SanLuisObispo.com: Local

While county ponders terminal, local aviation company expands

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:48 PDT

A private aviation company that provides aircraft management and private jet charters at San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport plans to build an estimated $9.5 million corporate jet center.

Despite troubles in the aviation industry amid rising fuel costs, Aviation Consultants Inc. President William Borgsmiller thinks the Broad Street center will be successful because general aviation is not experiencing the same cutbacks as major airlines.

“It’s not that general aviation isn’t feeling the pinch,” he said. “It’s just not to the degree (that) commercial carriers are.”

County studying its options in wake of airlines’ exit

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:49 PDT

It will be the end of summer before the county can suggest with any firmness which way airport expansion should go, according to a status report the Board of Supervisors will hear Tuesday.

The county put expansion temporarily on hold early this month after two airlines said they would stop service to San Luis Obispo later this year. Rising fuel prices have siphoned money from local government and the airline industry alike.

Janette Pell, director of the county’s General Services Department, said in early July that she would have a report in 30 days. In the current report, however, she is calling for more time—until Sept. 9.

Hospitals fight trauma center plan

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:49 PDT

French Hospital Medical Center and Arroyo Grande Community Hospital have challenged a report that urges the county to pursue plans for a consolidated trauma center, prompting accusations that they are trying to undermine a competitor’s expansion plans.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the county Emergency Medical Services Agency, executives and physicians from the two hospitals strongly criticized a trauma assessment released in May by Bay Area consultant Diane Akers. They say her recommendation supporting a level II trauma center relied on flawed data that did not adequately reflect local demographics.

Proponents say the trauma center would provide more streamlined access to critical care for victims of severe car wrecks, fires and other events.

Big Money Bandit reportedly sipped coffee and watched as police responded to bank robbery he committed

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:51 PDT

New details released Thursday about a San Luis Obispo bank robbery describe how one alleged robber stayed behind to watch police handle the crime scene and how he burned cash wrappers and ate hamburgers with other suspects at a friend’s house, according to a search warrant.

The search warrant requesting phone records describes a group of men robbing the Downey Savings and Loan on South Higuera Street on Nov. 21.

One of the men, Leonard Jones, was tried for the robbery but a jury deadlocked in June on the charges. The District Attorney’s Office might retry the charges.

Fair delays highway 101/41 work in Atascadero

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:43 PDT

Northbound drivers on Highway 101 have been diverted onto two new lanes on a newly constructed portion of the bridge over Highway 41 in Atascadero.

But demolition of the old lanes — first scheduled for last week—won’t happen until August.

The demolition was postponed because some necessary equipment couldn’t be obtained in time. The work will not happen until after the California Mid-State Fair, which begins Wednesday and can cause heavier traffic along Highway 101 in North County.

Phil Dirkx: Safe? Sane? Hardly; but we are lucky when it comes to fireworks

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:42 PDT

Now is the time to decide whether to completely ban “safe and sane” fireworks.

They’re still permitted in a few jurisdictions in this county.

And some public-spirited organizations sell fireworks to support their budgets. They shouldn’t be kept wondering whether they can continue doing that.

County Roundup

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:53 PDT

Harmony

Workers on Monday will begin installing a left-turn lane that will allow southbound drivers on Highway 1 to enter Harmony Valley Road between Cambria and Cayucos.

The project should be completed by November, according to the county Department of Public Works.

County planners will continue working on plan for rural areas

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:51 PDT

County planners received the go-ahead this week to continue refining their proposals to plan growth throughout the county, with an emphasis on consolidation and working with others who will be affected, including cities.

The Board of Supervisors authorized the planning department to proceed with its Countywide Rural Plan, which will eventually frame where growth occurs and under what circumstances.

Supervisors also asked for more specific proposals on infrastructure and resources.

Women unleash their inner dragon

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:33 PDT

Exercising on a dock not far from the tourist shops and restaurants that line Morro Bay’s Embarcadero, the group of women in matching pink ball caps prepares to hit the water.

The members of the Central Coast Survive Oars dragon-boating team perform a series of stretches, led by their coach, Morro Bay occupational therapist Leslyn Keith. They share jokes, gentle teasing and memories of competitions past.

Then they push away from the dock, and the joking stops.

Handcuffed man tries to flee in sheriff's patrol car in Atascadero

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:55 PDT

A 20-year-old Atascadero man and his mother were arrested Wednesday after he reportedly slipped out of the back seat of a sheriff’s patrol car, drove away in it, then ditched it and fled in a vehicle driven by his mother.

Jordan Thomas McNamara was being held for questioning by Deputy Brent Rechtfertig around noon Wednesday about a recent North County burglary when, handcuffed, he allegedly managed to squeeze through a small Plexiglass vent window into the front seat of the patrol car and take off.

Rechtfertig was questioning a second suspect a few feet away. Sheriff’s Department spokesman Rob Bryn said the incident is being investigated.

SLO County has lower rate of high school dropouts than state

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:24 PDT

Far fewer high school students are dropping out each year in San Luis Obispo County compared with California’s average, state data released Wednesday reveal.

The grade-by-grade numbers, collected in a new way this year by the state Department of Education, show that based on data from 2006- 07, San Luis Obispo County has a projected four-year dropout rate of 15 percent. The statewide average is 24 percent.

Educators say it’s important for youngsters to stay in school because dropping out can limit career options and make admission to colleges or trade schools tougher.

Lawsuit against county and Sheriff Pat Hedges claims pot shop closure after raid violates constitutional rights

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:55 PDT

An Atascadero woman has sued the county and Sheriff Pat Hedges, claiming a raid last year that led to the closure of a Morro Bay marijuana dispensary violated her constitutional right to medicinal cannabis.

The case filed June 20 by Elaine McKellips, 56, illustrates an ongoing legal battle between conflicting state and federal laws surrounding medical marijuana use.

In her lawsuit, McKellips alleges that Hedges: •violated the state constitutional right of her and others to medical marijuana;

Bill Morem: Mandated algebra doesn’t add up

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:33 PDT

Hello. My name is Bill and I’m a nonalgebraic. I first recognized my shortcomings some 40 years ago in a ninth-grade algebra class, when I looked at something like ax4+bx3+cx2+_dx+e = 0 and thought: Why, that’s just plain gibberish.

Indeed, it wasn’t only gibberish in ninth grade, it remained gibberish in summer school and gibberish into my sophomore year when I managed to escape the land of evil equations with a stellar C for my efforts.

Yet I’ve come to accept my discalculexia, satisfied in the knowledge that I haven’t once used algebra in my adult working life.

Once near extinction, the abalone is coming back thanks to aquafarms on California’s coast

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:21 PDT

Carlsbad Aquafarm is growing a multimillion-dollar investment in a row of tanks alongside a tidal lagoon just outside San Diego.

In a process that has taken years to complete, microscopic abalone larvae have finally grown into fist-sized mollusks that can fetch $30 a pound from top-shelf restaurants and other buyers.

The operation is one of a dozen or so aquafarms along the California coast betting on the culinary comeback of the puck-shaped mollusks that were led to the brink of extinction by overfishing.

County Roundup

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:33 PDT

Grover Beach

An episode of a PBS show that was filmed in Grover Beach in March will air Monday.

A crew from the show “History Detectives” came to Grover Beach on March 14 to investigate an aluminum Airstream trailer that has been at a Le Sage Riviera Mobile Home Park property since 1968.

Where learning is a blast

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:52 PDT

Cal Poly is holding a camp for local high school students this week called Engineering Days — hoping to inspire them and encourage a more diverse group to pursue math, science and engineering careers.

Nearly half of the 96 students in attendance are minorities and girls, which the university said are lacking in the engineering field. According to Amy Hewes, a spokeswoman for Cal Poly’s College of Engineering, 86 percent of the university’s engineering students are male, 14 percent are female and 32 percent are minorities.

Campers learned how to launch rockets Tuesday. Lessons also include water filtration, solar panels and X-ray imaging.

SLO City Council denounces binding arbitration as irresponsible way to decide salaries

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:49 PDT

San Luis Obispo City Council members Tuesday denounced binding arbitration as an irresponsible way to decide salaries for municipal workers.

Several council members said the recent results of binding arbitration with the city’s police officers interferes with their ability to balance the budget and it makes fiscal accountability more difficult.

They also said it added rancor to the budgeting process.

County Supervisors’ meetings may start at 9 a.m. again

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:56 PDT

The Board of Supervisors this fall will end its short experiment in starting meetings at 8:30 a. m. and move back to 9 a. m., supervisors tentatively decided Tuesday.

To make up for the lost half-hour of meeting time, supervisors will start their afternoon meetings at 1:30 p. m. instead of the current 2 p. m.

The changes are tentatively set to begin at the board’s Sept. 9 meeting.

Stretch of Hwy. 41 East named for Bob and Pat Nimmo

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:55 PDT

Highway 41 between Atascadero and Creston was renamed Tuesday for longtime North County community members and activists Robert and Patricia Nimmo.

Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee wrote the resolution to rename the highway the Robert and Pat Nimmo Memorial Highway, which the Legislature passed Tuesday.

Robert Nimmo, a former Atascadero mayor, state legislator, Camp San Luis Obispo commander and aide to President Ronald Reagan, died at age 83 in November 2005.

South County Beat: Grover transit center work gets rolling

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:37 PDT

Residents in the Five Cities area will soon have an easier time taking the bus to concerts, community events and recreation at Ramona Garden Park in Grover Beach.

About 30 city officials and community residents gathered last week to celebrate the groundbreaking of the park’s new transit center.

Among those in attendance were Grover Beach Mayor John Shoals, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Nicolls, Councilman Chuck Ashton, City Manager Bob Perrault, Mike Cannon of Cannon Associates (the project’s engineering firm), Brian Johnsen of Granite Construction (the project’s contractor), Grover Chamber of Commerce President Glenn Martin, and Clifford Clark of the Exploration Station and Grover Beach Community Library.