Editorial

Earlier this month, I was at the Healdsburg Museum looking through old editions of The Healdsburg Tribune to familiarize myself with Healdsburg’s Prune Blossom Tour, the subject of my latest feature article, and I came across a selection of recipes — prune nut squares, prune apricot pot roast and prune honey bread.

A Ruse by Another Name? Some things are not for sale. Full-time residents of Healdsburg can see the “unapproved” and not “permitted” 330 Center St. ultra-luxury $12 million condos listed on MLS ( a site FOR real estate brokers) for what it really is!  We know this...

Painting alarming scenes of fires, floods and economic disruption, the California Legislature’s advisors this week released a series of reports that lays out in stark terms the impacts of climate change across the state.

Measure O, which will be on the Nov. 5 ballot, would ease restrictions on new housing construction imposed by Healdsburg’s Growth Management Ordinance (GMO) by creating zones of exclusion from the GMO. But that’s not the whole story...

Reportedly, 17 years ago this wall at Fitch and Powell was a blank concrete block wall.  Often it would be “tagged.” That is until somebody decided to do something about it.  That somebody was eight-year-old Haley Fincher. She and her friends took it upon themselves,...

"We have finalized a ballot measure for Healdsburg’s voters that encourages housing that is best suited to Healdsburg’s workers," writes Councilmember Chris Herrod, "near the city center, close to transportation and jobs, and where higher density units make the most sense, both cosmetically and economically (and in accord with our climate goals)..."

The beginning of this story about this local newspaper has only been told to a few people. In 1995, the Walnut Creek-based corporation that owned this and three other local newspapers decided to shut them all down after failing to find a new corporate buyer. But, instead of abandoning the papers, the corporation accepted two separate offers from two families to each purchase half of the four papers. The Atkinson and Mays households formed Sonoma West Publishers and bought The Sebastopol Times & News and Russian River News and merged them together as Sonoma West Times & News. Tom and Beverly Reeves and their children bought The Healdsburg Tribune and The Windsor Times on the very same day as the Sonoma West transaction (May 30, 1995.) The newspapers were not only saved but they were put in the hands of experienced and dedicated newspaper people.

Since its very beginnings, this community has had a very proud tradition of military service. Healdsburg area citizens have stepped forward to serve their country’s military, beginning with the Mexican War when less than two months after the declaration of war on May 13, 1846 local militias supported United States Marines and sailors for the occupation of Sonoma on July 9, 1846 after California had been declared part of the United States. Area residents have served in every major and most of the lesser wars and military deployments since.

Bridge Lighting Policy At the December 4th city council meeting I requested city council to revisit resolution 68-2023 and abort the bridge lighting project, returning it to its natural state for the following reasons. ('Healdsburg Chooses the Color of Peace,' Oct. 26) Lighting the bridge was...