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Hometown News Since 1916
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Making Communities Better Through Print.™ VOL. CV, NO. IV
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2021
atascaderonews.com • $1.00 • WEEKLY
CONTEST
COMMUNITY
Órale Taqueria Selects Winner th For 5 Anniversary Taco Giveaway Taco Time! Local resident wins free tacos for a year
said restaurant owner Joel Casillas in the press release announcing the competition. On Jan. 15, 2016, Órale opened their doors for the first time. Five years later, it was on the same day that they announced their big giveaway, which flooded their social media pages with hungry SLO County residents salivating at the idea. In just a week, they accumulated over 4,000 entries. Those interested could enter several different ways starting with liking their post announcing the giveaway, following the company social media pages, commenting and tagging friends, and of course, sharing the post, which was worth ten additional entries. “This last year was the toughest yet due to the pandemic and shutdowns, but our customers and community have continued to support us, and we wouldn’t be here today without them.” Co-owner Kristin Casillas said. “This is our way of saying thank you for making us a part of your lives these past five years.” Saturday afternoon, with the help of a social media scraping tool,
By CONNOR ALLEN connor@atascaderonews.com
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or the past week, the local talk on social media has been buzzing about one thing, the opportunity for someone to win free tacos for an entire year. On Saturday afternoon Órale Taqueria selected their winner, Nicole Erbstoesser, who quickly turned into the most popular lunch date in all of SLO County. “I feel like I won the lottery,” Erbstoesser told the Atascadero News. “Who wins tacos for a year!” Órale Taqueria, a locally owned and operated Mexican restaurant in Paso Robles, came up with the idea to give away a year’s worth, yes, 365, of tacos to one lucky person as a way to celebrate its five year anniversary of being in business. “Going into the restaurant business, we already knew that sixty percent of restaurants don’t make it past the first year and 80 percent go out of business within five years-so this is a huge milestone for us,”
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APPRECIATION
TCSD Discusses Water Supply Policy Which Could Release 95 Units Board votes to amend the Templeton Recreation Foundation bylaws to allow it to function independently By MELISSA MATTSON melissa@atascaderonews.com
San Luis Obispo County business owners. That was when the San Luis Obispo County Small Business Coalition (SLOCSBC) was formed. Now, the coalition is made up of 130 businesses and counting.
TEMPLETON — The Templeton Community Services District (TCSD) met on Tuesday, Feb. 2, for closed session, before going into regular public session, with nothing to report on during the closed session. The first item on the agenda was a COVID-19 update, which General Manager Jeff Briltz addressed. “Ruling out the regional stay at home order will allow us to offer some new sports programs,” stated Briltz, “though there are still many that cannot be offered under the purple tier.” He expressed the optimism of offering the spring softball program if the county moved into the red tier, while other high contact sports would have to hold until the orange tier. The next agenda item was the discussion of the water buffer supply, which was presented by the District Engineer, Tina Mayer. In 2016, a Water Supply Buffer Policy was established to ensure District water supply reliability and redundancy for current and future District residents and customers. The policy provides a reliable process for evaluating water availability within the District’s water portfolio. The policy reserves a percentage of District’s water supply to provide a buffer against potential problems with existing water supply sources. This year’s model update indicates that a 20 percent water supply buffer has been achieved at the current supply levels, freeing up 16.6AF (~25 water units) of unallocated water. The model also predicts that more water units will become available once
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Órale Taqueria owners Kristin and Joel Casillas (top left) selected local resident Nicole Erbstoesser (bottom right) of Atascadero as the winner to receive free tacos for a year in honor of their 5th Anniversary in business. Photo courtesy of Kristin Casillas.
RESILIENCE
Cider Creek Bakery Perseveres Through the Pandemic Business owner Brad Daugherty forms a small business coalition due to California’s ever-changing guidelines
Lolly Vilhauer a Cardiac Telemetry Unit nurse at French Hospital was presented a sugary surprise as a thank you from residents of Margarita Farms and the local Girl Scouts. Contributed photos.
Local Residents Buy Cookies For Hospital Workers By CONNOR ALLEN connor@atascaderonews.com ATASCADERO — Last Friday evening, in the wind and rain, one resident dropped off a care package of 30 boxes of girl scout cookies to French Hospital Medical Center in a show of appreciation for local front line workers and all the work they have put in over the pandemic. JoAnn Vilhauer and two of her Margarita Farms neighbors in Atascadero were brainCONTINUED ON PAGE A15
GLOBAL EFFORT
By CAMILLE DeVAUL camille@atascaderonews.com PASO ROBLES — On Dec. 3, 2020, California went into a regional lockdown, which included San Luis Obispo County under the Southern California region. This second lockdown forced retailers to operate at 20 percent capacity and restaurants to revert back to takeout only. When Brad Daugherty, owner of Cider Creek Bakery in Paso Robles, learned about this second lockdown, he contemplated his next move. “I laid in bed one night just going ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do.’ If I have to close my doors again, I’m going to lose this place. To-go orders were just not enough to sustain [us],” said Daugherty. Daugherty and 10-15 other business owners in North County went back and
STORMS
Cydney Armas (left) and Maiya Reynoso (right) working hard through the lunch rush at Cider Creek Bakery. Photos by Camille DeVaul
forth with each other on what to do until 3 a.m. that night. Daugherty suggested that the business owners hold a meeting to discuss their options. What should they do? When Daugherty met for that meeting, he expected 10-15 people to attend. When he showed up, to his surprise, there were 40
COVID-19 UPDATE
WEEKLY FEATURE
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WEATHER
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WORLD SURF LEAGUE Announces ‘We Are One Ocean’ Campaign to Protect Our Ocean | A3
SECTION OF HWY 1 Washes Out at Rat Creek on Big Sur Coast | A4
SLO COUNTY HEALTH DID YOU KNOW? Limits Second Doses of Vaccines in Dive in the history of an iconic landmark: response to CDC updated guidelines | A5 The Atascadero Printery | A13
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