News

WATSONVILLE—Heavily-trafficked Green Valley Road will be shut down between Struve Slough and Carey Avenue—near the Home Depot store—until Thursday, according to City of Watsonville officials. The road closure was first announced on Oct. 24 and went into effect on Saturday. Crews from Granite Construction worked...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville Police Department is asking for help from the community to find a driver who struck and seriously injured a woman early Sunday morning before fleeing. The crash occurred just before 5 a.m. on the 1000 block of Freedom Boulevard. The victim, who is in...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville Parks and Community Services (PCS) Department recently received a large grant to help rebuild the Muzzio Park playground that was burned down in early June. GameTime, a national commercial playground manufacturer, will provide $15,000-37,000 on top of the $25,000 the City received in...

CAPITOLA—Forty artists from across the county fanned out around Capitola last week with canvas, easels, chalk and tubes of color in tow, in hopes of distilling a handful of the coastal city’s choice land and seascapes on canvas and paper.  The efforts were part of...

Try this is a weekly column that celebrates local businesses — especially eateries, watering holes, coffee shops and the like. Tarmo Hannula Food Blaze Pizza I had a late lunch recently at a new (for me) pizza spot on the West Side of Santa Cruz—Blaze Pizza, 1901 Mission...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville City Council on Tuesday placed the updated half-cent public safety sales tax on the March 3 ballot. The vote was as contentious as the hour-and-a-half discussion. The decision passed 4-3, with Mayor pro-tem Rebecca Garcia and councilmembers Trina Coffman-Gomez and Ari Parker dissenting. Those...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville’s Downtown Specific Plan can officially move ahead. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) endowed the City of Watsonville with a $500,625 Sustainable Communities Planning Grant that will fund the majority of the project’s planning efforts over the next year and change. The City Council accepted...

APTOS—Nonprofit workers in Santa Cruz County are two times more likely than the general public to require the very social services they help provide. That’s according to a recent survey conducted by the Human Care Alliance (HCA), a coalition of nonprofit agencies from around the...

WATSONVILLE—It was 37 years ago that Larry Chin became a reserve firefighter with Watsonville Fire Department, inspired by television shows such as “Emergency!” and the glamor of the profession. He joined the department eight years later. On Wednesday morning, he signed off from his final...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville police are again warning the public to be careful with their credit and debit cards after an investigator found two card skimmers at a gas pump. Credit card skimmers are often installed on gas pumps by criminals to steal account information. They can be...