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The city of Healdsburg has a new police chief and it’s the Healdsburg Police Department’s (HPD) own Matt Jenkins, who has served as the police department’s lieutenant for the last eight years and has been with the department for almost two decades.

Healdsburg High School’s (HHS) 129th graduation ceremony took place on June 11 on the Healdsburg High athletic field where pods of families spaced six feet apart gathered to honor the graduating class of 2021.

River MAC members question if plan focuses too much on promoting tourism and too little on the impacts of tourism

From her perch in her tiny kitchen on the plaza, Jamilah Nixon of Jam’s Joy Bungalow has a good view of the daily struggles of Sebastopol’s homeless population, many of whom spend the day in the plaza. But she knows that these days it’s not only the homeless who are struggling financially and may be in need of a good hot meal.Nixon has always been generous with food, offering sandwiches to those in need, but this month, she made it official by announcing that she’d be offering free food to anyone who needs it on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month between 3 and 5 p.m.On those days, she makes a big pot of something luscious and dishes it up for anyone who needs it, be they the unhoused, laid off workers or even those who she said “just need to feel that something good happened to them that day.”In these times, that line could get pretty long.“I live in Sebastopol, and I’m a single mom raising a daughter,” Nixon said. “If I was out of work right now or was furloughed or had a business that wasn’t doing well, I know that it would be really tough for me to make ends meet, and give her a sense of normalcy and be able to go out and kind of feel like you’re part of the community.”She launched the first food giveaway on Christmas Day, serving gumbo and cornbread. Then on Jan. 12, she put out the word on social media.The next day, roughly 25 people showed up to take her up on her offer.She was a little disappointed in the turnout because she’d made enough food for 50 — black eyed peas with chicken and andouille sausage chili with cornbread, but she realizes it may take a while for people to catch on that it’s happening.“It’s just gonna have to grow by word of mouth,” she said. “And we have a couple guys in the homeless community that are spreading the word.”But the food isn’t meant solely for the homeless.“I also really want to reach out to restaurant workers and other workers that are furloughed and that are barely making ends meet or have families that they’re trying to feed,” she said.“There’s no questions asked,” Nixon said. “We’re just offering everybody a bowl of food … and if they have a family at home, and they need three or four bowls, that’s fine too. We’ll pack it up to go,” she said.Though she’s not soliciting donations for this effort, she’s be happy to accept them, noting people can just leave money in the tip jar.“We’re putting everything in there toward buying food,” she said. “All that money is being funneled back into feeding people, either when they come up and they need a sandwich, or when they come to one of these Wednesday events.”“We have so much abundance in Sonoma County,” Nixon said, “that it’s important to recognize that not everybody in our community is thriving right now.”Townsy is a recently-launched Sebastopol community app, offering local news, online shopping at local stores, a local event guide, local volunteer and job boards and more. 

The West Sonoma County Union High School District (WSCUHSD) board unanimously approved a resolution to order an election in March to levy a three-year annual $48 district parcel tax following a public hearing Friday morning.

This story was updated at 9 p.m. following an interview with Ken MacNab to clarify that whoever fills the seat, however it is filled, will become the at-large mayor for the reminder of the term.

The Town of Windsor will join other Sonoma County municipalities such as the City of Healdsburg in returning to Zoom to hold public meetings, as the omicron variant has caused COVID-19 cases to skyrocket since Christmas.

Healdsburg police officers say they found a pretty serious stash of drugs, drug-selling stuff, guns and ammo inside a home on the east side of Healdsburg last Thursday morning, as “part of an ongoing drug sales investigation” here in town. They say they arrested...

For some Healdsburg residents it is an unspoken truth people seek work at Healdsburg’s downtown Plaza. But others might be unaware of the daily career fair happening in the Plaza’s four corners.