News

During my 48 years of working at newspapers I have had a long list of jobs including sports photographer, daily news reporter, small town sports editor, news editor, general manager, publisher and owner. Now, effective at the end of last month, I am an ex-publisher and former owner. I am retired.

The varsity baseball Eagles will begin the season in earnest this week with a full compliment of players following a long and successful basketball campaign.

Californians used 2.6% more water in January compared to before the drought emergency was declared, a sign that urban residents are ignoring the state’s pleas to take the drought seriously and cut back.

The Healdsburg Unified School District (HUSD) school board will consider adopting new district masking guidelines at its next meeting on Wednesday, March 16. HUSD Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel will be making a recommendation to the board to strongly recommend masks in the district instead of requiring them.

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

The Sebastopol City Council meets at 6 p.m. tonight, March 15. Agenda items include a public hearing item related to the city’s emergency operations center, a public hearing item adding language to the city’s municipal code about “police acquisition and use of government body specific equipment,” as well as regular agenda items about bike lane modifications to Morris Street, discussion and consideration of recommendations from Sebastopol’s Committee for Unhoused and more. The council will also be receiving presentations about the upcoming Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival, the process of expanding the city's business improvement district and a presentation from the climate action committee.

Vote-by-mail ballots for the April 12 special election will start going out in the mail this week to all active, registered voters residing in the Town of Windsor. Voters should expect their vote-by-mail ballots to arrive within five to 10 days. This election does not apply to any Sonoma County voters who live outside of Windsor.

In September of last year, a Native American tribe from Lake County announced its intention to build a casino that could host 54,000 people a day just outside Windsor, south of East Shiloh Road. But as the Koi Nation pursues taking the land into trust in Washington, D.C., neighbors are organizing against the plans, touting the risk congestion to a residential area with poor accessibility would pose to safe evacuation in the event of a fire, among other concerns including the potential disruption of way of life to nearby residents.

After years in the making and several delays, the multipurpose building; science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) lab; and kindergarten classroom projects at Alexander Valley School (AVS) are finally taking shape.

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.