Main Street

Ray Holley
For about a week at the end of July the town was abuzz with the
news that City of Healdsburg department heads took off for a
two-day management retreat at Timber Cove. The unhappy people who
spoke to me about it thought it was wrong that the management team
would spend that kind of money after a round of heavy
budget-cutting, and “go play” in the same week that laid-off and
retiring employees were cleaning out their desks.
“Why didn’t they just go up to the Villa Chanticleer for their
meeting?” was the question I heard most often. In their defense, I
think getting out of town was probably valuable. The agony of the
budget process caused unrest among department heads and they needed
to spend time getting their heads together so they can focus on
teamwork and good service in the months to come, especially with
the state taking even more of our funds in the near future.
In retrospect, could they have gone somewhere closer and
cheaper? Maybe. But, these folks have a lot of responsibility, like
keeping the lights on, the water flowing, and the community safe.
If an overnight getaway gets them focused on their work, perhaps
it’s money well-spent.
u
On the subject of state budget raids, get ready to duck and
cover. The state is taking $207,000 out of the Healdsburg General
Fund – that’s money that pays for parks, senior services, the
transit system and public safety. Another $2.7 million is being
stolen from our Redevelopment Agency – money that pays for
community infrastructure improvements. Altogether, it’s almost $300
per citizen in the city limits.
Country residents will suffer along with the townies. The state
is also reaching its clammy hand into county coffers, which will
hurt rural services. The feds just print more money when they need
it, the state steals it from small towns, schools and public health
organizations – what are the little guys to do?
u
Driving through town Monday night, Judy Voigt spotted a very
large acorn parked outside a local pub. It was not a giant squirrel
getting plastered, it was the crew delivering the custom-made
“acorn hut” to the Giorgi Park playground. If you drive by the
University Street side of the project, look towards the tennis
courts and you’ll see the big nut. By the end of September,
Healdsburg kids will be checking it out.
u
Evan Doll, who graduated from Healdsburg High and went on to
Stanford, has been working for Apple Computer for five years. He
teaches a class at Stanford on how to create applications for the
iPhone. Evan’s mom, Mary Doll, wrote to tell me that Evan uses a
photo of Healdsburg to illustrate all the various places where
iPhone code has been written. If you want to see for yourself,
visit iTunes, search for “iPhone Application Programming” and check
it out. For a while, Evan was the top iTunes video download, until
he got displaced by Garfield, the cartoon cat.
u
In this staggering economy, we ought to be grateful to anyone
who wants to invest in our community. The Sher family, who led the
effort to build Hotel Healdsburg, have been good citizens and very
generous to this little town. While some might debate the need for
another boutique hotel, the Shers are once again showing their
faith in Healdsburg by building another interesting project – a
“green” hotel that will be an international model for energy
efficiency and niche marketing.
The hotel team hired an experienced general contractor, who then
hired a non-union subcontractor to handle the concrete work. That’s
where the trouble began. The unions have been picketing the job
ever since.
I support a union’s right to protest, but this union has gone
too far. They park a truck on Healdsburg Avenue as often as they
can, right in front of the original Hotel Healdsburg, with a banner
that’s intended to “shame” Merritt Sher for his contractor hiring a
non-union sub – a business decision he has no control over.
The unconventional protest may get attention, but it won’t work.
In a small town like Healdsburg we stick together, and Merritt is
now one of ours. He means more to us than a cheesy banner and a
bunch of imported concrete workers marching in a circle, munching
on donuts.
Ray Holley hates to march, and always has. He can be reached at
[email protected].