The city of Carpinteria has received a $1.62 million grant from the California State Coastal Conservancy to fund Carpinteria’s Living Shoreline Project, city spokesperson Olivia Uribe-Mutal said last week. 

The Warrior Pool Foundation – which was formed in January 2024  – will host a series of Plunge and Pints events this summer to fundraise for a new state-of-the-art pool facility for the Carpinteria High School Aquatics Program. 

Carpinteria’s The Howard School – a Carpinteria private school that serves preschool through eighth grade students – raised $68,000 during its fundraising auction on Saturday, April 27. Auction attendees gathered at Lions Park for a night of bidding, food catered by Chef Rick Rossignol and l…

A long-awaited Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors hearing on cannabis odor control ended in a split vote last week, as three board members voted for more study, and two said they were frustrated by the delay.

Rodney Chow, a Carpinteria apple farmer, is this year’s speaker at the Friends of the Carpinteria Library annual meeting. Ahead of the meeting, Chow – a Korean War veteran who will turn 95 on May 27 – spoke with CVN about growing up in Los Angeles in the 1930s and ‘40s, his history in the ar…

Seven students from Carpinteria High School (CHS) recently took part in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) leadership program in Ojai, along with more than 200 other students from California. 

Editor’s Note: This was submitted for publication in CVN by Compassionate Care of Carpinteria, in recognition of CCC’s sixth annual luncheon. 

Olivia Renaker of Direct Relief International (DRI) recently spoke to the Rotary Club of Carpinteria Noon, discussing services offered by her agency, as well as how DRI connects with other agencies during a disaster. The club gave a check Olivia for DRI, to help support the organization’s work. 

Six students from Canalino Elementary School participated in the Santa Barbara County Education Office’s (SBCEO) Battle of the Books on Thursday, April 25, including Sam Pitterle, Hallie Mayer, Lea Hines, Lulah Rowe, Aubrey Edmonson and Frankie Stewart.

Mike and Diane Wondolowski of Carpinteria ventured down to Mazatlán, Mexico to witness the total solar eclipse on April 8, snapping a photo with their copy of CVN just before the eclipse began. During the week leading up to the eclipse, Mike told CVN, the pair “socialized and traded experien…

Carpinterians Robert and Christine Thompson recently spent nearly three weeks visiting islands in the South Pacific, including Sydney, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and its Mystery Island, the Fiji Islands, American Samoa, Bora Bora, Moorea, Papeete and others. The couple is pictured at the KULA Ad…

In April, we checked in with Mike Davis, another member of Rincon’s surf diaspora who lives in the South Pacific. Now of Noosa Heads in Australia, Davis (b. 1947) grew up in Santa Barbara in the early 1960s and became a regular fixture in the local surf scene at the Point. 

Santa Barbara County – with SBRoads, Caltrans and the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) – will host a roundabout celebration on Thursday, May 2 to celebrate the completion of the Olive Mill and San Ysidro roundabouts. 

Dogs and their owners crowded at Monte Vista Dog Park on Saturday, April 20 for the off-leash dog park’s grand opening, celebrating with free hot dogs and a day of play. 

The Rotary Club of Carpinteria’s 15th annual talent showcase brought Carpinteria’s talent front and center at the Alcazar Theatre on Saturday, April 20. The show – hosted by John Palminteri – raises money for the Carpinteria Unified School District, funding the purchase of instruments, books…

Members and supporters of the Carp Surf Team swapped out their surfboards for skateboards for a fundraising night at the Carpinteria Skate Park on Friday, April 19. With skateboard, surfboard, e-bike raffles and more – and a showing of the classic surf film “North Shore” – attendees snacked …

Code Compliance Supervisor David Hernandez shared the quarterly code compliance report with the council on Monday, highlighting code compliance stats from January through March 2024. 

The Carpinteria City Council unanimously passed a proclamation during its Monday, April 22 meeting recognizing the local history and impact of The Alcazar Theatre as it celebrates its 96th anniversary. 

Many Carpinterians can relate to the rush of catching the perfect wave. But for Andrew Byron, a local paraglider, the perfect wave is in the sky. 

The nonprofit Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network began on Tuesday treating large numbers of emaciated and dehydrated California Brown Pelicans that were found across Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, Wildlife Care spokesperson Rachel Mattovich said on Wednesday. Deceased pelicans were als…

Isla Jaynes, Kacy Kramer and Otto Layman each took home winning titles in the 2024 Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center poetry contest; the three were honored at the center during a reception on Saturday, April 14, where they read their poems aloud at the art center’s 865 Linden Ave. campus. 

Linden Studio’s Leigh Sparks hosted a grand reopening for her gallery on Saturday, April 20, inviting the Carpinteria community to view the works of six local artists. Patrons, friends and family gathered in the back garden to celebrate the gallery expansion with food and refreshments betwee…

The Lions Club of Carpinteria recently spent a Saturday preparing a portion of the Girls Inc. of Carpinteria’s campus for the Lions’ upcoming butterfly garden, a President’s Service Project which will be revealed on June 1.

Members of Carpinteria Beautiful – in collaboration with Muralism and Carpinteria Middle School – spent their Saturday turning two cement planters in the middle school quad into works of art, Carpinteria Beautiful’s Bryan Mootz told CVN. The volunteer-run group was joined Saturday by middle …

Built in the 1950s, La Casa Del Sol Motel offered travelers a warm bed and a roof over their heads with simple rooms alongside Coast Highway, now Carpinteria Avenue. The original sign remains, and the once-motel now offers long-term rentals. 

The Coast Highway, now Carpinteria Avenue, was once a service station hot spot. Motorists heading up or down the coast flowed through town and often stopped to fuel up on gas, food and a short rest. In “Images of America: Carpinteria,” authors describe the photo above with the following: “Th…

El Sereno Motel at 3250 Via Real once offered pleasant accommodations for travelers passing through town or stopping over for a polo match at the adjacent Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club. Eventually the motel was converted into apartments before being razed for a neighborhood development.

Carpinterian Michael Solano recently returned from a trip to West Bengal, India, bringing along his copy of CVN and snapping a photo at the Belur monastery on the bank of the Ganges River.

The Alcazar Theatre – at 4916 Carpinteria Ave. – will celebrate its 96th anniversary on Wednesday, April 24, spokesperson Debbie Nomura confirmed to CVN.

Carpinteria businesses that submit permanent parklet plans to the city prior to July 1 will be allowed to keep their temporary parklets in place while they go through the formal city review process, per a city council decision made during the council’s Monday, April 8 meeting. 

Carpinteria is no exception to the statewide housing crisis in California, but community members are concerned that current developer solutions look better on paper than next to their long-established neighborhoods – and the Lagunitas Apartments and Mixed-use Project proposed for the 6300 bl…

The Carpinteria City Council passed three proclamations during its Monday, April 8 meeting, honoring the Rotary Club of Carpinteria Noon, and designating April 2024 as Fair Housing Month and April 7–13 as National Library Week. 

Dog owners and their four-legged friends are invited to celebrate the official grand opening of the Monte Vista Off-Leash Dog Park this Saturday, April 20; the opening was pushed from April 13 due to rain. 

Carpinteria Middle School (CMS) will hold its first-ever CMS Color Run – where students are sponsored to run while being doused in colors – on Friday, April 26, orchestrated by Parents for Carpinteria Middle School (PFCMS). 

Carpinteria Children’s Project (CCP) will host an information night for its Dual Language Early Childhood Education program at its facility, 5201 Eighth St., on Friday, May 3, at 5:30 p.m.