Greetings, Lookout friends. Tuesday, June 30, has arrived, bringing a slight cooldown for Santa Cruz County, with upper 70s in the mountains and 60s at the beaches after the morning clouds burn off.
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Tania Ortiz starts us off with a look inside the interdepartmental negotiations that helped save funding for local arts organizations and produce a parks department budget that goes before county supervisors for approval today. The Arts Council and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History will see smaller cuts than originally proposed, while a number of county departments helped fill other gaps in the parks budget.
Caly Luna Plowman has a primer on local fireworks regulations ahead of the July Fourth holiday. Santa Cruz County has some of the strictest laws in the state, though “safe and sane” fireworks are OK in Capitola and Watsonville.
Pesticides are in focus in Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section, with Watsonville activist and retired nurse Kathleen Kilpatrick writing about a misleading statistic that’s been making the rounds recently and calling on Berry giant Driscoll’s to lead the way on reducing harmful chemicals rather than debating cancer numbers.
The Tuesday headlines also include the relaunch of a popular Santa Cruz e-bike rebate program – saddle up.
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How a massive outcry and a 15% compromise saved Santa Cruz County arts funding
Ahead of Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting, county staff have prepared a new parks budget proposal that preserves most of the county’s arts funding and avoids major cuts in services and programs offered by the department. Tania Ortiz has the story.
Santa Cruz County has some of the strictest fireworks laws in California. Here’s what you need to know ahead of July Fourth
Starting July 3 at 8 a.m., the Santa Cruz Police Department will enforce a citywide safety enhancement zone. This means fines for violations of the city’s municipal code, including the illegal discharge of fireworks, will be tripled. With thousands expected to flock to Santa Cruz from around the Bay Area this long weekend, here’s what you need to know about the fireworks laws ahead of July Fourth.
DAILY DIGEST
There’s plenty more on your Lookout plate today as we bid June adieu, including Lily Belli on Food, on of the many free newsletters and breaking news alerts you can sign up for here. You can also get breaking notifications with the Lookout Santa Cruz app, not to mention all of our award-winning local coverage and games, when you hit that download button in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Get social with us by following Lookout on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and/or Threads.
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Thanks for reading – be good, and I’ll see you next time.
Will McCahill