The inaugural Santa Barbara Rodeo Days is one week away and, while tickets are still available, there’s just one mutton bustin’ spot left: Noozhawk’s.
The rodeo runs Aug. 1-3 at Earl Warren Showgrounds and features a full range of PRCA rodeo events; 2025 Miss Rodeo California Janae Wallace; honors for the rodeo leadership of the Jenkins family, Josiah and his parents, Karen and Si; the Borderline Bar Performance Dance Team; and a family-friendly carnival.
But the real showstopper? Mutton bustin’!
On July 29, we’ll draw one lucky name to ride for the Noozhawk brand in the Aug. 3 competition.
The rider must be between 5 and 7 years old and weigh no more than 60 pounds. The parents of our drawing winner will need to schedule an appointment with the showgrounds to complete a waiver and provide a birth certificate. We’ll let you know the details.
Don’t be sheepish: Click here to enter your little thrill-seeker for a shot at wool-riding glory.
Click here for more information about Santa Barbara Rodeo Days, and click here to purchase tickets online. See you there!
Before we all saddle up, we still have a week of news to recap and, boy, was it a busy one for Team Noozhawk.
The severing of a Santa Barbara fiber-optic line that shut down emergency communications in two counties, among other things, was covered with seven stories from five of our professional journalists — every word of it their original reporting, I will add.
According to our WordPress analytics, that coverage drew an audience of 161,634 readers over the past seven days.
What follows is my own take on the Top 5 stories you were reading during that period, as tracked by our Google Analytics.
This is an opinion column, my opinion, and not a news story. But most of you know that.
1. Santa Barbara’s 9-1-1 Phone Lines Back; Commercial Flights Resume at Airport
Santa Barbara County’s 9-1-1 service was restored July 23 after a Frontier fiber line cut disrupted emergency communications in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties the day before.
As our Giana Magnoli reported, Santa Barbara police confirmed 9-1-1 dispatch lines were working throughout the county as of 9 a.m.
County Office of Emergency Management director Kelly Hubbard said agencies were testing their systems as service came back online, but urged the public to only call 9-1-1 for actual emergencies, not to test the system.
The 9-1-1 outage started just before 11 a.m. July 22, apparently caused by a City of Santa Barbara contractor that severed a Frontier fiber-optic line while working on the Mission Creek bridge replacement project on Upper De la Vina Street.
Evidently, they were too important to use Call Before You Dig, or maybe 8-1-1 is too complicated a number to remember.
On July 24, our Josh Molina reported that City Administrator Kelly McAdoo was pointing the finger at Lash Construction.
“We are still investigating the incident,” she said. “From what we know, Lash Construction crews accidentally cut the fiber line as part of the De la Vina bridge project. It was not city crews.
“The line does appear to have been identified as part of the utility service alert program.”
Lash officials did not respond to Josh’s requests for comment.
Our Nick Forselles had reported that the disruption affected dispatchers who coordinate responses for law enforcement, firefighters and medical crews.
During the outage, agencies provided alternative phone numbers and reminded residents they can text 9-1-1 anytime — the latter something I was unaware of.
The damaged fiber disrupted communications at the Santa Barbara Airport’s air traffic control tower, grounding flights on July 22 and causing at least 15 cancellations and numerous delays.
Commercial flights resumed the next morning after the Federal Aviation Administration lifted the ground stop around 11 a.m., although schedules were taking a while to get back to normal.
FAA airspace concerns even forced officials to scrub a NASA mission rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the next morning instead.
San Luis Obispo County also was affected, and it, too, restored its 9-1-1 service and airline flights on July 23.
City of Santa Barbara officials apologized for the service interruption and said they’re exploring how to prevent future incidents.
I’m no out-of-town consultant, but a good start would be to stamp Dig Alert and 8-1-1 in big red type at the top of those project labor agreements.
2. Santa Barbara’s Cliff Drive Headed for ‘Revolutionary’ Transformation
Santa Barbara is transforming one of its most automobile-friendly streets into a safer route for bicyclists and pedestrians with a comprehensive $27 million overhaul of Cliff Drive.
As our Josh Molina reported, the three-mile project includes four new traffic signals, 14 crosswalks, those infernal bulb-outs the city loves so much, widened sidewalks, median refuge islands and rectangular rapid flashing beacons.
A completely separated bike path will replace the current shared roadway.
“I love everything about this,” said Ian Baucke, a member of the city’s Transportation & Circulation Committee. “It is revolutionary.”
The project, led by supervising transportation planner Jessica Grant, has been in development for more than a decade since the city took control of the former Caltrans highway through lobbying efforts in the 2000s.
Funding comes from California’s Active Transportation Program, with the city providing a 20% match through a phased reimbursement process.
Major changes include reconfiguring the Santa Barbara City College area with new traffic signals and a relocated entrance, converting the Taco Bell shopping strip in the 1800 block to one-way traffic with angled parking, and adding safer crossings near McKinley, Monroe and Washington schools.
The project removes 46 parking spaces but adds new angled spaces, and replaces 23 trees with 70 new ones.
Once complete, the stretch will close the final gap in the 30-mile Coastal Bike Route from UC Santa Barbara to Ventura County.
The proposal goes before the City Council on July 29 for environmental determination approval.
3. Search for Missing I.V. Woman Ends Sadly with Discovery of Her Body
The search for an 85-year-old at-risk woman who had been missing for 11 days ended tragically July 22 when her body was discovered near the Goleta Slough.
As our Tom Bolton reported, Santa Barbara County sheriff’s detectives found the body of Sonia Lang Crestfield of Isla Vista shortly after 11 a.m.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Raquel Zick said Crestfield was last seen around 11:30 a.m. July 11 near where she lived, at Friendship Manor at 6647 El Colegio Road.
Authorities had described her as at-risk, noting she suffered from dementia and “may be confused or disoriented.”
“This death does not appear suspicious in nature,” Zick said, adding that the circumstances are under investigation by the sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau.
Her body was found near the slough, between the Santa Barbara Airport and Goleta Beach Park.
The discovery brings closure to an extensive search effort that involved multiple agencies looking for Crestfield, who had not contacted anyone for several days before her disappearance was reported.
Her condition made her particularly vulnerable during the time she was missing.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Rest in peace.
4. Bill Macfadyen: Boat Outing Off Santa Barbara Takes Tragic Turn, Then a Deadly One
There’s nothing new to report in the tragic July 11 sinking of a motor boat 1½ miles off Santa Barbara.
The disaster left two nonlocal men dead, but two passengers— one of them a child — were rescued, checked out at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and released.
Authorities identified the dead men as 69-year-old Robert Hirami Johnson of Azusa and 65-year-old David Edgar Holmes of Apple Valley.
The survivors’ identities were not disclosed but they owe their lives to the swift and courageous actions of a crewman aboard the NOAA Shearwater research vessel, which was first on the scene after the 7:49 a.m. mayday call.
5. Red-Light Runner Sentenced for Double-Fatal Crash in Santa Maria
A Santa Maria woman was sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to vehicular manslaughter charges for a crash that killed two people last August.
As our Janene Scully reported, 21-year-old Edith Gomez-Camarillo changed her plea to guilty earlier this month in Santa Barbara County Superior Court for the Aug. 1 collision that killed 68-year-old Randall Kern and his 55-year-old wife, Marichu.
Santa Maria police said Gomez-Camarillo was driving east on East Stowell Road around 9:15 a.m. when her car slammed into the passenger side of the Kerns’ southbound car on South Bradley Road.
Witnesses and evidence indicated Gomez-Camarillo ran the red light at the busy intersection near Trader Joe’s and In-N-Out Burger.
In her written plea, Gomez-Camarillo admitted driving “much faster than the speed limit” and failing to stop at multiple red lights before crashing into the Kerns’ 2021 Mazda.
“My unlawful action, with gross negligence, killed Randall Kern and Marichu Kern,” she stated after the victims’ children spoke at her sentencing.
On July 9, Judge Stephen Dunkle sentenced Gomez-Camarillo to one year in jail and two years of felony probation, including time in a residential mental health treatment program.
She faced a maximum sentence of more than seven years in prison.
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Good Reads
Don’t miss these six stories before you go:
» Trial Begins for Suspect in 2022 Shooting Death at Santa Barbara’s Stearns Wharf — Staff writer Daniel Green attends the start of the trial for an alleged Santa Barbara gang member charged in the 2022 murder of Camarillo tourist Rob Gutierrez on Stearns Wharf.
» Santa Barbara Adding Vehicles with License Plate Readers to Patrol Fleet — South County editor Josh Molina has a warning for parking scofflaws in Santa Barbara. As with much of our content, Josh was first to report this story and all the words he wrote are his alone.
» SpaceX Rocket Sends NASA’s TRACERS Twins Into Orbit — North County editor Janene Scully counts down to the latest SpaceX launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
» Pedal the Pacific Brings Sex Trafficking Awareness to Santa Barbara County — Daniel catches up with the 2025 team of Pedal the Pacific cyclists during their 1,700-mile ride from Seattle to San Diego.
» Mark Patton: A Dying Mother’s Love Propelled UCSB’s Tyler Bremner Into Top Major League Prospect — As only sports columnist Mark Patton can do, he turns in a heartrending account of all that “Los Angeles” Angels top draft pick Tyler Bremner has been dealing with over the past year.
» Santa Barbara Foresters Seek Redemption, 11th NBC World Series Title in Kansas — After jinxing the post-season baseball championship prospects of both Dos Pueblos High School and Westmont College, I’m reluctant to say anything about the Santa Barbara Foresters. So I’ll let sports editor Diego Sandoval bat cleanup with his advance on their hunt for an 11th NBC World Series title.
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Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Old Spanish Days Celebrates 100th Year, But Fiesta Will Go On Without Iconic Carnival.
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What I’m Up To
Although I’m not looking for a free meal, I occasionally do have free time if you’re looking for a speaker for your club, group or organization and want to hear more about Noozhawk. Email me at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com.
- Aug. 21 — The Cosmopolitan Club of Santa Barbara is looking for an update since my last appearance, some 15 years ago. We’ve come a long way. HT to my friend, Chris Tacelli, for getting me the invitation.
- Aug. 26 — It’s been a minute since I’ve talked with the Rotary Club of Goleta Noontime and we’ll have some exciting news to discuss.
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Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
I’m just as shocked as you are: Where Did $100 Million in Los Angeles Fire Relief Money Go?
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Best of Bill’s Instagram
@pedalthepacific rode into my Instagram feed this past week while brazen Hot Springs Trail parkers blocked half a road and I almost caused a dinosaur’s extinction.
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Watch It
I don’t always know Coloradans, but I think I know this guy.
