There’s something wrong in Santa Cruz County. The county is desperately short on cash, with the general fund expected to slip below $369 million, departments across the board taking pay cuts and furloughs, workers being let off, public health clinics open fewer hours, and sheriff’s investigations on hold. Senior county executives, however, all received pay raises, some of them amounting to tens of thousands of dollars. The top-paid administrators in the county made, on average, 11 percent more in 2009 than they did in 2008.
Articles by Danny Wool
Frogophiles Make Santa Cruz Their Home
There’s a lot that people can learn from frogs, like how they never drink up the pond in which they live. We’ll be learning a lot more about frogs soon now that Save the Frogs, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to saving the world’s best known amphibian, has decided to move its headquarters to Santa Cruz.
Local Counties Submit Joint Broadband Grant Request
More than 1,000 cities across the nation have applied to Google to be the first to test its hyperspeed fiber-optic network. Along the California Central Coast, a coalition of public and private interests from Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito counties are taking a different approach to obtaining high-speed Internet. They have submitted a $56 million grant for money from the $7.2 billion allocated to improving broadband access in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funding would go to install 112 miles of underground fiber and 200 miles of above-ground linking, making Internet speeds 10-100 times faster in the region than they currently are.
Scotts Valley Teachers Considering Furloughs
Eight high school teachers in Scotts Valley have received preliminary pink slips in an effort to shave $1.9 million off of the school board’s budget over the next two years.
Rail Line Purchase Passes Hurdle
The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission voted unanimously to purchase the 32-mile Union Pacific rail line for $14.2 million.
Red Cross Starting to Consolidate
Only five people now work at the Santa Cruz branch of the Red Cross, located on Highway 1.
Interactive Crime Mapping in Santa Cruz
Wondering where all the crime is taking place in Santa Cruz? You can check it out on the new website being used by SCPD. The site offers an interactive map with icons for a wide range of crimes, ranging from fraud to breaking and entering, and from disturbing the peace to arson.
Check the Cash
Watsonville police have reported that someone has been passing out counterfeit bills in the city over the past few weeks.
Downtown Association Head to Take Family Name
Chip, the head of Santa Cruz’s Downtown Association, who famously goes by just one name, announced this morning that he will be taking on a family name, Smith. “It was a difficult decision,” he explained, “but one that had to be made. It was getting too tedious to explain that I had only one name, whenever I was asked about it.” Chip went on to explain that his rejection of his family name was an extension of his teenage angst well into his adult life. He said that he’s happy to be over it now, and wished that other single-name celebrities would follow his lead.
Hollywood Riding a Wave to Santa Cruz
Hollywood director Curtis Hanson, who brought us LA Confidential and 8 Mile, is now looking to do a film about local surfing legend Jay Moriarty.
