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Sanitary district IDed as cause of stench
This week’s listings on the back page
High voltage competition
An investigation into the origins of a foul odor recently noted throughout downtown Carpinteria implicated operations at the Carpinteria Sanitary District on Jan. 22. The Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District conducted the investigation after multiple complaints were lodged at city hall regarding a pervasive stench. According to APCD inspection specialist glenn gazdecki, Sanitary District officials initially believed that the local sewage treatment plant was not the source of the odor, but upon further examination, it became clear that the plant’s open air digester was the cause. Officials immediately took action to adjust pumps and increase airflow, which seems to have resolved the problem, gazdecki said. Atmospheric conditions—low cloud cover and little wind—may have exacerbated the issue. gazdecki emphasized that the CSD has been highly cooperative during the investigation, which is ongoing. CSD has begun the city permitting process for new digester tanks.
Father Martini mania
New St. Joe’s pastor arrives to fanfare, suspicion By Peter Dugré
A soft-spoken, approachable Monsignor Richard Martini visited with the volunteers at St. Joseph Resale Shop late last year and soon after his arrival as the new pastor at St. Joseph Catholic Church. The new local pastor was taking a page out of Catholic head honcho Pope Francis’s book, a man who has taken the world by storm with his emphasis on being with—not above—the people. Parishioners in Carpinteria were responsive to Martini’s outreach efforts, according to Marilyn Bjork, a resale shop volunteer and church devotee, and the 5:30 p.m. mass on Saturday nights, one of two English language sessions every weekend, began drawing three times the number of attendees as it had before Martini. Before long, the relatable new pastor filled pews at all four weekend masses, according to Bjork. “The personality he’s brought to mass is refreshing,” stated Anthony Zamaripa, a volunteer at church services. Martini quoted Pope Francis: “If a priest wants to be a shepherd, then he has to smell like sheep.” Then in January, when it seemed Carpinteria’s Catholic institution was gaining steam, much like the church around the globe with its Time Magazine Person of the Year “People’s Pope,” the sex-abuse scandal that once rocked the church to its core suddenly and hauntingly reappeared. Martini had been implicated and his accuser paid off in a mass settlement reached
SuBMITTED
Noe Lopez, an electrician with Radis Electric of Carpinteria, qualified for the final round of the Ultra Pro Challenge Contractor Competition at the International Builder’s Show in Las Vegas on Feb. 5. Results from the national competition were unavailable before press time. Lopez, a 16-year employee of Radis, won the local level contest last year, beating over 600 competitors nationwide to make the final round of eight who competed in Las Vegas for the grand prize, a 2014 Ford F150 truck. The contest challenges electricians to install a product in the shortest amount of time. between the Los Angeles Archdiocese and hundreds of accusers in 2007 for $660 million—despite a private church investigation finding the single accusation from an alleged incident against Martini in 1991 was false. Martini maintains that his willingness to be named in the settlement was to expedite the decision to allow real victims to put the civil suit behind them and begin healing. “I took a bullet for the Archdiocese, so to speak,” Martini said. “However, my good name pales in comparison to the healing of the victims.” Even though a private investigator and former FBI agent hired by the church found the accusation levied against Martini—that he fondled a high school boy while in a pool playing water polo—to be unfounded, he still pays a price as the accusations continue to follow him. He was never criminally investigated due to the statute of limitations. When Martini took a post at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School in Santa Clarita in 2010, families of students at the school were outraged that his arrival wasn’t announced with full disclosure of the past ac-
St. Joe’s continued on page 4 Monsignor Richard Martini, a new addition to St. Joseph Catholic Church known for delivering a relatable homily, recently has had to take time out from guiding the church to explain his link to a 10-year-old sex-abuse lawsuit against the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
DugRé