News

The coronavirus pandemic is taking a devastating economic toll on Sonoma County’s economy: tourism, once a mainstay, is non-existent; 16,000 local workers have filed for unemployment; more than a thousand small businesses have applied for the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) Payroll Protection Plan (PPP). Meanwhile local governments continue to provide essential public health and welfare services, while their normal revenue sources trickle to near-zero.

With the onslaught of the coronavirus and the related shelter-in-place orders, Healdsburg residents may be wondering how this will affect the farmers market pavilion project at 3 North Street, a project that was approved by city council in early March and has received community-wide support.

The Healdsburg Certified Farmers’ Market is opening its 42nd season two weeks early on Saturday, April 18. Like many essential services around the county, the market is having to navigate a new set of rules and procedures for its opening to ensure that the operation adheres to social distancing and increased health and safety practices.

Back when life was normal, all we had to worry about was a drought and seasonal wildfires. Just because all our attention is now on the COVID-19 pandemic, doesn’t mean the lack of winter rains and approaching fire season aren’t still with us.

Spring is often a bustling time of year for wineries. New and delicate buds break, wine gets bottled and locals and visitors alike spend afternoons tasting and sipping wines at local wineries.

With distance learning the prescribed norm for the rest of the 2019-20 school year, Windsor Unified School District and its schools have settled into the routine of distance learning by providing devices, curriculum and connection through social media and other platforms.

MONDAY, APRIL 6

Cola has quite a personality and so much love to give. Terrified when he first showed up, he cowered in a kennel and growled at everyone who came by . . . but there was something in his eyes that told all of us that he was dying to be loved. 

From the start of the epidemic right down to this day, certain products have been hard to get a hold of — toilet paper and hand sanitizers among them. We haven’t heard of any local TP makers, but two types of local businesses have thrown themselves into the sanitizer business: distilleries and herbalists, both of whom have access to high-proof alcohol as a part of their regular business practices.

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