Teen Challenge plans 94-bed facility for women and children
The City Council approved conversion of the former Baker Brothers furniture store on Brennan Street into a rehabilitation center and 94-bed shelter for women and children.
“I live next door to a Teen Challenge facility, and they’ve been nothing but good neighbors,” said Councilman Daniel Dodge, joining a 6-1 majority in the approval.
The city Planning Commission unanimously approved the Teen Challenge Monterey Bay’s shelter proposal in May. But lawyer Timothy Walsh, whose firm rents a neighboring office, appealed the decision, citing parking concerns.
With a school, strip mall, offices and homes, the neighborhood is a congested area with an existing parking problem that would be made worse by the shelter, Walsh said.
Several neighbors agreed, including a woman who said parking is so tight, people leave their cars in her driveway.
The project, which only identifies 18 parking spaces for its use, doesn’t meet city regulations that mandate at least 36, and possibly as many as 55, he said.
Officials can’t ignore the rules just because the project may offer a beneficial service.
“This is not about challenging Teen Challenge. I’m sure they are a wonderful organization and helping people,” Walsh said. “The Planning Commission simply can’t ignore city regulations dealing with parking.”
But planner Keith Boyle said city regulations do allow parking requirements to be cut in half if the building is used for transitional housing.
Boyle also said the city only has a chance to weigh in because the use departs from commercial zoning. If a more intensive retail business moved into the building, the city would not be able to stop it.
“From our perspective, this is one of the better opportunities not to impact neighbors,” Boyle said.
Mike Borden, Teen Challenge executive director, urged the council to uphold the planning commission’s decision.
He said the nonprofit has operated similar facilities in Watsonville for 27 years without problems, and it is providing vital services to a vulnerable population.
Borden also said the facility would not need much parking in any case. Residents involved in the rehabilitation program are not allowed to have cars, and shelter guests don’t typically have the finances to own vehicles.
“The best way to see if we are going to have a negative impact is to look at our record,” Borden said. “We’re very careful and concerned about our public image, and we are a contributing member to this city and to this county.”
Councilwoman Nancy Bilicich, citing concern over possible litigation, wanted to resolve issues before the project moved forward. She voted no.
Content provided by http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/watsonville/ci_26028584/watsonville-council-oks-brennan-street-homeless-shelter
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Monterey Bay Youth Outdoor Day is a totally free event open to the public. Our focus is to get kids interested in the many outdoor activities that are right here in our back yard. With over forty different organizations represented, there is something for everyone!
Monterey Bay Youth Outdoor Day is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating youth about the countless outdoor activities available in our area. All of us involved with MBYOD have the same goal for the children of today…
Our goal is simple, lets get our youth back outside and active! We believe that we live in a unique and amazing region and because of that it is important to teach our children to cherish it. We are looking to encourage youth to be healthy through outdoor activities and build a better place for the future.
In hopes of achieving our goal we hold an annual event at the Santa Cruz Fairgrounds where various companies and organizations can showcase their specialties. The event is totally free and we also raffle off dozens of prizes to the youth in attendance to inspire them to participate in the outdoor activity that they find most appealing.
MBYOD 2014 will be held on June 21 from 10am to 4pm, so bring your children to the fairgrounds so they can enjoy the dozens of activities we have to offer!
When: Saturday June 21, 2014 from 10:00 am-4:00 pm
Where: Santa Cruz Fairgrounds
Cost: FREE!
Who: The entire family!
Content provided by http://watsonville.patch.com/groups/events/p/monterey-bay-youth-outdoor-day-2014
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It’s summertime, which means outdoor play, hiking, gardening — and tick bites. The creepy crawlies tend to latch on during the summer months and these arachnids are ubiquitous throughout the U.S.
But tick bites are more than just an annoying spring and summer nuisance. Each year, about 300,000 people in the U.S. catch Lyme disease, which is caused by bacteria, from a tick bite, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. Thousands more develop tick-borne diseases such as the malarialike disease babesiosis, the flulike anaplasmosis and the Heartland virus infection.
But people can take steps to avoid the nasty critters, beyond the old-standby advice to cover up and avoid tall grass, experts say. From wood chips to a quick ride in the dryer, here are 10 ways to avoid tick bites.
1. Repel the bugs
Insecticides can be used to repel ticks, said Thomas Mather, a public health entomologist at the University of Rhode Island, and the director of tickencounter.org.
Permethrin, the insecticide found in antimalarial bed nets, kills adult ticks as well as those in their larval stage, called nymphs, which are the likeliest to harbor Lyme disease.
Ideally, people should buy permethrin-treated clothing, socks and shoes, Mather said.
By contrast, evidence suggests that the more common bug spray chemical, N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET), isn’t useful against ticks.
“It’s not toxic to the ticks,” Mather told Live Science. “They still can scurry across a DEET-treated surface, and get to places where the DEET is not,” such as a warm human leg, he said.
2. Be vigilant at home
Hiking and camping aren’t the most common ways to catch a tick-borne disease, said Kirby Stafford III, the state entomologist at The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and the author of the “Tick Management Handbook.”
“We estimate three-fourths of people pick up the ticks in activities in and around the home,” with children’s play and gardening being some of the riskiest activities, Stafford told Live Science.
Parents should also make sure to do tick checks on children when they come in, he said.
3. Stay in the sun
Tick nymphs have leaky cuticles, or outer covers, that rapidly lose moisture. As a result, they can’t survive in environments with lower than 80 percent humidity for more than eight hours, Mather said.
As a result, nymphs congregate in leaf piles in shady, humid environments, so sticking to sunny areas can reduce tick exposure, he said.
4. Change the landscape
Most ticks around homes stay within a few yards of the interface between the yard and a wooded area, Stafford said.
To keep the yard tick-free, use landscaping that deters mice, deer, woodchucks and other rodents that carry ticks, he said. People should also remove tick habitat such as leaf piles, shrubs and groundcover near the house. Play sets should be kept in the sun, away from the shade, he added.
Ticks won’t cross a barrier of wood chips placed around the yard’s perimeter, perhaps because the dry material makes them dry out too much, he said.
Read the entire list here.
Content provided by http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/14/avoid-tick-bites-summer_n_5474567.html?ir=Healthy+Living
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From all of us at Scurich Insurance Services, we want to wish all the Fathers out there a Happy Father’s Day!
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Miguel Angel Fragoso-Hernandez sets goal of medical career in Watsonville
WATSONVILLE >> At Pajaro Valley High School, Miguel Angel Fragoso-Hernandez is known as Nino, or Kid, a nickname bestowed during his freshman year, when, a year younger than most students after skipping first grade, he was the smallest player on the junior varsity soccer team.
But Fragoso-Hernandez, now a 17-year-old graduating senior and class valedictorian, has another title in mind: doctor. He’ll take a step toward achieving his career goal when he enrolls at UC Berkeley in the fall to study biology or biochemistry.
At a graduation ceremony Thursday, he plans to remind his classmates how they reached this point in their lives.
“It’s not like you did it on your own. Your teachers helped you. Your parents helped you all through your life,” Fragoso-Hernandez said. “At the same time, (the graduates) sit here because they worked for it.”
Fragoso-Hernandez will speak from experience. His parents, Martin Fragoso and Julia Hernandez, emigrated from Santiago Tulantepec in Hidalgo, Mexico, to the U.S. in their teens. They were very poor, Fragoso-Hernandez said. His father scrounged from garbage cans to get enough to eat. His mother, living on a rural ranch, watched two siblings die in childhood.
Here, they worked in the fields at first, but later Miguel’s father became an auto mechanic and eventually bought the business from his boss. After volunteering at Freedom Elementary School, his mother was hired to supervise students at recess.
As the family’s income improved, they were able to move from a series of crowded garages into a three-bedroom apartment in a Holohan Road complex. Though he was only 7 at the time, Fragoso-Hernandez recalls his amazement at the space and the fact that the apartment had its own kitchen.
Growing up, he watched his father work two jobs at times, and his mother devote herself to work and raising three sons. But he didn’t understand what they were trying to accomplish until high school.
“I thought they came to find a better life for themselves,” Fragoso-Hernandez said. “I didn’t realize until my sophomore year that the ultimate goal was to have a better life for their children.”
Though neither Fragoso nor Hernandez went to school past the sixth grade, they knew education was the key to reaching that goal, and they instilled that value in their children.
Fragoso-Hernandez said math and science captured his interest at any early age. He paid attention as his older brother did his homework, and by the end of kindergarten he had mastered multiplication. He finishes high school with a 4.24 grade point average. In addition, he was a forward on the varsity soccer team for three years, and has worked as a math tutor in an after-school program for elementary students since he was 14.
His father’s struggles with poor health led him to decide on a medical career, either as a general practitioner or a surgeon.
“I grew up seeing him with all these problems, and I wanted to be able to do something but I couldn’t,” he said. “I want to be able to do something for someone in the same situation.”
When Fragoso-Hernandez was in middle school, the family moved to Gilroy, but he and his two brothers, Eric, a sophomore at Cal State Monterey Bay, and Marco, a seventh-grader at Lakeview Middle School, elected to commute each day so they could remain in Watsonville schools.
The three brothers were born in Watsonville, and Fragoso-Hernandez considers the city home. Once he earns his medical degree, he plans to return.
“Without Watsonville, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” he said. “I want to give back to this community.”
Content provided by http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/education/ci_25899165/valedictorian-credits-immigrant-parents-providing-opportunity
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