In April, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies learned that an elderly man had made a series of large cash investments and loans to an auto restoration business on the west side of Santa Cruz, and feared he would not recover the money.

UPDATE:

The Board of Directors of the San Lorenzo Water District voted last week to declare its original home – and the home of its predecessors – as “surplus property,” with the intent to sell the small frame administration building on Highway 9 in Boulder Creek.

Scotts Valley homes and businesses connected to city sewer lines face bigger waste treatment fees for three years beginning Sept.1, totaling 52 percent over three years.

The 7,900 customers of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District face bigger water bills, totaling 61.5 percent over five years for a typical family — 29 percent in the first year, beginning Nov. 1.

The two-decade-old Town Center project has ground to a halt, as developer Foothill Partners and City of Scotts Valley are unable to agree to terms with the City of Santa Cruz.

Four years ago, when the San Lorenzo Valley Water District voted to raise water rates 65 percent over five years, it said the money would be used for infrastructure repairs and to build a new “campus” consolidating offices in a single location in Boulder Creek. The district had already spent $2.2 million three years earlier to buy the campus site.