Never one to win a popularity contest amongst his fellow Santa Barbara School boardmembers, Bob No»l was once again on the hot seat last Tuesday as he officially pitched his plans for a new charter high school. Last month, No»l shocked the board with the announcement that he had received nearly $500,000 in state start-up funds to create a new charter school.
After falling in and out of escrow numerous times in recent months, it appears that the historic and stunningly beautiful Jalama and Cojo Ranches have officially sold this week – all it took was a cool $135 million.
On the final day of 2006-and a matter of hours after Saddam Hussein was executed-the official death toll of U.S. servicemembers serving in Iraq reached 3,000 with the passing of Dustin Donica. The death of the 22-year-old Texas-born infantryman capped off the bloodiest month of fighting in the past year.
The reviewer first came across this band while stoking an early morning fire at a friend’s home a few miles north of Big Sur while looking for a soundtrack to his pre-breakfast duties. He discovered a perfectly balanced ensemble of banjos, fiddles, a harmonica, and a stand-up bass.
On a day when it seemed more than likely that the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors would pass the proposed Uniform Rules changes-the ordinances that govern some 550,000 acres of privately owned local land currently under the Williamson Act contract-late-hour accusations claiming conflict of interest on the part of 3rd District Supervisor Brooks Firestone forced the board to once again punt the controversial decision.
A month after winning reelection to the Santa Barbara School Board, Bob No»l took the first step toward delivering on his main campaign promise at Tuesday’s board meeting-and it turned out the reality of his campaign was far from what the other boardmembers had expected. Completely surprising his collegues, No»l proudly announced he had recently received some $405,000 in startup grant money from the state to pursue his goal of opening a charter school for grades 7-12 in the Santa Barbara School District. But the year ahead promises more than a few challenges if No»l is to realize his dream.
It took nearly a year, but 3rd District Supervisor Brooks Firestone finally gave his Santa Ynez Valley constituents the Uniform Rules public workshop they’ve been asking for. More than 100 landowners, farmers, ranchers, and environmentalists turned out Tuesday night at the Veterans’ Memorial Building in Solvang to listen to Firestone and county staff spell out the details of the proposed Uniform Rules changes and their implications for the approximately 550,000 acres of local Williamson Act agricultural land they govern.
The king of high-profile real estate deals sets his sights on the Cojo Ranch.
Even the staunchest skeptic would have a hard time denying that higher forces seemed to be at work in recent weeks as the UCSB men’s soccer team marched to its first-ever national championship title, which the team earned last weekend on a bitterly cold, ice-covered pitch in St. Louis, Missouri. Unseeded and just a matter of months removed from a very mediocre mid-season record of 7-6…
It has been almost exactly two years since the Santa Barbara School Board decided to explore the possibility of developing their two open-space property holdings in the name of district revenue and perhaps employee housing.
