Another Winter Storm Brings Some Snow to the Valley

By Mike Chaldu michael@santaynezvalleystar.com

After dealing with the January storms that caused flooding and a lot of other damage in the area, the Santa Ynez Valley, along with the rest of the Central Coast, dealt with another storm starting on Feb. 23. This one wasn't quite as damaging for the Valley, but it definitely had its challenges: Difficult driving conditions, power outages, and, yes, even snow.

Most notably, snow fell on San Marcos Pass on Highway 154 and got heavy enough for Caltrans to close the road Feb. 23 between the State Route 246 and 192 junctions between 12:43 and 2:40 p.m. A California Highway Patrol report said that 30 to 40 vehicles were stuck in the snow at 12:50 p.m. Road and traffic conditions were also hazardous around Santa Barbara County: Highway 154 was closed temporarily again on Sunday due to a traffic collision. Highway 1 into Lompoc was closed last week because of erosion on the edge of the road near Santa Rosa Road. Finally, traffic on Highway 101 got a little heavier because of the closure of the Grapevine on Interstate 5 due to the snow. However, that road was opened on Thursday.

Meanwhile, much of the Santa Ynez Valley lost power on Friday, Feb. 24, with some stores reportedly having to close temporarily until power was restored in the afternoon.

As far as rainfall, the local areas picked up quite a bit in the 24 hours between 8 a.m. Feb. 24 and 8 a.m. Feb. 25. Totals showed Buellton with 2.84 inches in that span (4.13 for the storm overall), Los Alamos with 3.40 (5.73), and Santa Ynez with 3.92 (5.52). Cachuma Dam picked up 5.38 inches in that 24 hours (7.33 for the storm), which necessitated a release from Bradbury Dam of 25,000 cubic feet per second of water. The release brought about a rare site: A free-flowing Santa Ynez River all the way through Lompoc.

The storm subsided by Thursday, March 2, and the forecast is in the 60s and partly cloudy through this week.

Meanwhile, the Santa Ynez Valley Association of REALTORS® and the Santa Barbara Association

•

Roof Catches Fire at Pea Soup Andersen's Restaurant

Santa Barbara County Fire crews were able to confine and put out a small fire that started on the roof of the Pea Soup Andersen's restaurant in Buellton just after midnight on Monday, Feb. 27.

According to Scott Safechuck of County Fire, flames were seen on the roof of the restaurant, located at 310 Ave. of Flags, by a passerby, who called 911 at approximately 11:40 on Sunday night. County Fire responded and confined fire to the southwest corner of the roof exterior and had it knocked down at 12:02 a.m. Monday, according to Safechuck.

The fire did not affect the Pea Soup Andersen's Inn hotel next door and no injuries reported. A restaurant employee who answered the phone Monday said the business was not affected either and was open for business. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Solvang Now Enforcing Against Prohibited Sign Types

The City of Solvang on March 1 started enforcing the 29 sign types that are listed as prohibited in the Solvang Municipal Code (found online at library.qcode.us/lib/solvang_ ca/pub/municipal_code/item/title_11-chapter_13-11_13_5.

The city hired Community Service Officer Jennifer Calbillo, who will be working in the evenings, and on weekends and holidays. She is spent her first month going to each business to introduce herself, according to the city. According to the city, the prohibited signs seen the most in Solvang are portable commercial signs, like the sandwich board signs or A-frame signs, and neon or LED signs, which are not allowed in the Village Area except for specific situations like vacancy signs for ho-