VAFB missile test launch tonight
VANDENBERG AFB Vandenberg Air Force Base is set to conduct a test launch of an unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile late tonight.
The 59-foot-tall ICBM is scheduled to blast out of its underground silo on the northern coastline of the classified base between 11:01 p.m. tonight and 5:01 a.m. Wednesday morning. The launch is a Air Force Global Strike Command developmental test designed to provide “valuable data” to military officials.
The test, according to Air Force officials, “holistically tests the systems, procedures and Airmen from the initial mission planning to the final weapons employment phases.”
The Air Force schedules such tests up to five years advance, and says they are not related to “any real world” events. There are usually four such tests each year from Vandenberg, and this would be the first for 2019.
Though Vandenberg did not provide specific details, historically the missiles fly some 4,200 miles from the coast to a missile test range in the central Pacific Ocean. The flight to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands takes about a half-hour.
—Nora K. Wallace
Anapamu Street bridge opens
Santa Barbara The Anapamu Street Bridge will reopen Wednesday in a ribbon-cutting event.
The bridge is between San Andres and San Pascual streets and is adjacent to the Boys and Girls Club.
The ribbon-cutting will be held at the bridge at 11 a.m., according to city news release.
The bridge has been under construction for seven months at a cost of $1.9 million. The renovation upgraded the 1920s-era bridge by increasing the width of the roadway, improving the pedestrian sidewalk and corridor, and restoring the creek landscaping.
— Paul Gonzalez
Fire Dept. gets new defibrillators
SANTA BARBARA The Santa Barbara City Fire Department has received 25 automated external defibrillators, which have been placed on every fire engine, ladder truck, and rescue vehicle in the city.
Purchased with a $102,000 Homeland Security Grant fund that was awarded in October, the new AEDs replace earlier models and utilize the latest cardiac arrest resuscitation technology.
According to a press release, the defibrillators will enable the Fire Department to provide AEDs to the Santa Barbara Police Department for use in their patrol vehicles.
Police Chief Lori Lunhow said she is pleased with this arrangement and said the defibrillators will be useful to police officers “especially when they arrive on these critical calls before the fire department.”
— Josh Grega
El Paseo to host awards breakfast
SANTA BARBARA The Downtown Santa Barbara annual Awards Breakfast will again be hosted at El Paseo Restaurant at 7:30 a.m. Feb. 14.
The breakfast, presented by Southern California Edison, will have networking opportunities and an awards presentation emceed by Downtown Santa Barbara Executive Director Carrie Kelly and board President Bob Stout.
According to a press release, awards presented will include the George Gerth Volunteer of the Year, Business Champion of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Harriet Miller Youth Leadership Award, and 2018 Citizen of the Year.
Tickets for the event can be purchased by visiting the Downtown Santa Barbara website www.downtownsb.org and clicking on “2019 Annual Awards Breakfast” under the “Events” tab, or by calling (805) 962-2098.
El Paseo Restaurant is located at 813 Anacapa St.
— Josh Grega
