Art therapy...2 days ago · installation of the hubcaps. Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood talks to participants about upcycling, art therapy, and letting those creative juices flow [17]

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N O R T H E R N S A N T A B A R B A R A C O U N T Y ’ S N E W S A N D E N T E R T A I N M E N T W E E K L Y > A U G U S T 2 0 - A U G U S T 2 7 , 2 0 2 0 > V O L . 2 1 N O . 2 5 > W W W . S A N T A M A R I A S U N . C O M

NEWS ARTS EATSTeachers head to campus, students stay home [7]

Pandemic school lunches and nutrition [19]

Gallery Los Olivos goes virtual [16]

AT THE MOVIES

First Cow: Atypical Western [18]

VISIT US ONLINE @santamariasun.com. SIGN UP for E-Newsletter(s) LIKE US on Facebook FOLLOW US on Instagram FOLLOW US on Twitter

Art therapy Locals decorated hubcaps as part of The Wildling Museum’s fi rst public art initiative [17]

BY CALEB WISEBLOOD

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The Wildling Museum recently embarked on its first

public art initiative, inviting residents to put their own

decorative twists on used hubcaps that would get hung

throughout the Santa Ynez Valley. Rainbows, ladybugs,

landscapes, and collages made their way to the Santa Ynez

Valley Botanic Garden in Buellton, which hosted the first

installation of the hubcaps. Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood talks

to participants about upcycling, art therapy, and letting those

creative juices flow [17].

This week, you can also read about why teachers are going

into class while students stay home [7]; why advocates believe

farmworkers are still at an increased risk for COVID-19 [8]; how Gallery Los Olivos is bringing

pastels to the public [16]; and Orcutt Union School District’s lunch lady, Chef B [19].

Camillia Lanham

editor

AUGUST 20 - AUGUST 27, 2020 VOL. 21 NO. 25

CREATIVE NATURE: Locals got creative with hubcaps now displayed in Buellton as part of the Wildling Museum’s first public art initiative.

NEWSNews Briefs ........................................................4Political Watch ...................................................4Weather ..............................................................4Spotlight ...........................................................10

OPINIONWeb Poll ...........................................................11Mayfield ...........................................................11Canary ..............................................................12

EVENTS CALENDARHot Stuff ..........................................................13

ARTSArts Briefs ........................................................16

MOVIESReviews ............................................................18

CLASSIFIEDS, HOME, AND REAL ESTATE .......................................21

Cover photo courtesy of Derek Glas > Cover design by Alex Zuniga

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4Local oil industry faces uncertainty after Phillips 66 announces refi nery shutdown Phillips 66, which operates a major Santa Maria oil pipeline as well as the Santa Maria oil refi nery on the Nipomo Mesa, announced on Aug. 12 that it plans to shut down the refi ning facility starting in 2023. The announcement came exactly one week after the Santa Barbara Planning Commission voted to approve a one-year extension on TerraCore’s proposed Foxen pipeline, a 2.9-mile pipeline that would connect the Cat Canyon oil fi eld to the existing Santa Maria Phillips 66 pipeline. The proposal would replace the current practice of trucking crude oil from Cat Canyon. Without the Phillips 66 pipeline to connect to as proposed, it’s unclear what the Foxen project’s future holds. “In association with the planned closure of the Santa Maria refi ning facility, our crude oil pipelines located in Santa Barbara County will be taken out of service in 2023 while we consider potential alternate uses for them,” Phillips 66 representative Joe Gannon said via email. TerraCore didn’t respond to a request for comment before press time. The other question that looms with the announcement is what will happen to those employed at the Santa Maria refi nery, which according to Phillips 66’s website has 140 full-time employees. While Phillips 66 announced plans to transition the company’s San Francisco refi nery into a renewable fuel plant, it is unclear whether the company’s Santa Maria’s refi nery will see the same outcome. When asked if Phillips 66 had any concrete plans to supplement the loss of Santa Maria refi nery jobs with something similar to its plans for San Francisco, Gannon’s answer referred to the state’s energy market. “California market conditions support an energy transition to renewable fuel production,” Gannon wrote. “The current confi guration of the refi nery is not economically viable to continue its production of traditional fossil fuel products.” Glenn Morris, president and CEO of the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce, told the Sunthat he was concerned about potential job loss. “Any time that we lose a couple of hundred good paying jobs in the region, it’s a blow,” Morris said. “There will certainly be ripple effects as those families either have to relocate or fi nd other ways of making a living.” He added that fully transitioning those careers into renewable energy jobs may not be an easy feat. “While I think we all support a move to renewable energy and cleaner sources of energy, I think it’s diffi cult to envision a reality where those new sources come online at commercial scale, and fast enough, to fully replace some of the traditional sources,” Morris said. ExxonMobil could also be affected by the decision to close the Santa Maria refi nery. The company’s Santa Ynez Unit consists of three offshore oil drilling platforms, which have been out of operation since the May 2015 Refugio oil spill. ExxonMobil hopes to resume operations with a proposal to temporarily transport oil using tanker trucks. According to Santa Barbara County’s recently released environmental impact report on the proposed project, the trucks would take crude oil from the company’s Las Flores Canyon facility and then deliver to either the Phillips 66 Santa Maria Pump Station or the Plains Pentland Terminal in Kern County. “We are evaluating how [the Phillips 66 refi nery closure] may affect our application for temporary trucking,” ExxonMobil spokesperson Julie King

said in an emailed statement. A press release from the Environmental Defense Center called on ExxonMobil to withdraw the trucking project. “ExxonMobil’s proposal was already ill-conceived from an environmental and climate justice point of view, and now it is unsuitable in light of Phillips’ plans to convert its refi nery to renewable fuels,” center Chief Counsel Linda Krop said in the release. “There is even less reason now for ExxonMobil to put our coast and communities at risk.”

—Malea Martin

Solvang City Council member recall goes to November ballot At the Aug. 18 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting, the board voted to approve a certifi cate of suffi cient signatures for the petition to recall Solvang City Council Member Chris Djernaes. Supervisors also approved putting the recall vote on the Nov. 3 ballot. The action came four weeks after the July 27 Solvang City Council meeting where the City Council voted to receive the 1,334 unverifi ed signatures on the recall petition and the county Elections Offi ce’s certifi cation of 1,156 petition signatures. According to the report of registration fi led with the Secretary of State, Solvang has 3,679 registered voters and the state requires 25 percent of those voters (in jurisdictions with fewer than 10,000 registered voters but more than 1,000) to sign a recall petition in order to qualify it for the ballot. A Solvang staff report stated that 920 verifi ed signatures were required, and the City Council must accept the certifi cate of suffi ciency from the county Elections Offi ce. During public comment, resident Lammy Johnstone—who led the effort—said she was sorry that this was taking place. “However let this be a lesson to any council member or mayor. If you do not listen to we the people of Solvang, we will remove you. Your job, as I look at it, is to represent us. If you do not, we will remove you,” Johnstone said. Mayor Pro Tem Robert Clarke said about 1,300 people signed the recall petition so the council had no choice but to put it on the ballot and that he supported the action because the “correct number of residents” want this to go on the ballot. “I think in reading the ballot it was about

people feel that Chris is rude. He talks back to people, and I thought, if you recall every ass that’s ever served in public offi ce there wouldn’t be a lot of people in public offi ce,” Clarke said. One of the petition’s claims is that if Djernaes continues on the council, taxes will go up and quality of life will be diminished. “I laughed for about a half an hour on that, because if there’s anybody that’s going to raise taxes, it’s going to be over Chris’ dead body,” Clarke said. During the meeting, Djernaes said he felt he has stood up for the majority of people in the community—both for residents and businesses. “This is a democratic process and you have to respect that, and it gives me another opportunity to go before the voters and to explain to them what, again, I can only speak for myself, but I can refl ect I think on what many of us have said over the last two years that we really do want a better community,” Djernaes said. The council voted 3-1, with Councilmember Djernaes abstaining from the vote, and councilmember Daniel Johnson voting against putting the recall on the ballot.

—Karen Garcia

• Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Aug. 14 the appointment of new executive team members at the Employment Development Department (EDD), as well as a new senior advisor for the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. These appointments come as a part of Newsom’s initiative to reform the EDD, especially during the pandemic when more people are seeking unemployment insurance than ever before. The need for reforms within the EDD system is something that Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham (R-San Luis Obispo) has been particularly vocal about. “Californians [deserve] a government that works for them,” Cunningham wrote in an Aug. 7 Facebook post. “EDD must be completely overhauled.” At the end of July, the governor announced the formation of an EDD Strike Team “to create a blueprint to modernize information technology programs at the department and transform the customer experience,” a press release stated. “Work to address the backlog of unpaid claims to those that have experienced job loss during the pandemic and to streamline the call center experience is underway, and EDD is collaborating with legislators and staff to improve communication with claimants.” Newsom’s appointments include Maurice Emsellem as senior advisor at the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. Emsellem was previously the program director at the National Employment Law Project. Newsom also appointed Nancy Farias, Kevin Matulich, Carole Vigne, and Carol D. Williams to EDD posts.

• State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara)commended Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in an Aug. 17 Facebook post, writing, “Thank you to Speaker Nancy Pelosi for today calling Congress back into session to address the transparent and unconstitutional effort to block the Postal Service from collecting and distributing ballots so critical to a fair election, especially during this Trump-perpetuated pandemic.” An Aug. 16 New York Times article reported that Pelosi “would call the House back from its annual summer recess for a vote this week on legislation to block changes at the Postal Service that voting advocates warn could disenfranchise Americans casting ballots by mail during the pandemic.” The Timesarticle added that the House was not originally scheduled to return for votes until Sept. 14, “but is now expected to consider a Postal Service bill as soon as Saturday [Aug. 22], according to a senior Democratic aide familiar with the plans.”

• Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Aug. 14 that “every eligible local educational agency in California has applied for and is receiving a portion of the $5.3 billion in learning loss mitigation funds secured through the state budget he signed in June,” according to a statement from the governor’s offi ce. Newsom also signed an executive order that directs state agencies “to bridge the digital divide” by providing computing devices and hotspots to students across the state. “Schools may be physically closed, but in California at least, class is still in session,” Newsom said in the statement. “While more work remains, districts across the state are in a far better position this semester to provide meaningful distance instruction to every child.” Newsom added that he is grateful for the parents and teachers who are making sure that students’ needs are met. According to the release, based on “current epidemiological data in communities,” more than 90 percent of students will begin the upcoming school year with distance learning. New statewide requirements ensure that all students have access to devices and connectivity, daily live interaction with teachers and other students, challenging assignments equivalent to in-person classes , and adapted lessons for English-language learners and special education students, according to the governor’s offi ce. ❍

Political Watch

S P O T L I G H T 1 0

BRIEFSFILE PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

WHAT COMES NEXT? Phillips 66 announced the closure of its Santa Maria refi nery and pipelines on Aug. 12, throwing the future of jobs and oil operations into question.

Thursday

Saturday

Friday

Sunday

COASTAL ➤ High 86 Low 62INLAND ➤ High 100 Low 63




WeekendWeather

Microclimate Weather ForecastDave Hovde

KSBY Chief Meteorologist

Temps back o� a bit into the weekend with high pressure weakening but humidity may increase due to sub-tropical � ow.

WeatherWeatherNEWS continued page 6


5THE RULES:

Entry divisions are eitherADULT or YOUTH (under 18)

ADULT• Categories are: Animals, Architecture, Flora, Land/Seascapes, People, Travel, and Open. • NEW THIS YEAR! All images must be submitted digitally via our online entry form, where the category can be selected.• A completed online entry form MUST be submitted for EACH photo entered.• Entrants are asked to submit a high-quality digital fi le of their image (jpeg format, at least 300 dpi) on the submission form. • Photos submitted in previous years are ineligible. • All photos must be the original, creative work of the submitting photographer.• All photographs must be taken within the boundaries of San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara Counties – except submissions to the Travel and Open categories – for which photos may be taken anywhere. • After entering your photos, submit your payment online via PayPal. You may also mail a check (made payable to New Times) to: Winning Images, c/o New Times, 1010 Marsh St., San Luis Obispo, CA 93401. Be sure to include your name, address, email, and a brief description of the photos entered online.• Photos must be received and entry fees must be paid in full by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, September 8, 2020 to be considered offi cially entered.• Entry in the contest constitutes permission to use the photo in the paper, online, and for display.• Judges have the right to reassign categories for mislabeled or misfi led photos at their discretion.

YOUTH (Under 18 years old) • This is an Open category. Photographs can be of any subject of the entrant’s choosing, but must have been taken within the boundaries of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. • Entrants must be younger than 18 years old as of October 1, 2020 and must be enrolled in any school (including a home school) that’s not a college. A winner’s legal guardian will be required to sign a release form.• All other rules from the adult categories apply.

All entry money goes toward cash prizes for winners in each category. Winning photos will be published in the Thursday, Oct. 1 issues of New Times and the Sun; will appear in an online gallery; and will be on display in various locations around the county.

Winning Images

ENTRY PERIOD IS AUG. 20–SEPT. 8 · BY 5 P.M.

CATEGORIES: ANIMALS · ARCHITECTURE · FLORA · LAND/SEASCAPES · PEOPLE · TRAVEL · OPEN · YOUTH

IT’S TIME FOR OUR 25TH ANNUAL PHOTO CONTEST!

Win cash prizes, get published in our annual Winning Imagesissues on October 1, and see your work displayed online and at

various locations around the county.

Brought to you by:

Mimi Ditchie, 2019

Carl Sepulveda, 2019

Barry Goyette, 2019

Molly Peters, 2019

Anna Evans, 2019

ONLINE ENTRIES ONLY! FIND FORM AT NEWTIMESSLO.COMwww.santamariasun.com • August 20 - August 27, 2020 • Sun • 5

6Local elementary schools eligible for in-person learning Portions of Santa Barbara County are seeing major declines in active cases of COVID-19, and that could have significant impacts on the county’s reopening policies. In fact, it’s already freed local elementary schools to apply to open for in-person instruction. At a Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting on Aug. 18, Public Health Department staff announced that due to recent decreased transmission rates of COVID-19 cases, Santa Barbara County’s elementary schools are eligible to apply for waivers that would allow them to reopen for face-to-face learning. Local applications will be available on the Public Health Department’s website by the end of this week. “Our significant decrease in the transmission rate in the county makes us eligible to allow for waivers for elementary schools,” Dr. Henning Ansorg said at the Aug. 18 meeting. “We’re very pleased to announce that this process will be available in the county for K-6 grade schools.” According to state guidelines, elementary schools in counties that are still on the state’s coronavirus watchlist—Santa Barbara County is still on the state’s list—can apply for waivers allowing them to provide in-person instruction. The application process is extensive, Ansorg said, and requires schools to provide evidence that they’ve consulted adequately with labor organizations and parents, along with a detailed reopening plan that outlines strategies for maintaining hygiene, distancing, testing of staff and students, family education, and quick ways to switch back to remote learning if necessary. Those documents are then reviewed by

both county and state public health staff, who determine whether to reopen schools based on the applications and local transmission data. But in order for schools to even be eligible to apply, their counties must have had fewer than 200 cases per 100,000 people for at least 14 days in a row. While Santa Barbara County ended July with about 324 cases per 100,000, according to data presented by the county Public Health Department on Aug. 18, its transmission rate sat at about 158 per 100,000 as of Aug. 17. Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said that as of Aug. 17, Santa Barbara County has seen 7,454 total confirmed cases of COVID-19, and there are 278 active cases. Over a recent two-week period, Santa Maria saw a 41 percent decrease in new cases. Lompoc saw a 38 percent decrease and Santa Barbara had a 25 percent decrease. The majority of cases—about 66 percent—are occurring in those aged 18 to 49, and very few are occurring in those under 18. Still, Do-Reynoso said Goleta saw an 18 percent increase in cases in the last two weeks, and Isla Vista saw a 255 percent increase, likely due to college students returning to the area. There’s work to be done to get off of the state’s watch list, Do-Reynoso said, but the county is making progress. “This has a significant impact on policy decisions in our county and what can be reopened,” she said at the Aug. 18 meeting.

—Kasey Bubnash

County wants everyone counted in 2020 census Starting mid-August, Santa Barbara County households that had not yet responded to the 2020

census began receiving in-person visits from U.S. census workers to encourage completion. These workers, called census enumerators, are hired locally, wear personal protective equipment, practice social distancing, and carry special census identification cards. But if you don’t want a stranger knocking on your door during a global pandemic, the easiest way to avoid the visit is to complete the census online or over the phone. “Some people are wary of someone from the government coming to their door, so we’ve been trying to encourage them that, if you don’t want to have a visit, do it online or over the phone,” Joni Maiden, co-chair of the Santa Barbara County Census 2020 Complete Count Committee, told the Sun. “It’s nine easy questions and doesn’t take very long at all.” The Complete Count Committee has been ramping up over the last year to get the word out about the once-a-decade population and demographics count, Maiden said. “It’s a group of local organizations that are government, private entities, and nonprofits that are taking a grassroots approach to educating everyone in our community on the importance of completing the census,” she said. According to a county press release, Santa Maria and Guadalupe have the lowest completion rates in the county as of Aug. 10. While Buellton, Carpinteria, Goleta, Lompoc, Santa Barbara, and Solvang all hold more than 67 percent completion rates, Santa Maria and Guadalupe both hover around 62 percent. The census deadline was originally extended to Oct. 31 due to COVID-19, but now the deadline is pushed back slightly to Sept. 30. Maiden explained why census completion is so vital for the county. “They use the population data to redraw

district lines, so it’s important to have the correct representation,” she said. “The census data is used when they’re determining how many funds different programs get, such as child care programs, education programs, emergency operations, public works, health care—all around the board.” With the pandemic raging on, Maiden said keeping these programs funded is more important than ever. “These are the programs that are making a difference right now in the COVID event,” she said. “We’re seeing how important it is to have the proper health care services that we need, and the availability of child care is becoming a big issue. We’re determining what’s going to happen in the next 10 years.” In the case of an undercount, Maiden added, the county risks losing between $1,500 and $2,000 per person, per year, in funding. “That means an undercount of just 5 percent equals a loss of $430 million over the next decade,” the county press release stated. The U.S. Census Bureau also announced on Aug. 14: “In order to supplement our capabilities to send census takers to households in person, the Census Bureau is training census takers to follow up with households by phone,” a press release on the census website states. The bureau will now also contact some low-responding areas via email. “We’re not just setting the scene for our next 10 years, it’s for our children too,” Maiden said. “California had a big undercount of children under 5 during the last census, so we really want to make sure that everyone, including our children, have the best possible services available.” m

—Malea Martin

N E W S @ S A N T A M A R I A S U N . C O MN E W S

NEWS from page 4

Review your irrigation startup checklist.

SPRUCE UP YOUR SPRINKLERSTHIS SUMMER


7BY KASEY BUBNASH

Jennifer Dolan has been teaching English at Righetti High School in Santa Maria for more than two

decades, and, like anyone, she has good and bad days. But for Dolan, the bad days are worse than most. About 15 years ago, Dolan was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a disorder that causes chronic muscular pain and can make it difficult to sleep and concentrate. In the spring of 2018, she requested an accommodation that would allow her to teach her classes in the morning and leave campus during her prep periods in the afternoons if not feeling well. The Santa Maria Joint Union High School District was more than willing to help, but she was required to go through the interactive accommodation process, during which she filled out an application, met with her employers to discuss her disorder, and handed over various medical records. It was a somewhat invasive and time-consuming procedure, and, although Dolan said there were some unusual circumstances in her case, it took more than three months for her request to get accepted. So when Dolan heard that all teachers in her school district would be required to teach from their on-campus classrooms this fall, unless they go through the interactive accommodation process, she was concerned. “The problem is that the process is kind of unwieldy,” Dolan told the Sun. “It takes a lot of time.” And there’s not much of that left before school in Santa Maria starts on Aug. 17. As the COVID-19 pandemic trudges on, students statewide will by and large be attending school from home this fall. But several school districts on the Central Coast are hoping to get teachers out of their homes and into

their classrooms regardless. From Paso Robles to Santa Maria and Orcutt, local school districts are requiring instructors report to their school sites to teach from their classrooms for at least a portion of each week, an attempt, administrators say, to bring some feeling of continuity and normalcy to the school year for students and their families. But that brings up multiple issues for all kinds of teachers—those with health issues that put them at greater risk for severe illness or death due to COVID-19, those with young children of their own stuck at home, those living with vulnerable individuals, and so on. In the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District, teachers will be required to report to their school sites each week. Teachers with school-age children will be allowed to bring their kids onto campus, and those who aren’t comfortable or able to come in can apply to stay home through the already existing interactive accommodation process. Dolan plans to go to her classroom as required by the district. Her youngest child is 15 years old and she’s not too worried about catching coronavirus while alone in her classroom. But her husband, who also teaches in Santa Maria and has respiratory issues, needs to stay home. (Dolan said she plans to stay isolated in her classroom on campus and distanced from her husband as much as possible at home.) The accommodation process will be expedited, but she wonders how many teachers will apply and how many of them will actually get accepted before school starts. “It might be 20 percent of our staff,” she said. “It might be half of our staff.” To expect the district to get through

all those requests in just a few days, she said, “That’s insane.” Like in Santa Maria, the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District will require its instructors—exceptions will be considered by human resources on a case-by-case basis—to teach from their

classrooms this fall. That, according to Paso Superintendent Curt Dubost, will allow teachers to use all the resources available in their schools, including supplies, technology, and support staff. Issues with technology, students, parents, and staff can be handled more efficiently when everyone is on campus. Of course, challenges lie ahead. Paso’s current bandwidth technology can’t handle having so many teachers online all once, and, on July 23, the Paso board of trustees approved about $121,000 worth of upgrades to the district’s bandwidth, firewall, and internet connection technology. But with so many districts in the same spot, Dubost said there’s a shortage of necessary supplies and a backup in implementation services. Paso won’t get its tech supplies until the end of this month, Dubost said, and it should be installed by the middle of next month, long after the first day of school on Aug. 20. So teachers will have to come in on a staggered schedule for the first few weeks of school, with some working on campus at the beginning of the week and the rest coming to campus the latter half of the week. Still, Dubost said he hopes having teachers in their classrooms this semester will give parents and students some peace of mind. “The main thing is to make it as normal as possible,” Dubost told the Sun. According to an Aug. 5 survey conducted by the Paso Robles Public Educators union, most teachers in Paso appear to be on board with the decision. Of the 214 Paso Unified instructors surveyed, about 83 percent said they’d be comfortable teaching alone from their classrooms this fall. Roughly

40 percent of all those surveyed have school-age children, and of those, 56 percent said they’d be comfortable bringing their children to school with them. About 72 percent of all teachers surveyed said they’d be willing to

meet in-person with colleagues in small groups—on the condition that appropriate safety measures are in place—and 64 percent said they’d meet one-on-one with students and parents. Still, the plan has its problems, according to James Lynett, executive director of the Paso Robles Public Educators union. While individual classrooms are secluded, Lynett said the bathrooms, workspaces, and hallways are shared. And although district officials claim they want teachers to be able to use the resources available on campus, Paso’s current bandwidth technology is too weak. The staggered schedule will be fine for high school teachers, Lynett said, but it could be problematic for elementary teachers who will have to lug loads of supplies back and forth from their houses to classrooms. While Lynett agrees that seeing teachers livestreaming from their

classrooms will provide some feeling of regularity and comfort to students and their parents, he’s not convinced that’s the only reason district officials pushed for this. “To be brutally honest,” he said, “I would say they have gotten some complaints from the community.” Complaints that teachers weren’t present enough in the spring when schools first transitioned into distance learning. Complaints that teachers weren’t really working when they were at home. That, Lynett said, is unfair. “That spring experience was kind of like an emergency,” he said, adding that teachers and administrators had essentially a single weekend in mid-March to transition entirely from in-person to online education. “There was no real way for that to go smoothly.” m

Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash can be reached at [email protected].

In classStudents will be learning from home this fall, but some Central Coast teachers will have to be on campus


MANDATORY: Some school districts—including Santa Maria Joint Union and Santa Maria-Bonita—are requiring that instructors teach from their empty classrooms, at least partly.

Teachers with school-age children will be allowed to bring their kids onto campus, and those who aren’t comfortable or able to come in can apply to stay home ... .

FILE PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM

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8BY KAREN GARCIA

After five months of living with the pandemic, farmworker advocates say that agricultural employees,

which the state considers to be essential workers, continue to be vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. At the start of the pandemic, the main concern was getting enough personal protective equipment for farmworkers and getting local public health information to Spanish and Indigenous-language speakers, but concerns have evolved with the extended length of the crisis. Preliminary findings from a recently released study show that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing vulnerabilities farmworker communities endure in their living, working, and health conditions. The study states that farmworkers face additional risks because they lack critical social safety net support that other members of society have access to. The California Institute for Rural Studies released the COVID-19 Farmworker Study (COFS) in July. A team of 60 surveyors managed by six community-based organizations with connections to farmworker communities surveyed more than 900 farmworkers throughout the state—including on the Central Coast—between May 19 and July 20. According to the study, California employs an estimated 800,000 farmworkers, and a majority of those individuals work seasonal positions, rarely having a full-time position. The average annual income earned is less than $18,000 a year. An estimated 90 percent of California farmworkers were born in Mexico, and roughly 60 percent are unauthorized to work in the United States. The study found that of its 900 interviews, nearly half of the survey respondents (46 percent) reported decreased work hours and subsequent income losses during the pandemic.

Undocumented workers are unable to access unemployment benefits if they are laid off or furloughed.

A little more than half (54 percent) reported costs, lack of insurance, and/or lack of sick leave as significant barriers that would prevent them

from accessing health care even if they were ill. Nearly all workers (90 percent) reported taking precautions to protect their families when they arrive home from work and reported taking precautionary measures outside of the workplace to reduce the spread of the virus among families and their communities. Farmworkers reported that only 54 percent of worksites provided face coverings. About 43 percent of worksites didn’t provide face coverings at all, and 4 percent of worksites provided face coverings on a short-term basis or the masks provided didn’t meet the needs of the entire workforce. According to the study, survey respondents reported receiving masks once over several weeks or only once at the beginning of the pandemic. The study notes that initial findings may not reflect more recent efforts to provide face coverings. The study includes an anonymous excerpt from an Indigenous-speaking farmworker in Santa Maria stating that where he or she works, masks weren’t given to workers. “They tell us that everyone has to take their own. They tell us that if we

want to work, we have to have one or else there is no work. Out of necessity to work, we buy them. Sometimes they are not inexpensive or it’s hard to find them,” the excerpt read. The Grower-Shipper Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties stated that it has been working to provide outreach

and education to its members on federal, state, and local information. Association President Claire Wineman said that in addition to ongoing outreach on workplace safety practices, the organization recently increased its outreach efforts related to the importance of using face coverings, limiting nonessential gatherings outside of an immediate core group

or household during nonwork hours, and exercising safety practices during carpooling. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hasn’t provided clear guidance on employers’ responsibility to provide personal protective equipment to employees to protect them from exposure to

COVID-19. According to the National Center for Farmworker Health, even if clear guidance was available, OSHA cannot conduct inspections or enforce health and safety standards on farms with 10 or fewer employees. OSHA did, however, revise its guidance requiring employers to record COVID-19 illnesses that cause their employees to seek medical care or miss

one or more days of work.Hazel Davalos,

community organizing director for CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy) said that Santa Barbara County formed the Latinx and Indigenous Migrant

COVID-19 Task Force to get pandemic-related information out into the community, but it’s not enough. “For us, I think what this has shown more than anything is education has its limits and without enforcement, the laws in the books aren’t the laws in the fields,” Davalos said. Anecdotally, she said the

organization has gotten calls from warehouse workers, for example, who have reached out to their workplaces’ human resources departments asking for more temperature checks. Davalos said in that situation, the human resources departments reportedly responded to the workers’ requests by saying, “If you don’t like it, you can leave. We’ll replace you.” She said CAUSE is focused on the agricultural industry’s inability to follow current safety regulations and is calling for more government oversight. “You can educate workers all day about their right to a safe workplace but when ... an undocumented person who doesn’t speak English—and in the case of H-2A workers, their landlords that provide their transportation and food—tell their boss, ‘Hey can you provide more protections,’ and their boss tells them, ‘No, I’ll fire you,’ what does it even matter that they knew their right?” Davalos said. m

Staff Writer Karen Garcia, from the Sun’s sister paper, can be reached at [email protected].

The front lineFarmworkers in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties remain vulnerable as the COVID-19 crisis continues


FILE PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM

AT RISK: Essential workers in the fields are at continued risk of COVID-19 infection in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

‘ ... what this has shown more than anything is education has its limits and without enforcement, the laws in the books aren’t the laws in the fields.’

—Hazel Davalos, Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy

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BY MALEA MARTIN

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the word “change” has overwhelmingly become laden with connotation of difficulty,

confusion, and hopelessness. From lost jobs to missed rents to curves that won’t flatten, many of the changes happening around us are wrought with pain and hardship. But positive changes are happening, too, one being an in-the-works vaccine, perhaps the fastest ever developed. And in the meantime, the medical community is making constant headway on how to treat the disease. Those treatments, Lompoc Valley Medical Center General Surgeon Dr. Chris Taglia said, look completely different today than they did five months ago. “When things hit this community in Lompoc the hardest was probably at the end of March, beginning of April,” Taglia remembered. “That’s when they were seeing the peak of the disease in New York, so we got a lot of our protocols from the hospitals in New York, which is where I did my fellowship training. I had a bunch of buddies back there who were willing to share their treatment algorithms.” At the time, Taglia said, treatment was heavily based on using hydroxychloroquine, an immunosuppressant, and azithromycin, an antibiotic used to treat infections. “When all of that information came about—the different journal articles that were published showing the lack of benefit of hydroxychloroquine—we immediately threw that out of the protocols,” Taglia said. “We started using convalescent plasma.” Convalescent plasma treatments, in which a recovered person’s antibodies are given to a sick patient, continue to be a strong part of treatment today. Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons, director of quality and research and medical education at Cottage Health, wrote about the benefits in an Aug. 13 email statement, and encouraged those who have recovered to donate their plasma. “At Cottage Health, we are very interested in the potential of convalescent plasma as a tool for fighting the virus in the most severe cases when patients are hospitalized,” Fitzgibbons wrote. Another positive change for Santa Barbara County came with access to remdesivir, an antiviral medication. “We kind of always knew it was effective, we just didn’t have any,” Taglia said. Then in May, “Santa Barbara County got an allotment.” At that, time Lompoc Valley Medical Center had “a ton of patients from the federal prison

who were quite ill,” Taglia said, so the hospital got the highest allotment among local hospitals. “It wasn’t a magic bullet,” Taglia said. “But there was a definite improvement.” Another advancement came in June, when a U.K. study revealed the benefits of steroids, particularly dexamethasone, in treating critically ill patients. “That’s something that was frowned upon when this all started,” Taglia said. “Then the data came out from the U.K. study, and now everybody’s using steroids and they seem to make a definite impact.” For a small community hospital, Taglia said that most patients will be treated in accordance with the set guidelines coming from the larger medical community. But, he added, there are rare times when “you have to throw the kitchen sink at someone.” “Even before steroids were popular, before that U.K. study came out, we had a few patients who were not in a good way, and we used steroids and saw benefit,” Taglia said. “Certainly that was off-label use, and that’s maybe one small example of when we didn’t follow the set guidelines that were out there.” Luckily, knowing when to try something outside the box is not a decision that doctors in Northern Santa Barbara County have to make alone. “There’s a bunch of pulmonary critical care specialists who are down in Santa Barbara. I have a good relationship with all of them, and so we constantly have group emails back and forth,” Taglia said. “If I had a difficult-to-treat patient, I’d call one of them and say, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ or, ‘I’m thinking about steroids, is that a good choice?’” Dr. Scott Robertson, chief medical officer at Dignity Health Central Coast, believes there’s more positive advancements to come. “We follow the science, which has evolved, again allowing us to safely care for our patients and community,” Robertson wrote in an email. “The science will continue to evolve, and we will stay current alongside these advancements.”

Highlight • The Santa Maria Kiwanis Aktion Club gave a sheep named Aktion Jackson to Santa Maria’s Los Flores Ranch Park, adding to the park’s existing array of farm animals, city officials recently announced. The sheep was purchased from Andrew Tinoco, “an incoming senior at Pioneer Valley High School and an active member of The Patch community pumpkin event held each October at Los Flores Ranch Park,” according to the city. After the Santa Barbara County Fair was canceled, local students had to find creative ways to sell the animals they raised for the fair, and this was Tinoco’s solution. The public can visit Aktion Jackson at Los Flores Ranch Park from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. m

Staff Writer Malea Martin wrote this week’s Spotlight. Send tips to [email protected].

SPOTLIGHT

Positive changeLocal doctors talk about how COVID-19 treatments have changed for the better

N E W S

PHOTO COURTESY OF LOMPOC VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER

FINDING WHAT WORKS: Lompoc Valley Medical Center (pictured) General Surgeon Dr. Chris Taglia said that treating COVID-19 means keeping up with studies and a whole lot of collaboration.

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11

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Keep oil trucks off our roads Soon ExxonMobil may receive permission from Santa Barbara County to truck oil from its Gaviota facility, up highways 101 and 166 to refi neries in Kern County—280,000 to 560,000 gallons of oil per day in 70 trucks, 140 round trips, will pass through my town, Buellton, as well as Los Alamos, Orcutt, Santa Maria, and Cuyama to feed a dying oil industry. Why is this new polluting and accident-prone scheme occurring? The 2015 Refugio Beach oil spill revealed that Plains All American Pipeline, including their partners ExxonMobil and others, allowed a substandard pipeline to deteriorate for 30 years, causing 21,000 gallons of oil to spill onto state park beaches and into the ocean. Due to insuffi cient and illegal maintenance on the pipeline, 124 miles of the line must be replaced. Rather than building and maintaining a safe line in the fi rst place, ExxonMobil now wants to truck oil, with all the attendant air pollution and accident/spills, to operating portions of the pipeline in Santa Maria and Kern County. This will occur for several years until a new pipeline is built. I live in Buellton, sandwiched between the 101 and a future new pipeline running west of Oak Valley Elementary School. Our neighborhood has already been heavily gassed, throughout a night, with crude oil vapors a few years ago, due to a Plains Pipeline botched oil pipeline cleaning process. Now, due to poor, Reagan-era pipeline construction, pseudo pipeline maintenance, and greed for 30 years, several communities and thousands of people will be exposed to cancer-causing diesel fumes and several truck accidents and oil spills if Santa Barbara County approves the ExxonMobil project. ExxonMobil claims this dangerous, mass trucking operation will provide hundreds of local jobs. It actually will provide a relatively few temporary trucking jobs while Exxon violates the Santa Barbara County Climate Action Plan by dramatically increasing fossil fuel production and use locally. Implementing the Climate Action Plan is providing hundreds more clean energy jobs than the current oil industry does. If ExxonMobil wants to restart its offshore platforms, let it build a safe, legal, and well-

maintained pipeline fi rst, to transport its product, as it agreed to do 35 years ago. Santa Barbara County citizens should not have to pay for the oil industry’s greedy malfeasance for the last three decades! Keep the spill-prone, polluting trucks off our roads!

Larry BishopBuellton

Test the answers How is COVID-19 test data reported on the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department website; what does it represent? On July 24, the “total test” data was as follows: 70,350 tests were administered; 5,576 were positive; and 64,856 were negative. The number grows every day. Is this the number of individuals who were tested, or the number of tests given? It stands to reason since these are point-in-time tests that an individual could be have been tested more than once in the last few months, especially those who previously tested positive and need a clean bill of health to return to work, public safety employees, and health care professionals. In addition, some employers require regular testing for essential employees. The answer to this question would be important, because if people are tested multiple times and the cumulative result is reported, it could alter the severity of the issue.

Ron FinkLompoc

Support your post offi ce We’d all hate to not get our bills, benefi cial checks, letters from loved ones, medication, celebration cards, magazines, etc. Our post offi ces are self-funded, but Donald Trump doesn’t want to add funding during the coming election because he knows if more people receive mail-in ballots, Republicans will lose. Support our post offi ces by buying stamps, a T-shirt, and give them a check. Everything has gone off the track, but let’s have a fair election.

Libby BreenOrcutt

We’re clearly not affected equally With a language as rich as what is spoken in the United States, how is it that we have been reduced to four catchphrases: “In these uncertain times.” “In these unprecedented times.”

Maybe there are only three. “We’re all in this together” is the third, and it is the most annoying. We are not all in this together. First we have the government that keeps shifting the objective. Originally it was so hospitals could prepare for the deluge of dying patients. That objective has been met weeks ago. The models, just like climate change, are wrong. The goal posts have been moved further and further away to a point where we’ll continue to mask up, lock down, and destroy small businesses and leave hundreds of thousands unemployed and in danger of utter fi nancial ruin. Then there’s the Fifth Estate, a term that goes back to the ’60s. You remember the ’60s hippy, “red diaper, doper” culture that wanted to overtake the country. Those folks are now in colleges and universities, or (I choke to use the term) journalists. Ask a journalist why they chose that profession, and the answer will be, “To change things.” Hang on to your Funk and Wagnalls—you are not a journalist. You are a propagandist. These are, as the Fifth Estate is defi ned, the voice of truth. Whose truth? It sure wasn’t anything close what our legislators swear to when they take offi ce. Yup, and then there’s a bunch of people who raise their right hand and swear to uphold the Constitution. There are those who probably have never read the Constitution but are hell-bent on ripping it up for some Marxist dream. Then there’s us. Americans of every diversity. We want our lives back. We know who needs to be protected like we’ve known every fl u season. We know if your are in good health and get fl u symptoms you call in sick. Get plenty of rest, drink fl uids, and take over-the-counter cold and fl u medications. You, Mr./Ms. editor. Get out a calculator and run the numbers. We’ve destroyed nearly 30 percent of the nation’s GDP to protect a tiny fraction of the population. Let’s get real.

Jan LipskiVandenberg Village

Hearing what you want to hear? To all of the Americans who are still adamantly supporting, defending, and enabling the president—have you had enough yet? Has the swamp been drained enough yet? Four years ago the president appointed the wealthiest cabinet in U.S. history and plugged in family members. His tax plan two years ago disproportionately benefi ted the wealthy (not the middle class). Even before COVID-19, his administration had run up the budget defi cit to astronomical numbers, which traditional Republicans have despised for decades. He worked hard to dismantle Obama Care with the intent of leaving millions without affordable health insurance but never provided a replacement. In April of this year he claimed to have the ultimate authority over states. He’s threatened to fi re prominent scientists, high-ranking politicians, and military leaders who have contradicted him with facts and evidence. Rick Bright, a Health and Human Services offi cial, alleges that he was demoted after refusing to promote hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment. Trump has systematically weakened long-standing relationships with critical international allies and sided with brutal dictators from communist nations. Yet to date, 82 percent of Republicans continue to support him. Why is that? One friend of mine had several revealing answers: “I only support a president that’s good for my bottom line, besides the alternatives are much worse.” Are they? Really? Is it possible that you’re only hearing what you want to hear and disregarding the rest? You’ve got three months to think about it. I lean toward supporting and electing mature, intelligent leaders who actually believe in democracy, have respect for the Constitution, and are not an international embarrassment. What about you?

Brent JorgensenPismo Beach

C A N A R Y 1 2

LETTERS

Should the Foxen oil pipeline project receive more environmental review?40% Yes—the Foxen project should be reviewed on its own.30% No. The existing report is enough.30% That project should have been killed years ago.0% I don’t care; COVID-19 issues are more important to me.

10 Votes Vote online at www.santamariasun.com.

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Well, it really happened. Solvang’s voters will get the chance to recall City Councilmember Chris Djernaes on

Nov. 3. More than 25 percent of the city’s registered voters signed the petition, so neither the city nor Santa Barbara County has a choice but to put it on the ballot. The people have spoken! Lammy Johnstone, one of the leaders of the recall petition effort, spoke during a July 27 City Council meeting, saying she was sorry that the situation had come to this. More of a “sorry, not sorry!” than an actual apology. “Let this be a lesson to any council member or mayor!” she threatened. “Your job, as I look at it, is to represent us. If you do not, we will remove you.” Whoo! So are other City Council members next? What about Mayor Ryan Toussaint? They basically voted together on most of the decisions the city has made over the last couple of years. “It’s a wake-up call for everybody here in the city. We are ‘We the People.’ Thank you. Bye, bye!” Johnstone said. Yeah. Bye, Felicia! I mean: Bye, Chris! Or is it really like Mayor Pro Tem Robert Clarke said? People are just pissed off at the way Djernaes speaks to the public. “He talks back to people and I thought, if you recall every ass that’s ever served in public office, there wouldn’t be a lot of people in public office,” Clarke said. Well maybe we should recall every ass who serves in public office, Clarke, my boy. Maybe then, people wouldn’t treat each other the way they do now or get so angry. Maybe then, people could actually engage in a civil discussion about the best way to serve the public and create public policy. Maybe then, Clarke would be the next ass on the recall list! Bye, Clarke! Sorry not sorry! If the Environmental Defense Center had its way, we would throw and oil industry recall on the ballot. Man, do they hate the oil industry! They are positively rejoicing at the fact that 140 people are going to lose their jobs in 2023 when the Santa Maria oil refinery on the Nipomo Mesa shuts down. Phillips 66 announced the closure on Aug. 12 in the same press release that it announced it was also going to shut down its crude oil pipelines and turn its refinery in San Francisco into a renewable fuel plant. The big news left pretty much every oil company operating in Santa Barbara County with a big fat question mark in front of it. Meanwhile, the Environmental Defense Center used it as an opportunity to double down. “This is great news for California communities, motorists, and wildlife threatened by ExxonMobil’s dangerous oil trucking plan. Exxon should follow Phillips 66’s lead and end its dirty energy operations on the Central Coast,” the Center for Biological Diversity’s Kristen Monsell said in an Environmental Defense Center press release. Yeah! Let’s get rid of all the oil in this county. It’s dirty, disgusting! But guess what? Santa Barbara County doesn’t have a replacement. For neither the energy nor the jobs. And so far, none of the renewable energy projects proposed in recent history have become a reality. m

The canary is thinking of renewable bird poop as a good alternative to oil. Send comments to [email protected].

Bye, bye energy

O P I N I O N

The Central Coast’s ultimate food & drink guideON NEWSSTANDS NOW! FIND ONE AT A NEW TIMES OR SUN RACK NEAR YOU


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ARTSSANTA YNEZ VALLEY

20/20: A RETROSPECTIVE This spring, the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature will mark its 20th anniversary with a special exhibition celebrating the Museum’s 20-year history in the Santa Ynez Valley. View the exhibit online. Mondays, Wednesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. through Sept. 7 805-688-1082. wildlingmuseum.org/news/2020-retrospective. Wildling Museum of Art and Nature, Solvang.

THE ART OF FACE MASKS: VIRTUAL EXHIBIT This group show reunites several artists from the museum’s 2019 exhibit, The Art of Dress, including Georganne Alex, Carole Coduti, Gwen Samuels, and others. ongoing Free. artoffacemasks.com. Elverhoj Museum of History and Art, 1624 Elverhoy Way, Solvang, 805-686-1211.

A MIGHTY OAK: PERMANENT EXHIBIT ONLINEDepicts the habitat around a Valley oak–one of the largest and old trees found in our area. View the artwork online. ongoing Free. Wildling Museum of Art and Nature, 1511-B Mission Dr., Solvang, 805-688-1082, wildlingmuseum.org.

REMEMBERING BUD BOTTOMS: A LEGACY OF ART AND ACTIVISM This online exhibit features sea life sculpture works by the Santa Barbara artist locally-renowned for his iconic Dolphin Family sculpture installed at the base of Stearns Wharf. Through Sept. 22 Free. Wildling Museum of Art and Nature, 1511-B Mission Dr., Solvang, 805-688-1082, wildlingmuseum.org.

SB COUNTY AND BEYOND Photographic landscapes by George Rose. View online. ongoing Free. Wildling Museum of Art and Nature, 1511-B Mission Dr., Solvang, 805-688-1082, wildlingmuseum.org.

SOLVANG SCHOOL: INSPIRED BY NATURE View the exhibit online. Features photography by 29 Solvang School Yearbook and Media students. The students, grades 7 – 8, were inspired by philosopher Henry David Thoreau’s quote: “All good things are wild and free.” ongoing Free. Wildling Museum of Art and Nature, 1511-B Mission Dr., Solvang, 805-688-1082, wildlingmuseum.org.

SANTA MARIA VALLEY/ LOS ALAMOS

CALL FOR ARTISTS (GRADES 4-12): NEW CHILDREN’S BOOK This art contest will give students an opportunity create illustrations for a bilingual children’s book that will depict local landmarks. Students are to create their illustration on a paper template entry form. All illustrations shall be created using colored pencils only. Through Sept. 25 Abel Maldonado Community Youth Center, 600 S. McClelland St., Santa Maria.

PCPA: ACTORS TALKBACK Streams live on PCPA’s

Instagram every Thursday and spotlights a different thespian guest each week. Hosted by Erik Stein. Thursdays, 3:30 p.m. Free. pcpa.org. PCPA: The Pacifi c Conservatory Theatre, Santa Maria, 805-922-8313.

PCPA READS AT HOME A literacy project that uses our students’ learning to serve children and parents who are learning at home. Co-hosted by Allan Hancock College and the Santa Maria-Bonita School District to bring a love of stories and language to people right in their homes. ongoing PCPA: The Pacifi c Conservatory Theatre, Santa Maria, 805-922-8313, pcpa.org.

SMPL VALLEY READS BOOK CLUB The Valley Reads Book club meets very month on the fourth Tuesday (now over the phone). Interested community members should email [email protected] to join. ongoing 805-925-0994. Santa Maria Public Library, 421 S. McClelland St., Santa Maria.

TECH TALKS: LIVE ON INSTAGRAM Every Tuesday sit down with one of our technical staff and learn about the ins and outs of their craft. Get the exclusive with our host Erik Stein. Tuesdays, 3:30 p.m. PCPA: The Pacifi c Conservatory Theatre, Santa Maria, 805-922-8313, pcpa.org.

WORKSHOPS VIA ZOOM Sara Curran Ice, PCPA’s Technical Theatre Program Coordinator/Designer, is conducting Workshops via Zoom for local high school drama students. Check site or call for more info. ongoing PCPA: The Pacifi c Conservatory Theatre, Santa Maria, 805-922-8313, pcpa.org.

SAN LU IS OBISPO

BRUSHSTROKES 2020 Brushstrokes 2020 is a digital exhibition featuring 42 paintings by members of The Painters Group, an affi liated artist group of SLOMA, and members of Art Center Morro Bay. Artists explore a

variety of subject matter, from portraits of loved ones and animals to serene landscapes. Through

Sept. 27 Free. 805-543-8562. sloma.org/exhibition/brushstrokes-2020/. San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, San Luis Obispo.

CALIFORNIA SCULPTURE SLAM 2020 California Sculpture SLAM showcases current works by established and up-and-coming California sculptors. The exhibition’s goal is to provide a platform for a wide variety of concepts and materials. Exhibition slideshow online. Through Sept. 27 Free. 805-543-8562. sloma.org/exhibition/slam-2020/. San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, 1010 Broad St., San Luis Obispo.

DIGITAL EXHIBITION: TERMINALLY OPTIMISTIC--THE PRINTS OF RACHAEL WINN YON This retrospective exhibition explores the prints of Rachael Winn Yon, who was joyous, adventurous, curious, and energetic. Her large personality is refl ected in her prints, with playful imagery and imaginative scenes. You can view this digital exhibition at SLOMA.org. Mondays-Sundays. through Sept. 27 Free. sloma.org/exhibition/terminally-optimistic/. San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, 1010 Broad St., San Luis Obispo, 543-8562.

SLOMA: WEEKLY ART PROJECTS Kids can enjoy new activities from home (posted online every Monday). Mondays sloma.org. San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, 1010 Broad St., San Luis Obispo, 543-8562.

VIRTUAL ART GALLERY Every Friday, we publish our Virtual Art Gallery to our blog and newsletter. Featuring artworks from customers and the community. Fridays, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. 805-747-4200. artcentralslo.wordpress.com/category/gallery-exhibits/virtual-gallery/. Art Central, 1329 Monterey St., San Luis Obispo.

NORTH SLO COUNT Y

BATMAN: POP-UP DRIVE-IN THEATER A socially distanced drive-in style screening of the 1966 fi lm starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Local businesses will be offering curbside deliveries to vehicles. Aug. 27, 8:15-10 p.m. $11-$20. my805tix.com. Colony Square, 6909 El Camino Real, Atascadero.

SUMMER MOVIES IN THE PARK: DRIVE-IN In order to adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines, reservations are required and spaces are available while supplies last. Food is available for purchase from participating food

trucks. Saturdays, 8 p.m. through Aug. 29 my805tix.com. Paloma Creek Park, 11665 Viejo Camino, Atascadero.

NORTH COAST SLO COUNT Y

BEACH RESIN KIT AND VIDEO Create from the comfort of your home. Kit includes everything to make a gorgeous resin project; assortment of shells, colored beach glass, glitter, frame or two metal bezels for necklaces, plastic tablecloth, gloves, apron, resin, and a how-to video. Kit pick-up is Aug. 29. Aug. 29, 10-11 a.m. Various. 805-286-5993. creativemetime.com. Art Center Morro Bay, 835 Main St., Morro Bay.

MOSAICS FOR BEGINNERS Learn mosaic basics in the comfort of your home. Supplies include everything to complete the project except nippers. Video shows step-by-step how-to’s to fi nish your mosaic masterpiece. Aug. 23, 10-11 a.m. Various. 805-286-5993. creativemetime.com. Art Center Morro Bay, 835 Main St., Morro Bay.

THE REBOOT: STORYTELLING REIMAGINED ON ZOOM Now live on Zoom. A curated mix of invited storytellers and open mic for novice storytellers. Spoken word, improv, character sketches and interactive games. Third Friday of every month, 7-8 p.m. Free. 805-772-9225. facebook.com/topdogcoffeebar/. Top Dog Coffee Bar, Morro Bay.

CULTURE & LIFESTYLE

LOMPOC/ VANDENBERG

GOOD MORNING LOMPOC The show is hosted by Lompoc locals Michelle and Jeremy Ball, who aim to keep the community connected while staying home at the same time. Episodes are also available to watch on YouTube after they’re streamed live. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 8:30 a.m. Facebook, Online, Inquire for Facebook address.


BIZ MASTERS TOASTMASTERS TUESDAYS: ZOOM Learn more about Toastmasters, prepare for ‘Your Competitive Future’, and improve your communication and leadership skills. Zoom Meeting ID: 317 198 472 (Password: 630). Tuesdays, 6:30-8 p.m. through Dec. 15 Free. 805-570-0620. Santa Maria Airport, 3249 Terminal Dr., Santa Maria.

HUMAN BEING SUPPORT AND INSPIRATION ONLINE GROUP An online group to listen and get support from others from the comfort of your own home. Tuesdays, 6:30-8 p.m. $40 monthly subscription.

TAKE FLIGHTValley Art Gallery hosts a new group show at the Santa Maria Airport through the end of September. Described as a safe place to stay 6 feet away and enjoy contemporary art, the exhibit’s special featured artist is Glenda Stevens. More than 30 works from several local artists are on display as well. Visit valleygallery.org for more info. The airport is located at 3217 Terminal Drive, Santa Maria.

—Caleb Wiseblood

FILE PHOTO BY NICHOLAS WALTER/ MURAL BY GLENDA STEVENS

CULTURE & LIFESTYLE continued page 14

New Times and the Sun now share their community listings for a complete Central

Coast calendar running from SLO County through northern Santa Barbara County. Submit events online

by logging in with your Google, Facebook, or Twitter account at newtimesslo.com. You may also email [email protected]. Deadline is one week before the issue date on Thursdays. Submissions are subject to editing and approval. Contact Calendar Editor Caleb Wiseblood directly at [email protected].

INDEXArts ............................[13]

Culture & Lifestyle .......[13]

Food & Drink .............. [14]

Music ......................... [14]

AUG. 20 – AUG. 27

2020


14

805-598-1509. divining.weebly.com. Divine Inspiration, 947 E Orange St., Santa Maria.

VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS OVER ZOOM Visit site or call to learn about various virtual workshop offerings. ongoing Varies. Unwind Studio, 130 N. Broadway, suite B, Santa Maria, 805-748-2539, unwindsantamaria.com.

YOGA FOR MANKIND: ZOOM CLASSES Offering a variety of virtual yoga and pilates classes over the summer. Check site for class schedule. ongoing Starts at $10. yoga4mankind.org. Yoga for Mankind, 130 N Broadway, suite B, Orcutt.

SAN LU IS OBISPO

COMPLIMENTARY OUTDOOR YOGA CLASSES Hotel San Luis Obispo, Piazza Hospitality’s first property on California’s scenic Central Coast, is now offering complimentary outdoor yoga classes on its rooftop terrace. Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays, 8 a.m.-noon $10-$15 donation suggested. 805-235-0700. hotel-slo.com. Hotel San Luis Obispo, 877 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo.

HOMESHARESLO CALL-IN COFFEE CHAT Connect with the folks at HomeShareSLO to talk about homesharing and other housing solutions twice a month during our Call-In Coffee Chat events. Fourth Wednesday of every month, 12-1 p.m. through Nov. 11 Free. 805-215-5474. smartsharehousingsolutions.org/events/. Zoom, Online, Inquire for Zoom ID.

MAXIMIZING YOUR SALES WITH MULTIPLE ONLINE CHANNELS Do you have a product-based business? Are you maximizing your sales using a variety of platforms? Fill your toolbox with multiple selling strategies to reach potential customers. Aug. 26, 12-1 p.m. Free. 805-595-1357. mcscorp.org/workshops. Zoom, Online, Inquire for Zoom ID.

MEDITATION MADE EASY: ZOOM CLASS Mediation

can have so many health benefits and is easy to practice, yet many find it difficult. In this class, you will learn to meditate simply and easily. Aug. 25, 6-8 p.m. $25. 805-242-1649. breakingdayhypnotherapy.com/. Zoom, Online, Inquire for Zoom ID.

MEDITATION, BREATHWORK, AND GRATITUDE PRACTICE: LIVE ON ZOOM This class will support you and help you stay vital during these uncertain times. Practices include breathing techniques to calm the nervous system, guided meditation for balanced relaxation, mantra practice to calm the mind, and tips to help you cultivate and maintain a home practice. Wednesdays, 12-12:45 p.m. through Sept. 16 $10 for SLO Botanical Garden members/$15 for non-members. 805-540-1762. eventbrite.com. San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, 3450 Dairy Creek Rd., San Luis Obispo.

METABOLIC CONDITIONING We use primarily our own body weight in this interval training class to run through exercises and drills to raise the heart rate, condition our muscles, and stay flexible. This advanced class also incorporates hand weights and sand bags, if you have them. Mondays-Thursdays, 8:15-9:15 a.m. $72. 415-516-5214. ae.slcusd.org. Online, 1500 Lizzie Street, San Luis Obispo.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY CLASSES FOR SENIORS Have you heard the phrase, “Sitting is the new smoking”? Cuesta College’s Emeritus exercise program, taught by Doris Lance, is offering a 45-minute class of

stretching, balance, and cardiovascular fitness three days a week available to seniors. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 9-9:45 a.m. through Dec. 18 Free. 805-546-3942. cuesta.edu. Zoom, Online, Inquire for Zoom ID.

SLOCO MAGIC CLUB Monthly meeting of magicians of all levels. Due to COVID-19, the Club is holding virtual online meetings only until further notice. Please call or email for more info. Hopefully the Club will soon be able to once again meet at the back room of IHOP in SLO. Meet like-minded folks with an interest in magic, from close-up to stage performances. Last Wednesday of every month, 6:30-9 p.m. Free. 805-440-0116. IHOP, 212 Madonna Rd., San Luis Obispo.

VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE DALLIDET ADOBE The Dallidet family lived in San Luis Obispo from the 1850s through the 1950s. Hear their stories while visiting the family home. Please register by noon on Thursdays. Thursdays, 1 p.m. through Aug. 27 $5 suggested. 805-543-0638. historycenterslo.org/virtual-tour.html. Dallidet Adobe, 1185 Pacific Street, San Luis Obispo.

VISIT THE DALLIDET GARDENS Enjoy the unparalleled natural beauty of the gardens through Labor Day weekend. Sundays, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. through Sept. 7 Free. 805-543-0638. dallidet.org. Dallidet Adobe and Gardens, 1185 Pacific St., San Luis Obispo.

FOOD & DRINKSANTA YNEZ VALLEY

KALYRA: PURCHASES AND PICK-UPS Offering varietals from all over the world. Tuesdays-Sundays, 12-5 p.m. 805-693-8864. kalyrawinery.com. Kalyra Winery, 343 N. Refugio Rd., Santa Ynez.

STANDING SUN: PURCHASES AND DELIVERIES

Visit site for Cellar Club details and more info. Mondays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 805-691-9413. standingsunwines.com. Standing Sun Wines, 92 2nd St., Unit D, Buellton, 805-691-9413.

LOMPOC/ VANDENBERG

FLYING GOAT CELLARS: APPOINTMENT AND PICK-UPS This winery specializes in Pinot Noir and sparkling wine. Call or check site for pick-up and appointment info. Mondays, Thursdays-Sundays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 805-736-9032. flyinggoatcellars.com. Flying Goat Cellars, 1520 Chestnut Court, Lompoc.


PRESQU’ILE WINERY: RESERVATIONS ONLY Call or go online to make a reservation (reservations open to the public starting June 6). ongoing Presqu’ile Winery, 5391 Presqu’ile Dr., Santa Maria, 805-937-8110, presquilewine.com.

SOUTH COAST SLO COUNT Y

ARROYO GRANDE FARMERS MARKET Saturdays, 12-2:25 p.m. Arroyo Grande Farmers Market, Olohan Alley, Arroyo Grande.

YOUTH BENEFIT DINNER: KIWANIS OF GREATER PISMO BEACH A dinner fundraiser hosted by Kiwanis of Greater Pismo Beach, with a virtual raffle and online auction. Aug. 22, 4-6 p.m. 805-235-0354. biddingowl.com/kiwanis. Burke and Pace Lumber, 971 Bennett Ave, Arroyo Grande.

SAN LU IS OBISPO

PALATE RAP WITH JAKE AND JOSH BECKETT Join second-generation owners of Peachy Canyon Winery, Jake and Josh Beckett for a virtual tasting adventure. Aug. 28, 5:30-6 p.m. Complimentary. 805-237-1577. peachycanyon.com/. Zoom, Online, Inquire for Zoom ID.

NORTH SLO COUNT Y

CASS WINE SEMINAR: ROSE Discover the evolution of rosé by tasting various styles from around the world. Held outdoors, socially distanced, with limited seats available. Aug. 23, 1-3 p.m. $35. 805-239-1730. my805tix.com. Cass Winery And Vineyard, 7350 Linne Rd., Paso Robles.

MUSICSANTA MARIA VALLEY/ LOS ALAMOS

SANTA MARIA PHILHARMONIC: SOUNDCLOUD Features recordings of the Mozart Sinfonia from the Philharmonic’s last live concert and other recordings. ongoing Free. smphilharmonic.org. Soundcloud (Santa Maria Philharmonic), Online, Santa Maria.

SOUTH COAST SLO COUNT Y

LATIN AND R&B: VIRTUAL CONCERT Featuring Calo and Victor Vincent. Part of Summer Date Nights. Aug. 29 bigbigslo.com. Clark Center for the Performing Arts, 487 Fair Oaks Ave., Arroyo Grande, 805-489-9444.

SAN LU IS OBISPO

LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS DAY 2020: ON BEACH 95.3 Make a $25 donation to request a song to be played on 95.3. Proceeds benefit UCP programs. Aug. 26, 6 a.m.-6 p.m. Donations accepted. 805-543-2039. ucp-slo.org. United Cerebral Palsy of San Luis Obispo, 3620 Sacramento Dr., # 201, San Luis Obispo.

NORTH SLO COUNT Y

SATURDAY IN THE PARK: VIRTUAL CONCERT SERIES Concerts will be available to stream for free. Saturdays, 6:30 p.m. Free admission. visitatascadero.com. Atascadero Lake Park, 9305 Pismo Ave., Atascadero, 461-5000. m

RAINBOW ROADAscendo Coffee in downtown SLO is showcasing art by Los Osos-based artist Tom Sage through the end of September. The exhibit includes seven acrylic paintings with roots in surrealism, fantasy, and abstract expressionism. Email [email protected] to find out more. The coffee shop is located at 974 Monterey St., San Luis Obispo.

—C.W.

FILE IMAGE COURTESY OF TOM SAGE ART

AUG. 20 - AUG. 27 2020 YOU HAD ME AT SHELL-O

Art Center Morro Bay and Creative Me Time co-host a take-home beach resin kit and video workshop (pickup day is Saturday, Aug. 29, from 10 to 11 a.m.). Participants can create a resin project, using an assortment of shells and other materials, from the comfort of their own homes. Call (805) 286-5993 or visit creativemetime.com for more info. The gallery is located at 835 Main St., Morro Bay.

—C.W.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ART CENTER MORRO BAY

CULTURE & LIFESTYLE from page 13

LUNAR LANDINGDawn Feuerberg will host the Full Moon Ceremony and Renewal Rituals at the SLO Botanical Garden on Monday, Aug. 31, from 7 to 9 p.m. The event will include meditations to empower creativity, inner strength, and wisdom. Admission is $55. Find out more or pre-register by calling (805) 541-1400 or visiting slobg.org. The garden is located at 3450 Dairy Creek Road, San Luis Obispo.

—C.W.

IMAGE COURTESY OF THE SLO BOTANICAL GARDEN

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Have you participated in the 2020 census? m Yes! I did it right away.m Yes, but only after a census worker came to my door.m Not yet. I keep meaning to get to it.m Nope. I don’t want the government tracking me.


15

Tickets on sale now at My805Tix.com and at our official Box Office at Boo Boo Records in SLO

Interested in selling tickets with My805Tix? Contact us for a demo today! [email protected]

POWERED BY: & FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK!

Supporting local journalism, one ticket at a time.

MY805TIX BOX OFFICE IS OPEN Get your tickets online or at Boo Boo Records, the official Box Office for My805Tix events! Boo Boo’s is located at 978 Monterey Street in SLO. Call 805-541-0657.

Colony Square PopUp DriveIn

THURSDAY, AUGUST 27Wild Fields Brewhouse

Cass Wine Seminar:

RoséSUNDAY,

AUGUST 23Cass Winery

Free Live Stream Concert Featuring: Laura Jean AndersonSUNDAY, AUGUST 30

Online via Tiny Porch Concerts

Drive Up Theatre - A Benefit Event

SUNDAY, AUGUST 30Santa Maria Civic Theatre

All Ford Car Show Grand Prize Raffle

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12Old Town Orcutt

Shrubs & ReductionsSATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12

Online withMake & Muddle

Tiny Porch Summer Concert Series:The Coffis Brothers

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12King Gillette Ranch

Empty Bowls Fundraiser for 5CHC

SAT. , SEPT. 12, 19, & 265Cities Homeless Coalition

Tent City After DarkFRIDAY, OCTOBER 2

Tent City Sunken Gardens

2020 Estate Beef Dinner Series: Plate Ribs

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2Cass Winery

Brew At The ZooSATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26

Charles Paddock Zoo, Atascadero

“Socially Distanced” High Tea on the Blue Deck

FRI.-SUN., SEPT. 25, 26, 27Los Osos, SLO Master Chorale

Hot Buttered Rum with The Dales and Abby and the Myth

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26Tiny Porch Concerts

Bang Muay Thai Seminar w/Sensei Duane Ludwig

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26Sleeping Tiger Fitness

Wednesdays Around the World: Turkey

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26Cass Winery

2020 Sunset Seafood Boil

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28Cass Winery

Infused SpiritsSATURDAY, AUGUST 22

Online withMake & Muddle

Marian Regional Medical Center Named Best Maternity Hospital by NewsweekNewsweek recognized Marian Regional Medical Center for providing excellent care to mothers, newborns, and their families.

As one of only 46 hospitals in the state to receive this honor, expectant mothers that choose Marian Regional Medical Center can be confident that their care will be exceptional.

To learn more about our birthing centers, visit DignityHealth.org/MarianRegional.

1400 E Church Street, Santa Maria, CA 93454Phone: (805) 739-3000 • www.dignityhealth.org/marianregional


16BY CALEB WISEBLOOD

Vivid, colorful landscapes—once destined to adorn the walls of Gallery Los Olivos—are now available for viewers to observe any

time, anywhere, as long as there’s an internet connection. While the gallery produced an online coloring book during the course of the COVID-19 crisis, this new duo show marks the venue’s first foray into digital exhibiting. “During this pandemic, we are searching for new ways to deliver visual art to the public,” featured artist Carol Talley told the Sun. “This online exhibit is a first for Gallery Los Olivos.” Talley’s paintings will remain on display, alongside fellow featured artist Terri Taber’s, at Gallery Los Olivos’ new website (gallerylosolivosonline.faso.com) through Monday, Aug. 31. Every painting—more than 20 pieces from each artist—is also available for sale. “While our gallery is not currently open to the public, we think that this online show is the next best thing,” Talley said. “Art is increasingly being marketed online, even before the pandemic. A positive result of the quarantine is that I’ve also found an online community of artists that I might not have searched for otherwise.” A virtual tour through Talley’s paintings in Gallery Los Olivos’ new exhibit is a whirlpool of weather and location, bouncing viewers between landscapes of Happy Canyon, Hendry’s Beach, and other county locales during varying times of year. As an artist, Talley described her greatest joy as “creating paintings that express the ineffable and transcendent.” While Talley hopes to retain a sense of both mystery and familiarity in her impressionistic works, Taber’s scenic paintings are more representational. The show is appropriately described as a combination of exquisite realism and expressive abstraction. “I love the composition and colors in Terri’s After the Rain,” Talley said, commenting on her favorite of Taber’s countryside landscapes in the exhibit. The two local artists also paired their works during Luminous Landscapes, their previous duo show at Gallery Los Olivos in 2019. “I can’t say I have one favorite of my own pieces, I like them all for different reasons,” Taber told the Sun. “But I must say that Carol’s Golden Light is a favorite of mine from her collection.” Although Taber is no stranger to painting en plein air, venturing outdoors for artistic endeavors has been especially valuable to her during recent times, she explained. “I must say the pandemic is making me paint more. I’m painting more outside than I have in previous years,” Taber said. “Painting outside is one of the few things one can do alone or with friends and social distance at the same time.” After graduating from UCSB with a bachelor’s degree in fine art, Taber committed to a career in nursing over the following two decades, but she reignited her passion for painting—specifically pastels—in the 1990s. She later became a member of the Pastel Society of the West Coast, the

Santa Barbara Art Association, the Goleta Art Association, and other regional groups. During the past few months of voluntary quarantine, Taber said her drive to paint has shifted from day to day, like mood swings. “Though I have down days and good days, I think the pandemic is making me search deeper into my own creativity,” Taber said. Taber, Talley, and a circle of their artist friends usually meet to paint somewhere outdoors—with ample room to social distance—once a week, and they also hold monthly Zoom meetings to

critique each other’s works. Talley described these discussions as extremely beneficial and integral to her most recent abstract paintings. “The feedback of my painting buddies has been critical in my experimenting with new ways to interpret the landscape,” Talley said. “During the pandemic, I’ve really appreciated my family and friends and realized how lucky I am to be able to share my passion for painting with them.” m

Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood is also feeling lucky at [email protected].

IMAGE COURTESY OF CAROL TALLEY

NEW APPROACH: “I was able to achieve a more expressive way of approaching a subject I’ve painted before and keep the colors fresh,” artist Carol Talley said of her painting, Winter Storm, one of the featured pieces in Gallery Los Olivos’ new online exhibit.

C O M M U N I T Y A R T 1 7

VIRTUAL GALLERY

PCPA and Orcutt Community Theater postpone reopening dates once again

Based on the resurgence of COVID-19 and the unpredictability of public gatherings resuming, the Pacific Conservatory Theatre (PCPA) has announced it will delay holding live performances in Santa Maria and Solvang until June 2021. The company also announced the suspension of its two-year conservatory programs (for acting and technical theater) until August 2021. “In spite of our detailed plan for the resumption of on-site work and instruction, as we prioritize the health and safety of each company member, the hypothetical risks of a COVID exposure creates too much risk and uncertainty,” Mark Booher, PCPA’s artistic director, said in a statement. “We are planning to shift our focus and conserve our resources to try to have ourselves in the strongest position possible for production in summer ’21.” Orcutt Community Theater will also postpone its next season, Alan Sutterfield, president of the group, told the Sun via email. Although an official reopening date has not been announced, the company plans to resume productions once it’s safe for its primary venue, Klein Dance Arts (KDA) in Santa Maria, to host gatherings. “We will restart our season when conditions allow KDA to hold indoor live performances,” Sutterfield said in the email. For more updates on PCPA or Orcutt Community Theater, visit pcpa.org or orcuttcommunitytheater.org, respectively.

Wilshire Health and Community Services presents an original podcast, Wisdom from the Porch

Wisdom from the Porch, an original podcast produced by Wilshire Health and Community Services, is available to listen to online for free at wisdomfromtheporch.org. The series features six episodes so far and focuses on the exploration of healthy aging and lifestyle choices for senior adults and their families. “As we age, choice is vital. Emotions and change can become overwhelming,” Ron Yukelson, host of the podcast, said in a press release. “Our goal is for each listener to feel comfortable, stay involved in life, and create their own new reality.” Yukelson is also Wilshire’s chief marketing and strategy officer, according to the release. Listeners of the podcast can expect to learn tips geared toward seniors seeking to maintain control of their future. Aside from on the official website, Wisdom from the Porch is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Play. To learn more about the podcast or Wilshire Health and Community Services, a nonprofit that provides services throughout Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, visit wilshirehcs.org. m

Arts Briefs is compiled by Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood. Send information to [email protected].

Arts Briefs

PHOTO COURTESY OF PCPA.ORG

PHOTO COURTESY OF WILSHIRE HEALTH AND COMMUNITY SERVICES

On display now Gallery Los Olivos presents its new virtual duo show through Monday, Aug. 31. Check it out online for free at gallerylosolivosonline.faso.com.

Pastel pairingGallery Los Olivos’ first virtual exhibition showcases paintings by Carol Talley and Terri Taber

IMAGE COURTESY OF TERRI TABER

LANDSCAPE ESCAPE: After the Rain is just one of several pastel landscapes by artist Terri Taber showcased through Gallery Los Olivos’ website. This new virtual exhibit will run through the end of August.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GALLERY LOS OLIVOS

DYNAMIC DUO: Gallery Los Olivos’ featured artists Carol Talley (left) and Terri Taber (right) previously paired their paintings during Luminous Landscapes in 2019.


17

A R T S COMMUNITY ART

BY CALEB WISEBLOOD

When Steve and Pam Kennington found out about the Wildling Museum’s first public art

initiative—inviting locals to decorate used hubcaps to be displayed throughout the Santa Ynez Valley—they jumped at the chance to contribute. The local couple even recruited some of their loved ones to join in. “We painted the hubcaps as an afternoon family project. Our daughter brought our three grandsons, and we worked outside on the patio table,” Steve told the Sun. “Creativity is like a faucet, once you turn it on, it just starts flowing.” Fitting into the project’s theme of celebrating nature, the family collaborated on plant and animal designs. Sunflowers, ladybugs, and turtles are among the subjects featured in their colorful hubcaps. Like the Kenningtons, Stephen and Lisa Siemsen also set out to make their Nature Takes the Wheel experience a family affair. “After sharing the idea with our daughter and granddaughter, we all decided to take on the challenge,” said Stephen, who also enlisted artistic support from his 25-year-old parrot, Gabriela. “We wanted to incorporate nature and recycling into our piece, so we eventually decided to use our macaw’s cast-off feathers to create a colorful pattern on the wheel cover,” Stephen said. Meanwhile, the Siemsens’ granddaughter, Scarlett Aurora McQuaide, 15, painted binary code across the front of her hubcap, which translates to “love.” Scarlett’s mother, Ana Lisa Siemsen-McQuaide, described her piece as “a love note to the Santa Ynez Valley,” which features a landscape-esque backdrop of seemingly infinite golden hills. Local art therapist Stacey Thompson, who the Wildling Museum enlisted to co-organize Nature Takes the Wheel, also took part in creating some hubcap artwork of her own with her children. “I made a few with my kids, using paint, hot glue, and natural materials,” Thompson said. “They were really excited to have their hubcaps displayed at the botanic garden.” The Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden in Buellton hosted the first public installation of finished hubcaps and also serves as the location for Thompson’s monthly Community Art Day meeting. On the last Saturday of each month, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., garden attendees are welcome to bring their own art supplies for a day of artwork creation (while observing social-distancing protocols). “As an art therapist, I see art as a valuable tool for supporting mental health,” Thompson said. “Making art is therapeutic. And we all need a little therapy right now.” Thanks to funding from the City of Buellton Arts and Culture Committee, Thompson and her teammates Kiana Beckmen and Carolyn Dorwin were able to implement the behind-the-scenes aspect of Nature Takes the Wheel, which included

collecting, cleaning, and priming used hubcaps for participants to pick up and return after decorating. “Turning hubcaps into artworks seemed like a natural for us,” Stacey Otte-Demangate, executive director of the Wildling Museum, told the Sun. “‘Upcycling’—or turning trash or disposable items into something improved and useful—is a concept we really embrace and encourage here at the Wildling.” Like Otte-Demangate, Thompson was also excited to get involved with a public art project that encouraged upcycling, while also being open to members of the community to participate, “especially folks who don’t consider themselves artists,” she said. “I see this project as a form of environmental activism,” Thompson said. “If we can broaden people’s idea of what qualifies as ‘art’ and get folks thinking creatively about how they can reuse everyday items, it’s a win.” m

Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood is popping wheelies at [email protected].

Watching the wheelsCentral Coast locals transform used hubcaps into new public artworks during Nature Takes the Wheel

Keeps on turning To find out more about Nature Takes the Wheel, call (805) 688-1082 or visit wildlingmuseum.org.

PHOTO COURTESY OF STEPHEN SIEMSEN

SCENIC TRIBUTE: Ana Lisa Siemsen-McQuaide, one of the participants of Nature Takes the Wheel, described her hubcap piece as “a love note to the Santa Ynez Valley,” which features a landscape-esque backdrop of seemingly infinite golden hills.

PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE KENNINGTON

FAMILY VALUES: “We painted the hubcaps as an afternoon family project. Our daughter brought our three grandsons, and we worked outside on the patio table,” Nature Takes the Wheel participant Steve Kennington said.

PHOTO COURTESY OF STEPHEN SIEMSEN

THE APPLE DOESN’T FALL FAR: Ana Lisa Siemsen-McQuaide and her daughter, Scarlett Aurora McQuaide, both took part in Nature Takes the Wheel, contributing their own painted hubcaps to the public art project.

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18 Director Kelly Reichart (Meek’s Cutoff, Wendy and Lucy) helms this story co-written for the screen with Jonathan Raymond based on his

novel The Half-Life, about two men—skilled baker Otis “Cookie” Figowitz (John Magaro) and Chinese immigrant King-Lu (Orion Lee)—who form a friendship and successful business partnership in rough-and-tumble 1820 Oregon. However, their business of selling “oily cakes” is contingent on the clandestine milking of wealthy landowner Chief Factor’s (Toby Jones) cow—the only one in the region. (122-min.)

Glen: Ostensibly a Western, Reichart’s newest fi lm doesn’t romanticize the Wild West but instead paints it as a hardscrabble and dangerous life. And rather than being the heroic protagonists of the story, our two leads are quiet, meek, and gentle, trying to eke out a living in dangerous land built on the fur trade. When they meet, Cookie is traveling with a group of loutish trappers making their way to Fort Tillicum. He runs across a naked King-Lu in the forest, on the run for killing a Russian. Cookie helps King-Lu escape, and later they meet again in Fort Tillicum, where they form their partnership. It’s an unhurried story about friendship, set up by a William Blake quote that opens the fi lm: “The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.” Humans make a home in their friendship with others. Don’t expect a fast-paced action fi lm; like most of Reichart’s fi lms, First Cowtakes its time. Its end is pure poetry, calling back

to the fi lm’s opening framing device set in present day, when a young woman and her dog, walking by a river, come across a human skull. Quiet and moving, First Cow is an unexpected gem.Anna: I can see why critics have scored this fi lm higher than audiences; the pace is slow and the storyline fairly quiet, but there’s a lot of meat on this bone. The two leads are much gentler and more introspective than their rough-and-tumble neighbors, both in search of life outside the fort and bigger and better things. Their means for getting there may be a bit dishonest, but it’s easy to justify a bit of stolen milk to make their dreams a reality. King-Lu is more of a risk taker, perhaps pushing the limits of their theft to an unmanageable level. Cookie is gentle and guarded. Watching his interaction with the cow as he milks her shows what a soft and caring person he is. It’s not your typical Western where bullets are whizzing through the air and fi stfi ghts abound. Action is there, just not a whole lot of it, and it certainly isn’t what this story is about.Glen: Reichart paints her male characters in

interesting ways. The trappers are brutes, while the more “highborn” characters are downright cruel. It’s clear that male ego drives those who are seen as “successful.” The side story about Chief Factor and Captain (Scott Shepherd), a visiting friend of Factor’s, marks a sharp contrast between men like

them and a man like Cookie. Factor is desperate to prove to Captain how elevated his lifestyle is, so he hires Cookie to bake a special cake for Captain’s visit. As Cookie and King-Lu arrive with the cake, Factor and Captain are having a casual conversation about punishing men who

work beneath them, discussing how the number of lashes must be carefully weighed between correcting bad behavior and rendering the culprit incapable of further service, and how sometimes putting a man to death is better motivation for the remaining workers than mere corrective punishment. It’s the ugly side of wealth and power laid bare, and in contrast, Cookie and King-Lu’s friendship is so much more authentic than Factor and Captain’s. The fi lm keeps returning to its Blake quote about friendship, in this case male friendship that offers nonmonetary riches. It’s a sweet, albeit tragic, story and maybe an underdog contender for an Academy Award.Anna: The two men have a goal of making it to San Francisco and opening a hotel and bakery, but without capital their dreams will never come to fruition. Between oily cakes sold to the townsfolk and special requests from Chief Factor, the two are well on their way to realizing their dream. There’s something immensely satisfying about watching Factor drool over the baked goods secretly made with his cow’s milk—a cow he thinks can barely produce milk at all. The relationship between him and Captain is pretty amusing—the two can’t

help but try and one-up each other in every aspect. Both are pompous and gross, the opposite of our two main characters. When Cookie and King-Lu are fi nally found out, they have to fl ee, and while many men in that situation would fend only for themselves, these two have a bond that keeps them together, for better or worse. It’s a really lovely fi lm, and if you have the patience for it, it’s well worth a watch. I’d love to see this one up for an Academy Award. ❍

New Times Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey and freelancer Anna Starkey write Sun Screen. Glen compiles streaming listings. Comment at [email protected].

S U N S C R E E N @ S A N T A M A R I A S U N . C O M

SUN SCREEN

Anti-Western

FIRST COWWhat’s it rated? PG-13What’s it worth, Anna? Full priceWhat’s it worth, Glen? Full priceWhere’s it showing? Prime Video, Vudu, Fandango Now, iTunes

PHOTO COURTESY OF A24

FRIENDS IN FLIGHT: Ling-Lu (Orion Lee) and Otis “Cookie” Figowitz (John Magaro) forge a friendship in dangerous 1820 Oregon, as they try to make their fortune, in First Cow, available through various streaming services.

GENERATION KILLWhat’s it rated? TV-MAWhen? 2008Where’s it showing? HBO, Amazon Prime HBO’s gritty overlooked gem, Generation Kill, offers a look inside the toxic masculinity, misogyny, and racism of a Marine recon battalion as it prepares and ultimately invades Iraq in 2003. It focuses on Sgt. Brad “Iceman” Colbert (Alexander Skarsgård), his obnoxious second Cpl. Ray Person (James Ransone), and embedded Rolling Stone reporter Evan “Scribe” Wright (Lee Tergesen), but its sweeping scope encompasses many more characters up and down the chain of command. Like director Stanley Kubrick’s stunning 1987 film Full Metal Jacket or Joseph Heller’s brilliant 1953 satirical novel Catch-22, the series depicts both the deep dysfunction of the military as well as the effective training and bravery of those who serve even though they often seem less than honorable. It drives home that to be a warrior, you have to desensitize and ultimately dehumanize yourself to be a killer. Excellent filmmaking, incredible attention to detail, and

superb acting combine to make this one of the better war miniseries on TV. (seven approximately 65-min. episodes)

—Glen

PROJECT POWERWhat’s it rated? RWhen? 2020Where’s it showing? Netflix Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman co-direct this sci-fi action film about an experimental drug that when taken gives five minutes of a superpower, though each user is affected differently. One might become bulletproof while another may acquire chameleon-like camouflage. When the drug arrives on the streets of New Orleans, a teenage drug dealer (Dominique Fishback), a cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and an ex-soldier (Jamie Foxx) must team up to find those behind the drug and take them down. It’s a pretty silly premise, and the cast is a lot better than the material they’re given to work with, but there are some good action sequences, splatter-core gore, and some well-placed humor. Like The Old Guard, it’s not a great film,

but with theaters shuttered and first-run movies few and far between, I’ll take it! (113 min.) ❍

—Glen

Sun film reviews are compiled by New Times Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey. Contact him at [email protected].

TV & Film ReviewsPHOTO COURTESY OF BOOM AND BLOWN DEADLINE PRODUCTIONS

WARRIORS: Sgt. Brad “Iceman” Colbert (Alexander Skarsgård) and Sgt. Antonio Espera (Jon Huertas) keep the rank-and-fi le members of the First Recon Battalion Marines focused on their mission as they invade Iraq in 2003, in the HBO TV miniseries Generation Kill, also available on Amazon Prime.

POWER UP: (Left to right) Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback, and Kyanna Simpson star in the new Netfl ix sci-fi action fi lm, Project Power.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NETFLIX

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19

BY CAMILLIA LANHAM

Orcutt Union School District served a little fewer than 100,000 meals from March to June and packed

between 1,600 to 1,900 meals a day. But Director of Child Nutrition Bethany “Chef B” Markee thinks those numbers will be much lower during this school year, unless the state changes things. “Yesterday was our fi rst day, and the numbers were much less, so there defi nitely was a decline,” Markee said on Aug. 14. “And we’re waiting for the waiver, and I don’t think it is going to come.” The waivers in question temporarily suspended some requirements for the free- and reduced-lunch program, which serves low-income students. Although several waivers were issued by the federal and state government regarding school lunches, Markee thinks there are a couple that made a huge difference. Those include waiving a requirement that meals get picked up at the school site the student attends and allowing schools to serve meals for free to all students, regardless

of their eligibility for the free- and reduced-lunch program. While other local school districts, such as the Santa Maria-Bonita School District, have so many students who qualify for the free- and reduced-meals program that they offer it to all of their students, Orcutt Union schools don’t. Markee said 80 percent of students

qualify for the program at Olga Reed Elementary School in Los Alamos and 20 percent qualify at Orcutt Academy High School in Orcutt, with the remaining eight school sites coming in at 50 percent or less of students. But Markee said those numbers changed at the start of the pandemic because parents lost jobs.

“Right now, they’re requiring families to go to the specifi c school site they’re enrolled in, and that’s what’s hard for these families, because they’re not in the same fi nancial system they were before the pandemic,” she said. “I have a lot of parents who call, and it’s super heartfelt, and they can’t get to the site. Many families have students enrolled at two different school sites, Markee

said, so they would need to go to maybe an elementary school and a junior high to pick up food for their student. When the pandemic hit, Markee said, they had families coming through to pick up lunches that had never participated in the free- and reduced-lunch program. “They need it more than ever, and I think people that never needed it have been humbled and have needed it, and they’re just super kind and super grateful,” she said. With 10 school sites in the Orcutt Union School District, Markee and her team served at four from March to June. She said serving more meals was defi nitely an adjustment, but everyone pulled together to make it happen. And the work they did gained recognition from the Chef Ann Foundation, a national organization focused on ensuring that schools serve fresh, healthy food. On Aug. 5, she received the spotlight in the foundation and Danone North America’s Hero Highlights, a blog that tells uplifting stories of school food workers and how they’re tackling food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’ve just seen such kindness and such teamwork, and you just kind of hunker down and you just kind of have each others’ back,” she said. “You come up with these kind of rogue out-of-the-box things to make things easier. I just am very impressed with the teamwork in my department and legitimately with the district administration.” She said administrators are super supportive of her goals for the kitchen and the push to try to put as much food as possible into the hands of students who need it. Before the pandemic, the kitchen was focused on transitioning to more from-scratch meals to students—every school site had a salad bar, and they served hot food for lunch. But with lunches switching to to-go, some of the food has reverted back to pre-packaged prepared foods, such as frozen burritos (with heating instructions) and sandwiches.

However, Markee has stayed focused on trying to make sure the food they serve is as healthy as possible. Markee works with food vendors to fi nd the most healthy and safe pre-packaged foods she can in an attempt to keep it healthy and interesting for the students. At the moment, she said, there’s the potential of bringing in some pre-packaged salads and rice bowls. “All of us are struggling with the vegetable group. We make a few salads here and there; we can get bagged carrots,” she said of how school districts are trying to meet national and state nutrition guidelines. “But there isn’t a lot of pre-packaged vegetable stuff, so we’ve got a waiver on that.” One of her primary goals, Markee said, is to teach students how to eat their vegetables and make them “yummy,” but that effort is on temporary hold. In the fi ve years that Markee has been with the Orcutt schools, she has worked to couple food education with the meals she serves students, she said. In addition to teaching an after-school culinary arts program, she tries to teach students about whole produce and where it comes from. After working as a chef for 20-plus years, she started working at Solvang schools with a grant from the Orfalea Foundation. The goal was to make healthier meals for students and serve more from-scratch food. Things really hit home for Markee one day when she cooked up a lunch that included roasted potatoes, which none of the kids seemed to be eating. She walked out into the cafeteria and asked them why. “One little guy goes, ‘What is it?’ And I go, ‘It’s a potato.’ He goes, ‘A potato?’” she said. She asked him if he knew what a

french fry was, and he nodded. “Yes, well this is a potato, but it’s a square,” she told him. Then she ran to the kitchen and grabbed a potato to show them. The students wondered why it was so dirty, Markee said. “And I walked back to the kitchen that day, and it was the longest walk of my life,” she said. “And I thought, you now know what these children don’t know, and it’s your job for the rest of your life to teach them.” Markee took those thoughts to Orcutt with her. When students were on campus, Markee said, she worked with Veggie Rescue in Santa Ynez—an organization that collects fresh fruits, veggies, and prepared food from local farms, farmers markets, backyards, and businesses and delivers it to nonprofi ts and schools feeding community members in need. “Before the pandemic, we would get thousands of pounds of it for free that would just go right to the kids,” she said. “You have these kids running across the parking lot for carrots, and I’m like, ‘OK, now we’re doing something.’” ❍

Editor Camillia Lanham will run toward fresh veggies. Send food tips to [email protected].

LUNCH HERO: The Chef Ann Foundation and Danone North America recently featured Orcutt Union School District Director of Child Nutrition Bethany Markee—”Chef B”—in a Hero Highlight for the work she’s done to ensure students are getting their meals during the pandemic.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ORCUTT UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT

PREPPED FOR PICKUP: As the pandemic started—before masks were required but after schools went remote—Orcutt Union School District workers packed 1,900 lunches for families to pick up at four of the district’s 10 school sites.

E A T S @ S A N T A M A R I A S U N . C O M

FOOD

Lunch on the runChef B from Orcutt schools talks healthy meals, food education, and pandemic lunches

Heroes Find out more about the Chef Ann Foundation by visiting chefannfoundation.org. To read the Hero Highlight on Orcutt Union School District Director of Child Nutrition Bethany “Chef B” Markee, check out the website’s COVID-19 resources page and look for Hero Highlights under the Our Resources section.

DRIVE-THROUGH READY: On Aug. 13, Orcutt Union School District set up at Alice Shaw Elementary for the fi rst day of school and the fi rst day of lunch pickups for students who qualify for the free- and reduced-meal program.


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$2195 329 Daniel Dr 3+2.5, Celebrations 2stry hm is centrally located to shopping, wood lam flrs mostly thru-out, open kit w/fridge, ldy rm w/d inc, loft area, mstr ste w/walk-in clst, 2car grg, side yd/planters tenants to maintain, no pets

$2095 207 Valley View Dr 3+2, Orcutt 1stry hm w/all new wood lam flrs, fresh paint thru-out, ceiling fans, F/R, Sunroom w/fireplace, 2car grg, lg yd, front yd is a work-in-progress, no pets

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$1695 427 Tiffany Dr 2+1.5, NE 2stry Condo near hospital/frwy w/half bath d/s, bdrms u/s, w/d hkups, lg kitchen, F/R, priv patio, 2car det grg, tenants pay all utilities, no pets

$2800 3042 Courtney Drive – 3 + 2, Beautiful Mesa Oaks home situated on picturesque, oak studded half acre, elegant formal sunken living room and a formal dining room both finished with crown molding, well laid out country kitchen opens to cozy family room that has gas log fireplace with remote, large picture window, kitc has butcher block, upgraded applic, lg mstr bdrm w/walk-in clst and patio slider to bckyd, RV prking, 3car attch grg, lawn care incl, sm pet considered.

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729 Laguna Avenue Santa Maria

Located in Southeast Santa Maria, this charming home is ready and waiting for a new family! Built in 1953, this affordable property offers 3BR/1BA, 1080 SF of living space w/many updates. Inside you will find newer tiled flooring, updated eat-in kitchen w/tile countertops, Bathroom was remodeled in 2016 with new vanity, new tiled floor & tile tub enclosure. Home has dual pane windows making it energy-efficient. There is an indoor laundry room, large fenced rear yard w/patio & lemon Tree. Lot is 6098 SQ FT. Great for commuters with easy access to the freeway. Close to Allen Hancock College and just minutes from shopping & Medical Facilities. $330,000 (LA729)

Cute and cozy home within walking distance to Old Town Orcutt.. This 3 bedroom 2 bath is warm and inviting featuring tile and hardwood flooring throughout, Dual pane windows, and new sod for the front lawn. The back yard is south facing, with raised planter beds and a chicken coop. This is a great home, with a country feel. Perfect for animals or gardening. $431,990

LANDSCAPE DESIGNWOOD CHIPS, $15/yard. Colored chips available. Delivery available w/20 yard minimum. Also FREE Erosion control chips & Clean fill dirt. Arroyo Grande. 805-929-8000

YARD/GARDEN MAINTENANCE

FREE, Clean, Fill Dirt. Arroyo Grande 7am-3:30p M-F, Call 805-929-8000. We can load your truck or trailer.

HAULING & CLEAN-UPJT’s Hauling

Trees, Debris, Garage Clean Up, Moving and Recycling. Call Jon 805-440-4207

Home & Garden

Marketplace

santamariasun.com

WANTED TO BUYKC BUYS HOUSES - FASTEST CASH - Any Condition. Family owned & Operated. Same day of-fer! (951) 777-2518WWW.KCBUYSHOUSES.COM (Cal-SCAN)


22 RECREATION VEHICLES

PARK MEMBERSHIP FOR SALE

Colorado River Adventures RV Park Lifetime Membership, $1000 +Transfer Fee for For-ever Membership, Emerald Cove (Colo River), Tahoe, Yuma AZ, etc. 2 weeks free camping at a time, Call for details. 805-458-7375 or 949-324-1814

VEHICLES WANTEDDONATE YOUR CAR, BOAT OR RV to receive a major tax deduction. Help homeless pets. Local, IRS Recognized. Top Value Guaran-teed.Free Estimate and Pickup. LA-PETSALIVE.ORG 1-833-772-2632 (Cal-SCAN)

WANTED! Old Porsche 356/911/912 for restoration by hobbyist 1948-1973 Only. Any condition, top $ paid! PLEASE LEAVE MESSAGE 1-707-339-5994. Email: [email protected] (CalSCAN)

PETSSLO County Animal

ServicesAre you looking to adopt a cat? Or to adopt a dog? Or perhaps even a rabbit or chicken? Stray animals that have not been reclaimed by their owners and those that have been surrendered to the shelter are available for adop-tion to the general public. Individuals looking to add a new family member are encouraged to visit the shelter during normal kennel hours.

For more information, check out our Shelter Services page for a the listing of adoptble animals currently at our shelter. Or call us at 805-781-4400

ANTIQUES / COLLECTIBLES

Frankhoma Pottery Collector?? About 50 pieces from 1960s for sale. Leftover from family curio shop. Arroyo Grande 805-481-0268

HOHNER ACCORDIAN, Blue-grass, Norteño, Polka. Vintage model, with case, $95. 805-929-3487, leave message with your phone # (Calls only, no texts)

MILITARY MEDALS & RIBBONS: National Defense Service, and Liberation Kuwait. 4 pieces total, ribbons with medals. Unissued, mint in original boxes. $10/all. 805-929-3487, leave message with your phone # (Calls only, no texts)

Original 1951 Korean War Jeep Gas Can. Olive Drab color, embossed on the bottom with “1951”. In good condition, $40. 805-929-3487, leave message & phone # (Call only, no texts)

FARM & GARDEN20’ EXTENSION LADDER, $75 obo. 805-473-1503 or 805-710-1999

APPLIANCESKirby Vacuum Cleaner and Car-pet Shampoo Multi-Use System, with all attachments, manual, & video instructions. (Paid $1600 originally) Like new condition, Asking $250. 805-545-9657

SPORTING GOODSGOLF CLUBS $60 obo, 805-473-1503 or 805-710-1999

INFLATABLE SEYLOR KAYAK, $200. 805-354-8759

INFLATABLE SEYLOR RAFT, BIG! Easily fits 3 people. $200. 805-354-8759

SCHWINN BIKE PARTS, 2 frames plus various parts, $200/all. 805-354-8759

WATER GEAR - Men’s & Women’s wetsuits, snorkles, flippers, masks- $250/all. 805-354-8759

WANTED TO BUYCASH FOR ANTIQUE GUNSOld West, Indian and Civil War items. Stone Indian bowls. Free evaluation. Collecting since 1974. 805-610-0903

FINANCIAL SERVICESOver $10K in Debt? Be debt free in 24 to 48 months. No upfront fees to en-roll. A+ BBB rated. Call National Debt Relief 1-888-508-6305. (CalSCAN)

RETIRED COUPLE $$$$ for business purpose Real Estate loans. Credit un-important. V.I.P. Trust Deed Company www.viploan.com Call 1-818-248-0000. Broker-principal DRE 01041073. No consumer loans. (Cal-SCAN)

Struggling With Your Private Student Loan Payment? New relief programs can reduce your payments. Learn your options. Good credit notnecessary. Call the Helpline 866-305-5862 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm Eastern) (Cal-SCAN)

LEGAL SERVICESVICTIMS OF sexual abuse by Catholic clergy have rights. Free, confidential consultation: 800-444-9112. Mat-thews Law Firm, PLLC, 250Vallombrosa Ave, Suite 266, Chico, CA 95926 (Cal-SCAN)

COINSNeed some cash! Sell us your un-wanted gold, jewelry, watches & dia-monds. Call GOLD GEEK 1-844-905-1684. BBB A Plus Rated. Requestyour 100 Percent FREE, no risk, no strings attached appraisal kit. Call today! (Cal-SCAN)

New PatieNt SPecial: FRee cleaNiNG(805) 922-4352

308 N. McClelland · Santa Maria

2003 30’ Glendale Titanium Fifth Wheel:2 slides, upgraded chassis & premium deluxe interior, low mileage Goodyear Endurance tires, tinted/thermo windows, carpet/oak fl oors, dinette, easy chairs, loveseat/twin bed, queen bed/side tables, peninsula kitchen, shower/toilet a/c, TV, stereo. Interior like new.

1996 Ford F-350 Powerstroke:165,000 miles, srvcd every 3K miles, perf chip, exh brake retarder, Rhino bed liner, storage box, Bluetooth.

Both orig owner & in excellent condition!

1996 Ford F-350 Powerstroke:165,000 miles, srvcd every 3K miles, perf chip, exh brake retarder, Rhino bed liner, storage box, Bluetooth.

For details/pics: [email protected] 805-473-3457

FOR SALE · $23,500

SELL YOUR RV!

$ CALL TODAY $

(702) 210-7725

• CA$H ON THE SPOT• All RVs

• We come to you!

Advertise in our classifieds!

Contact Jenni today!805-546-8208

[email protected]

FRee liNe aDS! Free ads apply to non-commercial advertisers. Two weeks, three lines (approximately 30

words). Applies to For Sale and Auto & Boat categories.

CA$H ON THE SPOTClassic Cars WantedNewer makes & models too!

$ We come to you! $

(702) 210-7725

URGENT CARE SITE MANAGERSan Luis Obispo, Ca. and Santa Maria, Ca.Cottage Health headquartered in Santa Barbara, Ca is opening multiple Urgent Care facilities along the central coast of California, from Southern Ventura County to San Luis Obispo County.

We are currently looking for an Urgent Care Site Manager to join our soon-to-open San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria based Urgent Cares.

Requires a Bachelor’s Degree and 3 years of management experience in an urgent care or related service. Experience as front office staff in a medical office setting, including: scheduling, billing, and insurance reimbursement. Experience in a clinical role.

For immediate consideration, please apply on line at:

jobs.cottagehealth.org EOE

MISCELLANEOUSDIRECTV - Switch and Save! $39.99/month. Select All-In-cluded Package. 155 Channels. 1000s of Shows/Movies On De-mand. FREE Genie HDDVR Upgrade. Premium movie channels, FREE for 3 mos! Call 1-888-641-5762. (Cal-SCAN)

Stay in your home longer with an American Standard Walk-In Bathtub. Receive up to $1,500 off, including a free toilet, and a lifetime warrantyon the tub and installation! Call us at 1-844-252-0740 (Cal-SCAN)

Water Damage to Your Home? Call for a quote for professional cleanup & maintain the value of your home! Set an appt. today! Call 1-855-401-7069 (Cal-SCAN)

ENJOY 100% guaranteed, de-livered–to-the-door Omaha Steaks! Get 4 FREE Burgers. Order The Griller’s Bundle - ONLY $79.99. 1-877-882-4248, Use Code 63281PAM or www.Oma-haSteaks.com/family06 (Cal-SCAN)

Become a Published Author. We want to Read Your Book! Dorrance Publishing-Trusted by Authors Since 1920 Book manuscript submissionscurrently being reviewed. Com-prehensive Services: Consulta-tion, Production, Promotion and Distribution. Call for Your Free Author̀ s Guide 1-877-538-9554 or visitdorranceinfo.com/Cali (Cal-SCAN)

DONATE YOUR CAR OR TRUCK TO HERITAGE FOR THE BLIND. Free 3 Day Vacation, Tax Deductible, Free Towing, All Paperwork TakenCare Of. CALL 1-844-491-2884 (Cal-SCAN)

Lowest Prices on Health Insur-ance. We have the best rates from top companies! Call Now! 1-888-989-4807. (Cal-SCAN)

SAVE BIG on HOME INSURANCE! Compare 20 A-rated insurances companies. Get a quote within minutes. Average savings of $444/year! Call1-844-410-9609! (M-F 8am-8pm Central) (Cal-SCAN)

ATTENTION DIABETICS! Save money on your diabetic sup-plies! Convenient home shipping for monitors, test strips, insulin pumps, cathetersand more! To learn more, call now! 1-855-702-3408. (Cal-SCAN)

Attention: Oxygen Users! Gain freedom with a Portable Oxygen Concentrator! No more heavy tanks and refills! Guaranteed Low-est Prices!Call the Oxygen Concentrator Store: 1-844-653-7402 (Cal-SCAN)

ATTENTION: OXYGEN USERS! The NEW Inogen One G5. 1-6 flow settings. Designed for 24 hour oxygen use. Compact and Light-weight. Get a Free Info kit today: 1-844-359-3976 (CalSCAN)

HELP WANTED

DENTISTRY

NATURAL PRODUCTS

@San t aMa r i aSun Follow us on Facebook

SantaMariaSun

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Miscellaneous


23

STUDENTGUIDEBOOK YOUR AD BY

9-10-20

9-17-20

PUBLICATION DATE

Be a part of the equation!Send your business back to school in style.This special New Times publication will be everywhere you fi nd students ... downtown, throughout the county, and on the local college campuses—Cal Poly and Cuesta College.

This anticipated issue is picked up, read, and kept by students, locals, and faculty—which means your marketing and branding will hang around, too!

805-347-1968 [email protected]

YOU DO THE MATH:+ 35,000 print editions+ Virtual pub available + Web and Digital ads

+ Inserts+ e-newsletters+ Sticky Notes

= Many options to reach over 30,000 students and faculty coming to town!

Save yourself the trouble!$5/week or $20/month

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Have the Sun delivered to your door!


24

Shop Local reserve your space today 805.347.1968 www.santamariasun.com

4850 S Bradley Rd. #D1 | Orcutt, CA805.938.1965 | backporchflowers.net

Say it with flowers

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460 W. Grand Ave. Grover Beach

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A L L Y O U C A N E AT S U S H I & B B Q

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194 Town Center East, Santa Maria (805)922-9900

GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE - AT ALL LOCATIONS!

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PATIO DINING AT ALL LOCATIONS

Skilled NurSiNg CareCountry Oaks Care Center

– A name you can trust

John Henning, Ph. D. and Sharon Henning, Owners & Administrators

830 East Chapel Street

Santa Maria

805-922-6657

Award-Winning Care with Award-Winning

Commitment

Voted Best Senior Living Community

NOW Accepting New patients

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SPECIAL $49 Monthly ServiceGeneral Pest Service Only. Gophers & Rodents Excluded.

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59

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Your one-stop full-service surf and skate shop!

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1140 E. Clark Avenue · Suite 190Santa Maria, CA 93455

(805) 925-1678Our Store HoursTues - Fri: 9:30-5:30

Saturday: 10-3www.melbys.com

Mention this ad for a Military discount

Sun’s Best of Winner,12 years!

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107 W. Park, Ste 105Santa Maria

Mon–Thurs 9am–7pmFri 8am–8pm

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FREE Eyebrow Clean-Up with $20 Haircut

We are open!just bring your masksand social distancing

Still offeringfree local delivery and curbside pick-up too

call or e-mail for detailsstay safe everyone!

STRAIGHTEN YOUR SMILE

Central Coast Orthodontics1311 South Miller St, Ste. 201, SM

(805) 347-4444

Visit us on Facebook & Instagram.

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Voted BEST Orthodontist in Northern Santa Barbara County 4 years in a row!

(805) 621-50001340 W. Betteravia Rd, Santa Maria smith-electric.com

se habla español805-868-0954

Summer Special:$25 off any service

Documents

Art therapy...2 days ago · installation of the hubcaps. Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood talks to participants about upcycling, art therapy, and letting those creative juices flow [17]