Regarding the Jan. 7 article, “Santa Barbara Tying Development Projects, Transportation Together with New Traffic Analysis,” the undisclosed city plan is to convert and not repair hundreds of local damaged roads to increase vehicle owner costs and frustration.
Our city bureaucrats, who have replaced our dysfunctional City Council, will:
- Add more bollards, bike lanes and parklets for outdoor eating to make driving and deliveries dangerous or prohibitive
- Close more streets beyond only State Street to provide open space for thousands of new housing units not required to build off-street parking
- Require use of pricey electric cars
- Increase local gas taxes and parking fees to further burden residents
Soon, like in China, resident drivers will need to apply and pay for a government pass to travel more than 10 miles. That means Montecito and Carpinteria residents will no longer be able to access the Santa Barbara Airport, Goleta shopping, UC Santa Barbara, etc., without local government permission and payment.
Is our city, as well as Santa Barbara County, expanding totalitarian government meeting your needs?
Personally, I seek improved road maintenance and a functional road system designed to ensure safe transport and evacuations, plus continued delivery of goods and services throughout the South Coast.
Denice Spangler Adams
Montecito
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Regarding the Dec. 21 article, “Judge Rules in AMR’s Favor in Ambulance Services Case Against Santa Barbara County,” the Fire Chiefs Association of Santa Barbara County was disappointed to learn of the initial ruling provided by Superior Court Judge Geck.
The ruling extended the American Medical Response ambulance transport contract until July 16, when the court rules on the nonexclusive ambulance transport permit ordinance in question.
The one silver lining in this process is that the community will now be able to glean more information about why the initial Request For Proposals was canceled, why the county Board of Supervisors made the decision to move in another direction for the provision of ambulance services in the county, and adopt a nonexclusive permit process.
Your fire chiefs of Santa Barbara County will continue to advocate and look out for the public’s best interest while remaining 100%-committed to ensuring that the county is prepared for the variety of emergencies that threaten and impact our communities.
We will continue to daylight the current systems shortcomings and ensure the process includes transparency and accountability as we navigate this issue through the court system.
We sincerely appreciate the community’s continued support as we remain committed to providing a more robust and community-centered ambulance model.
The Fire Chiefs Association works for all communities, cities and districts in the county to ensure that we are the best protected in all aspects of emergency medical and fire services.
Years ago, it became evident that our citizens were not being best served by the deployment plan of the current private ambulance provider. The FCA has been working for years to establish a more robust and superior, community-based ambulance system that would accomplish the following:
1. More comprehensive EMS ambulance services with robust deployment of 30% more ambulances on the streets than is currently provided.
- Dedicated 9-1-1 and interfacility transport fleets designed for maximum ambulance availability.
- Additional surge ambulances strategically placed at fire stations deployable during significant emergencies.
2. Fully transparent and accountable to an independent community advisory board of community members, stakeholders and hospitals.
3. Revenues are reinvested into our local community to provide additional and much-needed community-focused EMS services such as low-acuity response, behavioral health and community paramedicine programs.
Whether we end up with one or more providers, your county fire chiefs advocate for our respected communities and those we serve.
Our collective interest remains the same. We determined that more ambulances are needed in the system. This plan was created with input from each community in the county. We have always advocated for more units, more accountability and revenue reinvestment locally.
We will continue to be your voice in the EMS system.
Chris Mailes
Santa Barbara Fire Department chief and Fire Chiefs Association of Santa Barbara County president
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Regarding Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen’s Dec. 31 column, “Noozhawk Begins 2024 with New Roles for Local News Team,” thank you for the great look into what’s happening next/now at Noozhawk.
Macfadyen is an amazing ringleader to this productive crew. I can only imagine how tough it must be to stay so “on top of it all.”
I do like that Noozhawk is involved in local sports coverage. It’s fun to read what’s happening now.
Frequently I read about kids and grandkids of longtime friends. I often pass on articles to my three kids — all 40-somethings, two of whom have moved out of the area. That’s a real gift to the community that readers can truly appreciate.
Macfadyen has done a masterful job of leading his team into the gap that the Santa Barbara News-Press left for someone smart enough.
That’s a real news person to grab the ball and run with it. Truly a gold star for diving into these uncharted waters. Good job! And then some.
Keep hittin’ those line drives.
Joe Sevilla
Carpinteria
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I cannot speak too highly in praise of Santa Barbara County Supervisor Joan Hartmann and her commitment to the residents of the Third District.
We live in an amazing place, but it comes with challenges. Rural residents are facing increasing threats from illegal activity, especially rooster-keeping operations in which hundreds of birds are kept close together. The noise is inescapable at all hours.
Traffic is an increasing problem on our narrow roads. And the associated criminal activity is a threat to law-abiding families. (There is a strong correlation between these rooster operations and cockfighting. Why else would you have hundreds of roosters living close together, when they aren’t raised for food and they aren’t needed for egg laying hens?)
Some of us approached Supervisors Hartmann and Bob Nelson for help.
Hartmann’s response was amazing. When it turned out that the law wasn’t there to address the problem, she worked with staff to create a new law that will limit the size of noncommercial rooster operations. She made sure to exempt commercial poultry farms as well as 4-H and FFA project participants.
While Nelson sided with the rooster keepers — even when they shouted threats at the Board of Supervisors for reining in their activities — Hartmann held firm and shepherded through an ordinance that will protect legitimate poultry farms as well as rural residents.
We need leaders who will put in the time to help their constituents, and do what is necessary to protect law-abiding business people and community members.
Susan Ashbrook
Lompoc
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After having watched Josh Molina’s Jan. 8 “Santa Barbara Talks” podcast with Santa Barbara County Third Supervisorial District candidate Frank Troise and attended the first forum (of many) in Lompoc that included Mayor Janelle Osborne, I believe there is only one choice for Third District supervisor.
During the interview and forum, Troise accused the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party of running “a machine.” One wonders if it was a “Republican Machine” whether he would voice the same outrage.
Troise is just jealous the Democrats are a force to be reckoned with here, while the Republicans are busy passing out New California fliers. And his claim that if he gets to 50-plus-one votes on March 5 it will save 100-150 lives is ridiculous, if not despicable.
As for Troise’s plans to “fix” our county, you have to listen very carefully, but hidden between the lines of cosmopolitan banter, every time he says “revenue” he means “oil money.” He’s itching to let ExxonMobil do what it wants here, just as long as they pay for it. Plus, that money is going straight to “the kids.”
And if you’d like to see prime agricultural land paved over for probably not affordable housing, both Troise and Osborne deserve your vote.
But if you care anything about trying to keep oil in the ground here in Santa Barbara County, if you care anything about the protecting our ag land, Joan Hartmann is truly the only choice for Third District supervisor.
Leah Braitman
Lompoc
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In her October 2023 newsletter, Santa Barbara County Supervisor Joan Hartman wrote:
“Fire safety is paramount. I serve on the Fire Safe Council board, promoting home safety and reducing wildfire risk. We work with neighborhoods to create firewise communities, which provides a collaborative framework for neighborhoods to get organized, identify their wildfire risks, and work together to create a plan to mitigate those risks. Ellwood neighborhoods recently started the process to be firewise-certified. The council has also sponsored a pioneering Community Wildfire Mitigations Project that seeks to create a fire-resistant landscape mosaic, not just cutting fuel breaks, along Santa Barbara’s front country to shield against fire.”
That in mind, I’d like Hartmann to tell the residents of western Goleta why the county still has no Station 10.
To be built on the northeast corner of Calle Real and Winchester Canyon Road, Fire Station 10 has been promised since November 2016 and the county has known a fire station has been needed in western Goleta for at least 40 years.
Goletans living in the western part of town are always in more danger when a fire breaks out because we don’t have adequate emergency services. The oft-promised, but never-built Station 10 would increase public safety in El Encanto Heights, where I live.
Right now, response times from Station 11, on Storke Road south of Camino Real Marketplace, are unacceptable.
In my area, the ratio of firefighters to population is also unacceptable, and those problems get worse with every new housing project that is completed.
Residents of western Goleta as well as those living in the unincorporated areas west of the city are in danger because Station 10 doesn’t exist.
So, Joan Hartman-who’s-running-for-re-election, how about putting the same effort into improving emergency services to your constituents in western Goleta as you put into fighting climate change?
Build Fire Station 10!
Hib Halverson
Goleta
• • •
As a Goleta city councilman for the last five years, I have had the opportunity to work closely with Supervisor Joan Hartmann.
Thanks to the recent countywide redistricting effort, most of Goleta gets to have Hartmann as supervisor and we are fortunate to have her! I urge my constituents and other Third District residents to re-elect her.
Hartmann has helped secure significant funding for Goleta to help get unhoused people off the streets and into permanent supportive housing that changes lives for the better. She worked with now state Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, and other local officials to create our new supportive housing project, Buena Tierra, which is set to open early this year.
Using “American Rescue Plan” funding secured by Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, Hartmann pushed for using $2 million of that money toward a regional planning effort to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care, which helps children, families and local employers.
Hartmann led efforts to significantly increase funding for the Goleta Valley Library and has initiated collaborative planning efforts that will help increase literacy throughout the region.
Hartmann is a committed environmentalist and is working hard to pursue policies such as a “virtual power plant” in Goleta to provide secure, reliable and renewable power and greater energy resilience.
Hartmann has a proven record, even before becoming supervisor, of working to preserve Goleta’s agricultural resources. I trust her to continue listening, and being responsive to our community’s needs if she is re-elected.
Please vote Joan Hartmann for Supervisor.
James Kyriaco
Goleta
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I am so happy to have Joan Hartmann as the Santa Barbara County supervisor representing Lompoc. She listens and takes action. We need to keep her representing us by voting for her in the March 5 primary election!
Hartmann has worked very hard for us in so many ways. She understands the needs of both our senior and youth populations!
She serves as chairwoman of the Adult & Aging Network, focusing on senior housing and support services that enable our seniors to age gracefully in their own homes. She helped to secure $900,000 in federal funds, enhancing the Lompoc Health Care Center.
She worked to get grants for programs like C4 (Lompoc Collective Cultures Creating Change) to develop self-healing communities, and has helped to establish better coordination among youth-serving organizations.
Our economic health is very important, and Hartmann has been leading in that area, too. She worked to develop a regional broadband plan, supported by a $1 million grant that is just the start.
As a founding member of the private space launch working group at Vandenberg Space Force Base, she is leading the effort to bring high-paying jobs to our community.
You can see Hartmann’s efforts in the revitalization of the historic Lompoc Theatre! She worked alongside state Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, and Assemblyman Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara, to bring the Lompoc Theatre $2.3 million to assist with renovations. Just think what this will mean for reviving our Old Town!
Please vote for Supervisor Joan Hartmann when your ballot comes!
Maria Garcia-Cacique
Lompoc
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