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Santa Barbara First District Supervisor Das Williams — Highway 101 Highlight, COVID Update, & more news

by Community Contributor • July 26, 2021 • Comments Off

Reduce, Reuse & Recycle…with Concrete?

Yes, concrete. I like to highlight innovative programs in our district, and the Highway 101: Carpinteria to Santa Barbara project has a big one. The new concrete mix site (see photo) is going in by the southbound on-ramp at the North Padaro Lane. This enables concrete for the new freeway lanes to be mixed on-site and reduces truck routes by 6-16 miles per trip, saving an estimated 463,771 truck miles for the Carpinteria, Padaro, and Summerland segments. This also reduces water use by 400,000 gallons (concrete mixed on-site uses less water), reduces off-site neighborhood impacts, and saves taxpayers between $10-$15 million. Old concrete is also being recycled across the freeway (see left edge of photo). Crews are also installing a new concrete surface that is a quieter and has a longer lifespan. For more project information, visit www.SBROADS.com.

Increase in COVID-19 Cases & Indoor Mask Recommendation

Santa Barbara County is seeing an alarming increase in new case rates for COVID-19, with active cases up 90% over two weeks ago. With the current uptick, it is expected that the daily case rates will continue to increase and cause a new wave of infection similar to the Summer of 2020.

The biggest obstacle to stopping the virus is the proportion of unvaccinated community members. In Santa Barbara County, an unvaccinated person is15 times more likely to get infected and fall ill from COVID-19 compared to if they were vaccinated. The new surge is truly a wave of unvaccinated people falling ill and spreading the virus to others.

Severe COVID-19 can be very dangerous: The sooner you get vaccinated, the sooner you, your friends and family will be protected.

As I am sure you’ve already heard, the County of Santa Barbara recommends masking Indoors for everyone, as a precaution against increased circulation of COVID-19. With cases of COVID-19 rising locally and increased circulation of the highly transmissible Delta variant, the County of Santa Barbara recommends that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors in public places as an extra precautionary measure for those who are fully vaccinated, and to ensure easy verification that all unvaccinated people are masked in those settings.

As of July, the Delta variants comprised 50 percent of all specimens sequenced in California, and continues to rise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that Delta variants are now responsible for 58 percent of new infections across the country.

Fully vaccinated people are well-protected from infections and serious illness due to known COVID-19 variants including Delta variants, and vaccinating as many people as possible, as soon as possible, continues to be our best defense against severe COVID-19 infection, and the harm it can do to our region. Vaccines are safe, effective, free, and widely available to everyone 12 and older. Schedule an appointment here.

Cutting the Ribbon for the ReSource Center!

Recently, we were able to commemorate a significant achievement, 20+ years in the making. Our very own ReSource Center, formally known as the Tajiguas Resource Recovery Project, has opened its doors and is ready to begin increasing our recycling rate by more than 85%. The ReSource Center facility includes a state-of-the-art Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) to sort recyclables and trash, and an Anaerobic Digester (AD) to process both mixed and source-separated organics. The end result is a reduction in harmful emissions (equivalent to 28,668 cars annually), recovery and sale of recyclables, and the production of green energy (enough to power 2,000 homes annually). This state-of-the-art facility was first introduced to me while I was sitting on the Santa Barbara City Council, which was over 15 years ago. While I was a State Assemblymember I voted on legislation that helped move the project forward. In my current role, I’ve had the privilege to see this project become reality. I’d like to thank everyone who made this project possible, especially Leslie Wells, Carlyle Johnston, and Director of Public Works Scott McGolpin for their commitment to this project and seeing it through. If you would like to learn more visit: https://lessismore.org/material_categories/9-trrp/ or you can also schedule a tour of ReSource Center & Tajiguas Landfill visit: https://lessismore.org/materials/resource-center-and-tajiguas-landfill-tours/.