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VOL. CIII, NO. XLVI
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2019
atascaderonews.com • $1.00 • WEEKLY
Small Business Saturday Aims to Keep Holiday Spending Local Retailers entice customers with sales and other events By BRIAN WILLIAMS & MARK DIAZ brian@atascaderonews.com/mark@atascaderonews.com NORTH COUNTY — Once again, the holiday season arrived before everybody was ready, Christmas music is already seeping into stores and local businesses are gearing up for what they hope are substantial sales. Part of the holiday shopping trifecta that includes Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday sits in the middle of the super savings sandwich. Started by the American Express in 2010, the Small Business Saturday marketing event Nov. 30 focuses on mom-and-pop, brick-and-mortar stores while Black Friday and Cyber Monday push toward big box stores and online retailers, respectively. Businesses in North County have been busily preparing for the holiday shopping season. Sure there will be sales and discounts, but General Store Paso Robles is taking a different approach. CONTINUED ON PAGE A12
Workers at Hidden Springs Tree Farm hang a freshly-cut Christmas tree, preparing to use a machine to shake the tree to loosen dust, cobwebs and other accumulated bric-a-brac. Photos by Melissa Mattson
Keeping a Holiday Tradition Alive
Smelling Like a Dog Local event draws crowd for canine nose work By NICHOLAS MATTSON nic@atascaderonews.com ATASCADERO — Several dozen vehicles arrived at Santa Rosa Academic Academy in Atascadero on Saturday, populating the parking lot and covered in reflective blankets with the ambiance of a caravan waiting for the arrival of an alien space ship. But it was not a mini-convention of dooms-dayers, but an upper-level competition for canine nose work enthusiasts and their handlers. CONTINUED ON PAGE A12
Cut your own Christmas Tree at Hidden Springs Tree Farm By CAMILLE ANDERSON FOR THE ATASCADERO NEWS
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A spaniel breed canine heads to the second ‘hide’ ahead of her handler in Sunday’s vehicle search portion of the National Association of Canine Scent Work trial at Santa Rosa Academic Academy. Photo by Nicholas Mattson
elieve it or not, there was a time when families would venture into the woods and cut down their very own Christmas tree. Imagine bundling up your family with a thermos of cocoa in tow, a wagon, and scurrying around the snowy woods for the perfect pine tree. What if I told you that you can cut down your very own Christmas tree right here on the Central Coast? And don’t worry, you won’t end up with frostbite and a squirrel in your tree like Clark Griswald. At one point, there were more than 20 Christmas tree farms in North County alone. The first tree farm in the area was Hidden Springs Tree Farm in Atascadero. Fred and Wanda Frank, farmers from Minnesota, moved to Atascadero and purchased the property in the 1930s. Initially, they farmed hay, wheat, and fruit. Christmas trees were an unplanned venture. CONTINUED ON PAGE A12
Christmas Trees glow in the light of the setting sun at Hidden Springs Tree Farm. The farm will open for business for the season the day after Thanksgiving.
‘We Are The Care’ Coalition Forms to Tackle Child Care Crisis By MARK DIAZ mark@atascaderonews.com
SAN LUIS OBISPO — The house is clean with a smidgen of clutter as Christy pours a cup of coffee and reminds her 8-year-old son, Kaden, to get ready for school. Fall finally turned chilly for the Central Coast and she wonders if it will eventually turn too cold to drop him off at school in the morning and she doesn’t want to think about what happens if he gets sick. It’s the end of the year and she’s used up
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her five days of sick/vacation/personal days, she’ll just have to take the hit and lose a day of pay. Parent/teacher conferences start next week, which means Kaden gets out over an hour early all week and she’s still hammering out the details of who can pick him up and where can he be until she gets home. This scene plays out each morning throughout San Luis Obispo and across the country. Working parents are finding it harder each year to find a place to bring their children while they are working.
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In May 2019, a group of business and child care organizations held the “Where’s the Care?” town hall meeting in San Luis Obispo to confront the multitude of challenges that county residents face in the caretaking of their children. “We want to make sure, first and foremost, that we’re offering quality care for the children that are here with us every single day,” said Maggie Payne, Director of Toddler & Beginning Preschool Atascadero Children’s Center. “We want it to be affordable, but we also want to be able to offer our teachers a livable wage.”
ENTERTAINMENT
Therein lies the rub — it is nearly impossible to find the quality care that is both affordable for parents and sustainable for the teacher. Payne says that as a result she is seeing more and more teachers leaving the workforce and each teacher’s vacancy leaves less available spots for children. “The way that our child care systems are set up creates this bizarre paradox whereby it’s not affordable for families and it’s also not sustainable for the workforce in the [child care] profession,” said Wendy L Wendt, Executive Director CONTINUED ON PAGE A12
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JOHN’S VIDEO PALACE to Permanently Close Atascadero Location | A2
ATHLETES OF THE YEAR for Fall Sports | B1
NUTCRACKER BALLET Makes Return to TPAC | A7
33rd ANNUAL HOLIDAY LIGHTING Ceremony Set for Friday | B2
A True Community Bank
FORECAST | A10
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