District How To Stay Off State COVID Watch List, By Carrie Arnone, CEO

FEATURED COLUMNIST How To Stay Off State COVID Watch List

By Carrie Arnone, CEO, Capitola-Soquel Chamber of Commerce

Dear Chamber Members, Colleagues, Friends, and Family:

You’d be forgiven for losing a little heart these days. The damage and distress COVID-19 inflicts on our collective health and well-being is alarming. COVID-19 cases are surging in California, leading to closure of whole business sectors.

Santa Cruz County has, so far, had lower transmission than other California counties and because of this we have not yet had to fully roll back our reopening. The era of COVID-19 will eventually end--and the choices we make to protect ourselves and others will see us through. 80% of our state’s population lives in counties placed on the monitoring watch list where tighter restrictions are mandated. Now, we find ourselves on the wrong slope of a new curve, in danger of joining other regions taking more painful economic measures.

Almost all transmission in our county has been linked to social activities--specifically to people having close contact without masks with members of other households, sometimes at work, but mostly at home or at social gatherings. In fact, COVID infections among co-workers have typically been through after-hours parties or through extended break room conversations. Capitola Village to commemorate the Capitola Begonia Festival. The festival celebrated its 65th and final year in 2017.

Continuing the tradition, Laurie Hill and Willard Schwartz raise the tubers at home and place the hanging blossoms at 331 Capitola Ave., Capitola. Michael Lavigne Real Estate Services cares for the plants while they are on display in the Village.

Designated as Capitola’s City Flower, tuberous begonias are a part of the community’s horticultural history dating back to the 1930s.

The Brown Ranch Family provided begonias to the Begonia Festival. n

In order to protect all of our jobs, our health, and allow us to reopen schools, we need everyone to choose to meet friends and family, if they do so, in ways that won’t spread the virus.

Believe in Action

We must continue to stand strong against COVID-19. The good news is

we know how to do it. Dr. Marm Kilpatrick, an infectious disease specialist at UC Santa Cruz, has used the most current scientific data about case transmission to develop these four easy to follow guidelines to keep us safer. 1) Protected (wear a mask) 2) Spatially distant (at least 6 feet apart) 3) Well Ventilated (outside is best) 4) Brief (keep interactions under 10-15 minutes)

If you are going to meet a person you don’t live with, it’s safest to meet them outside, with space between you, and if it’s hard to have at least 6 feet of space, wear a mask. If you have to meet someone indoors please keep it very brief, wear a mask, and, if possible, keep at least 6’ feet between you and them and open a window or make sure there is plenty of ventilation. We know some of your interactions may not be brief, so please make sure the other 3 precautions are in place. Likewise, we know you can’t always be outside, so please make sure you do the other 3.

If we don’t make these small adjust ments to how we meet people we are going to have to close businesses and lose many jobs and experience even more difficulty than we already have as a community. Even for those of us who are young and healthy and are less likely to get very sick, we need to take these simple actions to protect aunts, grandparents, uncles, parents and those with underlying health conditions.

The only way we can stop the pan demic is to take control ourselves, and the sacrifice isn’t that big. We just need to meet outside, give space, and wear a mask.

Sharing accurate safety information with colleagues, family members, and community connections is essential. The health of all of us, depends on the health of each of us.

Know someone who could use a reminder? Please consider sharing this letter as a blog post: “Easy Steps to Reduce Risk” or graphic with these easy to understand guidelines for reducing transmission of COVID-19.

So take heart, stay safe, stay hopeful (and stay masked and distanced, if you aren’t at home!)

COMMUNITY NEWS

Summer Begonias Returned to Capitola Village

On July 17, volunteers hung begonia plants in

We can do this! n

COMMUNITY NEWS Fire Agencies Fall Short in Safety Inspections

By Jondi Gumz

A2019 state law in the wake of the deadly Ghost Ship Fire in Oakland requires fire agencies to annually inspect schools, apartments, hotels, residential care facilities, but locally the job is incomplete, according to an investigation by the Santa Cruz County Grand Jury.

The Grand Jury found shortcomings at all seven of the fire agencies reviewed: • Santa Cruz County Fire: 7 of 85 facilities inspected; 92% uninspected. • City of Santa Cruz: 102 of 382 facilities inspected; 73% uninspected. • Watsonville: 49 of 74 facilities inspected; 35% uninspected. • Central: 105 of 125 facilities inspected, 16% uninspected. • Aptos La Selva: 52 of 62 facilities inspected, 16% uninspected. • Felton: Inspections were ad hoc; no records available.

Another six fire agencies in the county not part of the grand jury’s investigation are subject to the inspection mandate from the state.

“We recommend that the status of these inspections especially those involving public facilities be communicated to the public and that gaps in compliance or the ability to inspect be addressed in the 2021 budgeting cycle,” the grand jury report concluded in a June 25 report.

The grand jury commended the organizational merger of Aptos La Selva and Central fire districts creating a common database, noting this had resulted in “efficiency gains” in” terms of inspections, citations and re-inspections” and a “highly robust inspection and reporting process.”

Aptos La Selva accomplished the highest percentage of inspections in the county in 2019, inspecting all 15 schools and preschools in Aptos.

Of 33 apartments in Aptos, 26 were inspected.

Central inspected all 50 apartments and 36 of 51 schools and preschools.

What surprised the grand jury was the number of facilities that failed inspections.

Of 51 schools in Aptos La Selva and Central, 11 failed or got a correction notice.

“These data highlight the importance that regular inspec tions be prioritized and performed by the agencies, and the leadership hold agencies accountable for inspections and compliance,” the grand jury concluded.

Here is more detail on the findings:

County Fire : No multi-family apartments were inspected in 2019. The inspection list identified two apartments but the grand jury found nine apartments not on the list. Also, Bradley Elementary School was omitted from the list. Of 64 businesses on the list, only two were inspected in 2019; nine were inspected in 2018.

City of Santa Cruz : Of 36 schools, only 12 were inspected in 2019; five were inspected in 2018. Of 50 hotels, 31 were inspected in 2019 and 24 were inspected in 2018. Of 282 apartments, only 41 were inspected in 2019and 98 were inspected in 2018.

Watsonville : Of 42 apartments, only 29 were inspected in 2019; there were 23 were inspected in 2018. Of nine hotel/ motels, only four were inspected in 2019. One problem was that five hotels were left off the inspection list. So were private preschools.

Scotts Valley : Reported all inspections completed but the grand jury found 30 schools, preschools, private schools, apartments, and hotels advertising for business that were not on the inspection list. Also left off: 1440 Multiversity, a new 377-bed learning center located at the former Bethany College campus. n