At its last meeting of 2023, the Isla Vista Community Service District Board of Directors approved a health and safety vending machine to help address the fentanyl overdose crisis in the community.

It will be placed at the community center patio and dispense items for free such as fentanyl test strips, condoms, and HIV tests.

The district doesn’t have an exact installation date yet, but IVCSD general manager Jonathan Abboud told Noozhawk that the vending machine will be available by the end of the first quarter of the year.

Abboud told the board that the vending machine was an opportunity for IVCSD to help alleviate the fentanyl crisis in Isla Vista. 

The items will be available 24/7 for free for residents to get as needed. Aegis Treatment Center in Santa Barbara will be providing the materials for the vending machine. 

IVCSD will pay $600 a year for the machine’s software and will be responsible for electric and maintenance costs.

Fentanyl test strips let people test whether their medication and drugs have fentanyl in them.

Local overdose deaths related to fentanyl have more than tripled between 2020 and 2022, according to data released by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office. There were 168 reported overdose deaths in 2022, and 115 of those deaths involved fentanyl.

Community groups have worked hard to make Narcan, the opioid overdose reversal medication, more available as overdoses hit the community hard.

Narcan, also known by the generic naloxone, is available over-the-counter and can be found for free throughout Santa Barbara County.

UC Santa Barbara students can pick up naloxone and fentanyl test strips for free at Embarcadero Hall in room 1105 in Isla Vista.

Narcan is also distributed for free in the emergency departments at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, and Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital.

New Consultant for Mobility Plan & More Funding for Parking Study

IVCSD employed Dixon Resources Unlimited, which is already working on the parking study, to take over as consultant for the ongoing mobility plan project.

The plan will look at ways to make Isla Vista more accessible and find solutions for an affordable and sustainable transportation system, according to the district. In its proposal, the firm said it could stick to the timeline set by the California Air Resources Board which provided funding for the plan.

Dixon plans to hold workshops with the IVCSD and draft a needs report to present to the board in February. The consultant will come up with a draft mobility plan in March that includes recommended mobility policies and strategies.

Dixon will then present the draft plan to the project steering committee and IVCSD Board of Directors in April, the final plan will be presented in May and adopted by IVCSD in June. 

At the board’s Dec. 12 meeting, Director Spencer Brandt said he was happy to see Dixon taking over the project and believed that they will still deliver a high quality plan. 

Board President Marcos Aguilar said he was pleased with Dixon’s work so far as a consultant and was happy to see them take on this project as well as the parking study. 

“They’re clearly very knowledgeable and understand Isla Vista’s unique points,” Aguilar said. “I’m very proud of this step up from them.” 

For the ongoing parking study, the consultant scheduled a stakeholder meeting with families in Isla Vista on Jan. 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the Isla Vista Community room at 970 Embarcadero Del Mar. Residents are invited to share parking challenges and discuss possible solutions for Isla Vista.

Numerous stakeholder meetings have already been conducted with UCSB students, long term residents, County Public Works, and business owners. The Board of Directors approved a $5,990 budget increase for Dixon to conduct additional stakeholder meetings for the parking study. 

The study is expected to be finished in the fall.