Anonymous
Source: Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office is seeking grant funding to provide increased patrolling and enforcement in areas where off-road vehicles are being used illegally. The Sheriff’s Office has received a number of complaints about individuals on ATV’s (All Terrain Vehicles), primarily in the Santa Ynez riverbed and surrounding areas bordering the City of Lompoc. The illegal use of these vehicles violates a number of State and County ordinances and damages private property and the environment.
Today, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office submitted a preliminary application to the State of California Parks and Recreation Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHMV) Division 2019/2020 grant program. As part of the multi-step application process, there is an opportunity for public comment and feedback before the final application is due on June 1, 2020. Starting tomorrow, March 3, 2020 until May 4, 2020, the public can view the on-line grant application and submit comments.
To view the application, go to the California State OHMV Grants and Cooperative Agreements program at www.ohv.parks.ca.gov. To make public comments on the application, click on “GRANTS” and then on “On Line Grants Application (OLGA).” Then follow the directions on the menu bar on the left side of the screen.
The Sheriff’s Office has been awarded this annual grant funding for a number of years. This is the sixth year that the Sheriff’s Office has applied for this grant funding.
Could they patrol downtown and the east side first?
Problem: people riding off road and having fun in the riverbeds.
Solution: give us money so we can ride and have fun in the river beds to make sure no one else does….and we’ll ignore all the people living in said riverbeds causing real environmental damage.
It’s not the off road riding in the Riverbeds…. It’s the illegal campers who cR@p, litter, camp, start fires and generally wreak havoc to the riparian zone that is sort of environmentally being TRASHED… Where is the concern from THE SIERRA CLUB or THE ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND that goes crazy with oil or other regulated business…? Why aren’t the Sherrif’s obtaining grants from the Sierra Club and other like organizations….?
If I had the money, I would donate to keep ATVs out of the riverbeds. ATV riding is a nasty, disrespectful sport/hobby that destroys wildlife habitat.
MAR 03, 2020 02:30 PM This article is about County Sheriffs. You’re thinking of Santa Barbara City Police.
They should allow ATVs and dirt bikes where all the homeless are camping. Have them ride through there on a daily basis. After a few days those transients would get tired of it and move on.
Tell Sheriff Billy Brown to give up one of his six choppers and they’ll have more than enough to fund the ATV Possee permanently.
Is it just me or is this the eleventyhundredth time the Sheriff has asked for money to buy new dune buggies to “patrol the riverbed”. Heavens knows we have to save the river willows.
I don’t know what brand of fragile ATV they bought the last 10 times, but my crappy five hundred dollar Craigslist rig has been working just fine in the Sierra for over 11 years now.
I starting to think Bill and the Boys just like sand whomping!
The whole grant-making thing assumes that the State has collected too much in taxes and has to develop a program to give the excess back to the local in a process where they select the winners. I suppose they could stop collecting excess revenues but that seems too complicated for them.
The Sheriffs need ATV’s instead of mountain bikes because they’re all too fat and out of shape to do their jobs properly.
There appears to be NO STANDARDS for sheriff’s physical conditions anymore. I guess they rely on radio & other technology and that’s sad. It seems like most criminals I see when the TV has a live chase are way past the larda**es chasing them and they only get caught due to helicopters. Sad indeed. BTW, look at the head guy! Sheriff Billy Brown is no tiny tot himself & probably couldn’t run far. Whatever happen with “Lead by example?”
Sheriff Billy always cries poor, Parvopup. He has six choppers right now, with one in the sky actually doing a mission on a daily basis from a report of a sheriff employee, so he’ll certainly be asking for an upgrade soon. He’s a “toy” collector, I fear – all at our expense. Boo!
Well, in theory one can comment on this grant application. But it is about 10 steps of clicking and deciphering to find out where that can be done. There should be no belief that any comment made would move this issue anyway. The whole idea of “grants” is bizarre. It merely empowers a bureaucratic function at a middle and invisible level to employ its own and give favors to those it likes. This money should be allocated to individual agencies as part of whatever funding the state provides. If the individual agency wants to prioritize 4 wheel patrols in these areas (or on beaches or desert dunes or mountain trails) it can do so. Isn’t that why we elect the heads of these agencies anyway?