Harvest Cafe switches to take-out only amid omicron surge
                    The Sebastopol Area Senior Center has announced its Harvest Cafe will serve only take-out until further notice, as advised by Sonoma County Public Health with COVID-19 rushing through the county again.                
                
            Newsom’s $2 billion school reopening fund could actually cost districts money
                    In his bid to get California school campuses back open, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed giving extra money to schools that managed to open by a certain date.                 
                
            Rental stabilization
                    Healdsburg’s rental housing market is in crisis. Evictions, 60 day notices and often 20 percent-plus rental increases are occurring daily, the most recent eviction being the 21-unit rental housing on Prentice Drive, with all tenants being evicted for building repairs, and rents going from a range of $850 to $1,400 to $2,100 – a 65 percent rental increase and more in one year. How many rental units and people are in Healdsburg? According to the 2010 housing element statistics there are 4,378 total housing units in Healdsburg. Forty-two percent of them (1,857) are rental units. With an average of three persons per unit, this could represent 5,571 people in our community of 12,000 residents.                
                
            Sebastopol City Council approves new site for RV Park
                    The Sebastopol City Council unanimously approved a new location for a temporary RV village at 845 Gravenstein Highway North during its special meeting Nov. 30.                
                
            Annual count shows decline in homeless population
                    The year 2020 in Sonoma County will be remembered more for the COVID-19 pandemic and series of wildfires, but it also was a year bookended by a persistent homeless crisis that will still exist into the new year of 2021.                
                
            Sebastopol’s city budget adjusted for $1.2 million wire transfer fraud
                    The Sebastopol City Council adopted the city’s budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year and deferred funding for some departmental expenses at its July 20 meeting, days after the city announced a $1.2 million cyber theft dented its reserves.                
                
            A Wise Investment by Gary Plass
                    There is real enthusiasm in Sonoma County for renewable energy and to that end the Board of Supervisors has voted to explore various public options. Over the next few years, they will try to run-to-ground the costs, consequences and benefits of forming a public power agency. Healdsburg has something to offer in this debate. Not one of the hypothetical possibilities in their study, but the best example in the county of a successful, living, breathing public power entity.                
                
            Rialto Cinemas’ 20th anniversary
                    Rialto Cinemas is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a big party at the theater in Sebastopol on Jan. 21.                
                
            









