20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JULY 17-23, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com They are probably the most accessible yet least noticed governmental bodies— special districts tasked with delivering essential services. By Pam Marino SPECIAL DELIVERY It’s a little before 6pm on a Tuesday in Castroville inside the North County Recreation Center, the community’s familiar gathering place for kids activities and senior lunches. Silvia Vázquez opens up a small, windowless multipurpose room off the lobby and judges whether to pull together two long tables to create a makeshift dais. Figuring two members of the Castroville Cemetery District will be absent for the June meeting, she decides one table will be enough. Trustees—and sisters—Debra Torres and Rachel Torres breeze into the room, followed a couple of minutes later by Trustee Mary Paredes. They join Vázquez, sitting at the end of the table, who has worked as the district’s general manager for 21 years. Chair Grant Leonard and Trustee Pepe Jimenez are absent due to work commitments that night. The June 10 agenda includes a report on how many burials took place inside the Castroville Public Cemetery in April (three), approving the 20252026 budget ($265,000 in revenues and expenditures), electing a new chair for the 2025-2026 year (they elect Debra, previously vice chair), a discussion about a project to build new niches for cremains and Vázquez’s request for four days off to take vacation (approved). In this small community, the cemetery located a few miles away in Moss Landing is “deeply, deeply personal” to families where generations of loved ones are buried, Leonard says. When a person comes to a board meeting with a question or a concern, chances are they will know the trustees well. They may have gone to school with them, chatted with them at the store or live in the same neighborhood. “This is the most fundamental form of government,” says Kate McKenna, executive officer of Local Agency Formation Commission of Monterey County, which is charged with creating districts and approving and assessing their services. “It’s local residents servAbove: Castroville Public Cemetery in Moss Landing was once two religious cemeteries, one Catholic and one Protestant, dating back to the 1800s. The Castroville Cemetery District was formed in 1952 to care for the grounds and oversee burials and inurnments. More recently the district has begun holding special events for the public like a Memorial Day ceremony and a Día De Los Muertos observance. DANIEL DREIFUSS
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