Local News

WATSONVILLE—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to purchase properties on Westridge Drive in Watsonville, and to relocate several county services there. The move, which will consolidate five separate departments into a building at 500 Westridge Drive, is expected...

At midnight, it became official: California is open. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic isn’t over, and life isn’t back to the way it was before most of us had heard of the mysterious, deadly illness we now call Covid-19. But the lifting of nearly all of...

WATSONVILLE—A locally brewed project of painting mile markers along the Pajaro River and Salsipuedes Creek levee system came to fruition Wednesday. Buoyed by a large pack of community members, Watsonville City Councilmember Ari Parker, Santa Cruz County Supervisor Greg Caput, city and county workers and...

WATSONVILLE—Organizers for the Santa Cruz County Fair say they are preparing for a complete in-person return of the annual event in September. Carnival rides, livestock shows, floriculture, arts and crafts, the Agricultural History Project, food booths, the pumpkin contest and the apple pie contest—they’re all...

PRUNEDALE—A man died following a two-vehicle crash on Highway 101 at Prunedale South Road early on July 16. Cmdr. Derrel Simpson of the Monterey County Sheriff/Coroner’s Office identified Daniel Lewis Castaneda, 29, of San Jose as the victim. Simpson added that Castaneda was a correctional...

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...

WATSONVILLE—A year after it was canceled because of the pandemic, the Watsonville Strawberry Festival drew more than 5,000 people to downtown Sunday to eat, shop, dance and celebrate the Pajaro Valley’s top crop and the continued slow return to normalcy. Watsonville Parks and Community Services...

WATSONVILLE—The first phase of the Watsonville Slough Connector Trail Project at Ramsay Park kicked off Monday, with construction expected to run through the end of November. Granite Construction has teamed up with the city to complete the project, which will establish and enhance trails through...

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...

Author Olga Rosales Salinas remembers clearly the folklore and myths she heard growing up in Watsonville. The Mexican legends of La Llorona and El Cucuy in particular stuck with her; stories themed around fear and often used to teach difficult lessons.  “I’ve often thought about what...