A Santa Cruz native and Scotts Valley resident for over 15 years hopes to bring his passion for community service to his position on the board of trustees for the Scotts Valley Unified School District.

As a horticultural consultant and certified master arborist, Ruth Stiles has gained experience working with water efficiency in the landscape setting. It was her interest in water efficiency that first prompted her to apply for an appointed position to the Scotts Valley Water District (SVWD) board of directors in December 2014 after Jay Mosley vacated the seat. Now, Stiles is up for re-election this November to continue as a board of director for SVWD.

In a contested race for three seats on the Scotts Valley Water District Board of Directors, Dave Hodgin is the longest serving incumbent running for his fourth term on the board. Initially appointed to the board in 2003, Hodgin has seen the district through rate increases, drought and a collapsed well.

The town of Felton is 150 years old, and townsfolk are gearing up to throw a grand anniversary bash. The town party will include historical presentations of Felton's early days, which will be on display at Felton Community Hall and the Felton Fire Station, 4 bands, dancing, various other entertainment and of course, lots of local food and drink, shopping, kids events, crafts and more.

Running for his third full term as a member of the Scotts Valley City Council,  Jim Reed says the city is “right on the cusp” of realizing some major long term goals, particularly the Town Center Project, and after all these years of planning and preparation, Reed wants to be part of getting it built.

The ground was officially broken for the new Felton Library last Saturday, which brought together a large group of dedicated community members, several local elected officials and many county staff members to celebrate. The symbolic act of turning a shovel of dirt didn’t take long, but represented the culmination of more than a decade of collaborative effort to build a brand new, 8,900 square foot library in Felton.

As just a regular homeowner and rate-payer, Wade Leishman took a special interest in the Scotts Valley Water District (SVWD) when rate hikes were discussed toward the end of 2016. Leishman started attending SVWD board meetings regularly and got up to speed on the issues behind the rate increase. Before long, Leishman impressed the district directors with his grasp of the issues for them to appoint him as a board director in July 2017. The seat was unexpectedly left vacant by the death of long-serving director Ken Kannegaard.

Many local residents have by now noticed the recent “base camp” for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) that suddenly appeared on the former Sky Park Airport early last week. The “base camp” is in response to the recent and dramatically increasing wildfire threat, according to PG&E.  The “base camp” looks like a military outpost with temporary canvas buildings, klieg lights and a huge fleet of Davey Tree trucks. The press release sent out by PG&E explains, “Vegetation work is expected to take place between now and the end of the 2018 wildfire season.

When the land use and permitting codes of the county’s cannabis ordinance were hotly debated last spring, many folks in the San Lorenzo Valley expressed real doubt about the county’s ability to enforce those codes in the more remote, hide-away places tucked away from view in the mountains surrounding the valley.