Local News

Monte Sereno has voted to appoint Kirsten Powell, Scotts Valley’s top legal official, as its new city attorney. The new post in Silicon Valley, however, doesn’t mean she’s quitting her gig with the Santa Cruz County municipality. On June 6, Monte Sereno City Council voted unanimously...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors took the first step in updating the county’s climate action strategy, a response to global warming and its effects on infrastructure and the people who live here. Updating the County’s Climate Action Plan—first adopted in 2013—is...

After a bit of a snag in the legislative process, Congress approved a $1.4 million allocation to replace a Scotts Valley childcare facility that’s in such bad shape it’s a danger zone. Scotts Valley Vice Mayor Jim Reed remembers the time his own child was...

Anna Paganelli, now 54, was house-sitting for a friend at a cabin in Boulder Creek—where she also used to live—as she struggled with one of the most traumatic situations of her life. The umbilical cord of one of the twin girls growing inside her...

The candidate nomination period for the upcoming Nov. 8 election opened on July 18, and several potential political candidates have pulled papers to run for various offices. The Scotts Valley City Council will have two seats—those currently held by Vice-Mayor Jim Reed and City Councilman...

Kristin Ard, a longtime municipal worker who’s been battling cancer, is suing the City of Scotts Valley for disability discrimination. Known affectionately around town as “Kard,” she was at the helm of the Recreation Division since taking over from Conrad Sudduth in 2012. Back then, according...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—In a busy but brisk Tuesday morning session, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors approved several items which could change the county’s Transient Occupancy Tax and the rules regarding the sale of flavored tobacco. The board also heard the first reading of...

The 2023 State of the Workforce report by the Santa Cruz County Workforce Development Board (WDB) shows that the local economy is experiencing a robust recovery in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, recovering faster than the state and the rest of the country. Overall,...

Around the bend of the San Lorenzo River from a section recently rehabilitated with long grasses, buzzing insects and wildflowers, bicycle carcasses lay strewn outside a tent. An intricate woodcarving adorned the entrance to another. A dog carried a skateboard in its mouth, tugging...

Mark Meyer, 61, headed out of town for a wedding over the weekend, and on Sunday when he returned, pulling into his spacious driveway perched at the top of rural Scotts Valley near Lodato Park, he noticed a protrusion along the ridgeline toward Aptos. The...