Editorial

In 1988, I made my first visit to Healdsburg. Six months later, my first job out of college included Healdsburg. I was hooked. The town reminded me of my valley community: a dusty working town with a Sunsweet dehydrator, several lumber mills, a river and lots of families. There was a diversity of culture with a common goal of making our community great.

As an educator who has always lived in the town where I work, I’ve often struggled with being associated with any sort of alcohol consumption and the perception it might give to my students.

Pests, whether ants in the kitchen or weeds in the garden, are a frustrating reality in any home or garden. While many of us think of a pesticide as the quick solution, it is not the safest alternative for our family’s heath and for the environment. Our watershed, creeks, rivers and local water bodies can be contaminated with pesticides and other chemicals that we commonly use. These chemicals are not only a threat to aquatic life, but can also affect the quality of our drinking water and our health. So, how can we control pests safely? What are alternatives to pesticides? Should pesticides ever be used?

With this year’s elections fast approaching both candidates for the 4th Supervisorial District, James Gore and Deb Fudge have represented that they possess the knowledge and skills necessary to manage Sonoma County’s public sector and its problems, one of which is the gorilla in the room—unfunded pension liabilities.

D r. Jim Wood doesn’t seem like a person who would pursue higher office, because he’s not. When asked when he first wanted to go after a second career in politics, he replied that he never did and that it’s just one of those things in a person’s life that happens – that it just evolved organically. As he takes his seat, he is one of the state’s 28 new members of California’s Assembly.

When the new Healdsburg City Council reconvenes on January 3, 2017, there will be one vacant seat. In the wake of the 2016 election, councilmember Eric Ziedrich tendered his resignation, effective December 31, due to the rejection of Measure R by Healdsburg voters.

Readers owe a debt of gratitude to the Board of Directors of the Healdsburg Tourism Improvement District (HTID). We have rarely seen a letter that provided, word for word, greater entertainment value than the board’s response to a letter suggesting that transient tax money should now be reallocated from tourism promotion to low-income housing. We encourage readers to dig through their old papers, or go to the Tribune online, to again enjoy with us this amazing missive.

Driving up the Oregon coast we heard a radio interview with a woman, someone who lived in the far-off troubled Arab world, I think she was Lebanese, saying she takes her family to the beach because people don’t usually bomb beaches. That’s something I never thought about. But here I was imagining a mother grabbing sunhats and sand buckets to take time off from war.

Healdsburg Charter School (HCS) opened in August 2011, after extensive visioning and community involvement, and has become a thriving school with a waiting list at each grade level. The school is housed at two sites, with K-2 students at Healdsburg Elementary School and grades 3-5 at Fitch Mountain Campus.

I am shocked to see the misleading signs regarding Drakes Bay Oyster Company popping up around the Sonoma and Marin Counties. These signs should say Save Point Reyes Wilderness. I strongly support organic sustainable agriculture and I love oysters but the attempt by Drakes Oyster Company and their corporate allies to deny wilderness status to Drakes Estero has nothing to do with farming and everything to do with opening publicly owned wilderness lands to development. Pt. Reyes National Seashore is a wonderful example of cooperation between agriculture, the national park system, and wilderness.