Morning Lookout: Cabrillo going solar, Highway 236 closure looms and help for minority farmers

What’s up, Lookout fam? It’s Thursday, May 4, and we’re due some clearing and sunnier skies around Santa Cruz County, with temperatures in the upper 50s and low 60s.

There’s plenty new on Lookout, and if you’re caffeinated and ready to explore, have at it.
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With a swimmer in the family who uses the Cabrillo College pool, I’ve been curious about the solar panels going up in the parking lots at the Aptos campus — and lo, Hillary Ojeda is along with details on the project, which is on track for completion by fall.

In the Santa Cruz Mountains, meanwhile, a different project is set to get underway, Max Chun reports: Starting Monday, Highway 236 will be closed for more than a month as Caltrans fortifies temporary repairs made amid the winter’s devastating storms.

And in Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section, a trio of writers addresses the plight of small farmers, mainly Latinx, who have seen their operations nearly wiped out by the winter’s storms and are in dire need of help from the federal, state and local levels.

Thursday’s headlines await ...

Cabrillo College’s new solar panels nearing completion

(Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz)

The $2.5 million project to create 26 solar-powered carport canopies at Cabrillo College’s Aptos campus could save the school $6 million in energy costs over the next decade and as much as $15 million within 20 years. Hillary Ojeda reports.

➤ MORE FROM CABRILLO: Cabrillo College down to 85 suggested new names for school

Minority farmers on the Central Coast need relief now!

(Via Ami Chen Mills)

Small, mostly Latinx farmers across the Central Coast need more help than they are getting, write farmworker advocates Josefina Lara Chavez, Ronnie Lipschutz and Ann Lopez. These small farmers provide vegetables to local markets, including New Leaf, Staff of Life and our local farmers markets, but most lost their livelihoods in the winter storms and still remain unable to grow and sell crops. That has potentially left up to 750 farms with little or no income to cover their families’ and farms’ needs. “In the past, these farmers might have been able to return to fieldwork on larger farms, but even those have postponed planting due to storm damage,” the advocates argue. Read their Community Voices opinion piece.

➤ MORE LOCAL OPINION: Undocumented families in Pajaro need support: FEMA should not operate like an insurance company

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A lot happening as we hit Thursday and head toward the weekend ... and that’s the cue for Wallace Baine, who will be along later with his latest recommendation-packed roundup of news and notes from the Santa Cruz County arts and entertainment scene. Sign up here to get Wallace’s Weekender and all of our other newsletters delivered right to you, and take advantage of our breaking news alerts via email and text while you’re there. Lookout is on the socials, too; follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date.

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Have a most excellent Thursday — you got this!

Will McCahill
Lookout Santa Cruz