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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021
GOVERNMENT
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BUSINESS
North County Restaurants Receive Warning From State Alcohol Beverage Control Local restaurants struggle with uncertainty and adjusting to new rules to stay in business
City Council Adopts Emergency Ordinance, Comprehensive Financial Strategy By CONNOR ALLEN connor@atascaderonews.com ATASCADERO — The Atascadero City Council came together on Tuesday night to review and file the City of Atascadero’s Comprehensive Financial Strategy and adopt an emergency ordinance affirming the orders of the State of California, County Emergency Services Director and County Public Health Office. Tuesday’s meeting began with a proclamation presented to R.I.S.E. recognizing February as teen dating violence awareness month. Councilwoman Susan Funk had the honor of reading the declaration. “Teen dating violence awareness month calls attention to the fact that teen dating violence is widespread and impacts every young person in San Luis Obispo County,” Funk read. “And whereas according to the C.D.C., one in 11 female teens and one in 15 male teens reported experiencing physical violence in the last year.” Janae Sargent of R.I.S.E. joined the zoom meeting to accept the proclamation. Following the presentation, the Council recognized the City’s Planning Commission’s outgoing members. Five members were leaving the Planning Commission. Duane Anderson, Michael Shaw, Jan Wolff and Tom Zirk received kind words and an award. Recently appointed City Council Member Mark Dariz has also left the Planning Commission but did not receive a fancy gift. City Manager Rachelle Rickard joined the zoom next to give CONTINUED ON PAGE A15
COUNTY
Supervisors Address Concerns with Homelessness and Financial Constraints Board voted to authorize initiating litigation against Sprouse Communications By MELISSA MATTSON melissa@atascaderonews.com
Again, these restrictions included dining outside, even if customers were dining outside with take-out orders. Restaurant owners have been handling COVID restrictions in their separate ways. They comply with the restrictions as they are able to continue to keep their business open. Many owners have allowed customers to eat their take-out orders on their patios, and some have allowed regular outdoor dining in an effort to keep their businesses alive. But after receiving calls from ABC, restaurant owners with liquor licenses were warned their licenses could be in jeopardy if custom-
SAN LUIS COUNTY — The Board of Supervisors met for a regularly scheduled meeting at 9 a.m. on Feb. 9. The meeting began with the consent agenda, which was passed by the Board with a 5-0 vote. Next, Penny Borenstein, the Public Health Director, spoke on agenda item 19, the COVID19 update. While the county has seen an increase in the last three months, she states, “we are definitely moving in the right direction,” with the positivity rate dropping from the all-time high of 11.1 percent in January to 5.9 percent last week. Borenstein ended her report with an update on the state’s position on religious services in terms of COVID-19 regulations. This comes directly after the Supreme Court gave a partial win to churches fighting California’s limits on indoor worship services. Borenstein stated that while formerly banned, religious entities are now permitted to hold indoor services with 25 percent capacity in the purple and red tier and 50 percent when counties move to orange or yellow. The one remaining restriction being that singing and chanting is still prohibited due
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Colony Market and Deli owners Joanna and Shayne Wemple (left) with their team, Ricardo Macias, Jeff Humphrey, and McKinzie Bishop, explain that the restaurant business is not for the weak of heart but they are overwhelmed by the community support. Photo by Hayley Mattson
By CAMILLE DeVAUL camille@atascaderonews.com NORTH COUNTY — It is probably safe to say that restaurant owners are exhausted from the constant pivoting they have had to do to comply with COVID restrictions almost across the board. On Dec. 3, California announced a regional stay at home order which included San Luis Obispo County under the Southern California region. For restaurants, this meant they could be open for take-out or pick-up only. In December of 2020, many restaurant owners in North County received a violation
letter from the State Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) Department. In Templeton, 15 Degree C Wine Shop & Bar and Colony Market and Deli in Atascadero are two of many North County restaurants that received a warning from the ABC. Colony Market received a violation letter in December for having customers dining outside. 15 Degree C was notified later over the phone they had violations for customers dining inside or outside the restaurant. During the week of Jan. 22, these restaurants’ owners received a call from ABC warning that they will be enforcing restrictions made by the State Government during the stay at home order.
CONSTRUCTION
AHS Finishes Renovations, New Science and Shop Buildings By CONNOR ALLEN connor@atascaderonews.com ATASCADERO — While it is still unclear when exactly students will be able to return to campus at Atascadero High School, one thing that is for certain is they will have some brand new state of the art facilities to occupy when they do. Over the past few years, and indeed while the campus has sat mostly empty with students forced into distance learning in 2020, AUSD has been working to modernize and renovate the campus and has also built the first piece of new construction in over 20 years. Last week, the Atascadero News took a tour of the new AHS facilities to get a closer look
VALENTINE’S DAY
at what new and exciting possibilities are on the horizon. AUSD began construction on the first piece of new construction in April of 2018 and has now turned the former parking lot into a new science department with 42 student lab stations. The facility was completed in 2019 and was occupied for a short time in January of 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic. The new science buildings provide enough space in the eight classrooms to allow students to have both a desk and a lab station to offer more hands-on learning. “In lab science classes, the ability to be at your desk and then move over to your lab station instead of having to clear your desk every time, it just makes the instruction so effective,” AHS
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Principal Dan Andrus said. “Next-generation science standards really focus on hands-on project-based lab learning. What we are seeing in science instruction is an increase in the amount of time students spend doing labs and analyzing those labs. That is why this set up facilitates that type of instruction. We are no longer just sitting in science and listening. We are moving from learning stations to lab stations; it’s a big deal to increase the space if at the same time we ask our science teachers to increase the amount of hands-on practical learning students are doing.” The new science buildings also come with shed style roofing, allowing the rooms to be filled with natural light.
COVID-19 UPDATE
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WEEKLY FEATURE
The new science and shop buildings in the place of the old senior parking lot. Photo courtesy of AUSD
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WEATHER
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