Caltrans Seeks Public Input • New at CASA • County Seeks $175,000 Fire Safety Grant • Everyone’s Harvest: $175,000 In Produce For Families • Let’s Cruz Again Launches • New PVUSD Maintenance Supervisor • Water Chief To Be Interim SC City Mayor

Caltrans Seeks Public Input

Caltrans is accepting public comment through Sept. 10 on its draft plan for interregional highway and rail improvements.

The newly released draft 2021 Interregional Transportation Strategic Plan (ITSP) at www.caltrans-itsp2021.org/ proposes the policy framework, goals and strategies to guide Caltrans on prioritizing transportation projects connecting regions of the state.

Santa Cruz County is in the Central Coast region, and Highway 101, which skirts the county, is the major connector.

Email comments to ITSP@dot.ca.gov.

“Californians deserve a world-class transportation system that is safe, sustainable, equitable and interconnected while fitting the unique needs of all areas in our state,” said Caltrans Director Toks Omishakin. “We are requesting your input to help make that vision a reality.”

Updated every five years, the draft 2021 plan focuses on enhancing key highway and rail corridors, improving safety, ensuring efficient movement of goods, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and fortifying infrastructure to be more resilient to climate change impacts.

Caltrans will host virtual workshops 10-11 a.m. for feedback: • Aug. 24: Register at https://tinyurl. com/w3wvrkf9 • Aug. 26: Register at https://tinyurl. com/v8zmhmv4

Caltrans expects to post the adopted 2021 plan, with responses to public comments, at www.dot.ca.gov in early October. •••

New at CASA

CASA of Santa Cruz County announces a new staff member, Conny Ramirez, a new member to the Board of Directors, Destiny Flood.

Ramirez became CASA’s first administrative intern in July. Previously she was a youth speaker for CASA’s Imagine! fundraiser.

Flood, audit director at San Josebased Petrinovich Pugh & Co., is a graduate of Eastern Washington University and has years of financial advisory experience. She has been a part of the CASA of Santa Cruz board’s Finance Committee since 2020. Conny Ramirez Destiny Flood

••• County Seeks $175,000 Fire Safety Grant

The Santa Cruz County Office of Recovery, Response and Resilience plans to apply for a $175,000 grant from California Fire Council to support a staff position and administrative costs for a countywide wildfire coordinator.

The office, which is facilitating a strategic planning and visioning effort with the County of Santa Cruz Fire Safe Council, will return to the Board of Supervisors if this grant is awarded to present the most effective staffing strategy.

The Santa Cruz County Fire Safe Council, a community-based organization, is helping neighbors band together to advocate homeowners create defensible spaces around homes, which could save them in a wildfire.

Another strategy is to remove vegetation so that when a wildfire burns, it is less severe and can be more easily managed.

At the board meeting Tuesday, Supervisor Manu Koenig talked about funding an effort to train hand crews to help prepare for fire prevention projects and suppression efforts. •••

Everyone’s Harvest: $175,000 In Produce For Families

During the pandemic year of 2020, Everyone’s Harvest Certified Farmers’ Markets hosted 160 markets and distributed $175,000 in healthy fruits and vegetables to families in need in Monterey County.

“It was an incredibly successful year,” said Reid Norris, executive director of Everyone’s Harvest, noting the $175,000 in produce distributed is “more than onethird of our annual operating budget.”

This includes: $37,536 in CalFresh and Market Match; $84,500 in Fresh Rx “prescriptions” for 160 families experiencing illness related to diet; $47,808 in Salinas Valley Memorial healthcare team vouchers; and $4,717 in Farmers’ Market produce vouchers.

The nonprofit, founded in 2002 by Iris Peppard as her capstone project at CSU Monterey Bay, has now distributed $1 million in produce to families needing healthy food.

Everyone’s Harvest operates five farmers’ markets and hosts healthy cooking demonstrations via Zoom. In 2020 and early 2021, almost 200 people joined online workshops to learn how to cook healthy, delicious meals with partner chefs.

Market Match grew 30% in 2020, with more CalFresh-eligible families shopping at the farmers’ markets, and $84,000 in Women Infants Children Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program benefits were redeemed at the Alisal market in East Salinas. •••

Let’s Cruz Again Launches

For the first time, Visit Santa Cruz County has a summer marketing campaign to bring back tourists who stayed away during the state’s COVID-19 travel restrictions.

The campaign, Let’s Cruz Again, runs through Aug. 31 with an updated 30-second television commercial on Comcast, KTVU, KGO, and KCRA in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The online ad campaign is on Bay Area Parent, SFGate, The Inertia, a magazine on surfing and outdoors, and Visit California, the nonprofit promoting tourism statewide.

Some 60,000 people subscribing to Visit Santa Cruz County’s email newsletter — most living within 120 miles of here — are getting a story on “What You Need to Know to Visit Santa Cruz County.”

The Tourism Marketing District funds this effort via assessments paid by the owners of lodging businesses.

On Aug. 9, Visit Santa Cruz County announced the return of the “Top 5 Recommendations,” a weekly roundup of the best things to see and do. The list includes recurring events: • Music on the Patio — Wednesday and

Friday nights at Four Points Sheraton in Scotts Valley. • Midtown Fridays Summer Block

Party! — 5-8:30 p.m. at 1111 Soquel

Ave., Santa Cruz, though Oct. 29. • Agricultural History Project —

Second Saturday on the Farm at the county Fairgrounds in Watsonville. • Westside Farmer’s Market — Saturdays until 1 p.m. at Mission Street Extension and Western Drive, Santa Cruz.

Visit www.santacruz.org/upcomingevent/ for more information •••

New PVUSD Maintenance Supervisor

Gary Vargas is the new supervisor of maintenance & operations for the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, with his appointment approved by the school board last month. He has experience in facilities planning, mechanics, project management, and grounds maintenance.

He comes from Santa Clara University where he built a 23-year career in various roles, landscaping and small engines, and for the past 14 years as supervisor, grounds maintenance. PVUSD staff said he is communicative, detail-oriented, organized and approaches his work with a “yes” mentality, always looking for solutions. •••

Repair of broken sewer pipe starts at $150K

Atemporary repair of a 42-year-old sewer pipe that broke along East Cliff near 12th Avenue last Thursday, which prompted signs warning of contamination in Schwan Lake, will probably cost $150,000 to $200,000, according to Kent Edler, Santa Cruz County Public Works assistant director.

The broken pipe, which had been installed in 1979, resulted in caused about 1,400 gallons of sewage to leak into waterways, most notable Schwan Lake.

The Santa Cruz County Sanitation District hired Anderson Pacific to make a temporary repair the night of the break, Edler said via email on Aug. 3, with Anderson-Pacific “doing a more permanent repair in the next couple of weeks.”

He doesn’t have a cost estimate for the permanent repair.

“In this case, the line that broke came out of a pump station, so we can look at when the pumps turned on in relation to when we heard about the spill and determine the amount of wastewater,” Edler said via email.

Lab results on contamination levels are not yet available. Edler hopes they will be “in the next day or two.” •••

Water Chief To Be Interim City Manager

Rosemary Menard, director of the City of Santa Cruz Water Department, will become Santa Cruz’s interim city manager as Martin Bernal retires after 11 years on Aug. 31.

Menard has 40 years of public sector experience. Before joining the city in January 2014, Menard held executive-level water utility leadership roles with the cities of Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and Washoe County in Reno, Nevada.

In Santa Cruz, she has worked with the Soquel Creek Water District on PureWater Soquel, a project to replenish groundwater and prevent seawater intrusion, which began construction this year.

She led a community-based water supply planning effort that produced a consensus plan of action for addressing Santa Cruz’s long-standing water supply reliability issue. She initiated an effort to invest $100 million to upgrade aging water system infrastructure.

“She has a proven track record as a visionary leader and strategist,” said Mayor Donna Meyers. “She also holds a deep commitment to meaningful community engagement in charting a course for the future. We are confident Rosemary will be able to quickly step into this role and provide effective leadership during a critical time.”

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shelter-in-place and business restrictions have left downtown Santa Cruz with 37 vacant storefronts, Meyers wrote in a commentary published Aug. 11, making a case for letting voters decide on whether to raise the city’s sales tax to address homeless issues, create more affordable housing and reduce the risk of wildfires.

The City Council will vote Aug. 24 on Menard’s appointment, to take effect Sept. 1. The search for a permanent hire is ongoing. n

Gary Vargas Rosemary Menard