News

A crew from Vacant Property Security installs one of several traffic blocks in the parking lot of the former Kmart on Freedom Boulevard. On Oct. 12, the Watsonville City Council started the process of declaring the abandoned property a public nuisance due to illegal...

Construction workers tear out the surface of a portion of Airport Boulevard Wednesday. Patrice Theriot, principal engineer for the city of Watsonville, said the project involves replacing several hundred feet of road surface on Airport Boulevard from Freedom Boulevard, west to the existing road...

WATSONVILLE—The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved a spending plan for the district’s third round of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, which comes through the American Rescue Plan as a way to help schools nationwide recover...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday got a first look at how the County’s supervisorial districts could be redrawn as the decennial redistricting process nears its end. During redistricting, jurisdictions use the recent census to see how their populations have...

WATSONVILLE—David Schartow was a retired ironworker living in Paradise with his young daughter when the 2018 Camp Fire destroyed the entire town, including his home. Now homeless, Schartow, 64, has since bounced through several temporary shelters, including his current accommodations, the Comfort Inn in Watsonville....

WATSONVILLE—Matt Huffaker will leave his position as Watsonville City Manager for the same job in Santa Cruz, Watsonville city leaders confirmed with the Pajaronian Thursday afternoon.  The Santa Cruz City Council, in a press release, said it made a unanimous recommendation for Huffaker to take...

WATSONVILLE—If a group of local medical professionals and nonprofit leaders has its way, a newly established healthcare district will one day own and operate Watsonville Community Hospital (WCH). If those efforts are successful, it will likely come as a relief for South County residents who...

WATSONVILLE—Cabrillo College’s Watsonville Center has started up a new program that aims to welcome back and support students who left the school during the pandemic. Ganas is a two-semester program encouraging previous students, especially those in South County, to return and resume their studies. Students...

WATSONVILLE—A proposed 80-unit affordable apartment complex between Atkinson Lane and Brewington Avenue received a unanimous recommendation for approval from the Santa Cruz County Planning Commission on Wednesday morning. In the works since 2013, the project is an extension of the 46-unit Pippin Orchards apartment complex...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville City Council on Tuesday heard the results of a roughly year-long endeavor sparked by the calls for police reform and social equity stemming from last year’s slaying of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. The Ad-Hoc Committee on Policing and Social...