This Week on the Central Coast…
Local artists beautify our cities and Salinas adds an Early Learning Program.
Monterey
Monterey Fire Department is requesting the public’s input
The Monterey Fire Department is putting together a wildfire protection plan and is asking local communities for their input. The plan will cover Monterey, Pacific Grove, and Carmel-by-the-Sea and analyzes the community for wildfire hazards and at-risk assets from fires.
The survey will be open until May of this year.
Painted dumpsters adorn Lover’s Point
A beautification project for Lover’s Point was started between the city of Pacific Grove, Sustainable Pacific Grove, and the surrounding businesse in 2021. Now, the first part of the project has been realized. Artist Sandy Sanjurjo and her team painted the dumpsters around Lover’s Point with schools of fish on an ocean-blue background.
The second part of the project will see local artists or youth painting the other bins at the park. The idea is to blend the normally-dull items at the park into the beautiful scenery.
Colleen Ingram of Sustainable Pacific Grove hopes the project “encourages the public to pick up their trash and keep Lover’s Point Park as picturesque as they found it, painted dumpsters and all.”
Salinas
New Early Learning Program Center at Hartnell College
A new Early Learning Program (ELP) center was built in Hartnell’s east campus. “(Its) location was strategically planned so that Hartnell College student adult learners with children will have the opportunity to attend school and further their education while their children are enrolled at the center,” said Monterey County Superintendent of Schools Deneen Guss.
The center will feature three Head Start classrooms and a State Inclusion classroom and will focus on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. The ELP will offers part day and extended day care options to help prepare kids in multiple ways for their future in education and life while their parents attend their normal classes.
Additionally, the ELP will be available at no cost to income-eligible families.
Santa Cruz
The newly-remodeled Aptos library will feature sculptures by a local artist
Local artist Lea de Wit of Boulder Creek was contracted to design, fabricate, and install new artwork at Aptos Library. Current work is planned for the teen and kids sections of the library. The teen section panels will feature blue waves inspired by the Monterey Bay. The kids section panel will be inspired by the flora and fauna of the Aptos redwoods.
Lea de Wit will also collaborate with the library and Aptos High School art students for more ideas of Bay Area imagery.
Actor Pepe Serna visited PVUSD schools
Pepe Serna has acted in over 100 films, including roles in The Jerk and Scarface. This week, to kick off the Watsonville Film Festival, the actor visited students at six schools in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District.
The collaboration was made possible by the festival’s partnership between the district and the Youth Cinema Project, which tasks students in the program “with creating a film and premiering it at the end of the year.” According to a study at Stanford showed that the program has helped students perform better across several topics, including language arts and math.