Perfect penmanship
Outstanding service City of Goleta praises CERT Business Ambassadors Team - B4
Santa Maria student Noah Jebaraj recognized for his handwriting - B1
Our 166th Year
75¢
T U E S DAY, J U N E 2 2 , 2 0 21
Mercados to return to Fiesta Old Spanish Days team announces approval of Mercados De La Guerra
By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
RAFAEL MALDONADO/NEWS-PRESS
Members of Old Spanish Days 2021 gather to announce the return of Mercados De La Guerra. From left are 2021 Spirit of Fiesta Ysabella Yturralde, Junior Spirit of Fiesta Savannah Hoover, El Segundo Vice Presidente David Bolton, La Presidenta Stephanie Petlow, La Primera Vice Presidenta Maria Cabrera and 2021 Saint Barbara, Patricia Oreña.
A festive, vibrant and authentic market — and a staple of Santa Barbara’s Old Spanish Days — will be back at De La Guerra Plaza this August. The big announcement was made Monday afternoon by Fiesta leadership, performers and board members, straight from the plaza itself. The mercados will look just as they have in the many years past, with live performances, music and, of course, lots of food. David Bolton, the 2021 Old
Spanish Days El Segundo Vice Presidente, described the mercados as “Ground Zero” for Fiesta. “It’s really an important part of what Old Spanish Days continues to do after 97 years in the community,” he told the NewsPress. “And this year is extremely special, because with so many impacted by the restrictions over the last 15 months, we’re really excited to once again be able to support our local nonprofits, our local businesses and members of the community with the Mercados De La Guerra 2021.” Mr. Bolton said the city of Santa
Barbara gave direction to hold the mercados just like the Fiesta did in 2019. The only difference this year is that there won’t be any booths in the middle of the plaza, creating a more open space in the center for attendees. In addition, the Casa Cantina at the Casa De La Guerra is not taking place, so there will be more overall space for the vendors. There will be approximately 21 food booths and 30 or more merchant booths this year, according to Laura Abrignani, the co-chair of the Mercados Committee for Old Spanish Days.
She told the News-Press that the fact that many of the food booths donate a percentage of their sales from Fiesta to nonprofits, coupled with the fact that Old Spanish Days supports nonprofits with its revenue, makes her grateful that the mercados can play a part in the recovery of small businesses. “It’s just bringing that feeling of community back,” Ms. Abrignani said. “We know a lot of the business in the surrounding areas — whether it’s hotels, restaurants, bars, even clothing Please see MERCADOS on A4
Back to singing praises Churches welcome people back to in-person, unmasked services By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Like all other industry sectors, church celebrations and religious services got the green light to return to totally normal operations on June 15. With no more capacity limitations, physical distancing requirements or mask mandates, places of worship are now able to hold services like they used to prepandemic. For example, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles — of which Santa Barbara County is a part — released guidelines on liturgical celebrations and religious services ahead of June 15’s reopening. The Archdiocese wrote that churches can get rid of prearranged reservation systems and bring back the following Catholic Mass traditions: group meetings, ministerial gatherings, social gatherings, liturgical singing, hymnals, missalettes, worship aids, collection baskets, Holy Communion at its regular time in the service, confession, anointing of the sick and more. In addition, the Archdiocese stated in its guidelines that while masks are required for unvaccinated individuals outdoors when social distancing is not possible and at all times indoors, “Parishes are not to verify who is and who is not vaccinated.” Rather, they must simply post signage to indicate the guidelines. Trinity Episcopal Church in the 1500 block of State Street had its first Sunday services without the capacity restrictions. Betty Wenzel, director of communications for the church, said that when the church resumed in-person services at the end of May, they were at capacity every week. In addition, she told the NewsPress, “We’ve seen a steady number of people attending (100+) for the 10 a.m. service in person and 40+ households continue to attend online, watching the livestream.” This past weekend was Solvang’s Santa Ines Mission’s first full service back in person as well. Father Bobby Barbato told the News-Press that between each of the weekend masses — two on Saturday evening and four on Sunday — there were approximately 100 people at each,
ANNELISE HANSHAW/NEWS-PRESS
Cynthia Gumucio, neighbor of a proposed development on De la Vina Street, was one of around 40 protesters on site Monday as Santa Barbara City Council members toured the property.
Residents protest against proposed four-story building By ANNELISE HANSHAW NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
RAFAEL MALDONADO/NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
This past weekend was Solvang’s Santa Ines Mission’s first full weekend service back in person, and approximately 100 people were in attendance at each service.
and around 20% wore masks. Father Barbato said that when churches were able to return to in-person with restrictions in late April, they were only able to actually sing the “Alleluia” together at the end of Easter Sunday mass. Over this past weekend, Santa Ines went from one cantor and zero singing back to a full choir. “It just hit me that I sang this time, and it was kind of like Easter — a little bit of a resurrection here,” the priest said. “It was just a joy to see some people I haven’t seen for a while who had been following us online, to see them here, to see the smiles and to just be back together. It was just joy, just gladness.” Up until this past weekend, Santa Ines had to approve a list of attendees for each mass, bring Communion out to attendees in Please see CHURCHES on A2
FOLLOW US ON
66833 00050
3
Please see PROTEST on B4
L O T T E RY RESULTS
INSIDE Classified.............. B4 Life..................... B1-2 Obituaries............. A4
6
Up until this past weekend, the Santa Ines Mission in Solvang had to approve a list of attendees for each Mass, bring communion out to attendees in their vehicles listening to the service on the radio and enforce all of the COVID-19 restrictions. The mission has resumed more normal Masses.
A team of around 40 neighbors and concerned community members gathered at 825 De la Vina St. in Santa Barbara Monday afternoon as city council members toured the property. The community members held signs with phrases such as: “How would you like it if this was in your backyard?” “Too big” and “No privacy.” Their complaints surround a 21-unit, mixed use development by DMHA, which will bring a four-story structure to a neighborhood of primarily twostory homes. Today, Santa Barbara City Council will hold a public hearing on the project, and the neighbors are planning on calling in their concerns. The Architectural Board of Review approved the design in January and issued a final approval on March 22. But the property’s neighbor Donna Mrotek appealed the decision on March 31, citing neighbors’ concerns that the building doesn’t fit in with the homes surrounding the property. “The completion of this project breaks several regulations that were adopted to protect existing property owners and to maintain current historic and urban character,” she wrote in
her appeal. “The city is ignoring many of these codes to allow a structure to be built that is oversized for the lot.” Neighborhood compatibility should have been argued within the 10-day window for appeals of the design back in January, the city’s report says. City Council can consider two other complaints: historic resources and story poles. Ms. Mrotek argued the new development would be too close to structures of merit, but the city architectural historian deemed that no historic structures would be impeded by the new building. The neighbors inquired about story poles during the city council’s walkthrough Monday. Usually, a developer will map out the height of the building with poles, but ABR waived that requirement because the architect provided numerous 3D renderings. The city is recommending that the council denies Ms. Mrotek’s appeal. Ms. Mrotek was unable to attend the protest, but her daughter Keisha Mrotek represented her mom’s stance. “I want to make it clear that we’re not against any building but that we just want it to not be as intrusive on the existing neighbors. Because we are
Sudoku................. B3 Sports Roundup... A4 Weather................ A4
Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 4-7-8-19-36 Meganumber: 3
Monday’s DAILY 4: 8-5-0-2
Friday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 14-36-44-46-53 Meganumber: 18
Monday’s FANTASY 5: 5-11-19-27-39
Monday’s DAILY DERBY: 05-07-11 Time: 1:47.47
Saturday’s POWERBALL: 4-22-35-38-39 Meganumber: 18
Monday’s DAILY 3: 2-3-3 / Monday’s Midday 4-7-4