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Watsonville
April 29, 2026

Holiday planning? Order your meat now

If specialty meats will be on your table during the upcoming holidays, now is the time to get your order in at two local meat businesses, Freedom Meat Lockers and Corralitos Market & Sausage Co.

Local paint company restores iconic Pajaro Valley buildings

watsonville house
They’ve painted over 1,000 houses in Watsonville. Now the Hernandez father and sons company are on a roll, tackling a massive paint job for one of the most prominent historical homes in Watsonville, the 1901 Porter-Pista home on the corner of East Beach and...

Pier 1 to close all stores

pier 1 imports
CAPITOLA—Pier 1 Imports announced Tuesday that it will close all 540 of its stores nationwide, sell its inventory and liquidate its assets. The sales will begin at the Capitola store as soon as the Santa Cruz County Health Department allows it to open. The company’s website...

Watsonville Hospital announces new CEO

Steven Salyer watsonville hospital
WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Community Hospital has a new chief executive officer.  Steven Salyer, who has 14 years of leadership experience in hospitals throughout the U.S., started the position on July 6. The hospital announced the move on July 14. Salyer previously served as chief operating officer at UP...

Caroline’s Nonprofit finds new home

Caroline’s Nonprofit Thrift Shop has moved. Though the move, across Trout Gulch Road into an adjacent business center was supposed to be temporary, it ended up being a perfect fit that was hard to turn down.

Fresh start

Ahn and his wife, Soon Ja, recently opened Kong’s Burgers & Café at El Pájaro Community Development Corporation’s Plaza Vigil business incubator in downtown Watsonville.

New businesses moving into Rancho Del Mar

With updates nearing completion at the Rancho Del Mar Shopping Center, owner Terramar Retail Centers announced five new businesses that will be setting up shop.

Kaiser Permanente ‘reorganization’ will not affect Santa Cruz County locations

Kaiser Permanente
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—A recent reduction to employees in the Kaiser Permanente corporation—about 200 positions—will not reach Santa Cruz County, a spokesman said Tuesday. One of the largest private employers in California, the company has more than 149,000 employees and 16,000 physicians in the state. In addition,...

Food service industry faces unprecedented labor shortage

Two weeks ago, Amelia Loftus, owner of Hidden Fortress Coffee Roasting, was on the brink of closing her cafe in Watsonville just shy of its five-year anniversary. The shop, located at the end of a sleepy business complex on Hangar Way, had been struggling to...
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Queer Youth Leadership Awards approaching

The Queer Youth Leadership Awards (QYLA) has, in the decades since its inception, honored young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people (LGBTQ+) whose...