News

WATSONVILLE—The local nonprofit created to purchase and run Watsonville Community Hospital has won its bid to buy the hospital’s operations, a move that canceled a planned auction and advanced the matter to a sale hearing on Wednesday. According to documents filed with the Northern District...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville leaders past and present showered longtime Watsonville City Clerk Beatriz Vasquez Flores with praise at Tuesday night’s Watsonville City Council meeting, honoring the outgoing official for her 42 years of service to the municipality. Along with kind words from active city council members and...

WATSONVILLE—About 15 people sat quietly in rows of chairs facing an altar of votive candles, flowers, photographs and memorabilia in a carport near downtown Watsonville on Sunday. Just hours prior, an 18-year-old man who, family says, had moved to the U.S. from Oaxaca, Mexico a...

“This is who I wanted to be; this was my dream and I am where I have always wanted to be,” said Ohlone Elementary School custodian Raúl Gonzales.  He has now put in 42 years at various schools, starting out at Freedom School in 1979....

WATSONVILLE—When the Loma Prieta earthquake struck at 5:04 p.m. on Oct. 17, 1989, Second Harvest Food Bank CEO Willy Elliott-McCrea was in Watsonville, talking about disaster preparation. It was a strange bit of irony, and it took the presence of then-Watsonville Fire Chief Gary Smith...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville High School community is reeling from the loss of four staff members that occurred over the past nine months. History and economics teacher Abel Mejia died on Sept. 16, and his brother Ruben Mejia, a biology teacher, died on Sept. 5.  Their deaths came after...

WATSONVILLE—About a dozen nonprofit leaders and community advocates asked the Watsonville City Council at its Tuesday meeting to address the city’s mounting homelessness issues that have been further compounded by a recent rainstorm. Among the concerns brought forth to the elected leaders: an increase in...

APTOS—Plans were announced Thursday of a major renovation of Willowbrook County Park to honor the late Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, who was gunned down in the line of duty in 2020. The project of “reimagining” the park was announced in a brief...

WATSONVILLE—Should Watsonville expand outward in an effort to meet mounting housing and economic needs? Or will it continue to restrict its growth, and increase its housing density in favor of protecting every inch of the rich surrounding agricultural land? These are the questions Watsonville voters...

SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (METRO) on Friday announced it has named Michael Tree its new CEO/General Manager. Tree has nearly three decades of experience in the public transit industry and city management, most recently as Executive Director of the Livermore Amador Valley...