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CARE: A Vision for 2023, By Carla Christensen, President, Soquel Creek Water District Board of Directors
FEATURED COLUMNIST
CARE: A Vision for 2023
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By Carla Christensen, President, Soquel Creek Water District Board of Directors
Iam honored to welcome a New Year and begin my first term as Board President of the Soquel Creek Water District. We enter 2023 with a list of goals and objectives that are consistent with the District’s mission to provide our community with a safe, high-quality, reliable, and sustainable water supply.
I will focus on four areas summarized in an acronym: CARE — Collaboration, Adaptation, Resiliency, Economics/Environment. CARE embodies the principles behind the mission of the Soquel Creek Water District and its Board: to truly care about our community, our water, our economy, and our environment.
Collaboration
Collaboration with our neighboring communities and agencies remains a fundamental priority for 2023 and we will continue to work together on a variety of regional water-supply topics such as water transfers and recycled water.
The District is among the four agency members of the Santa Cruz Mid-County Groundwater Agency charged with managing the groundwater Basin to ensure that water users have access to a safe and reliable groundwater supply that meets current and future Basin demand.
The District understands that regional solutions are critical to managing the health of the entire Basin, not just the portion that lies within the District’s boundaries.
We appreciate the continued collaboration with the City and County of Santa Cruz, City of Capitola, Central Water District, local community groups and with our customers!
Adaptation
The Pure Water Soquel (PWS) project, which will protect our water supply from seawater intrusion and allow us to replenish the aquifer with purified recycled water, is currently under construction, and is a prime example of how the District is adapting.
Once the project is complete and operational, the District will transform from being solely a water district that extracts groundwater to serve its customers into a full-fledged groundwater replenishment district that will also be putting purified water back into the basin.
Resiliency
Climate change is testing everyone’s resiliency, and the District is committed to maintaining its efforts to adapt to climate change and its impacts.
As a water provider, preparing for drought and long-term water-supply shortages is one of our top priorities. When completed, PWS will provide a reliable, sustainable, and droughtresilient water supply that prepares our community for the impacts of a changing climate.
The PWS project, one of our key resiliency projects, was designed with the capability to double its purified water production capacity from its initial 1.3 million gallons per day to 2.6 million gallons per day in the future, should the need for additional water and suitable economic conditions exist.
The District has and will continue to discuss potential expansion needs with the Cities of Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley, and the Santa Cruz Mid-County Groundwater Agency. In 2022, a state grant was awarded to our region to conduct a study on the feasibility of expansion of the PWS project and the study may begin as soon as this year.
Economics/Environment
Ibelieve that we can be good stewards of the environment and also support a healthy, vibrant economy. Our District’s mission includes a commitment to operating in an “environmentally sensitive and economically responsible manner.” Our Board fully supports transparency and community involvement.
This year we will once again be appointing a Rate Committee made up of interested customers to understand the rate setting process and make recommendations on upcoming water rate adjustments.
Pure Water Soquel project construction I was the chair of the Rate Committee during the District’s last rate-setting process and the experience educated me and my fellow committee members about all the factors that go into the rate-setting process, and reinforced my understanding of the value of water to our community. We will strive to help ratepayers understand how their money is being spent and the work that District staff carries out every day to ensure that safe, reliable drinking water is being delivered. I would like to acknowledge the community for its support and thank you for your confidence in the direction we are headed as a Board and District. Finally, please remember that I CARE deeply and personally about water and our community. I am proud to be part of your Board of Directors and optimistic that the New Year will provide all of us — customers, staff, and community at-large and your Board — with opportunities to work together in meaningful ways to provide a safe and reliable water supply that supports our environment and economy.
Thank you and best wishes for safe and abundant water in 2023! n ••• Carla Christensen has been on the
SqCWD Board of Directors since 2014. She is a resident of Capitola and is a retired environmental scientist. Carla has been an active community member in the mid-county area for over 25 years and has served on the Board of the Capitola Junior Guard program for more than a decade and was a founding member of the Friends of Soquel Creek.
“PVUSD Q&A” from page 23
For freshman, credit recovery can take place during intersession (the next three weeks) or during the summer. If you are interested in one of the options, please have your daughter reach out to their counselor or site administration.
Lastly, if you have not been able to develop a plan for your daughter to feel more successful, please reach out to our Secondary Assistant Superintendent, Lisa Aguerria at lisa_aguerria@pvusd.net.
How is the District able to fund such
Saturday events to the Monterey Bay
Aquarium like you had last week?
Are you using general fund for that could be used for teacher salaries?
AAll school districts in California received Expanded Learning Opportunity funding to provide additional after-school, weekend, winter intersession and summer school enrichment programs to transitional kindergarten through sixth grade students.
One of the requirements of the funding is to provide 30 additional days of enrichment and/or instruction outside of the regular school year.
Last year, when we surveyed our students, staff and families, of the 915 responses received, 87% of students and families named educational field trips as their top request as well as 86% of staff. Therefore, when we planned the six additional Saturdays, we identified educational locations around our District where our students and families would benefit from visiting, such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but often do not have the financial resources to do so.
The Saturday events are funded out of Expanded Learning Opportunity funding with no support from the general fund. The funding is also supporting teachers who select to work with the after school program with the higher pay of $70 an hour.
We loved the trip to the Monterey Bay
Aquarium. Do you have any more
Saturdays planned? When will they be?
Do you know where they will be yet?
Expanded Learning has two more Saturdays scheduled. ELO-P Intersession Pajaro Passport Days 5 and 6 which will occur February 25, 2023 & March 18, 2023.
Aligned with our Expanded Learning Opportunities Program Plan, Intersession Saturdays are intended to be available to TK-6th grade students, however, our Intersessions Saturday have many opportunities available for the whole family. On both Passport Day 5 and 6 there will be Camp WOW with the City of Watsonville (TK-6), YMCA Enrichment Camp (K-6), Science Workshop, and a Wetlands Restoration Day.
Our PVUSD Parent Conference will take place on February 25, 2023 and will be full of rich workshop opportunities for parents. After the conference, join Expanded Learning and The City of Watsonville for a fun afternoon roller skating together in downtown Watsonville.
The City of Watsonville will host a pop-up roller rink that includes free roller skate rentals for Pajaro Passport Families to enjoy.
The Expanded Learning Team is exploring additional opportunities for families on these dates. More information will be shared when we return from Winter Break and at https://asp.pvusd.net
My site has tried to use as much of the certificated PO’s as possible this year.
Will there be an additional opportunity for us to order again in the spring? If there are teachers that do not use their
Purchase Orders, can those be made available to staff who will?
The use of the $125 Purchase Orders (PO) is limited to each individual staff member and are not transferable between staff members. PVUSD’s Purchasing Department has partnered with Palace Business Solutions to create a unique PO and login credentials for each eligible certificated staff member.
If any staff members need assistance with use of their PO’s or accessing the Palace site to order, they should contact the Purchasing Department at x2195 or purchasing_help@pvusd.net OR Palace at 831-476-3815.
Beginning January 9th, 2023, all eligible certificated staff members will receive an additional $125 PO to be used by March 31st, 2023. Staff members will be able to use the same PO and login information that was used for Fall 2022.
As a District, 63% of the Fall 2022 allocation was utilized as of December 14th, 2022 (PO’s were available beginning September 17th and expired December 1st). As the online process is streamlined and takes limited time, we hope that more teachers and certificated staff members will take advantage of the allocated resource in the future.
The traffic by PVHS is horrible. When are you going to put in a pedestrian bridge so students have more places to walk?
The County and City were given a CalTrans multi-million dollar grant to create a walking bridge and extend the sidewalk. As you will see from the information below, it is a lengthy process.
As this is not our property, we have secured the cooperation of both the County and the City. I have also connected with Rene Mendez, the new City Manager, and the Watsonville Fire Department to create an emergency second entrance/exit to PVHS to increase safety and accessibility.
Grant Funding The overall project cost is $15.8M with $11.7M being provided by a State Active Transportation Program grant: $4.7M is preconstruction, $10.5M is construction and $0.6M is non-infrastructure.
Timing: The initial phase called the “Project Approval and Environmental Document (PA&ED)” phase is complete. This involves preliminary design and preparation of environmental documents.
Project plans, specifications and the estimate (PS&E) are currently being prepared. This should be done by January 2023.
The project will be out to bid in Summer 2023. Construction will begin in Fall 2023 and take 24 months. n
Winter Fun
ACROSS
1. Make change 6. Used in combination to denote the middle 9. *Ammo material 13. Star____ 14. The “place with the helpful hardware folks” 15. Neutral shade 16. Orderly arrangement 17. Romanian monetary unit 18. Button on electrical outlet 19. *Frosty’s nose 21. *Gingerbread Man, e.g. 23. Drench 24. What a willow did? 25. Famous song by The
Jackson 5 28. Cone-shaped quarters 30. *Snow mover 35. A bit of water 37. Pakistani language 39. Measured in knots 40. Tatted fabric 41. *”A Visit from St.
Nicholas” poet 43. Tropical edible root 44. Paintings in Orthodox church 46. Not swim or swum 47. Frozen puddle accident 48. Small skullcap 50. Dresden’s river 52. Captain’s turf 53. Drop of sorrow 55. “Slippery” tree 57. *Frozen spike 60. *Three-horse sleigh ride 63. Words to live by 64. Caviar alternative 66. On D’Artagnan’s hat 68. Group of wives 69. Boiling emotion 70. Furnish with a fund 71. Travelers’ stops 72. Poetic “even” 73. Buy second-hand
DOWN
1. Agha, alt. sp. 2. Artist Chagall’s first name 3. Poet Pound’s first name 4. Draws close 5. Fungus damage (2 words) 6. Shake’s cousin? 7. *____ fishing 8. Two, in cards 9. Station finder button 10. Not final 11. Curved molding 12. Kind of nurse 15. Bouillons 20. Laudanum ingredient 22. Saturn’s wife 24. As opposed to widow 25. Impromptu 26. Emergency pedal 27. *Hot treat 29. Major-leaguers 31. Prefers 32. Butcher shop offering, pl. 33. Ghostlike 34. Parkinson’s drug 36. Philadelphia’s Ivy
League member 38. Russian mountain chain 42. *Fireplace glob 45. TV offering 49. Reef fish 51. Kind of bride 54. Eagle’s home 56. Hundred Acre Wood creator 57. A Flock of Seagulls’ 1982 hit (2 words) 58. European Council for
Nuclear Research, acr. 59. Bad day for Caesar 60. Not quite an adult 61. Spiral-horned African antelope 62. Singer-songwriter Tori 63. Tai’s partner 65. Miner’s bounty 67. Female sheep
In sacred liturgy, the days of December 26 — January 8th are referred to as the 12 Days Of/After Christmas — a time in which we walk with the Three Astrologer Magi Kings carrying gifts to the holy child (the Soul within each of us).
Each of the days also represents one of the upcoming astrological signs — from Aries to Pisces — their characteristics, talents, gifts, abilities and tasks to develop. Each day we contemplate upon a sign. As we do so, the signs begin to communicate with us.
The “bird chirps of what’s to
come ... the twelve signs become the future in each of us.”
From beginning to end, from the Alpha to the Omega, in the silence of winter, in the quietness of the Earth, the signs tell us new life and new livingness is to come.
Each sign also signifies a different light. Like the new light of Winter Solstice. So, we consider Aries, the Light of beginnings. Taurus, the Light of Illumination. Gemini, the Light of Duality. Cancer, the Light of life hidden in the womb of matter. Leo, the Light of our Creative Self. Virgo, the Hidden Light. And Libra, the Light of “I & Thou” (relationships). During these twelve days and into the new year, we stand with five words … recreation, regeneration, reorientation, renunciation
and recapitulation.
Each year, we begin anew. And the rod of justice rules. The Ark reaches the shore. The past reaches the future in each of us. And, direction, sign by sign, is given. “Marigonda” from page 21
He was an early champion of the collaborative courts, where he helped stabilize people with substance use disorders and mental illness. He served as presiding judge in 2014 and 2015.
Even when he was ill and undergoing treatment, he found the courage and the energy to hear cases whenever he could. Working with his Superior Court family was one of the biggest joys in his life. In 2018, he accepted a nomination to serve on the executive board of the California Judges Association. During his three-year tenure, he was very active and served as vice president and chair of both board membership and CJP work groups. He found his efforts with this organization profoundly rewarding and a great deal of fun, and he gathered additional friendships and deep relationships along the way.
In 2021, he received one of his highest honors, the California Judges Association president’s award.
People knew Paul as an incredibly fun and warm person. He was so full of joy and had an incredible love of life. He was enthusiastic about everything presented to him. Paul never lacked supportive friends or wonderful relationships, and he was blessed to have these friends carry him through this challenging illness.
You often would hear Paul coming before you ever saw him with his loud voice and huge, booming laugh. He loved his daily walks, usually with his best friend Duke at his side.
Paul loved to travel, and he and his wife Margaret took many wonderful trips together to Europe and Mexico.
The highlight of his life was raising his two sons and enjoying his family. He was proud to say he never missed one of their sporting events and looked forward to attending all their activities.
He is survived by his wife of 31 years, Margaret (Baker), sons Peter and Patrick, daughter-in-law Brittney, and grandson Ryan. Rather than flowers, consider making a donation in Paul’s name to a charity of your choice. n
ARIES A new phase of reality begins. Great aspirations push you forward into dedication and hard work. Your self-identity, sense of family and home, intimate relationships and professional career will change and expand. Work with others cooperatively. All that you aspire to do will come forth only if cooperation is foremost. Tend carefully to moods. Use them imaginatively to create all things new.
LEO The New Year is golden for you in terms of work, confidence and growth, both subtle and steady. You want will to make changes concerning health and healing. Become a member of a spa, begin an exercise and diet regime with yoga, tai chi, biking, swimming, etc. Continued focus on health is most important. You will seek the Diamond Light. Compassion and altruism become your newest psychological orientations.
SAGITTARIUS You will feel quite dynamic as the New Year unfolds. There will be a fire within burning brighter and fuller. You may need to control that fire a bit lest conflicts with others are created. Use that inner fire for creativity, achieving greater goals, greater focus and direction. You will rise in stature through new ways of thinking. This has already begun. You’re more positive, bright like the Sun eliminating obstacles and hurdles. Do not compete. Share instead.
TAURUS Your religion and spirituality, your mind (thinking, study, ideas), daily life, health, teaching and travel are all divinely influenced. Life will seem to be rather dreamy. You might not like this much as it feels impractical. However, it’s a time of rest and healing. Dreams help manifest long-held visions. Be in the Sun as much as possible. Write down plans and ideas. A new phase of life begins. Try not to be too distant with those you love.
GEMINI We work in between incarnations. Each lifetime we attempt to discover our place in the Sun. When we die, it’s our last thought that determines where we go. In this lifetime, we are to train our minds in all ways. Planning and strategy are important in the coming year. We can also plan consciously for when we die. You are not dying at this time. This is only an exercise of preparation. Begin training your mind on what you will think about at the time of death.
VIRGO Allow constancy of effort into your life, not turning back when difficulties arise. Stand at the middle point. You may feel your life is not moving forward. However, many things are occurring within. New realities, resources, and things social rise to the surface offering satisfaction and intimacy. Tend to partners and those who love you with care and nourishment. Let your mind be at ease.
LIBRA You will work very hard this coming year. When in doubt call upon your angels to flood your life with light, information and assistance. It will happen immediately. You felt challenged this past year. The upcoming year offers greater progress and power. Avoid controversial decisions. Allow time for Right Decisions leading to Right Action. Don’t show dissatisfaction in relationships. Love is not a feeling. It’s a willingness to love more.
CAPRICORN Saturn is your ruler, the planet helping you in all endeavors, especially climbing the mountain, which means ladder of success. Success in whatever way you see success for yourself. Saturn helps you choose good shoes, too. I wish you a happy birthday for your new year. Remember to speak with your angels. They stand by waiting for instructions. They are to help you with all that you need and want in the coming year. Make your list. Check it twice, three times.
AQUARIUS The New Year focuses upon relationships, love, friendship and romance. Avoid any major changes at the first half of the year. Instead focus on building a firmer foundation of security and creativity. New realities can emerge the last half of the year. Travel when you can. It brings you pleasure, excitement, friendships and relaxation. Have pride in your accomplishments, in yourself, and the important social role you play in the world.
SCORPIO PISCES
CANCER The New Year brings great promise of happiness. You won’t feel distracted. Your mind will be clear, harmonious and challenged to move toward what you’ve always wanted. You will be creative. When there are differences you will step aside (like the crab you are) circumventing disharmony. See each day as an opportunity to do your very best. Begin your spring garden early. Create a medicinal garden and a flower garden. You will look back on the past year and see that it was good. There was (and will be) exceptional growth, support, gains and progress with creativity rewarded. You might be too impulsive, leading to expectations that are unreasonable to others. Provide affection and attention to everyone, especially friends and loved ones. You will be busy socially for a while. Then your temperament becomes serious and internal. Spending time alone is part of your destiny. Rest more in the coming year. Focus, stamina and vitality return gradually. Remain conscious of fluctuating finances. You want Right Use of money and resources. Past friends and lovers continue to occupy your mind. Send them on their way with love and blessings. Or invite them along the Path. Not many will be able to absorb the fiery field of the Path. You will be called to leadership. Step into this with confidence. The many years of the past struggles have prepared you.
