Grant Available for Electric Vehicle Infrastructure
The SLO County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) announced grant funding opportunities to help local businesses, organizations, and employers install electric vehicle infrastructure. The incentive funding for these emission reduction projects is from the Community Air Protection Program, which is part of California Climate Investments (CCI).
More than $867,000 is available in specific regions of SLO County to fund the following eligible emission reduction project categories:
• Electric vehicle charging/alternative Fuel infrastructure projects including, but not limited to:
• Workplaces
• Low-income, multi-family housing
• Municipalities
• Businesses and Non-profit Organizations
• Commercial
• Medical Facilities
• Wineries
• Restaurants
• Supermarkets
•Transit Bus Replacement
• Public School Bus Replacement
• Zero Emission Agricultural Tractor and Engine Replacement
Priority for funding will be given to projects in designated low-income and disadvantaged communities across SLO County. Application forms and more information can be found online at SLOCleanAir.org/community/grants/caap.
New Gallery Hours at CCA
The Cambria Center for the Arts, located at1350 Main St. will be open new hours beginning November 4. They are Friday from 12 to 4 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 3 p.m.
The CCA said that they are thrilled to have the Gallery open, once again, on Friday afternoons – as it was prior to the pandemic. Also, the Gallery will open later, and close earlier on Sunday.
The Gallery’s next exhibit is “What Will Remain” with featured Artist Marcie Begleiter. It officially opens on Saturday, November 5, with a reception taking place from 4:30 to 6 p.m. The exhibit runs through December 31.
Working in and around the boundaries of contemporary surrealism, eco-feminism, and biomorphism, Begleiter’s work explores hidden systems, secret codes, and fantastic micro-organisms; it’s an intellectual as well as instinctual response to what is happening in ‘nature.’ Materials include watercolor, ink, graphite, ceramics and photography.
It’s not too late for artists to enter the next show, which is concurrent with the featured exhibit “Small Gems.” Small Gems will be limited to 8X8 and 12X12 canvases.
Small Gems was a popular format for CCA’s holiday shows in past years, and the Gallery wanted to revivie it this year. Any 2-D medium that can be applied to a stretched canvas (unframed, finished on the edges) is acceptable for this show. For more information, please visit our website: https://cambriaarts.org/call-artists/ or contact the Gallery with any questions gallery@cambriaarts.org
Chamber Celebrates Central Coast Carts
The Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce celebrated Central Coast Cart Rentals’ one-year anniversary with a ribbon cutting. The company offers cart and scooter rentals as well as sales and service of street-legal golf carts. Stop by at 1598 Main St. in Morro Bay and tour the city in style.
Check out their website at centralcoastcarts.com. For reservations, call 805-225-5228.
Poly Study on Mothers’ Mobile Device Use and Infant Development
A $2.7 million grant-funded study — awarded to a research team led by Cal Poly Kinesiology and Public Health Professor Alison Ventura — aims to better understand how mothers’ use of technology may impact development during an infant’s first year.
The federal funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (one of the National Institutes of Health) will support a five-year study involving four university staff and about 20 undergraduate students.
“Maternal Technology Use During Feeding and Infant Self-Regulation and Growth” will look at current uses of digital devices such as cell phones, tablets, computers and video streaming platforms and whether a mother’s use of them influences feeding interactions, emotional and social behavior, growth outcomes, and other areas of child development.
During these early stages, Ventura said, babies express themselves through non-verbal cues that mothers learn to pick up on.
“It’s really important for caregivers to be attuned to their infants’ behavioral cues,” said Ventura, whose work since 2016 through the university’s Center for Health Research focuses on parent-child interactions during early childhood. “We’re interested in better understanding how mother-infant communication may be impacted by mothers’ technology use. Does technology use provide mothers with more information and support that benefits their development as a new mother? Are mothers able to multitask when using technology and switch their attention to a baby’s needs?”
The study will include 345 participants, from both English- and Spanish-speaking families, in San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties. It will use video recordings of mothers’ interactions with their infants to analyze and document types of interactions. It also will measure mothers’ digital behaviors through an app installed on participants’ phones and collect mothers’ survey responses about their perceptions and experiences during the study period.
For more information about the study and how to participate, go to: https://ibabystudy.calpoly.edu/studyinformation.
Are you or a neighbor Taking Care of Business? Submit your awesome local efforts for publication here. Is your business supporting our community? Maybe you’re launching a new business, or you’re making updates to your current business model, or re-opening. Or perhaps you have a job opportunity, or have been doing some volunteer work, or are collaborating with another business or a non-profit. Or maybe you know someone who is. Fill out our online form at EsteroBayNews.com.
