Business stories were also of great interest to Santa Maria Times readers, with the closing of Cracker Barrel in April, approval of a new Starbucks and carwash, the closure of Masatani’s Market in Guadalupe and the closure of Pea Soup Andersen’s in Buellton among the top 10 stories of the year.

Other top stories included an explosion at Santa Maria Superior Court Miller Division in September, Santa Ynez resident John Corbett’s dog adoption in Lompoc, and the crowning of Santa Maria Elks Rodeo Queen Tori Ortiz.

The following are recaps of the top 15 stories of the year based on the number of readers of each story on our website santamariatimes.com.

A San Luis Obispo County woman has sued St. Joseph High School, alleging in a state court lawsuit filed last week that the school’s principal retaliated against her for refusing to falsify students’ official transcripts in order to boost their grade point averages and improve graduation rates.

Connie Plata, identified in the suit as the official SJHS registrar, said her job duties were “downsized” after refusing multiple demands by principal Erinn Dougherty to falsely inflate students’ grades to not only help get them into college, but make them eligible to play collegiate sports, according to the lawsuit filed Jan. 29 in Santa Barbara County Superior Court.

Pioneer Valley High School Principal Shanda Herrera is facing possible termination after receiving a 45-day notice that calls for her employment to end in July.

Herrera, who has served as principal for 13 years, was given a 45-day notice, followed by a warning that she could potentially be terminated without cause or for reasons determined by the district, according to a PVHS administrator who asked to remain anonymous.

Allegations of unprofessional behavior have been made against Herrera, which could lead to demotion, dismissal, or suspension, the administrator said.

Herrera, on Tuesday, confirmed that she received the 45-day warning, but said she couldn’t speak further about the matter.

The driver in an Aug. 1 double-fatal crash who allegedly ran a red light at the intersection of Stowell and Bradley roads has been identified as Edith Gomez Camarillo, according to the Santa Maria Police Department.

Gomez Camarillo, 20, of Santa Maria, who was driving eastbound on Stowell Road, received minor injuries in the crash and was treated at Marian Regional Medical Center. Randall and Marichu Kern, 68 and 55 respectively, who were driving southbound on Bradley Road, were critically injured when their vehicle was struck on the passenger side in the intersection, and later died at Marian Regional Medical Center.

The Santa Maria Speedway is on track to reopen this month, supplying the region once again with 410 sprint car racing on summer nights and throughout the year.

“We are planning to rebrand back to the original name of Santa Maria Speedway, which has been in operation since 1964,” said David Castaneda, who has worked at the speedway for about 20 years as general manager. “We think that will be very popular with our longtime fans going back. We are dropping the Stadium 805 (name) and we are going to be focusing exclusively on racing for 2024.”

The one-third-mile oval dirt track hosted everything from go-karts, dwarf cars and winged sprints to banged-up stock cars, monster trucks and motorcycles, and was in virtually continuous operation until COVID-19 struck.

Cracker Barrel in Santa Maria has closed as of Sunday, according to city spokesman Mark van de Kamp.

The reason for the closing was unavailable.

The Santa Maria store and restaurant, which is situated in the Enos Ranch development, was the Southern chain’s 659th location across 45 states and only the third Cracker Barrel location in California.

A sign posted outside of the restaurant read: “To our Santa Maria community – we’ve been honored to welcome guests into a home-away-from-home at our store, and we’ve valued the opportunity to be part of so many special occasions for our guests and community over the past five years. We’re deeply saddened to announce this location has closed, but we hope you will visit any of our more than 660 Cracker Barrel locations across 44 states.”

The Santa Maria Planning Commission has approved a parcel map update for the parking lot in front of the shuttered Edwards Cinema on Bradley Road, to make way for three new businesses.

Two closed restaurants — Hometown Buffet and Original Roadhouse Grill — will be replaced by a full service Starbuck’s Coffee, and a Quick Quack Carwash in the parking lot that sits vacant between a Taco-Bell restaurant and an Applebee’s Bar & Grill in front of Office Depot and Hobby Lobby.

Two Santa Maria residents were killed and one person remains in critical condition at a local hospital, after a 3-vehicle collision on Clark Avenue near Presquile Drive, east of Orcutt on Monday afternoon.

According to information from the California Highway Patrol, officers were notified of a multi-vehicle crash that occurred at approximately 2:20 p.m near the area of Dominion Road. When officers arrived on scene at 2617 E. Clark Ave., they located the crash.

Pea Soup Andersen’s in Buellton has closed its doors and the property is in escrow after longtime owner Milt Guggia Enterprises listed the landmark for $4.7 million in August 2020.

“It’s been listed for several years,” explained Krista Guggia, Guggia Enterprises property administrator. “There have been many interested parties and [Milt Guggia, Jr.] turned down a lot of offers. He didn’t want it to go to someone who who didn’t have a real heart for preserving what is a huge piece of Buellton — and California — history.”

The Firefly Alpha FLT005 “Noise of Summer” mission is set to launch tonight from the West Coast at Vandenberg Space Force Base, the aerospace agency confirmed Wednesday afternoon.

Liftoff is targeted for 9:04 p.m. from Space Launch Complex 2 West to carry eight payloads to low-Earth orbit.

The mission was scrubbed on both Monday and Tuesday due to a ground support issue.

Masatani’s Market in Guadalupe will close its doors Sunday, after 102 years of serving the small agricultural community, making way for a new La Favorita Supermercado.

Owner Brian Masatani, 67, spoke this week about the business and life changes that have moved his family to close the store, and reflected on their long history in the community.

“It’s been 102 years, since 1922, with my grandparents (Yoemon “Papa San” and Teruye “Mama San” Masatani). It’s been great. We couldn’t ask for more,” said Brian, who took over the business from his father, Harry Masatani.

For more than a century the market has been a staple in the town of about 8,500 people, predating the city, which was incorporated in 1946, by almost 50 years.

Ninety days after opening, Santa Maria’s Hope Village, a 94-room interim supportive housing project, is at capacity and five individuals have been permanently housed, said Kirsten Cahoon, director of shelter operations for Good Samaritan.

But the project has also faced challenges including littering and loitering in the area which organizers are working to address, Cahoon said.

“When you walk through the front gate of Hope Village, you feel this positive energy. There is a lot of hope within those walls and watching the clients become each other‘s cheerleaders and celebrating things with each other is amazing,” said Cahoon.

Tiffany Ann Peterson, 39, of Orcutt, was identified Friday as the passenger in a pickup truck who was killed Thursday afternoon in a crash with a forklift on southbound Skyway Drive at Hangar Street.

The Caterpillar telescoping forklift was operated by David Baskett, 81, a board member for the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District and the Santa Maria Public Airport District board. The crash occurred just east of the airport.

Peterson’s father, Charles Peterson, was identified on a social media gofundme page as the driver of the blue Dodge pickup, which received significant damage to the cab after it collided with the front fork of the forklift and then hit a fire hydrant, which flooded the crash site with water.

As a long-time Central Coast resident, and a retired United States Air Force lieutenant colonel, I know expanding the frequency of space launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base is of vital importance.

The capability to launch rockets with government and commercial payloads from the West Coast of the United States is an absolutely essential component of our national defense and national security.

Vandenberg is one of only two federal ranges in the United States that carries out national security space launches, and it’s the only range on the West Coast.

To better understand why Vandenberg is so important as a launch location we need to look back at recent history and how the U.S. procures space launch services.

– July 2024 Guest Commentary

Raul and Jonah Capuno opened Capuno’s Lutong Bahay, a new Filipino restaurant in Santa Maria, in December after leaving longstanding careers in the medical industry.

“Since we have this love for our Filipino food we started this restaurant because we want to share more of that with the Santa Maria community,” said Raul.

A Santa Maria man is in custody after an explosion near a security entrance of the downtown superior court building Wednesday morning that injured five people, prompted evacuation of the building, and closed nearby City Hall for the day.  

Nathaniel McGuire, 20, is believed to have thrown a homemade explosive device into the building at a security screening station, where it exploded, Santa Barbara County Undersheriff Craig Bonner said during an afternoon press conference held in a parking garage near the court building.