On The Prowl For More Airlines To Serve Central Coast

May 20,2014

The latest airline passenger count from April of this year at San Luis Obispo airport shows traffic up 17.5% from a year earlier, the fifth month in a row that the passenger numbers are up double digit.

So far this year SLO has seen 93,551 passengers go through the airport compared to 81,695 for the same period last year.

“It just shows improvement in the economy and how the local  community supports their airport” says airport manager and Cal poly grad Kevin Bumen. “It’s a great selling point when we talk to airlines about adding more service here.”

Bumen says while there is no word from United about possible flights between SLO and Denver after a several year lobbying effort, “I recently returned from a Tulsa Oklahoma conference meeting with a number of  airlines” asking them to look us over. The conference was put on by Sixel Consultants who markets SLO to the industry.

The upshot: We’re not waiting for United. There are other birds in the sky.

With news that Frontier Airlines is starting up service from Bakersfield to Denver this month – why not solicit them?

“We met with them in Tulsa and we are still talking“ says Bumen. The low cost airline also flies the same route out of Fresno. Denver is considered a good destination from middle California, a popular recreation destination as well as hub for flights to the east.

“Bakersfield is a similar market to ours in a number of ways” says Bumen. After all, Bakersfield is a prosperous city with a passenger total similar to SLO.

But there is more.

Bumen says he plans to meet with an unnamed airline in the next few weeks and that visit could bear fruit. Who are some possible prospects? Alaska Airlines (Horizon) – how about Southwest?

One airline that appears to be on the grow is SF-based Virgin Airlines who says on their website they want to expand the number of their West Coast communities.The company flies mostly to larger cities but also some smaller ones like Palm Springs, same population as SLO. They fly an Airbus 319, 124 seat jet.

Virgin’s new mid-continent hub is Dallas  expanding as a result of American divesting some slots to merge with US Air. Founded by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, the privately owned, high-end but low-cost air service may be on the verge of filing an IPO, say news accounts. Virgin flies to 22 cities now and says they plan to add 3 more this year.

Bumen won’t say which airline he is soliciting but he figures, in a way, we ought to be glad SLO has any air service at all. He says in the past five years – 75 cities lost all passenger service out of 500 plus communities that had such service. A study by MIT says during the Great Recession, U.S. airlines cut the number of scheduled domestic flights by 14%. and up to 26% of flights to midsize airports.

High oil prices and the economic slowdown prompted both American and Delta to pull out of SLO in 2008. Today, US Airways (merging with American) and United serve SLO, flying only to SF, LA and Phoenix.

But with growth back in the picture Bumen figures the time is right to add carriers and destinations considering this region’s glowing reputation as a tourist haunt, retirement haven and a college town known for green living. Add to that there is a growing high-tech business presence here.

Bricks & Mortar

To accommodate expected growth Bumen says the county needs to improve the facilities at the SLO airport with a plan to move forward on a new 50,000sf, $28 million air terminal, perhaps as soon as next year. The latest plan to build that new terminal will come to the SLO Board of Supervisors in July.

Most of the cost for a new facility will be born by other than local entities says Bumen with the FAA and airplane fees being allocated  the local share will be 10%,a pretty good deal for SLO.”

Bumen says the airport has another plan some 3 years off, to expand land to west of  the runway by about 700 feet that should allow a larger plane to use the airport and make it easier for the rest.

As it is – the Airbus 319 and Boeing 737 can land here he adds.

The unemployment rate in the San Luis Obispo County was 5.2 percent in April 2014, down from a revised 6.1 percent in March 2014, and below the year-ago estimate of 6.3 percent. This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 7.3 percent for California and 5.9 percent for the nation during the same period.
The 5.2 percent rate is the lowest  in SLO County  since May 2008  – before the Great Recession.
The current report says in April there were 1400 more nonfarm jobs than there were a year ago.The report says the county’s labor force has declined by almost 1% in the past year.

May 12,2014

A NOAA-led research team has found the first evidence that acidity of continental shelf waters off the West Coast is dissolving the shells of tiny free-swimming marine snails, called pteropods, which provide food for pink salmon, mackerel and herring, according to a new paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Researchers estimate that the percentage of pteropods in this region with dissolving shells due to ocean acidification has doubled in the nearshore habitat since the pre-industrial era and is on track to triple by 2050 when coastal waters become 70 percent more corrosive than in the pre-industrial era due to human-caused ocean acidification.
The new research documents the movement of corrosive waters onto the continental shelf from April to September during the upwelling season, when winds bring water rich in carbon dioxide up from depths of about 400-600 feet to the surface and onto the continental shelf.
A healthy pteropod collected during the U.S. West Coast survey cruise. (Credit: NOAA)
“Our findings are the first evidence that a large fraction of the West Coast pteropod population is being affected by ocean acidification,” said Nina Bednarsek, Ph.D., of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, the lead author of the paper. “Dissolving coastal pteropod shells point to the need to study how acidification may be affecting the larger marine ecosystem. These nearshore waters provide essential habitat to a great diversity of marine species, including many economically important fish that support coastal economies and provide us with food.”
The term “ocean acidification” describes the process of ocean water becoming corrosive as a result of absorbing nearly a third of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from human sources. This change in ocean chemistry is affecting marine life, particularly organisms with calcium carbonate skeletons or shells, such as corals, oysters, mussels, and small creatures in the early stages of the food chain such as pteropods. The pteropod is a free-swimming snail found in oceans around the world that grows to a size of about one-eighth to one-half inch.
First evidence of marine snails from the natural environment along the U.S. West Coast with signs that shells are dissolving. (Credit: NOAA)
The research team, which also included scientists from NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Oregon State University, found that the highest percentage of sampled pteropods with dissolving shells were along a stretch of the continental shelf from northern Washington to central California, where 53 percent of pteropods sampled using a fine mesh net had severely dissolved shells. The ocean’s absorption of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions is also increasing the level of corrosive waters near the ocean’s surface where pteropods live.
“We did not expect to see pteropods being affected to this extent in our coastal region for several decades,” said William Peterson, Ph.D., an oceanographer at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and one of the paper’s co-authors. “This study will help us as we compare these results with future observations to analyze how the chemical and physical processes of ocean acidification are affecting marine organisms.”

An image from a scanning electron microscope of dissolution on a pteropod shell. (Credit: NOAA)
Richard Feely, senior scientist from NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab and co-author of the research article, said that more research is needed to study how corrosive waters may be affecting other species in the ecosystem. “We do know that organisms like oyster larvae and pteropods are affected by water enriched with carbon dioxide. The impacts on other species, such as other shellfish and larval or juvenile fish that have economic significance, are not yet fully understood.”
“Acidification of our oceans may impact marine ecosystems in a way that threatens the sustainability of the marine resources we depend on,” said Libby Jewett, Director of the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program. “Research on the progression and impacts of ocean acidification is vital to understanding the consequences of our burning of fossil fuels.”
The research drew upon a West Coast survey by the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program in August 2011, that was conducted onboard the R/V Wecoma, owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by Oregon State University.

May 12, 2014

AVILA BEACH — With another planned maintenance and refueling outage scheduled at Diablo Canyon Power Plant later this year, PG&E is again looking to hire workers to support this and future outage projects. Information on opportunities for outage work and full-time jobs at PG&E will be available at a hiring fair at the PG&E Energy Education Center in San Luis Obispo on Friday, May 30.

Each of Diablo Canyon’s two reactor units is refueled about every 18-20 months. A successful outage was completed on Unit 1 this spring and a similar planned outage is scheduled for Unit 2 this fall. During a planned outage, supplemental workers from the community and around the country assist the plant’s nearly 1,500 employees on projects that support the continued safe and reliable operation of the facility.

Diablo Canyon provides power for 3 million Californians.

“Diablo Canyon Power Plant is the backbone of our electricity-generating system, providing carbon-free energy to more than 3 million Californians,” said Ed Halpin, PG&E’s senior vice president and chief nuclear officer. “Planned outages play an important role in ensuring the continued safe and reliable operation of the facility, helping PG&E to continue to deliver some of the nation’s cleanest electricity to its customers.”

Various temporary positions need to be filled at Diablo Canyon during a planned outage, including roles requiring administrative, maintenance and mechanical skills. Full-time positions supporting the plant and other PG&E operations, including its electric and gas business units, are also available. Representatives from PG&E and its contractors will be on hand during the fair to provide information to those interested in applying for positions. Member organizations of the Building Trades Council as well as representatives from the PG&E Hiring Hall also will present information regarding apprenticeships and other career-building opportunities for skilled-trades members.

Through an ongoing partnership with Goodwill Industries’ America’s Job Centers of California (AJCC), advance hiring fair preparation workshops will be held for job seekers at AJCC locations in San Luis Obispo and Grover Beach. The workshops will be held on May 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, and 22.

Each workshop will help ready job seekers prepare for the PG&E hiring fair by providing resume-preparation assistance and coaching.  AJCC staff also will provide on-site resume coaching and inform participants about other job search resources during the fair. Workshop attendees will be given priority entry at the May 30 event. Information about AJCC workshops can be found by calling 805-903-1419.

“America’s Job Centers of California is proud to partner with San Luis Obispo’s largest private employer, PG&E,” said Kathy Marcove, director of workforce services for Goodwill Industries. “In addition to supporting the event itself, we are committed to preparing job seekers for all the employment opportunities at PG&E and the vendors who support the operation at Diablo Canyon.  This is a significant opportunity for well-prepared job seekers and we are thrilled to be part of this important effort lead by PG&E.”

The two units at Diablo Canyon Power Plant produce approximately 2,300 net megawatts of carbon-free power. It provides nearly 10 percent of all electricity generated in California, and enough energy to meet the needs of more than 3 million Northern and Central Californians. Diablo Canyon has a $920 million annual local economic impact and is the largest private employer in San Luis Obispo County.

 

May 8,2014

Gas prices at San Luis Obispo’s Costco fell to a town low of $3.99 today,down 6 cents from yesterday and down 16 cents from a high a about 10 days ago. The decline reflects a price drop of about 3 cents seen across the state says AAA .The average SLO  price according to the AAA is  $4.31 today compared to $4.35 a week ago,

The Fresno price average is $4.17,down 4 cents from a  week ago. Jiffy Food store is among the state’s lowest at $3.79 today says Gas Buddy.

Industry sources expect  the price hike seen since late February until a week ago to  be over with prices declining 15 to 20 cents through May.

May 5,2014
California Poly San Luis Obispo will receive a $3 million loan at one percent interest for energy efficiency measures at the university campus the California Energy Commission announced. The funds are to be approved at a May 14 meeting.
The funds will be used  on exterior lighting measures, central plant measures, and transformer replacement measures.
The project is estimated to save the university 3,227,583 kWh and 46,026 therms resulting in annual energy cost savings of $350,051.
The simple payback is 8.57 years based on the loan amount.

Embarcadero Could See “Fishermen’s Market” Plan

May 2,2014
There is news on the Morro Bay waterfront. After years of talk here the US Coast Guard appears ready to pitch the City Council on a location for an additional administrative office they’ve been wanting, about 2 lots south of their existing two-story headquarters.
Also on the Embarcadero,you shop for the freshest produce at a farmers market regularly, right? Why not shop for fish the same way – direct from the fisherman and right off the boat?
Regarding the building, testimony in Washington in front of a congressional committee by USCG Commandant Admiral Robert Papp Jr early in April cited funding earmarked for”construction of a new maintenance and engineering building at Coast Guard Station Morro Bay, CA.”
Morro Bay Harbor Director Eric Endersby says the Coast Guard needs a commitment for a site to move forward soon or the money for a 2 story, 5000sf building, could be spent elsewhere.
“My understanding is that they need a site identified this spring” for moving forward to permitting stage with hopes to break ground early next year.
Endersby says the City and the Coast Guard have been talking about this for a long time.”My estimate is at least 15 years.” While some want the waterfront reserved for more tourist activity, Endersby adds that the city “is very supportive of expansion of the station here” noting the critical role they play in harbor safety.  Recent complications in the search for a site is the city Harbor office right next door – but the city has no money to build a new office, he says. Dynegy closing next door has been another factor but Endersby says the power plant owner does not want to give up on use of the Intake building to the north of the Coast Guard building, suggesting some future use.
Endersby says the proposal to purchase the land and begin the environmental approvals for the new structure replacing the existing  harbor restroom and adjacent lot north of Carousel Taffy – will now be heard by the City Council May 13.
Off The Boat
Regarding the “Off the Boat” fish sales,that matter was heard by the  Harbor Advisory Board May 1.
A staff report says in the past several Morro Bay commercial fishermen have expressed the desire for a centralized location where direct to the public “off the boat” sales would be allowed and encouraged. As it stands today, a fisherman’s only option in Morro Bay for this popular sales method is to conduct it from their assigned slip. Since this is not often scheduled nor done in one consistent location, public participation can be limited and in some cases even be discouraged due to its lack of consistency.
“With the advent of the “FishLine” seafood “app” and other internet-based real-time advertising opportunities, interest in the possibility of a centralized and organized direct to the public fish sales dock or other location is renewed, and in combination may create the synergy for such a dock to be widely utilized and successful.”
The idea is expected to be forwarded to the city council for consideration soon.
More Cold Storage?
Another project – additional cold storage at the dock,has been the subject a recent study. The Morro Bay Fishing Community Sustainability Plan suggests the local fishing industry, based here, could benefit.
“Increased access to refrigeration and freezers will allow fishermen to hold fish for longer periods, giving them the advantage of coordinating with market demand, pricing, and distribution logistics as well as for storing bait and baited gear. A site, demand and financial feasibility analysis for cold storage and freezer alternatives is recommended. Once a physical site is chosen and a preferred alternative is identified, the commercial fishing industry should work with the City to identify appropriate grants and loan to entitle the site and attract a developer to implement the project.”

April 22,2014

Developer Nick Thompkins has submitted preliminary plans to revamp the University Square shopping center on Foothill and Santa Rosa in SLO with 2 new anchor stores. One is slated to be a 20,000 sf grocery store and the other a 16,200 store. The project received preliminary approval this week from the city to proceed.Thompkins says no deals with retailers have been signed. But the rumor mill says the grocery store could be Sprouts Farmers Market,a fast growing organic grocer who competes with Whole Foods. There is also talk that the popular sporting goods retailer – REI may be interested in the site. close to Cal Poly.

FootGolf At Los Osos Course

The growing sport of Foot Golf is coming to the Sea Pines Golf Course in Los Osos.Staffers say players kick a round soccer ball into a cup in as few shots as possible playing on the sme grren as traditional golf but using special in-ground cups. The idea is to lure younger players tot he property similar to disc golf offered in Los Osos. The course is expected to be installed  within a few months.
SLO Airport Traffic Up

March passenger traffic at SLO airport was up 16.1% compared to March 2013, the largest jump in activity this year. Nearly 25,000 passengers used the airport compared  a little over 21,000 a year ago. Traffic also jumped from February of this year when 18,714 passed through the gates.

New Power Substation Planned Near Estrella

California ISO is soliciting for bidders to build and own a new 230/70 kV substation about five miles east of the Paso Robles substation. The $35 to 45 million project will ease overloads in the system says ISO and will be built in place by May 2019.

 

SLO Jobless Rate Down To 6 Year Low For March

The unemployment rate in the San Luis Obispo County was 6.1 percent in March 2014, down from a revised 6.2 percent in February 2014, and below the year-ago estimate of 6.8 percent.
This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 8.4 percent for California and 6.8 percent for the nation during the same period.

The 6.1 % is the lowest March number since before the recession in 2008.The number is lowest rate after December 2013 when the county recorded a 5.8% rate.

The March rate shows 1900 more non-farm jobs than a year ago but 400 fewer farm jobs, perhaps drought related.

New Wine Grape Acreage Surges On Central Coast

State of California figures for wine grapes in 2013 shows non-bearing acreage recently planted was highest in the state on the Central Coast led by Monterey County with 3120 acres and closely followed by San Luis Obispo with 2919 acres planted but not yet fruiting. Santa Barbara added 1080 acres.Napa only added 553 acres.  SLO’s overall acreage is now 33,142 acres.