News

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Heavy winds pummeled the Central Coast Monday night and into Tuesday, causing numerous power outages, scores of power lines to crash to the ground and several wildland fires, including a large one just north of Watsonville. Dubbed the Freedom Fire by Cal Fire’s...

By Michael Moore, of the Morgan Hill Times SANTA CLARA COUNTY—Gilroy resident Alan Viarengo, who taught math at Gavilan College for nearly 20 years, was arrested last week on suspicion of stalking and threatening Santa Clara County’s public health officer, and police say he has...

Editor’s note: This is the first entry in a monthly series about the history scattered throughout downtown Watsonville and the city at large. For the past several months I’ve been getting around town, mostly by bus and on foot. Besides being a giant change in...

WATSONVILLE—Highlighting the city’s housing woes and the environmental checks and balances at the county level, the Watsonville City Council on Tuesday approved changes to plans for a large housing development on Ohlone Parkway. Hillcrest Estates, previously known as Sunshine Vista, will have slightly fewer homes—falling...

WATSONVILLE—Roaring Camp Railroads has struck a deal with Progressive Rail to provide freight services for Watsonville businesses. Santa Cruz Big Trees and Pacific Railway, a subsidiary of Roaring Camp, announced the deal on April 30 in a press release. Roaring Camp CEO Melani Clark said the...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to create an Office of Recovery and Resilience, which will coordinate the county’s response to the CZU August Lightning Complex fire. The new office would also respond to future disasters, which...

WATSONVILLE—The city of Watsonville is asking the City Council to deem a troubled housing development off Ohlone Parkway a public nuisance at its July 6 meeting. Pacific Sunshine Garden at 1773 Santa Victoria Ave. has for more than three years failed to make various corrections...

WATSONVILLE — The Watsonville City Council on Tuesday approved an Adult Services and Senior Center Plan that will bring operations of the Senior Center under the City’s umbrella.  Watsonville will pump $176,000 from its 2019-20 general fund into the Senior Center, and also hire an Older...

WATSONVILLE—It was a homecoming celebration for the books: About 60 firefighters, police officers, professionals, retirees, friends and family assembled at Watsonville Municipal Airport Monday to welcome home one of their own. At 12:30 p.m. a private jet landed, swung down the tarmac and stopped at...

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