News

Faced with aging classrooms and the need to bring school facilities up to current building standards, the Sebastopol Union School District has placed a $17.5 million general obligation bond measure on the March 3 ballot.

Incoming animals

With the help of Coastal Conservancy grant monies, the Healdsburg Fire Department, in partnership with the Northern Sonoma County Fire District Fuels Crew, recently completed a large vegetation management project on Fitch Mountain, including trimming back overgrown understory brush, thinning tree crown canopies and clearing trees where needed.

During a recent Healdsburg City Council meeting, a resolution was approved to update the Healdsburg Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). The update is meant to create a plan that will reflect increased community engagement as well as address new forms of emergency circumstances. The resolution received positive feedback and was successfully approved unanimously.

The County of Sonoma has established deadlines for property owners to clear Kincade Fire debris following completion of the county sponsored Household Hazardous Waste sweep.

Following multiple years of wildfires and a sense that this is in fact “the new normal,” it seems like an ideal time to pitch a sales tax increase to cover revamping and expanding fire services. However, plans for change and expansion have been in the works prior to the current sense of urgency. On the March ballot, Measure G, if approved, will add a half-cent to sales tax throughout the county.

Kim Dargeou, the interim supervising children’s services librarian at the Central Santa Rosa Library, is bringing the library into families homes with a new video series of weekly story times, science and craft projects and read-aloud programs for all ages.

He went by a single name, “Spence,” and was equally singular in his focus on community and a very large circle of friends in his adopted hometown of Healdsburg. His full name was Donald Lamarion Spence and he died Dec. 13 after a long fight against lung cancer. He was 56. A large portion of his circle of friends held a candlelight memorial in the city’s Plaza last Friday, Dec. 14.

Healdsburg residents and local climate activists gathered at City Hall on Aug. 2 to call for further city action to address climate change and the consequent drought that’s drastically altering the Russian River watershed and its water supply.