Our 165th Year
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Get your Sno Balls! Get your hot dogs!
City of Goleta amends budget Council revises two-year plan By JORGE MERCADO NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
The Goleta City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to amend the city’s two-year operating budget to make up for revenues lost because of COVID-19. The council spent most of its long meeting discussing the operating and capital improvement program budgets, which were originally part of the two-year program that the city adopted in June 2019. “I think we all had hopes it would be a different budget and had high hopes for what we might be able to accomplish with the second year of our two-year budget,” council member James Kyriaco said before moving to adopt the revisions. “But we are where we are, and I think staff has done a really good job, under incredibly difficult conditions of coming up not just with a budget, but with a strategy for how to move forward,” he said. “I think it’s going to just be incumbent upon us to support them going forward and continue searching for any and all solutions.” Another agenda item Tuesday was about a second round of polling for a potential 1% sales
tax increase that could appear on the November ballot. The increase, if enacted, would be to help the city of Goleta recoup some losses during COVID-19, including decreased revenue from sales tax and transient occupancy tax. City Manager Michelle Greene and Finance Director Luke Rioux presented the additional amendments for the fiscal year 2020/2021 as well as possible solutions. Ms. Greene said the city’s revenues have “declined at an alarming rate” after a decrease in spending on many kinds of goods. The decrease followed the stay-at-home order. She went on to say that while the staff has worked very hard in setting revenue projections to keep the city on a steady path toward recovery, this is still an unpredictable time. “What this means is that we will need to be flexible. We’ll need to make adjustments frequently as new information is received and also as we start to receive revenue in the new fiscal year. This is something we will discuss with the council continually,” Ms. Greene said. Goleta is looking at a loss of Please see jumps on A2
RAFAEL MALDONADO / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Penelope Gilbert says the community is excited to see Penelope’s Santa Barbara Sno Balls back up on Carpinteria State Beach.
Carpinteria welcomes cart’s return on beach By PAUL GONZALEZ NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Shaved ice “Sno Balls,” hot dogs and root beer floats have returned to Carpinteria State Beach. Penny Gilbert said on Saturday she towed her mobile snack stand called Penelope’s Santa Barbara Sno Balls out to the beach for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak began. She usually sets up her stand seven days a week from 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Linden Avenue and Sandyland Road by the local Sea Lion Statue landmark. Ms. Gilbert said she had to remove some baked goods, her snack table and other offerings because of city and Santa Barbara County Environmental Health Department coronavirus guidelines. “We had to go through the whole COVID-19 procedure through the environmental health department. Saturday was our first day back. Normally, we would start spring break, then according to the weather be open from then on,” Ms. Gilbert said. “We have shaved ice, which is at least 75% of what I do. Then we do a Nathan’s hot dog with the steamer and the buns are steamed. We do an A&W root beer float with Thrifty’s ice cream,” Ms. Gilbert said. Ice water, soda, bagged chips, bagged cookies and crackerjacks round out the menu. Ms. Gilbert said city and county regulations require her inventory to remain in the cart before it is sold. “Usually, I have a table in front
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RAFAEL MALDONADO / NEWS-PRESS
The new 7-Eleven convenience store is located at 700 State St. which is the former home of restaurants Panera Bread and Left At Albuquerque.
New 7-Eleven opens on State Street corner By BRIAN MACKLEY and DAVE MASON NEWS-PRESS
Penelope and Roger Gilbert are ready to welcome customers at their “Sno Balls” and hot dog business.
with skittles, cookies, pretzels and stuff. Now everything has to be inside the trailer. I had to go back down to the best sellers and favorites and leave it at that.” Ms. Gilbert said customers must wear a mask and social distance themselves while in line. Ms. Gilbert said she constantly washes her hands, wears gloves and makes sure all products are covered before they leave the cart. Ms. Gilbert said she uses mostly recyclable materials like utensils
and food service packaging, but she is working to clear out some of her back stock. “I would have to throw away all that product and it would go in a landfill. I’ve been using paper straws for two years, my hot dogs are in paper products, the only thing I’m using is plastic cups and those will be switched out,” Ms. Gilbert said in response to a customer comment on Facebook. She explained that she usually serves on Linden Avenue until September, then she starts
working during the fall festival season. “We usually do the Avocado Festival, Harbor Festival, lacrosse tournaments and also Fiesta, but everything has been canceled,” Ms. Gilbert said. The city of Carpinteria has contracted Ms. Gilbert to sell snacks at the beach for the past nine years. She hauled her cart to Old Spanish Days, the Santa Maria Strawberry Festival and other local events for four years before Please see CART on A7
State Street is showing another sign of renewal as a business rises at a long abandoned corner. As businesses and restaurants continue to reopen, the former home of restaurants Panera Bread and Left At Albuquerque has turned into a 7-Eleven convenience store. The new 7-Eleven will be at 700 State St., making it the sixth 7-Eleven store in Santa Barbara and the third location on State Street. Other store locations include 1909 Cliff Drive, 331 W Montecito St., 402 N Milpas St., 1936 State St. and 3430 State St. 7-Eleven could not be reached for comment about its new location. The corner site at 700
State St. has sat vacant since Pandera Bread left in 2015. The restaurant, which opened in 2013, proved popular with tourists and residents alike. It was part of a national chain that continues to operate a Pandera Bread restaurant in Ventura. Before Pandera Bread, the site was home to Left At Albuquerque, a Mexican restaurant with a popular following. It was in business from 2009 to 2012. The restaurant had a distinctive name. The phase appeared previously in Bugs Bunny cartoons in which the rabbit, racing underground, pops out of a hole far from his destination. He says, “I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque.” Email: bmackley@newspress. com, dmason@newspress.com
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Comics................. A6 Local................. A 2-8 Obituaries............. A8
Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 21-25-30-34-42 Meganumber: 18
Tuesday’s DAILY 4: 8-1-2-1
Tuesday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 21-23-33-35-42 Meganumber: 6
Tuesday’s FANTASY 5: 15-21-23-24-28
Tuesday’s DAILY DERBY: 08-12-02 Time: 1:41.65
Saturday’s POWERBALL: 2-12-32-50-65 Meganumber: 5
Soduku................. A5 Weather................ A8
Tuesday’s DAILY 3: 3-8-0 / Midday 7-4-4