‘Beautify Goleta’

Nearly 50 volunteers pick up more than 250 pounds of trash

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The community showed up Saturday to “Beautify Goleta.”

The city of Goleta hosts several of these cleanup events each year, and Saturday’s event brought out volunteers to clean up the city.

Each event spotlights a different neighborhood in Goleta, and the numbers show the results. In 2022, there were 366 volunteers, 4,872 pounds of trash picked up, and 23,010 pounds of bulky items collected.

“Today we ended up with 48 volunteers who collected over 250 pounds of trash,” Dan Rowell, environmental services specialist for the public works department of the city of Goleta, told the News-

Press. “Our bulky item collection ended up with 14 vehicle drop-offs. It was a good turnout at each each site.”

On Saturday, the spotlight was turned onto Hollister Avenue and surrounding neighborhoods in Old Town Goleta. Residents had access to a free bulky item drop off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Community West Bank parking lot.

The parking lot also served as the meeting place for the community cleanup from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and it was open to anyone who wanted to come help pick-up litter.

Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County (aka Habitat Santa Barbara) hosted the spotlight location in Old Town. The other locations for this event were Evergreen Acres Park with event captain Susan Klein-Rothschild and Jonny D. Wallis Neighborhood Park with event captain Jerry Lucera from Waypoint Church

The Goleta Rotary Club also partnered with the city to support this event.

“Habitat Santa Barbara partners with the city of Goleta throughout the year to identify areas where home repair projects are needed and work together to identify homeowners in need of ‘A Brush With Kindness.’ an exterior maintenance and beautification program. When the city asked if we wanted to partner with them for the event, we were happy to take a leadership role in recruiting volunteers and providing staff leadership,” Susan Renehan, director of philanthropy and external affairs for Habitat Santa Barbara, told the News-Press.

Mr. Rowell saw Saturday’s cleanup as successful.

“We were able to support and inspire people in Goleta to get out and take ownership over the environment in Goleta. The trash would have otherwise polluted creeks, waterways and the ocean environment. We are getting people inspired and preventing pollution from getting into the natural environment and waterways,” said Mr. Rowell. “The atmosphere is energetic and positive; it’s a great way to start the weekend by getting up early.

Please see CLEANUP on A2 a family member or one of the migrants who were locked in the shipping container.”

“There were more people than we had ambulances (currently) available in Uvalde,” he added.

“We called them in from everywhere – Kerrville, San Antonio, Hondo and locally in Uvalde.”

Union Pacific railroad and Department of Homeland Security are investigating the incident.

See related stories on A4.

On Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed 17 people were hiding inside a rail car including 15 men and two women. Two men were pronounced dead when agents arrived.

Officers closed part of Highway 90 between Knippa and Sabinal to allow helicopters to land, which brought EMTs to treat severely dehydrated survivors. Four were taken to area hospitals.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told Texas Public Radio that the train had been sitting on the tracks for about three hours. He said, “9-1-1 got a call – don’t know if it was from

This isn’t the first time foreign nationals have been found hiding inside of train cars to be smuggled into the U.S. It’s a common practice – Border Patrol agents are regularly positioned along the railroad tracks that run parallel to Highway 90, The Center Square has observed. The tracks pass through multiple counties along the border. With the national news increasingly reporting on smuggling events, this incident received greater publicity than previous apprehensions involving rail cars.

Border Patrol agents and sheriff’s deputies regularly apprehend human smugglers in the southwest border counties of Uvalde, Kinney and Val Verde.

Smugglers use railroad cars to transport people. “Coyotes” follow train tracks, pipelines and power lines as they bring

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