Santa Cruz County holiday travel staying strong

By Ketti Wilhelm

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted:   07/02/2013 05:30:08 PM PDT

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Jason Berberian of Castro Valey fires up the stove for breakfast with the Rogers... ( Dan Coyro )

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SANTA CRUZ -- After setting travel records during the Fourth of July holiday last year, the number of Californians vacationing this week is expected to dip slightly.

"Last year, we had the calendar effect," said Cynthia Harris, spokeswoman for AAA of Northern California.

In 2012, Independence Day fell on a Wednesday, which spread out holiday travel and allowed many people to vacation the entire week, creating the busiest Fourth of July for travel the state has seen in a decade.

AAA expects a 0.7 percent decrease this year, though the 4.7 million Californians expected to travel falls within the typical range of 4.2 million to 4.8 million.

The economy isn't stopping people from taking road trips and booking luxury hotels, a testament to consumer optimism while markets remain uncertain, according to AAA. A family of four will spend an average of $894 during the holiday this year, Harris said.

"Travel is most indicative of how people are feeling about their discretionary budget," she said.

Santa Cruz's Dream Inn raised its rates in step with the expected tourism boost. The basic daily room rate is $419 on Thursday through the weekend, about $100 more than this time in 2012, and the hotel is booked for those nights.

"We raise the rates and see if people keep booking," said Christopher Johnston, supervisor of the Dream Inn. "This year, people are very willing."

The Hilton Santa Cruz/Scotts Valley is charging $189 for a basic room this week, 5 percent to 10 percent more than last year for the Fourth of July weekend, and the hotel is almost full.

Jim Maggio, general manager of Seascape Resort, said rates haven't risen from last year, but occupancy has. With a basic room rate of $350, Seascape is nearly booked through the weekend.

More casual options for the Fourth of July holiday are sold out, too.

Campgrounds at Seacliff, New Brighton, Manresa and Sunset state beaches and Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park are booked Wednesday through Saturday nights, with only a handful of spaces remaining Sunday.

The Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay KOA and the Santa Cruz RV Resort are booked through Sunday night.

"Santa Cruz is one of our most popular places to go," said Dennis Weber, State Parks spokesman. "It's easier to find a campground the further north you go and the further inland you go."

With a statewide average gas price of $3.99 a gallon, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, only Hawaii and Alaska have more expensive gas than California.

"Even if gas prices go up 5 cents or 3 cents before a holiday, that is not preventing a family from taking a road trip," Harris said of the 3.7 million people who are expected to drive more than 50 miles this weekend.

The average road trip will cover 584 miles, with popular destinations including Lake Tahoe, San Diego, Las Vegas, Zion National Park in Utah and national parks in California.

Harris said drivers should expect heavy freeway congestion from 3-7 p.m. Wednesday, when many people will be leaving work early for the holiday. Whether driving or flying, she recommends avoiding midday travel.

"The earlier you leave or the later you leave, you'll see fewer delays," Harris said.

For those visiting or remaining in Santa Cruz County for the Fourth of July, the sale and use of fireworks are only allowed in Watsonville and the county's only legal fireworks show will be in Scotts Valley, beginning at 9:15 p.m. Thursday in Skypark.

According to the Sheriff's Office, there are also numerous prohibitions on county beaches, including fireworks, alcohol, glass containers, wood pallets, unleashed pets, vehicles and pieces of wood with nails.

My second city council of the week: Capitola. The meeting ended around 11:30 p.m. so this online version is much more detailed than the one that ran in the paper on June 28.

Capitola City Council approves upscale senior living project

By Ketti Wilhelm

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted:   06/27/2013 11:43:08 PM PDT

CAPITOLA -- The Capitola City Council approved a 23-unit housing complex for seniors at 1575 38th Ave. with a 4-1 vote late Thursday.

The project has been in the works since 2011, and originally was denied by the Planning Commission, which gave a directive to reduce the mass, scale and height of the proposed building. The building has since shrunk by a factor of three from its original 67-unit size, and has gained approval by the commission, but the community remains divided over many aspects of the development.

"The principle decision is whether or not we're going to overturn the Planning Commission's decision," said Vice Mayor Sam Storey of the Commission's 3-2 vote to allow the project to go ahead.

The council's approval means the zoning for the property, which is currently the site of Capitola Freight and Salvage, will be changed from neighborhood commercial to planned development, allowing for less setback from the street and a higher overall height for the building.

For a property to be zoned for planned development, it has to have a unique characteristic that warrants the change.

"It is upscale senior housing in Capitola, and we do not have that," said Councilman Ed Bottorff.

He said one of the reasons the Planning Commission denied the project originally was lack of parking.

With the new design, he said, "I think there's overkill on the parking."

Nathan Schmidt, the project's transportation planner, said the project is designed to allow 1.4 parking spaces per unit, and he expects fewer than half of those spaces will be used regularly.

"I'm not a fan of (planned development zoning)," said Mayor Stephanie Harlan, the lone dissenting vote. "I've seen it before and it's a way to get around the rules."

Harlan called the change "spot zoning," saying that the purpose of zoning is for residents of an area to know what type of development they can expect around them and changing the zoning for one property violates that understanding.

Harlan also expressed concern that vehicles would still overflow into the spaces at King's Plaza Shopping Center, located across the street from Villa Capitola, on 41st Avenue.

George Ow, owner of the shopping center, spoke in support of the project. Ow was opposed to the development in its first iteration.

The center's delivery and garbage pickup areas face the Villa Capitola site, raising concerns about potential noise disturbances.

"I think we can all agree that there is a need for more senior housing in Capitola and that demographic data show that that need will increase," Maureen Romac, one of the owners of the property, told the council.

Richard Grunow, community development director for the planning commission, said the new design, with a lower overall height and increased setback from the street, addresses the concerns that led to the agency's original denial of the project.

In addition to parking, the council debated landscaping, the revised size of the project and even the length of time residents will be allowed to have a live-in caretaker at the property without the project crossing the line from senior housing to assisted living.

"It seems like cruel and unusual punishment for a person who's starting to fall down to be told you have to move," said Santa Cruz County resident Charles Houdleston, 71.

Susan Sneddon, Capitola city clerk, said her office has received 38 letters and emails about the Villa Capitola project -- an unusually large volume.

While most of those letters are from seniors and family members of seniors expressing support for and interest in the project, the city also received a letter signed by 21 residents of Bulb Avenue, the street behind the proposed development, in opposition. Their concerns, as stated in the letter, are "privacy, shading, noise, traffic, parking and incongruency with the surrounding neighborhood."

Romac said she and her husband, Steve Thomas, co-owner of the property, have collected 180 signatures from supporters, including those of 20 residents of Bulb Avenue.

Kimberly Frey, of Bulb Avenue, spoke in opposition, saying the development will reduce the amount of sunlight on her property and allow residents of the nearby Villa Capitola to peer into her windows.

In other action, the council approved an experimental, one-day closing of the Esplanade to motor vehicles, scheduled for Oct. 13.

Finally back to covering politics! This was an advance for a Watsonville City Council meeting, which I also covered.

Watsonville City Council to vote on UCSC sewer water experiment

By Ketti Wilhelm

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted:   06/24/2013 06:22:57 PM PDT

WATSONVILLE -- The Watsonville City Council will decide Tuesday whether to approve a deal with UC Santa Cruz to establish an experimental wastewater treatment laboratory at the city's treatment plant.

The laboratory, called WaterLab, would occupy extra space at the city's award-winning Water Resource Center. The lab, which would focus on teaching and research on sustainable water treatment processes, would be the first such partnership between the city and the university.

"It's going to put Watsonville on the map for innovative water technologies and seeing how they can be applied in the real world," said Steve Palmisano, director of Watsonville's Public Works and Utilities Department. "It's a great bridge between the academic world and the real world."

Built in 2010 for $10 million, Watsonville's Water Resources Center stands out with its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The experimental lab would be designed, built and operated by UCSC students, said WaterLab's director, Brent Haddad, a professor of environmental science and director of UCSC's Center for Integrated Water Research.

"I'd like to be able to demonstrate that these advanced water treatment techniques exist and are reliable," Haddad said. "The best way to do that is to show the world that students can build them and they will work."

About 300 students have been involved with the project, Haddad said. It's open to students of all majors who are interested in sustainable water supply. He hopes to have the lab operating this summer, if the lease is approved.

While the technology needed to purify wastewater for a variety of uses already exists, Haddad said, every system is different, such as how dirty the water is and how clean it needs to become.

Haddad said the system that students have designed for WaterLab is a five-step process to produce drinkable water. The first step is slow sand filtration, which removes many impurities. Then it goes through a process to remove elements such as phosphorus and nitrogen. Next are advanced filtration, reverse osmosis and, finally, ultraviolet radiation to prevent microscopic organisms from reproducing, which effectively kills them in about an hour.

After those steps are complete, WaterLab will test the results to see if the water is, in fact, potable, and then it will be treated again in the city's normal plant.

"There aren't a lot of plants that have a goal of potable," Haddad said. "When you look to the end of the 21st century, that's going to be a big need."

WaterLab will also be used to test other experimental processes apart from the five being implemented to make wastewater potable. Haddad said the project is trying to run the lab without grid-provided electricity.
In addition, the lab will be off the financial grid.

"There will be no out of pocket costs; it's basically self-funded," said Kevin Silviera, Watsonville's wastewater division manager. UCSC will pay the city a one-time fee of $18,000 to lease the extra space at the Water Resources Center, at 500 Clearwater Lane, for five years.

As global need for freshwater increases, the technology of turning sewage into drinking water could become indispensable, and public opinion will be playing catch up.

"The public perception has always been that we don't want a toilet-to-tap system," Silviera said. "The science is there, no problem, but there's just a lot more work to do make that palatable. No pun intended."

The City Council is scheduled to vote on the lease agreement at its 6:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday, at the Watsonville Council Chamber, 275 Main St.

Follow Sentinel reporter Ketti Wilhelm on Twitter at Twitter.com/KettiWilhelm

I had so much fun reporting this story, touring the beautiful greenhouses and getting to spend some time with the community. That's what it's all supposed to be about, right?

Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers tour shows off local floral economy

By Ketti Wilhelm

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted:   06/14/2013 06:24:29 PM PDT

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Shaz Lint of the Pajaro Valley Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, Sylecia... ( Dan Coyro )

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WATSONVILLE -- The Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers Open House launched its fourth annual greenhouse tour Friday with an amateur floral design competition among four spirited, local politicians and businessmen.

Watsonville Mayor Lowell Hurst won the competition and later declared, "I'd rather cut flowers than the city budget."

Local was the theme of the event, which continues Saturday when six area greenhouses open their doors for free public tours of the farms where they grow roses, succulents, edible flowers and more.

Even with a diverse and viable local greenhouse industry, 80 percent of cut flowers in the U.S. are imported, with the majority coming from Colombia and Ecuador, according to Kasey Cronquist, chief executive officer of the California Cut Flower Commission based in Watsonville.

"We're trying to teach people about the field-to-vase relationship and that not all flowers are created equal," Cronquist said. "We're trying to let people know they have a choice."

Consumers have more than one choice for local flowers. California boasts 225 cut flower growers, providing an annual economic benefit of $10.3 billion to the state, Cronquist said. Monterey and Santa Cruz counties are home to $700 million worth of cut flower activity.

"If people just knew where flowers came from, I think that number would be a lot bigger," Cronquist said.

IMPORTED BLOOMS

Every day, seven to 10 freight planes loaded with cut flowers land in the U.S. from South America, Cronquist said. In preparation for Valentine's Day, 35 planes arrive daily. And local farms aren't the only things that suffer.

The carbon footprint from those planes full of flowers is part of the reason author and gardening expert Debra Prinzing advocates staying local for flowers.

Prinzing said there is often no price difference between a bouquet shipped from New Zealand and sold in a grocery store and one grown here and sold at a farmers' market.

"Americans are so price focused that we want to buy cheap flowers because we don't think they last very long in the vase," Prinzing said. "The reason we don't think they last long is because we've been disappointed by flowers that are imported. If you buy local flowers, you are getting flowers that were cut yesterday or today, so they last a lot longer."

In Prinzing's book, "The 50 Mile Bouquet," she discusses the resurgence of American flower farming, an industry with a rich local history.

Watsonville farmer George Marciel's family has lived the rise and recent decline of that industry. His great-grandfather was the first farmer to grow roses commercially in California.

Marciel said Pajaro Valley was home to more than 100 rose growers 30 years ago. Now, two remain.

A fourth-generation rose propagator, Marciel is responsible for selecting which new varieties of roses will be grown at California Pajarosa Floral, one of the greenhouses on Saturday's tour. Each year, more than a hundred different genetic samples arrive from breeders in Italy, France, Germany, Holland and New Zealand. Marciel monitors them and selects varieties based on factors such as color and disease-resistance. This year, he said he chose three new varieties to clone and grow. Some years, none make the cut.

"It's an art, and some people never figure it out," Marciel said.

My part in a Friday Kaimin special comprising nine stories about University of Montana's upcoming budget cuts.

Faculty cutsTenured faculty could see workload increase

Posted: Friday, March 29, 2013 12:28 am | Updated: 2:38 pm, Fri Mar 29, 2013.

Posted on March 29, 2013

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  by Ketti Wilhelm

As the University of Montana’s fall budget gets hacked apart, the only certainty is that no one is truly secure. But the future looks different for tenured professors, adjuncts and administrative assistants or secretaries.

The exact amount of the cuts hasn’t been determined, so departments are trying to plan for fall semester without knowing how much money they’ll have to pay expenses — from salaries to phone bills.

Diane Rapp, an administrative associate in the history department, said her department is considering not hiring a replacement for the two tenured professors who will be on sabbatical next academic year — saving about $35,000, a typical salary for a starting adjunct professor.

Another option is cutting office supplies in order to save on the department’s operating costs.

“I personally am worried that our photocopier might be on the line,” Rapp said. “We’d have to go all the way to the University Center just to make a copy.”

At $17,000 a year, the department’s operating budget is already down to the bare essentials, Rapp added.

“There’s nothing left to cut,” she said. “We’ve been living like this forever.”

Rapp said her union, the Montana Public Employees Association, is asking the Board of Regents for a five percent raise this year and another next year. After 17 years working for the University, Rapp makes just under $36,000 a year and said she’s never gotten a raise of more than two or three percent.

Three professors in the history department earn more than $100,000 a year. Rapp acknowledged that lowering professors’ salaries could ease the budget pains, but said she thinks it would only drag down morale, especially considering UM faculty are already underpaid by national standards.

The situation is similar in the geology department, where office supplies and non-tenure track professors face uncertain futures, according to David Shively, a geography professor and president of the University Faculty Association — the union representing tenure-track professors.

Tenured professors enjoy a much higher level of job security, but if budget cuts were especially deep, Shively said they could still lose their jobs.

“Tenure really doesn’t mean a lot if the money isn’t there to pay faculty,” he said.

He stressed that UM is not facing cuts severe enough to warrant firing tenured faculty at this time.

The more likely scenario is that non-tenure track professors will be laid off. Shively said tenure track faculty would be taking over the classes formerly taught by laid-off professors, but some course sections might be dropped as well.

Non-tenure track faculty include adjunct professors whose positions are not permanent; research professors, who mainly self-fund their work through federal grants; and lecturers, Shively said.

An assistant professor can be promoted to associate professor and can then apply for tenure. The application goes through numerous levels of review, from the academic department to the Board of Regents, and the applicant must show quality teaching, as well as research and service on boards or committees while waiting for a promotion to full, tenured professor, Shively said.

This process is part of the reason College of Arts and Sciences Dean Christopher Comer called academia “the most hierarchical organization this side of the U.S. Army.”

Comer said each department has a teaching load for tenure-track faculty, so cuts wouldn’t force professors to take on so many classes that the quality of their work would suffer.

A common teaching load is two courses per semester, Comer said, but loads vary by department. Any course over the department’s standard load must be negotiated with the professor for extra pay.

Some professors take on extra courses without extra pay.

Marketing professor Jakki Mohr said her department’s standard load is nine credits per semester but she volunteered to teach an extra, one-credit course this spring for no extra pay.

With a salary of $139,389, Mohr is the university’s highest paid professor. But that salary isn’t far from the norm for the School of Business Administration, where 18 professors earn more than $100,000.

In addition to teaching an overload schedule, Mohr’s classes are usually at full enrollment. She is internationally renowned as both a professor and an author and has received more lucrative job offers from several European universities.

As for the potential cuts, Mohr said the department is planning to eliminate the course sections that students will miss least.

“It’s belt tightening and we all pitch in to make sure our students feel little impact,” Mohr said. “Unfortunately, I think the people who feel the pain the most are our short-term faculty.”

Dean Larry Gianchetta of the School of Business Administration said, the cuts could mean a total of six to seven adjunct professors being laid off across the school’s three departments and 25 to 30 sections of electives being cut.

The MPEA union contract dictates a strict process for laying off adjunct professors, according to Quint Nyman, executive director of the MPEA, which is the union representing university staff, including secretaries like Diane Rapp, and non-tenure track professors.

Once the department proves the necessity of cutting a position, lay-offs may begin after a 30-day notice is given. They’re based on seniority, so the person who’s been employed by the University longest can’t be cut first. Laid-off employees receive six months of health insurance and are at the top of the interview list for university system jobs for which they qualify.

“I know people are nervous,” Nyman said. “But there’s actually plenty of protection in there for them.”

Something a little different from my usual policy and politics stories:

Bridge Pizza expands into sweets with Treasure State Donuts creation

Bridge Pizza expands into sweets with Treasure State Donuts creation

Posted: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 1:32 am | Updated: 6:58 pm, Tue Mar 19, 2013.

Posted on March 19, 2013

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  by Ketti Wilhelm

Inside a small storefront on East Broadway, Stephanie Lubrecht  spends up to 14 hours a day alone, quietly churning out dozens of doughnuts behind locked doors since December, or possibly earlier.

“Time is kind of no longer real to me,” she said, trying to recall exactly when she started baking, testing and tweaking her recipes, seven days a week. “It's been just doughnuts all the time.”

Lubrecht, a 24-year-old Missoula native, has worked at the long-standing Missoula restaurant The Bridge Pizza for six years, rotating between the kitchen, the counter and any other job that needed doing. Last fall, she was promoted to general manager and head baker of Treasure State Doughnuts, a new shop soon to be unveiled by the owners of The Bridge. 

“I’ve always been a baker, since I was little,” Lubrecht said. “It’s something I’ve always wished I could make a career out of, but didn’t really think it could be a realistic opportunity. It’s always been a joke or a pipe-dream.”

The opportunity arose when Del’s Place, a diner located at 400 East Broadway, shut its doors, and The Bridge owners Erin McEwen and Dmitri Murfin seized the moment to make that old joke become a reality.

“We didn’t really have plans in place before that,” Murfin said. “But I’m a chef and I’m a restauranteur, so I’m always kind of thinking about this stuff.”

They rented the building and started renovating it themselves while Lubrecht began toying with doughnut recipes at home.

While she doesn’t have any formal training as a baker, Lubrecht said as a biology major, her science background helps her understand the chemistry of baking. She’s taking this semester off from classes to focus on the shop.

“A lot of work just went into three basic recipes,” Lubrecht said of the hours she spent developing the perfect cake, old-fashioned and yeast-raised doughnuts. 

She said she has developed about 20 to 30 variations, including an orange cake donut with orange icing and pistachios on top, which she was just finishing up Monday evening, as a spring snow storm swirled outside the shop.

“I’m all about the sweet and savory,” Lubrecht said. “So we try to do as much of that as we can.”

This batch turned out well. The inside is moist but light, the icing is delicately tangy and the pistachios add a bit of crunch and a slightly salty, nutty flavor.

Most of her test doughnuts have gone to the staff of The Bridge, Lubrecht said while flipping a still-hot raised donut in a bowl of cinnamon-sugar.

“They’ve been our discerning taste buds and our critics,” she added.

The Bridge owners McEwen and Murfin are both 30 years old and both have masters degrees from UM. They’ve been married for three years and McEwen’s family has been running restaurants in Missoula since the 1970s. Treasure State Doughnuts is another locally-focused, family endeavor.

Just like The Bridge, Murfin said Treasure State gets as many ingredients as possible locally, through Western Montana Growers’ Co-op. 

Treasure State will also sell coffee and espresso drinks made from locally-sourced beans from Black Coffee Roasting Company, a business started in 2010 by two other UM graduates.

Matt McQuilkin, one BCRC’s owners, said the company is the only 100 percent organic coffee roaster in the state.

While she’s only five classes away from finishing her degree and joining the group of UM graduate-entrepreneurs, Lubrecht said that for now, she’s enjoying baking doughnuts and making people happy. 

“If that’s the worst part of my my day, going to work to do that, then I’m doing okay,” she said.

Treasure State Doughnuts will likely open its doors at the end of this month or early in April, when all of the testing is complete.