Bouquets of toilet paper to Caltrans, which announced the reopening of the Gaviota Safety Roadside Rest Area in both directions of US 101 just in time for the holiday travel season.
The only rest stop along 101 from its southern terminus in Los Angeles to the Camp Robert rest areas north of San Miguel had been closed for 18 months for a $5.5 million wastewater system improvement project. The rest stop north of San Miguel has also been closed since autumn 2021, leaving the route’s travelers to depend upon local businesses for their personal business.
The bouquet comes with a side of stinky raspberries, though, in answer to the state’s habit of concurrent, long-term closures of its only two rest stops along the route.
The rest stops were also closed for 18 months in 2008-2010 for complete renovations, except the water systems apparently, and three months in 2020 while private businesses also shuttered their restrooms to public access, leaving the annual traffic of 1.5 million visitors no choice but unsanitary personal hygiene practices along the state’s roadways.
In other news along the Central Coast, there were plenty of rose-worthy stories without any underlying bitterness.
Roses to the community members who stepped up to Court Appointed Special Advocates of Santa Barbara County’s call for help with an unprecedented need for Christmas gifts. The community came through with enough donated items and funds to meet the need, including nearly 50 bicycles for children and youths.
The nonprofit organization that provides trained volunteers to serve as advocates for children under the court’s care due to abuse, neglect or abandonment began its“Christmas wishes” gift collection 15 years ago with 100 gifts. This year, it was able to provide for 723 children including not only CASA children, but many identified by Fighting Back Santa Maria as being in foster care here but from another county, homeless or in high need of support.
CASA is seeking more volunteer advocates to help address a waiting list of 100 children. For more information, to volunteer or provide other support, visit www.sbcasa.org.
CASA wasn't alone in providing for area youth. Schools, churches and a variety of nonprofits stepped up to the plate again this season, and we’ve recognized many of them in this column as their donations have been announced.
Roses to the donors and programs like Lompoc’s Brice Fabing Memorial Bikes 4 Kids holiday drive which also provided for children this season. Lompoc’s event honors the memory of Brice Fabing, a 17-year-old Lompoc High School student-athlete who was killed in a vehicle accident in 2005. This year, the program collected more than 130 bicycles for distribution to children in Lompoc.
And it seems it’s always the season of giving for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. We honor them again with a fragrant bouquet for their donation of $25,000 to the Central Coast Marine Corps Reserves Toys for Tots campaign. The program gifts toys to economically disadvantaged families in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The tribe has partnered with the nonprofit for 19 years.
Of course, we offer nothing but roses to Mother Nature again as she showers the region with much-needed moisture.
This steady rainfall has been good for the record books, but it’ll take a lot more to impact the county’s streams and reservoirs after years of drought conditions. Last week’s rainfall brought the countywide total to 146% of the average to date in the water year, which began Sept. 1 and will end Aug. 31, 2023.
As of Thursday evening, Cachuma Lake was holding at 31.4% of its 192,978-acre-foot capacity, Twitchell Reservoir east of Santa Maria was still too low to measure, and Gibraltar Reservoir was at 31.5 percent of its 3,693-acre-foot capacity.
Speaking of getting out and about, roses to NatureTrack Film Festival for releasing its award-winning short documentary, “The Accessible Outdoors,” free for public viewing. The15-minute film directed by Mitchka Saberi and Francisco Lopez, and executive produced by NatureTrack’s founder Sue Eisaguirre, highlights the need for and challenges with experiencing nature for people with physical disabilities. The film made rounds to more than two-dozen festivals where it picked up several awards. It may be viewed online at vimeo.com/634811616.
