New roundabout at Hwy 129-Lakeview Road opens
WATSONVILLE—The newly constructed roundabout at the intersection of Highway 129 (Riverside Road) and Lakeview Road opened on Dec. 3 to through traffic.
Final roadway striping and a variety of construction details will be completed over the next few weeks, but the roadway and roundabout are...
Decision on Watsonville’s Measure U renewal upcoming
WATSONVILLE—An effort to extend a landmark Watsonville ballot measure that placed restrictions on the expansion of the city took a big step forward Tuesday.
The Watsonville City Council accepted the city clerk’s certification of a petition filed by the Committee for Planned Growth and Farmland...
Watsonville hospital sale nears completion
WATSONVILLE—The local nonprofit created to purchase and run Watsonville Community Hospital has won its bid to buy the hospital’s operations, a move that canceled a planned auction and advanced the matter to a sale hearing on Wednesday.
According to documents filed with the Northern District...
Watsonville’s longtime city clerk retires
WATSONVILLE—Watsonville leaders past and present showered longtime Watsonville City Clerk Beatriz Vasquez Flores with praise at Tuesday night’s Watsonville City Council meeting, honoring the outgoing official for her 42 years of service to the municipality.
Along with kind words from active city council members and...
Family searches for answers after 18-year-old farmworker is gunned down
WATSONVILLE—About 15 people sat quietly in rows of chairs facing an altar of votive candles, flowers, photographs and memorabilia in a carport near downtown Watsonville on Sunday.
Just hours prior, an 18-year-old man who, family says, had moved to the U.S. from Oaxaca, Mexico a...
Custodian keeps schools tidy for four decades
“This is who I wanted to be; this was my dream and I am where I have always wanted to be,” said Ohlone Elementary School custodian Raúl Gonzales.
He has now put in 42 years at various schools, starting out at Freedom School in 1979....
Remembering Loma Prieta: Quake left Watsonville in ruin, united residents
WATSONVILLE—When the Loma Prieta earthquake struck at 5:04 p.m. on Oct. 17, 1989, Second Harvest Food Bank CEO Willy Elliott-McCrea was in Watsonville, talking about disaster preparation.
It was a strange bit of irony, and it took the presence of then-Watsonville Fire Chief Gary Smith...
Watsonville High community reeling from 4 recent, sudden deaths
WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville High School community is reeling from the loss of four staff members that occurred over the past nine months.
History and economics teacher Abel Mejia died on Sept. 16, and his brother Ruben Mejia, a biology teacher, died on Sept. 5.
Their deaths came after...
Homeless advocates ask Watsonville officials to address mounting issues
WATSONVILLE—About a dozen nonprofit leaders and community advocates asked the Watsonville City Council at its Tuesday meeting to address the city’s mounting homelessness issues that have been further compounded by a recent rainstorm.
Among the concerns brought forth to the elected leaders: an increase in...
County park will honor late Sheriff’s deputy
APTOS—Plans were announced Thursday of a major renovation of Willowbrook County Park to honor the late Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, who was gunned down in the line of duty in 2020.
The project of “reimagining” the park was announced in a brief...
How Farmworkers Outlawed ‘El Cortito’ 50 Years Ago
For decades in the Salinas Valley, the short-handle hoe, known as “El Cortito,” was used for weeding and thinning rows of crops that kept...
