62.1 F
Scotts Valley
October 7, 2025

1440 Multiversity Opens

It’s a holiday weekend. The beds are made. The silverware is polished. The windows are clean. The sidewalks are swept. The refrigerators and kitchen cabinets are full. The first guests arrive today.

CCD LINE SCAN CAMERA – MACHINE VISION

Press Release:-New Delhi, India BalaJi MicroTechnologies (BMT) is happy to release ultra high performance Line Scan Camera for machine vision & factory automation applications.With stroang in-house R&D & design efforts, we are happy to introduse wide range of line scan cameras which produces high quality images.

SLV water rates unveiled May 24

The Board of Directors of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District has scheduled two special public meetings on consecutive days next week, on May 24 and May 25.As of Wedesday, May 17,  the board had given little indication what the agendas of those meetings might be.The Wednesday, May 24 meeting will be at 6 p.m. at the Highlands Park Senior Center in Ben Lomond on the single topic, “Rate study.”At the last rate-study meeting, also at Highlands Park, directors said the next meeting about water rates would likely for the first time reveal proposed water rate options.The second special meeting will be at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 25 in the district’s operations building in Boulder Creek. Pending issues postponed from the board’s April 20 meeting include the Lompico surcharge, a pay increase for district manager Brian Lee, legal bills, and consideration of a change in law firms.The board held another special meeting on May 18, to hold a required public hearing on plans to mitigate the impact on the Mt. Hermon June Beetle of a project to build a new storage tank off Graham Hill Road.The plan will be sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for final review before the construction project can begin.The proposed project consists of replacing the existing 100,000 gallon redwood storage tank with one 527,000 gallon welded steel storage tank.

Cherie Anderson is new PB ad director

Cherie Anderson of Scotts Valley has been promoted to Advertising Director of the Press Banner, publisher Will Fleet announced this week.She had been an Advertising Representative with the newspaper.“Cherie brings a good combination of advertising experience and local community involvement,” Fleet said. Anderson brings 30 years of advertising, marketing, and management experience to her new position.She also is president of the Ambassadors for the Scotts Valley Chamber of Commerce. She and her husband Kevin were voted Co-Ambassadors of the Year in 2016.  “I’m very excited about what this new role means to me personally and professionally,” Anderson said. “The changes in our paper over the past year have been significant and positive.”“Many local business people are already familiar with Cherie through her activities in the Scotts Valley Chamber,” said Fleet. “I believe she is going to help us fulfill our community service mission, while also helping bring our business to the next level.”“My goal is to continue to develop new strategies that bring solutions for our business community, while maintaining the community focus and benefits,” said Anderson. “The most recent example of this has been our new Real Estate section, and there’s more to come.”Anderson succeeds Jeannette Close, who decided to pursue new opportunities out of the area.The Press Banner is owned by Tank Town Media, of which Ralph Alldredge and Will Fleet are co-publishers.

FAA study not complete

Three local Democratic members of Congress, Representatives Anna Eshoo, Jackie Speier, and Jimmy Panetta this week released a joint statement about the status of proposed changes to flight paths over their Congressional districts.In the announcement, the three members of Congress said the FAA will send its final recommendations on the Department of Transportation “within a month,” for final review and approval.Action by the FAA had been expected this month, on controversial plans to revise commercial jet flight paths over the Central Coast, Santa Cruz Mountains and the San Francisco Peninsula, to reduce noise and improve safety.The plan endorse by a split vote of local officials would shift many flights  north from the east side of Santa Cruz to the west side of Santa Cruz and the San Lorenzo Valley.In early December 2016, the final reports with recommendations of the Select Committee on South Bay Arrivals and the San Francisco International Airport/Community Roundtable were sent to the FAA for review and action.“Our offices have been engaged with the new Western-Pacific Regional Administrator of the FAA and his team since early this year, and we have continued to relay the public’s interest in a response to the recommendations as soon as possible,” the Congress members said in their joint statement.“Each of us has spoken directly with FAA Administrator Michael Huerta regarding the status of the FAA’s response to the 109 recommendations contained in these reports to address the ongoing issue of aircraft noise in our Congressional Districts.” They said that Huerta confirmed that he has received a draft response from his Western-Pacific team which has completed extensive technical work.Huerta told them his staff in Washington D.C. is conducting a final review of the document at this time.“Administrator Huerta told us that the FAA is committed to this Initiative process and continuing to work on the response to the recommendations,” they said.“We have been advised that the FAA will send their completed document to the Department of Transportation within a month for final review and authorization,” the joint statement said.“It is not known at this time how long the DOT will take to authorize the release of the response; we will continue to follow-up and will release the response as soon as we receive it,” said Speier, Eshoo and Panetta.

Firefighters to get new breathing equipment

The Ben Lomond Fire Protection District, on behalf of itself and the Boulder Creek, Felton and Zayante Fire Protection districts, has been awarded a $536,164 Assistance to Firefighters Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security.

Sheriff considers Boulder Creek station

Craig Wilson, Chief Deputy for the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, met with residents and business owners in Boulder Creek on April 25, at a meeting sponsored by the Boulder Creek Business Association and hosted by association president ustin Acton at his Boulder Creek Pizza and Pub.During that meeting, attended by 56 residents, there was discussion of more than a dozen public safety issues.This week, Wilson, along Sgt. Brian Cleveland and Crime Analyst Joshua Pastor reported back to the community, on behalf of Sheriff Jim Hart, in a lengthy post on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.Wilson reported that Cleveland was to meet this week with the patrol deputies who work in the Boulder Creek to coordinate patrols and other activities in the downtown area and the parks beginning the week of May 22. In a month, they said they would seek feedback on the effectiveness of their efforts.Following the community meeting, Hart met with Fifth District Supervisor Bruce McPherson to determine if it is possible to open a Sheriff’s Service Center in Boulder Creek. “We are continuing to explore options,” Wilson said“At this point, we are cautiously optimistic we may be able to identify and obtain a site.”Response times in rural areas are greater than in urban areas due to geography and staffing: Santa Cruz County contains 445 square miles with a population of 129,739 residents in the unincorporated areas; a Sheriff’s Office patrol team consists of 8 deputies and a sergeant, Wilson said.In 2015 the Sheriff’s Office average response time in the county was 9:58 minutes-seconds for priority calls. For comparison, the average emergency response time by the Fire Department was 7:08 minutes-seconds.Wilson said that Hart had reduced the number of vacant deputy positions from 22 to three in less than three years.Business owners had said problems of homeless people were growing in Boulder Creek.“Being homeless is not a crime, but trespassing and other illegal conduct is,” said Wilson. He said deputies will make contacts and work with property owners to reduce trespassing in the downtown area. Businesses experiencing issues may be asked to post signs or be available for contact after hours concerning persons encountered on their property.He also said that deputies will conduct foot patrols throughout their shift and contact persons in violation of the law at Barbara Day Park and Junction Park in Boulder Creek. He also said that deputies will arrest persons intoxicated in public and take them to the Recovery Center in Santa Cruz for release when they are sober; if the arrestee is combative they will be taken to jail.  They also will work with liquor and grocery stores to reduce sales to habitual inebriates.Wilson said that anyone who has information about persons selling drugs or locations where drug sales are occurring should email Sergeant Cleveland at [email protected]. If you see drug sales occurring in public, call 471-1121 to have patrol deputies respond and investigate,” he said.The Sheriff’s Office placed a marked patrol vehicle and a speed trailer in downtown Boulder Creek this week.The California Highway Patrol will add radar units, and conduct additional DUI patrols in the Boulder Creek area. Mail theft was a special concern of Boulder Creek residents. To eliminate or reduce mail theft, Wilson encouraged people to consider: removing mail from boxes everyday; depositing outgoing mail at post office drop box; not sending cash in the mail; requesting a vacation hold if leaving town for a few days; obtaining a post office box; installing lighting to allow mailboxes to stay illuminated at night; positioning surveillance cameras to cover mailboxes. 

Hollywood lawyer to MCT director

Peter Gelblum sits in the darkened, empty Park Hall in Ben Lomond and reflects on his former hectic life, when he was named One of the Best Lawyers in America – a life that saw him on the worldwide stage as part of the legal team that won a $33.5 million wrongful death judgment against O.J. Simpson.But he found that it was a profession with little creativity.“I hadn’t gone to a lot of plays,” remembers Gelblum of his 30 years working as a partner at Mitchell Siberberg & Knupp in Los Angeles. “I didn’t think about it at all.”But he found that it was a profession with little creativity.“I hadn’t gone to a lot of plays,” remembers Gelblum of his 30 years working as a partner at Mitchell Siberberg & Knupp in Los Angeles. “I didn’t think about it at all.”He certainly thought about drama when he walked past Park Hall shortly after renting a house in Ben Lomond in 2008.“I poked my head in one day and then got really involved,” he says. “Now it’s a very big part of my life.”In addition to serving as vice president of the theater board, Gelblum is currently directing Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, a comedy playing on weekends through May 28.Life has come full circle for Gelblum, who earned a performing arts degree at Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1974. He soon moved to New York City to ply his trade as an actor, working as a waiter between auditions.After a brief stop in San Francisco to work as stage manager for Hold Me!,Gelblum followed the play as an understudy when it moved to Los Angeles in 1977. He continued to pursue acting.Viewers can see him on YouTube as Ralph Donner, a psychopathic killer, on a 1978 Kojak episode entitled “Halls of Terror.”“I thought I’d made the big time,” he says, adding that his agent fired him after his big break. “I never worked again.”For “fun” he entered Southwestern School of Law and earned a degree summa cum laude in 1982. He soon began representing high-profile clients in civil courts of law.Goldblum fought for the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, against Napster’s ability to stiff artists, and represented the family of Fred Goldman, whose son, Ron, was brutally murdered along with Nicole Simpson in 1994 in the civil suit against O.J.Although Simpson was found not guilty of murder charges after a 1995 criminal trial, the Goldman’s filed civil charges in Santa Monica Superior Court in 1997.“It wasn’t about money,” says Gelblum, referring to the Goldman’s inability to pay for the massive legal tab. “There was no doubt in our minds that he (Simpson) had done it.”Gelblum oversaw the photographic expert witnesses and all of the punitive witnesses and evidence. Of the $33.5 million award, Simpson has paid the Goldman’s about $500,000, according to Gelblum.Gelblum’s work tying the photograph of the now-famous Bruno Magli shoes to Simpson is legendary, especially considering that the former football star said he would never wear those “ugly ass” shoes during his 10-day deposition.Twenty-two witnesses disputed Simpson’s version of the events.“He (Simpson) was very charismatic and completely unethical to truthfulness,” remembers Gelblum.Currently, Gelblum, who lives in Boulder Creek with wife Michel, is essentially retired, except for an appeals case in which he represents the heirs of Walt Disney in a matter that involves “several-hundred million dollars.”The couple discovered Big Basin while exploring an old-school style paper map while visiting friends in Corralitos. “We’d never heard of San Lorenzo Valley,” he says of their initial visit. “It was magical; everyone was so nice.”Gelblum was key in resurrecting the mountain theater company after it lost the rights to publish the stage version of Miracle on 34th Street, reducing the non-profit’s budget by about $12,000 annually.Gelblum and his attorney brother Seth came to the rescue and worked and at deal with the story’s owner, 20th Century Fox to get the rights back. He played Kris Kringle in the play from 2010 – 2012.Gelblum is currently working with a group of volunteers reviewing 30 plays that have been submitted for next year’s season. That number will be reduced to four productions.One thing is constant for Gelblum, and that’s believing in O.J. Simpson’s guilt as he comes up for a parole hearing this summer for a 2008 burglary conviction.“I don’t have any sympathy for him,” he says. “He got away with murder.”The Play: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Friday through Sunday, May 29, Friday and Saturday 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., Park Hall, 9400 Mill St., Ben Lomond

Drapers’ farm gives back to community

The two kindergarten classes piled into big yellow buses at Brook Knoll Elementary School on Friday, May 12, and headed north to another world.

Scotts Valley sees red in future budgets

The Scotts Valley City Council is reviewing a five-year financial plan that looks rosy this year but shows a decline in revenues beginning in 2021.

SOCIAL MEDIA

2,479FansLike
610FollowersFollow
762FollowersFollow
Greg Wimp

Sandwich shop owner appointed to Scotts Valley Council

As Greg Wimp, the owner of multiple area Togo’s sandwich shop locations, stepped up Oct. 1 to address Scotts Valley City Council about why...