Columns

It is real winter here in Sonoma County. Mornings are frosty, some days are clear and others rainy, and nights are reaching below freezing in areas. We light our wood-burning stove every night and the heat penetrates throughout the house. Our Australian Shepherd Sydney and cat Pearl are both sporting their heavy winter coats. A deck of cards is always out. 

Seeing teachers last week picketing in downtown Sebastopol and other teachers filling seats in front of school board meetings in Windsor, Cloverdale and Healdsburg reminds us we are beginning another school budget cycle. And this being Valentine’s Day also reminds us that our most cherished sweethearts are our children. There’s no better treat we could give our children and their teachers than more support for local education.

The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

From the Library

Seeing teachers last week picketing in downtown Sebastopol and other teachers filling seats in front of school board meetings in Windsor, Cloverdale and Healdsburg reminds us we are beginning another school budget cycle. And this being Valentine’s Day also reminds us that our most cherished sweethearts are our children. There’s no better treat we could give our children and their teachers than more support for local education.

Looking for a lost pet or a new four-legged friend? See the list of incoming strays and the slideshow of cats and dogs available for adoption from the Sonoma Humane Society, Healdsburg Center.

Vineyard Academy, one of Windsor High School’s four California Partnership Academies (CPA), has just been named as a 2019 Distinguished California Partnership Academy. This award, given to fewer than 2 percent of the CPAs across California, honors programs who embody a strong focus on academics blended with career technical education.

If you drive on Arata, you’ve probably noticed the field full of chickens. They are in a smaller, fenced pen that is rotated to different spots, and when they are near the road you can see them up close, wandering around, pecking at food and doing other chicken things. I always look for the big off-white dog that guards them—sometimes while dozing in the sun or in the shade, depending on the time of year—and it makes me happy to live in a place where we can enjoy such bucolic scenes.

There’s an app for that

Last November, the world watched with horror as residents of Paradise tried to escape from an oncoming wildfire on clogged roads, some so desperate that they abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot. Government can reduce the risk from wildfires. Our county government should properly enforce the state’s “fire safe” road regulations to stop new development in fire-prone areas and better enable emergency access and evacuation.