SLO the virus

Children enrolled in kindergarten through sixth grade in Santa Maria can sign up for a new distance learning camp, which started this week with a small group test run.

Held at the Minami Community Center at 600 West Enos Drive, the camp will be open to the public starting next week, Recreation Services Manager Dennis Smitherman said. The camp’s total capacity is 50 students on a first-come, first-served basis.


“We’re hoping that it's for those parents who don’t have the option to stay home and are considered essential workers,” Smitherman said. “There’s no priority in deciding who’s able to register, though.”

The camp costs $100 per participant, per week. Smitherman said that, currently, there’s no help available to cover the cost of the camp.

“We’ve reached out to a couple potential sponsors, but nothing has come through at this point,” he said.

But with the program rounding out to about 55 hours of child care a week—7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday—the distance learning camp is a remarkably good deal, Smitherman said. It costs less than two dollars per hour, per student.

“It’s really the lowest price we could come up with,” he said. “There’s absolutely no profit being made from this in any way, shape, or form.”

From 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., the camp will mirror a normal school day. The city staff who are running it will split children into groups based on grade, allowing each student to complete their daily video class meetings and assignments with peers of a similar age group.

“During the time that the child is not on the Zoom call doing schoolwork, we’re going to be providing activities for them,” Smitherman added.

After the school day finishes at 3 p.m., the city will provide recreation programming for kids until their parents come to pick them up.

“We’re going to focus on the traditional recreation programming that we have here, and that’s a lot of youth sports, some arts and crafts, potentially some expanded programming with some other agencies,” Smitherman said. “It’s so the kids have a chance to socialize. Within safety protocols, of course, we’re making sure that the kids are still able to be kids.”

A typical morning at the camp will start with parents signing their children in. The student will then get their temperature scanned, a symptom check, and an overall health screening. Then, city staff will walk camp goers into the building.

“We try to keep as many adults out of the building as we can, but parents can walk in to check the place out if that would make them feel more comfortable,” Smitherman said.

All children and staff are required to wear face masks, and staff will go through similar health screening processes every day. Smitherman added that the city wrote an extensive COVID-19 precaution plan for the camp and worked with the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department to complete attestations for opening. Those interested can register at cityofsantamaria.org/register. ∆

Just weeks after the first day of school on Aug. 17, an employee of the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District tested positive for COVID-19.

In an Aug. 27 announcement, Public Information Officer Kenny Klein said the school district was notified earlier that day that an employee had tested positive for COVID-19. The district couldn’t release much more about the case in question, he said.


“Due to employee confidentiality,” Klein wrote in an updated announcement on Aug. 28, “we cannot release or confirm employee names, positions, or work locations.”

Klein said the district is working closely with the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department to ensure safety at its school sites. Those who have had close contact—defined as being within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes—with the employee who tested positive will be informed, contact tracing will be conducted, and in some cases, quarantines of about 14 days will be mandated. The district is also disinfecting all necessary facilities.

It’s unclear how many additional employees will be impacted. Although students enrolled in the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District are learning at home, its teachers are required to report to their school sites in person a few times each week.

That decision was approved as part of the district’s larger reopening plan at a board of education meeting on July 23, where several teachers shared their safety and logistical concerns with the requirement. ∆

On Aug. 25, the Morro Bay City Council adopted a second 45-day moratorium on new short-term vacation rental permits in lieu of passing a new ordinance that's in the works.

The moratorium is sort of a recognition that everything’s changed due to the impacts of COVID-19, City Manager Scott Collins said.

“We want to make sure we have a really good balance in the community between all the concerns around community impacts but also economics, jobs, the tourism industry, and revenues to the city to help pay for the services we all depend upon,” Collins said.

Morro Bay is currently in the process of drafting an updated short-term vacation rental ordinance that will go before the City Council in September or October.

In the interim, the 45-day moratorium gives the city time to continue its process and the council time to review the draft ordinance and hand it over to the California Coastal Commission for final approval.

Short-term vacation rentals have been a topic of discussion for the city since 2016 when the council reviewed the current ordinance and directed staff to revise the policies to better address quality of life issues in residential neighborhoods, and including the ordinance in the General Plan/Local Coastal Program/Zoning update. Collins said the city was reviewing the ordinance because the number of short-term rentals in residential areas of the city grew exponentially in the 2010s.

“So the community was concerned about that and understanding which ones were legal or illegal,” he said. “Obviously, we need to put more comprehensive regulations in place.”

In 2018, the city adopted a 250 cap on the number of vacation rental permits that can be in effect within residentially zoned areas of the city at any one time.

Collins said the council eventually directed staff to take the short-term rental ordinance out of the General Plan/Local Coastal Program/Zoning update as the city was behind in that process.

The council directed the city manager to put together a committee of residents, vacation rental owners, Mayor John Headding, councilmember Marlys McPherson, and Collins.

At the beginning of the year, the city was ready to present the draft ordinance but put it on hold to address local COVID-19 impacts.

“By having a moratorium, it recognizes all those issues and keeps the industry in check, and that way we don’t have an over-proliferation going on right now especially when everybody’s concerned about public health,” Collins said.

The draft ordinance will include: displaying signage with contact information that indicates the property is a short-term rental, annual permit fees to provide funding for ordinance enforcement, a “good neighbor brochure” for guests, on-site parking, occupancy limits, trash management, and proximity requirements between short-term rental properties. ∆

Santa Barbara County’s unemployment rate dropped from 11.5 percent in June to 10 percent in July, according to data released by California’s Labor Market Information Division.

That equates to about 1,600 workers returning to the workforce, a newsletter from Raymond McDonald, the Santa Barbara County Workforce Development Board’s executive director. June saw a larger decrease in the unemployment rate with about 4,000 workers returning to the workforce.

While employment has steadily improved since April 2020—when the county unemployment rate peaked at 14 percent—the rate’s slow and steady decrease still has a long way to go to meet pre-pandemic levels. In July 2019, the county’s unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, according to the Labor Market Information Division.

Compared to California as a whole, Santa Barbara County is doing well: The county’s August unemployment rate was nearly 4 percent lower than the state’s.

Just about every local industry is still in a jobs deficit compared to this time last year, with the only exception being mining, logging, and construction. These sectors have seen a year-over-year increase of 300 to 400 workers in the county. Leisure and hospitality have been hit the hardest: this sector employed 21,500 workers in July 2020, down from 29,000 in July 2019.

Santa Barbara County also announced in an Aug. 26 press release that more than 4,000 business attestations have now been submitted countywide. These attestations involved completing a series of tasks, so businesses are ready to open during the pandemic when they are allowed to do so.

“We are very pleased to see so many businesses taking important steps to safely reopen their businesses during the pandemic,” Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors Chair Gregg Hart said in the release. “This demonstrates the amazing resiliency of the business community and their perseverance during this difficult and unprecedented time.”

According to Reopening in Safe Environment (RISE), a county initiative helping businesses prepare to open their doors again, as of Aug. 14 more than 900 dine-in restaurants and nearly 700 retail stores had completed their attestations, plus many more from office workspaces, salons, gyms, hotels, and other sectors. ∆

Before Cal Poly starts its fall quarter on Sept. 14, thousands of students who plan to live on campus have to test negative for COVID-19 before they’re allowed at the school.

In an Aug. 26 press release, Cal Poly announced that all students who hope to live on campus this fall will first be required to get tested for COVID-19—at some point within the 72 hours before moving in. While the university acknowledged in its release that the timeframe will likely be a difficult task logistically, Cal Poly said it would work with students to help them find necessary testing resources locally or in their areas of permanent residence.

“Our goal is to keep SLO County safe, open, and strong in this new school year,” SLO County Public Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein said in the press release. “We can do that by managing the spread of COVID-19 and minimizing the risks to our community, which includes Cal Poly students, staff, and faculty. It’s important for each individual to do the right thing and adhere to health guidance so that we can continue to move forward together.”

While the majority of Cal Poly’s courses will be held virtually this fall, about 12 percent of the school’s more than 4,000 fall classes will be taught face-to-face, according to the press release. About 6,000 students are expected to take at least one in-person course and the university is opening its campus housing facilities to about 5,150 students. Typically more than 8,000 beds are available in University Housing. Students, according to Cal Poly, will be housed by themselves in single rooms only.

Although students living off-campus are not required to get tested, the university is urging everyone to get tested before returning to the area.
∆

San Luis Obispo County public health officials are asking locals to fill out a short COVID-19 testing survey—available online—that will help “guide the future of testing in our community,” according to an Aug. 24 county press release.

Open through Sept. 2,  the survey asks questions about the respondent’s age and area of residence, COVID-19 testing history, and impressions of the process.

“The Public Health Department wants to understand residents' perspectives so we can provide testing in a way that best meets the community's needs,” the county’s press release stated.

One survey question is: “What would potentially deter you from getting tested at a community testing site hosted by the county or state?” It has 11 possible answers, including an “other” option with a chance to write a response.

SLO County recently reinvited residents who are not experiencing COVID-19 symptoms to get tested after having restricted it for several weeks amid a statewide backlog in test processing.

Three public sites are currently open for testing in SLO County: the SLO Vets’ Hall in the city of SLO; the Ramona Garden Park Center in Grover Beach; and the Nipomo Senior Center in Nipomo.

Sign-ups are available online and the test is free.

A prior location in Atascadero, at Pavilion on the Lake, closed at the start of this week—even as cases continue to climb in North County. The site, a county operation, “always planned to run from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20, two weeks” and then move to Nipomo, according to Public Health Department spokesperson Michelle Shoresmen.

As of Aug. 25, SLO County had recorded 2,769 cases of COVID-19, with 441 active infections, 12 hospitalizations, and 21 fatalities to date.

SLO County remains on the state’s COVID-19 watchlist due to high case counts, which prevents schools and other business sectors from reopening.

Though case counts have declined in recent days—SLO County is averaging 27 new cases per day over the last week—they must drop to below 20 per day over a 14-day period to meet the state’s benchmark. ∆

On Aug. 22, more than 50 individuals gathered—socially-distanced—at Santa Rosa Park in San Luis Obispo to take part in a caravan rally and protest from the park to the California Men’s Colony (CMC) in an effort to raise awareness about the recent COVID-19 outbreak at the state prison.

Citing safety concerns of prisoners unable to self-isolate, a lack of face coverings and hand sanitizer, and a lack of transparency about virus transmission within the prison, the group called on CMC to implement a mass release of inmates.

The local group is part of a larger network of individuals connected to the We Are Their Voice Facebook group.

Established by Los Angeles resident Renee Benavidez, whose husband is currently incarcerated, the group formed after COVID-19 caused visitation rights to be taken away from prisoners.

Her husband had lacked visitation rights for four months when she decided formed the group. She said it was difficult not being able to see her husband, and Benavidez knew she wasn’t the only one facing this challenge.

“Even in my own husband’s voice, I’ve never heard him sound like that. It was a feeling of hopelessness,” she said.

When state prisons started to report positive COVID-19 cases and the numbers rose, Benavidez was alarmed and didn’t understand why she hadn’t heard of any organizations calling for more personal protective equipment, the release of non-violent and at-risk inmates, and more testing.

She created the Facebook group We Are Their Voices and scheduled an event to protest at the State Capitol in Sacramento.

She believed a small group of maybe 10 people would participate but 100 people showed up to support their incarcerated loved ones. The group has more than 2,000 members and protested in front of 22 of the 33 state prisons, including the California Men’s Colony.

“These people on the inside, they are thankful and others ask when we’re coming to their prison. And the most incredible part is when, the ones that can hear us because they’re out in the yard, they wing their shirts or towels, or bang their windows,” she said.

Benavidez said individuals whose family members are in a specific prison organize the local event for their community, and she helps by creating an event flyer and posting on the group Facebook page.

The group is calling for term-enhancements to end, safety precautions now and beyond the public health crisis, and harassment from prison personnel to end. Benavidez said she’s also trying to change the negative stereotypes about prisoners.

“We just want society to know that they’ve been lied to. We’re not saying everyone in prison is innocent and we’re not saying that they should not pay for what they’ve done. We’re simply asking they only pay for what they’ve done and their past not be used to take their whole life away,” she said. “We want that word ‘restored’ in our system, because it’s not.”

CMC Public Information Officer Lt. John Hill released a statement after the Aug. 22 protest stating that the institution has worked proactively with the San Luis Obispo County Department of Public Health to protect the safety of CMC’s staff and incarcerated population.

CMC staff are required to wear face coverings and receive personal protective equipment, the statement says, and the prison is conducting mandatory staff testing.

“CMC continues to provide its staff and incarcerated population with cleaning supplies that allow for the thorough cleaning and sanitation of all areas within the institution. The incarcerated population are provided protective masks they are required to wear, and hand sanitizer dispensers have been placed throughout the institution for staff and incarcerated persons to use,” the statement reads. “Additionally, CDCR has reduced the prison population by more than 18,000 incarcerated persons in order to implement increased physical distancing measures and maximize space for isolation and quarantine to quickly mitigate COVID-19 spread. We take the COVID-19 pandemic very seriously and will continuously adjust our response as new information and situations arise.”

As of press time, CMC had 227 positive cases in custody, 113 of which were new. ∆

It’s been 40 years since Guadalupe last touched its sign ordinance, but the city hopes to soon change that. A workshop will be held at 5 p.m. on Aug. 25 at Guadalupe’s City Council Chambers to gather public and city council feedback on a new draft sign ordinance.

The current ordinance, part of the city’s original zoning ordinance adopted in 1980, consists of three short paragraphs, is difficult to interpret, and contains no definitions or rules for what types of signs are allowed in the city, Guadalupe City Planning Director Larry Appel told the Sun.

“We get questions from people about signs like, ‘Where does it say that in the ordinance?’” Appel said. “We really didn’t have anything other than those three paragraphs, so it really was time to fix that.”

The new draft ordinance includes an extensive list of definitions for different types of signs, identifies which signs are permitted or not allowed, and streamlines the process for sign approval.

“In Santa Maria, when I was the director there, we prohibited [bow-feather signs],” Appel said. “We did it for a one-year trial, and when it came back, the city council said, ‘We want to do this permanently.’”

Signs that the ordinance proposes to prohibit include bow-feather signs, pole signs, and sandwich board signs. The ordinance includes pictures to illustrate the different types.

“There’s only a few [bow-feather signs] up in Guadalupe right now,” Appel said. “But I always say, ‘Don’t think about just an individual flag or sign.’ Think about if every business decided they wanted to do something like that, and they wanted two or three. It starts to really make an area look cluttered.”

Businesses that suddenly find themselves with nonconforming signs—signs that were previously allowed but subsequently become prohibited under a new ordinance—would have a maximum of two years to stop using the sign, with the exact amount of time determined by City Council. This part of the draft ordinance is known as a sunset clause.

“We’re going to try to eliminate pole signs, but give people an opportunity to have a couple of remaining years to decide if they want to stay in business, if they want to start saving up for a new sign,” Appel explained. “We don’t want to just hit them with this ordinance.”

The city is also working with a consultant who is helping keep business owners in the loop about the proposed ordinance and encourage them to participate in the workshop process.

The proposal would streamline the sign approval process by taking away the need for a conditional use permit (CUP) from City Council. CUPs require that discretionary projects be approved by someone other than staff, adding an extra roadblock to getting a sign approved.

“We don’t have a planning commission in Guadalupe, so anything that requires a CUP has to be approved by City Council,” Appel explained.

The proposed ordinance would allow most signs to be approved at the staff level.

“The whole idea is trying to bring Guadalupe into the 21st century from a planning standpoint,” Appel said. “We’re trying to plan for the future and make sure that, as new businesses come in, that we can have a good ordinance in place that makes it really clear to people what the rules and regulations are going to be.” ∆

For nearly 100 years, activists and reformers fought to win the right to vote for women in the United States.

On Aug. 18, 1920, the women’s suffrage movement finally won, and the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, declaring for the first time that some women had equal rights, including the right to vote.

To celebrate, the Santa Maria Women’s Suffrage Centennial Celebration Collaborative—an informal group composed of women from various community organizations—organized a cruise day for the community on Women’s Equity Day, Aug. 26.

The route starts at the Minerva Club and will circulate through Santa Maria City Council Districts 1 and 2. Everyone is encouraged to join the cruise, wear all white or period clothing, and decorate their cars in purple and gold.

Participants will park their decorated cars at the Minerva Club, 127 W. Boone St., at 5 p.m., where there will be brief remarks concerning the suffrage struggle  and the importance of female voters. Speakers include Cynthia Thacker, whose family has a long history in Santa Maria; Hilda Zacarias, a former Santa Maria City Council member and current Allan Hancock College board member; and Ivette Peralta, a member of the Santa Barbara County Commission for Women.

The centennial collaborative came together a year ago to plan a celebration at the Minerva Club, and while the event isn’t exactly what they envisioned due to COVID-19, American Association of University Women member Laura Selken said the group is happy to be able to celebrate.

“We want to celebrate the ratification and the decades-long work it took to get to this and re-emphasize the importance of voting even more so now. So many things are being implemented to dampen the ability for people to vote, and we are wanting to bring that to people’s attention,” Selken said.

The group is working to raise awareness in the community-at-large that it’s important to vote, every vote counts, and women need to take a step forward to vote and run for office. Selken said the event’s speakers will focus on the suffrage movement’s past, the present state of equality, and the future.

“In 100 years, in some ways we’ve come a long way and in other ways we haven’t come very far at all,” she said. “All our organizations are proactive in the community and doing actions in the community to benefit the community and voting is one of the key ways to doing that. With so much going on politically speaking, locally and nationally, we wanted to have it focused on voting and the census.”

Attendees are asked to arrive with cars completely decorated if they wish to decorate their cars, as they are required to remain in their vehicles. If attendees need to step out of their cars, the group asks that they wear face coverings and follow social distancing guidelines. ∆

As intense wildfire smoke continued to hover over North County on Aug. 21—the third day in a row of hazardous air quality there—the SLO County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) issued a press release “strongly recommending” postponing all outdoor work north of the Cuesta Grade until the skies clear.

Smoke from multiple Monterey County wildfires is blowing into SLO County thanks to steady northerneastern winds. While officials expect southern winds to help flush out some of the pollution over the weekend, air quality remained “very unhealthy” or “hazardous” from San Miguel to Santa Margarita on Aug. 21.

“When the levels get up to ‘very unhealthy’ and ‘hazardous,’ even the most healthy individuals, if they’re out and exposed, can start getting a burning throat, wheezing, shortness of breath, and light-headedness,” APCD Air Quality Specialist Meghan Field told New Times.

The APCD’s press release stated that outdoor work should cease whenever the local Air Quality Index (API) hits 150 or higher. The API topped 400 in many parts of North County this week—giving it the worst air quality in the world, according to IQAir.

While the APCD does not have the authority to issue a mandatory outdoor work closure order, Field said it wanted to send the strongest possible advice to the community. There are also state labor laws that apply.

“We strongly recommend that restaurants close or switch to take-out only, and that outdoor agricultural and construction work stop,” the Aug. 21 press release read.

Field acknowledged that businesses already struggling with COVID-19 regulations, like restaurants, are now doubly impacted.

“What’s really difficult right now is these restaurants have been asked to move their business outside, and now it’s not safe to be outside,” she said. “They’re definitely stuck between a rock and hard place.”

Weather forecasters say that the winds from Hurricane Genevieve, which is currently moving through Baja California, could bring some relief to the Central Coast this weekend. But that system also comes with more fire risks due to thunder and lightning.

“Lightning has started a lot of these fires,” Field noted. ∆