News

MONDAY, March 21

In early March, the Rotary Club of Sebastopol voted to donate $10,000 to the Rotary International Disaster Response Fund for Ukraine. Since then, the service club has raised an additional $19,000 for a total donation of $29,000 — and the donation amount keeps growing.

The following are crimes excerpted from Sebastopol Police Department daily crime log entries and listed at the time the alleged violation was reported.

The sounds of summer will soon be coming from the direction of Ives Pool, where the Sebastopol Rotary Club will again be teaching local 7-year-olds how to swim. Sebastopol Rotary's Learn-to-Swim Program is now in its 36th year, and the club is looking for volunteers to help with this year's program.

Amid a dwindling water utility fund, the Healdsburg City Council is considering the possibility of increasing water rates by roughly the equivalence of two 5.4% rate increases. Rate prices will vary per household and some may see an over $7 increase.

La Familia Sana, a nonprofit located in Cloverdale, is growing its partnership with Corazón Healdsburg in hopes of bringing more resources to the area. In the past, both organizations have helped one another when it comes to helping families — whether it was with housing supplies, food or COVID-19 tests, a partnership was already there.

Despite pressure from experts urging a strong mandate, the order leaves the exact conservation measures up to the urban water providers and major water wholesalers that supply the vast majority of Californians. It does not affect agricultural water providers, or the small water systems that are especially vulnerable to drought. 

Many people have shaped the apple growing industry of western Sonoma County over almost 150 years. They have put down deep roots in their orchards and beneath their family trees. They have been the primal forces that have met and endured both nature’s surprises and multiple market upheavals with multi-generational resolve and resourcefulness. All these individuals possessed many strengths and talents but only one was endowed with a major-league worthy fastball and a knee-crippling curveball. And that farmer-pitcher was Graton’s Lee F. Walker Jr.

As record-breaking drought fuels another potentially dangerous wildfire season, the state auditor reported last week that state officials are failing to hold California’s electric utilities accountable for preventing fires caused by their equipment.

Every year, Healdsburg Junior High’s (HJH) leadership class plans a fundraiser to benefit a local Healdsburg organization. This year, students decided to raise money for local animals in need — they raised roughly $1,000. Bethany Carlson, guidance counselor at the junior high, said students chose to start a monthlong school-wide coin drive for the Humane Society of Sonoma County in Healdsburg.