••• “At a joint committee meeting this week, members of the Montecito Water and Sanitary District boards and staffs tentatively agreed to collaborate on recycled water for the [Santa Barbara Cemetery], with the Sanitary District taking the lead. The Sanitary District will pay for and build a small, expandable plant on its property at 1042 Monte Cristo Lane, treating wastewater to non-potable standards for irrigation on the five-acre cemetery lawn, just across Channel Drive from district headquarters. The project has been in the Sanitary District’s master plan since 2004, awaiting a willing partner in the Water District.” This is great, but one might ask why cemeteries need grass at all. —Independent
••• “Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Wednesday to tighten the rules for utility power shutoffs as California grapples with more frequent planned outages when potentially dangerous wildfire conditions exist. The new requirements call for investor-owned utilities to create plans to lessen the effects of outages on customers with sensitive medical needs and notify all emergency responders, healthcare providers and public safety groups within an outage area. The laws are among roughly two dozen bills related to wildfires that Newsom has signed into law this year.” —L.A. Times
••• “The Goleta City Council Tuesday night took a step toward building sidewalks on several Old Town Goleta streets, including Pine, Orange, Tecolote, Nectarine, Mandarin, Aguila, and several others in the neighborhood. They agreed to put the project out to bid and increase the sidewalk width from four to five feet. The city has $3.8 million to fund the project.” —Noozhawk
••• Boardmembers of the Montecito Sanitary District strongly rebut the recent Montecito Journal op-ed about its proposed new building. Whether residents fired up by Bob Hazard’s piece will read the rebuttal is an open question; the Montecito Journal did the authors no favor by burying it under the rubric “On Sanitation,” with no mention on the front page.
••• “Destructive Beetles Infest Montecito Trees.” —Montecito Journal
••• “Supervisors Pick Emergency Operations Center for Santa Barbara County Fire/Medical Dispatch Site […] Local fire officials support the change, but the Sheriff’s Department wants to maintain the status quo.” What’s the stautus quo? “Law enforcement, fire and medical services for the county’s unincorporated areas are dispatched out of the same building at the Sheriff’s Department headquarters at 4434 Calle Real, but the fire and sheriff’s departments have butted heads for years over the joint venture.” —Noozhawk
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