday, March 19
A Community Toolbox: How to Serve the Depressed Person with Understanding, 7-8:30 p.m., Carpinteria Woman’s Club, 1059 Vallecito road, 684-2509
Coffee with Cops, 9-11 a.m., Crushcakes, 4945 Carpinteria Ave., 684-5405 x437 Carpinteria Writers’ Group, 10 a.m.-noon, Carpinteria library multipurpose room, 5141 Carpinteria Ave., 684-7838
Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing. Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 square.
Sandpiper Duplicate Bridge Club, 1 p.m., Sandpiper Mobile Village Clubhouse, 3950 Via real, 684-5522
level: easy level: Hard
Battle of the Books club, 3:30 p.m., Curious Cup, 929 linden Ave., 220-6608
Beginner Meditation Workshop, 6:30 p.m., Curious Cup back meeting room, 929 linden Ave., 705-4703
Al-Anon Meeting, 7-8 p.m., faith lutheran Church, 1335 Vallecito Place, 331-4817
ESL Class, 7 p.m., first Baptist Church, 5026 foothill road, free, 684-3353
Wednesday, March 20
Morning Rotary meeting with Cyndi Macias, The Gym Next Door, 7-8 a.m., Woman’s Club, 1059 Vallecito rd., $10
Meditation, 10:30-noon, Carpinteria Woman’s club, 1059 Vallecito rd., 847-208-6520
Knitting Group, 1-4 p.m., Veterans Memorial Hall, 941 Walnut Ave., free, 684-8077
Fighting Back Parent Program, 5:30-7 p.m., Canalino School, 1480 Carpinteria Ave., 963-1433 x125 or x132
Kiwanis Club Meeting, 6 p.m., Veterans Memorial Hall, 941 Walnut Ave., 368-5644
Coastal View Book Club meeting, 7:30 p.m., Carpinteria Branch library, 684-4428
In 1942, the United States Army invaded the Rincon del Mar Ranch. At least, that’s how it felt to Robert W. Bates, who co-owned and managed the ranch. Bates was a prolific writer, and his diaries and family letters recount some of the impacts of World War II on the Carpinteria Valley.
The Rincon occupation came about after a Japanese submarine shelled the Ellwood oil facility in Goleta on Feb. 23, 1942. Military and civilian leaders feared that the bombardment might presage a second Pearl Harbor, so coastal defenses got beefed up.
On the Bates ranch overlooking Rincon Point, the Army set up artillery, a wooden lookout post, a barracks building and a searchlight. A commanding officer said that searchlights were positioned all along the coast, ready to illuminate every square foot of beach in the event of an invasion.
Enlisted men on the ranch spent four hours a day watching the horizon – a tedious task. “Nothin’ ever comes,” a soldier told Bates, “and we know that nothin’ ain’t ever gonna come, but we have to stand there and look just the same.” When the men weren’t on duty, according to this soldier, they had little to do except pick fights. One soldier volunteered to work in the lemon orchards on the ranch just to keep busy. Another broke a horse that belonged to the Bates family and spent hours riding it on the beach. When he had to leave for his next posting, according to Bates, he nearly wept.
Bates converted a playroom into a makeshift recreation center, equipped with a piano, accordion, radio, phonograph, ping pong table, slot machine and other diversions. The men flocked to it. They sang cowboy songs, read children’s books and rummaged through personal letters in his daughter Bobette’s desk. His wife, Juliette, served coffee, cake and fresh oranges.
Cate School founder Curtis Cate gave two soldiers a ride to Santa Barbara. When he asked where they were staying, one of them replied, “Oh, we’re living with the Bates.’”
In March 1942, Fleurette Bates, a daughter of Robert and Juliette, drove home from Mills College with four friends. Sentries stopped them on the road to the ranch house and demanded to see their IDs. They declared that Fleurette’s license looked like a forgery, so she would have to turn back. When Fleurette protested, they maintained that they were just following orders. Finally, they admitted that the orders had come from Mrs. Bates, playing a prank on her daughter. “The girls were fit to be tied,” wrote Robert Bates.
Not all military-civilian relations were chummy, though. When a ranch worker tried to take a photo of the artillery to send to the Bates’ son, Bobby, soldiers threatened to shoot him.
On another occasion, a new sentry challenged Juliette Bates and her teenage daughter, also named Juliette, as they were walking toward their house. “Who goes there?” the sentry demanded. They thought he was joking. “A foe,” said Juliette Jr., and continued walking. The sentry fired his rifle into the air. Other soldiers ran over and assured him that they weren’t saboteurs.
The war reshaped life in town, too. The military occupied the state park. Soldiers
recuperated from battle fatigue at the Cerca del Mar clubhouse on the beach, and young women from the community attended dances in the clubhouse ballroom.
In a gazebo on the beach, local volunteers manned an Army Air Force Watch Station 24 hours a day. They scanned the sky with binoculars. When they spotted a plane, they consulted a poster that identified U.S., German and Japanese planes by their silhouettes, and then they called in their report. Like the soldiers at the Rincon lookout, the civilians got bored.
“The hardest part was staying awake,” Chuy Gonzales of Carpinteria told the Santa Barbara News-Press in 1995.
Carpinteria also had civil defense drills. Robert Bates described one in a letter in 1943. He drove into town in his station wagon, which was to serve as an ambulance. (He had driven an ambulance in World War I.) He picked up four women who were stretcher-bearers. They headed to a Shell station that had supposedly been bombed, where they were assigned to pick up four casualties.
The casualties, however, were nowhere to be found. That was just as well, Bates said, because with the four stretcher-bearers, the car had no room for casualties. Also, they had no stretchers.
Despite the glitches, he enjoyed the outing. “Everybody had on tin hats and armbands,” he wrote, “and it was really very thrilling.”
After Carpinteria’s softball field was hit with over four inches of rain over the weekend, the team got back to action –after a lot of work by the district grounds crew – and the Warriors picked up their second win of the year in a league game at home against Malibu, with a dominant performance all around in the field and at the plate.
Junior ace Ashlee Mora earned the win for the Warriors, allowing just one hit and one run while striking out six batters in the game.
“Ashlee was locked in today, she was in the zone,” said Carpinteria coach Matt Mora.
The rest of the starting lineup played strong in the field, backing up the pitcher with great defense all game long.
BY RYAN P. CRUZ • PHOTOS BY ROSANA SWING“Our defense really showed up today,” Mora said. “We know we have a talented group, and today they all worked well together.”
Carpinteria scored two runs in the first inning, with senior Renata Martinez taking a base after being hit by a pitch and scoring off a single by Mora. Junior Alexiana Jaimes then brought Mora in with a sacrifice fly to take a 2-0 lead.
“I am happy with how the team showed up today with their bats,” coach Mora said.
The Warriors finished with 10 hits in the game, including one by senior Sofie Olvera, a first-year player who earned her first hit of the season as a pinch hitter. Senior Natalie Vilchez led
Carpinteria with two hits on four trips to the batter’s box, including a triple and two RBIs in the 18-1 win.
Earlier in the week, Mora and Martinez were recognized for their recent play at the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table.
Mora, the junior pitcher, has become a leader in the circle for the Warriors, pitching 20 of the team’s 29 innings this season, with 24 strikeouts and two wins. On offense, she is batting .333 and has scored a team-high eight runs this season.
Martinez, the senior shortstop, returned to the team after taking a year off of softball, and has already provided a spark for the Warriors, batting .444 overall, including a perfect 3-for-3 per-
formance on Feb. 23 against Nordhoff.
“I am extremely proud of Renata and Ashlee for their hard work on the field, in the classroom and in our community,” coach Mora said. “Both of these ladies are role models for our team and have tremendous leadership capabilities.”
After a loss at Bishop Diego, 11-7, Carpinteria is now 2-5-1 overall and 2-3 in the Citrus Coast League heading into this week with games against St. Bonaventure, Foothill Tech and Channel Islands.
The Warriors have hit their stride on the baseball diamond, with the boys grabbing back-to-back wins over league rivals Hueneme and Malibu this week to improve to a 3-1 record in the Citrus Cast League.
After the recent rains forced Carpinteria to cancel a game against Villanova Prep the previous week, the Warriors got back into the swing of things with two home games, starting with an extra-inning thriller against Hueneme.
Both teams were scoreless until the top of the sixth inning, when Hueneme broke the game open with a three-run burst. In the bottom of the sixth, the Warriors responded with a three-run rally of their own to tie the game up 3-3.
In extra innings, Hueneme threatened to score with runners reaching third in both the seventh and eighth innings, but Carpinteria was able to snuff the rally and seal the win when senior Matt Muñoz drew a bases loaded walk in the ninth, bringing in junior Joaquin Ramirez for the game winning run and a final score of 4-3.
Juniors Shane Goodmanson and Beto Martinez pitched through the first eight innings, before freshman Gabe Martinez was brought in for the win in the final inning. Together, the pitching staff gave up five hits with five strikeouts and three walks.
“The players did a great job surviving some early season mistakes,” said Carpinteria coach Pat Cooney. “Our pitchers set the tone of confidence and gave the offense a chance to scrap for a few runs. We’re only three games into the season and still finding our collective identity.”
The next day, Carpinteria hosted a strong Malibu squad, with the Warriors building on their momentum with another league win, 3-1.
Martinez got the start against the Sharks and gave up only one earned run in the second win of his career. Only a freshman, Martinez has already become an emerging star on the mound and in the batter’s box, where he finished with two hits.
The Warriors finished with eight hits in the win, with Ramirez bringing in two RBI’s off two hits and junior Talon Trumble securing the win with a solo home run deep into the right field palm trees in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“There were some big plays and big hits in this game, but it really came down to the battery,” Cooney said, referring to the pitcher and catcher duo of Martinez and Nieves and the rest of the defensive core. “There is a great deal of trust between them already. The pace of play was so fast that the defense stayed on their toes and made some terrific plays.”
Carpinteria is now 3-1 overall, with games this week against Santa Paula and Bishop Diego.
Carpinteria boys tennis split its two matches this week, with a win in a windy match against St. Bonaventure and a loss against a deep Simi Valley squad.
Against St. Bonaventure, the Warriors fought through what coach Charles Bryant described as “hurricane-like winds” to hold on for the 11-7 win.
“This was close all the way through, and I was very impressed with both teams and how they handled the conditions,” Bryant said. “It definitely was not easy and made for some incredible points and also some comical points. But really, both teams did a great job of adjusting overall and on the fly as the ball was never where it was intended to go.”
Junior Max Stone led the Warriors with an undefeated performance in singles, while sophomore Lucas Martin added another crucial win in singles play.
Doubles partners Troy Zimmerman and Asher Pampel teamed up to go undefeated, including a come-from behind win in a set where the duo recovered from a 3-5 deficit.
The next day, Carpinteria hosted Simi Valley under calmer conditions, but the Warriors struggled to keep up with the Pioneers’ deep roster and Simi Valley held on for the 15-3 win.
Stone was the bright spot for the Warriors, with another three-set sweep in singles play.
“We played well and smart at times but need to be much more stable for us to succeed,” Bruant said.
Carpinteria is now 2-1 overall, with a road match this week against Malibu.
The storm forced Carpinteria to reschedule its annual Rincon Races event, but after a week delay the meet was held last Saturday in perfect weather at Carpinteria Valley Memorial Stadium.
Carpinteria hosted three other teams for the event, with athletes from Fillmore, Foothill Tech and Orcutt Academy participating in the meet.
Foothill Tech finished with the highest team score in both the boys and girls divisions, with the Warriors claiming second in the girls and fourth in the boys.
The Warriors had some impressive performances from this year’s squad, with sophomore Averi Alexander setting a new personal record with a leap of 32’8.25’’ in the triple jump. Alexander earned first place in the triple jump, and second in the long jump with a distance of 14’8.5’’.
Newly appointed team captain Ariana Lounsbury, who has already competed for the Warriors’ tennis and soccer teams in her senior year, won the discus with a toss of 81’11’’ and finished second in the shot put with a throw of 24’.
Ruby Cluderay won the 400 meters with a time of 1:08.16; Belen Herrera took first in the 800 meters with a time of 2:58.01; and the girls 4x100 relay team ran a season best time of 54.27.
In the hurdles, senior Erick Trejo ran his first hurdle race of his career and won the boys event with a time of 20.33, and junior Lela Roberts finished a close second in the girls race by three-hundreds of a second.
“The team showed nice progress from last Wednesday’s opener,” said Carpinteria coach Van Latham. “With many newcomers on the team, it is important that we gain valuable experience before we open with league competition.”
Carpinteria will host Hueneme for a league meet on Thursday.
Several Carpinteria boys basketball were included in the 2023 Citrus Coast League All Star nominations, with star senior and leading scorer Kainoa Glasgow earning a spot on the First Team All-League squad.
Glasgow earned the highest honors, while the future is bright for the Warriors with sophomore forward Sebastian Campuzano and sophomore guard Sawyer Kelly earning a place on the Second Team. The Warriors had a deep backcourt this season, with three more guards earning honorable mentions: senior Rodolfo Jimenez, junior Mario Serrano and sophomore Carlos Suarez.
Carpinteria will host its annual boys basketball awards banquet this Saturday.
Thursday, March 9
Carpinteria Boys Golf Citrus Coast League Match (Seoul Park), 1:30 p.m.
*Carpinteria Boys Tennis vs Hueneme, 3 p.m.
*Carpinteria Softball vs Channel Islands, 3 p.m.
*Carpinteria Track & Field vs Hueneme, 3:30 p.m.
*Carpinteria Boys Volleyball vs Hueneme, 6 p.m.
Friday, March 10
Carpinteria Swimming at Raider Relays (Hueneme High School), 2 p.m.
Carpinteria Boys Volleyball at Cabrillo, 6 p.m.
Saturday, March 11
*Carpinteria Baseball vs Bishop Diego, 2 p.m.
*Denotes Home Game
Carpinteria Cub Scout Troop 50 went over fire safety with local Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District firefighters last week, learning how to safely put out a fire using a fire extinguisher. Rick Joy of Joy Equipment donated the fire extinguishers and fire pan for this annual exercise.
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