Mayor's August Update

Dear Residents,

The City of Watsonville strives to provide excellent customer service. We are committed to providing programs and services that will create a safe, healthy and environmentally friendly community. We do it with pride and we do it with less!

There are a lot of exciting things happening in Watsonville:

The 19th Annual Strawberry Festival will take place on August 3rd and 4th in historic downtown Watsonville. Enjoy games and activities, and visit booths including arts and crafts, local non-profits, face painting and much more. The stage will be rocking with live performances by local and regional bands and performers.  The festival will also host the Strawberry Crown Criterium, a bicycle race featuring world-class cyclists, sponsored by Cal Giant. Come out and join us for a weekend of family fun. Admission is free. For more information call 831.768.3240.

Whether a fan or an enthusiast anyone who appreciates the game of golf knows the importance of practice to improve the game.  For the last ten years the Airport Driving Range, located just off Ranport Road, as served not only as protected space avoiding airfield encroachment, but it has also served as the only fully functional golf practice driving range in Santa Cruz County.

The Watsonville City Council unanimously approved a proposal from Pacific Golf Centers (PGC) to manage and operate the facility.  PGC will renovate the site resulting in a completely new and upgraded Golf Practice Center, a Golf Teaching Academy, Golf Retail Pro Shop and “19th” hole Tap House. Pacific Golf Centers is sure to become a major destination for the central coast golf enthusiast!

Do your part to protect your family at home and prevent contamination by bringing all household hazardous and electronic waste to the Waste and Recycling Drop-Off Center at 320 Harvest Drive. The service is free of charge for City residents. The City assures that this hazardous waste is disposed properly inside the US rather than ship it overseas; and that is disposed of in a manner which causes less impact on nature. 

For a complete list of guidelines on the hazardous, electronic and universal waste collected by the City, please visit: www.cityofwatsonville.org or call Customer Service at 831-768-3133.

On Saturday, September 21, 2013 from 9 a.m. till 12 p.m., the City of Watsonville’s Parks and Community Services; Neighborhood Services Division; Public Works and Utilities Department and Save our Shores (SOS) will join forces with thousands of communities nationwide for the “30th Annual Coastal Cleanup Day”. The goals of Coastal Cleanup Day are to engage people to remove trash from beaches and waterways, to identify the sources of trash, raise awareness of litter in our environment and to change the behaviors that cause pollution.

The City of Watsonville will be hosting five sites. Those sites include the Watsonville Slough at the Ramsay Park Nature Center, Pajaro River at River Park, and West Struve Slough at the base of Pajaro Valley High School. Sunset State Beach and Palm Beach are coordinated through SOS. There will be morning refreshments and lunch available to volunteer’s at all three inland sites.

SOS can provide cleanup kits for any size group that wants to clean their neighborhood street, a local beach or river site. Cleanup kits will include bags, gloves, data cards, instructions and event details. Depending on your site we can arrange garbage collection if necessary. For more information, please contact Save Our Shores at 462-5660 and if you need information regarding the three inland sites in Watsonville, please contact Neighborhood Services at 763-5678.

I love to hear from our community, so please feel free to email me directly at: lowell.hurst@cityofwatsonville.org.

Sincerely,

Mayor Lowell Hurst