News

About 15 years ago, officials from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk began looking at a project, dubbed “Centennial Plaza,” that would give the park a grand front entrance complete with more ticket booths, rides, attractions and more.

WATSONVILLE—Facing declining revenues, Watsonville Community Hospital has laid off about 10 employees, a little more than 1 percent of its workforce, Halsen Healthcare CEO Dan Brothman confirmed Wednesday. Brothman said the move was in response to a decline in elective surgeries, and to emergency room...

CLOSE CALL Firefighters douse hot spots in a brush fire that erupted on the 300 block of Amesti Road Friday. An official from CalFire said the 3:20pm brush fire climbed to two acres before firefighters from Pajaro Valley Fire District, Watsonville and Central Fire...

In 2020, the CZU fires ravaged the Santa Cruz Mountains, destroying 1,490 structures and an untold number of trees. A little more than two years later, many of those downed trees washed down streams into the ocean and, during the storms in January and February,...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville City Council at its first meeting of year will weigh whether to approve a proposed 170,000 gallon propane storage facility at 950 West Beach St., a project that has been much debated since it was first introduced in July of 2020. If approved,...

A local nonprofit announced that it had saved 37 kittens across Santa Cruz County last week, including three that were found abandoned at the Buena Vista Landfill.

Several people gathered in a large meeting room at Watsonville Public Library recently, where they delved into the cultural significance of Japanese paper lanterns, and then got a chance to make their own. The free, one-day, 3-hour event provided attendees with wood popsicle sticks, paper,...

Weekly events calendar for Sept. 14-20.

ROYAL OAKS—It was the early 1920s when Glenn Church’s great-grandfather, Clinton King, purchased a piece of land in a heavily-wooded area of North Monterey County. Nearly 70 years old at the time, King cleared out the plot—chock full of oak trees—by hand. “Whenever I’m out here...