The Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade is building a new pedestrian path along North Jameson Lane in Montecito, between Olive Mill and San Ysidro roads.
The trail is a major route that connects the Upper and Lower villages, a string of businesses and residential units along the Coast Village Road corridor, as well as local schools.
The goal is to improve the aesthetic and safety of the heavily used Santa Barbara County road that was affected in the Jan. 9, 2018, debris flows and subsequent winter storms.
“We are connecting the community,” said Abe Powell, founder of the Bucket Brigade. “This area is a major artery.
“This area got hammered in the debris flows of Jan. 9,” Powell continued. “The county cleaned up as much as they could, and Bucket Brigade came in and cleaned up — it still was a mess.”
Once complete, the project will allow students and their families to walk a safe path to and from school, Powell said.
“Kids lost their route to school from the lower Montecito neighborhoods during the debris flows,” he said. “This path got ruined and a secondary bridge got taken out.”
The pathway project is close to the finish line and is expected to be complete June 14, Powell said.
The Montecito Community Foundation provided $36,000 for the project, he said, and another $25,000 is what’s needed to complete it.
“We are moving forward and hoping to raise the extra money,” Powell said Wednesday.
In partnership with the Workforce Development Board of Santa Barbara County, the Bucket Brigade is supervising and helping find community projects for a group of residents who became unemployed or lost their jobs as a result of the catastrophic twin disasters.
The project on North Jameson Lane is an example of this work.
It’s supported by disaster-recovery funding from the U.S. Department of Labor.
The federal grant is paying the crews, and their work is contracted with the county through the end of June.
“We are helping the community recover with people who are recovering, and that synergy is enhancing the project,” said Powell, adding that a workforce supervisor was recently hired by a local construction company. “One by one, we are trying to place people with local businesses.”
The Bucket Brigade has grown to be about 3,300 members, Powell said.
The team has cleared thick mud and debris from multiple Montecito properties damaged in last year’s deadly debris flows, and rescued residents belongings.
The group is tackling several beautification projects in Montecito and working in public open spaces to improve creek corridors, trail systems and native oak forests that were affected by the debris flows.
“A lot of people like to talk about resilience,” Powell said. “The most important aspect is to go out and execute these resiliency projects, and that’s our strength.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
