They were calling 2010 “a year to forget” on the MSNBC cable
news channel this week.
What’s not to like about good old 2010? OK, maybe there were a
few drawbacks such as unemployment at 10 percent, Tea Party maniacs
sweeping into power and President Obama wimping out with a catchy
new campaign slogan, “No, we can’t.”
It seemed like a good year to withdraw, turn inward, hunker down
and spend less. We pinched pennies, made do with what we’ve got and
prided ourselves on acts of supreme fiscal self-discipline such as
not driving to the mall to fondle an iPhone.
“The new normal” became the defining term for where we found
ourselves in 2010: most notably at the end of a 30-year housing
boom when home equities always jumped five or 10 percent a year and
no one thought it would ever stop — until it did. The year’s most
poignant story was not on page one but in all the buried legal
notices of homes in foreclosure.
More than 200 announcements of trustee’s sales appeared in
Sonoma West this year, and that’s not counting the ones in our
sister papers the Windsor Times and the Healdsburg Tribune.
But when the going gets tough the tough get going. In the midst
of the Great Recession in Guerneville they broke ground for Fife
Creek Commons, the ambitious $20 million housing project that will
eventually shelter a couple of hundred people of little income,
mental disabilities and histories of substance abuse who might
otherwise be homeless.
“This is no small feat,” said 5th District Supervisor Efren
Carrillo at the groundbreaking ceremony in November.
Carrillo credited the non-profit Burbank Housing Corporation and
Community Housing Sonoma County for perseverance in guiding the
project through a bureaucratic maze and bringing to town what may
be the second largest public works project Guerneville will ever
see after the town sewer system.
Financial partners include the Sonoma County Community
Development Commission and the Russian River Redevelopment Project.
This and other contributions of the Russian River Redevelopment
Oversight Committee (RRROC) in 2010 seemed to indicate it was at
least on the verge of having some sense of direction after 10 years
in an aimless drift.
Maybe to its credit the Russian River Redevelopment Project in
2010 hired a consultant to figure out some priorities for spending
$300 million in tax increment revenues River Redevelopment is
projected to have in hand over the next 20 years.
The River’s diversity is reflected in many of the projects that
have been proposed so far: bike trails, downtown Guerneville and
Monte Rio streetscape improvements, a new sewer system for Monte
Rio and a 75-foot Ferris wheel for Johnson’s Beach.
It’s true many things went sideways this year so maybe it’s best
to forget about the closing of Monte Rio’s historic Pink Elephant
Bar (owing to septic system failure) and the padlocking of
Guerneville’s Triple R Resort (another recession casualty).
Instead we may keep in mind the positive signs, such as Dennis
Judd’s purchase and attempted resurrection of the abandoned Rio
Nido Lodge.
Kudos as well to the preservation of Guerneville’s 140-year-old
Marshall House for a meeting place at the Russian River Senior
Center.
Guerneville School celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2010,
Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman was honored for 40 years of
volunteer service and the Stewards of Slavianka observed 25 years
of Russian River and Sonoma Coast environmental volunteer work.
Another mostly volunteer effort, the Russian Riverkeeper
project, won a nearly $300,000 state parks grant for habitat
improvements to Riverkeeper Park, the Guerneville riverfront
environmental demonstration project that just five years ago was a
squalid trash-strewn homeless camp.
“We have a new feel at the park,” said Villa Grande resident
Victoria Wikle who coordinates the volunteer effort.
Improvements will include interpretive stations, loop trials,
signs, picnic areas, landscaping and a floating classroom dock.
The Russian River Fire Protection District celebrated as well
when voters approved a tax measure to stave off cuts in emergency
medical services. Measure F won a resounding victory in June
passing by a nearly 70 percent majority.
“It just shows you when the chips are down this community moves
forward,” said Guerneville resident Herman Hernandez who helped
organize the victory for Measure F that raises residential property
taxes by $100 for fire and ambulance services.
Commercial properties will pay a flat rate of $350 instead of
the current $10 per “unit of risk” that varied from business to
business. Some commercial taxpayers will actually see a reduction
in their taxes but a noticeable increase will hit residential
vacation rental owners whose houses will be taxed as commercial
properties instead of single-family residences.
The River’s emerging vacation rental industry had a mixed year.
Business was so good it continued to draw the wrath of neighbors
fed up with having to live with constant parties and crowds of
strangers occupying single-family dwellings in residential
neighborhoods.
Vacation home owners fought the imposition of a county
ordinance, saying the rules were overly restrictive. That view lost
credibility when hundreds of fleeing party-goers blocked emergency
access to a vacation house on Sweetwater Springs Road last January.
A deck packed with dancing revelers collapsed resulting in multiple
injuries and as many as 500 people fleeing the party fearing
arrest. Reports of drug use and underage drinking were included in
the investigation of how a two-bedroom vacation rental turned into
a mob scene with hundreds of party goers trying to escape down a
narrow driveway just as fire and sheriff’s personnel were trying to
get in.
The incident occurred just after the Sonoma County Board of
Supervisors had directed the county Permit and Resource Management
Department to draft an ordinance governing acceptable vacation home
uses. The new law passed unanimously in November and goes into
effect Jan.1.
It may have been a year to forget, but there was much worth
remembering. Good people who passed away included Forestville’s
devoted children’s philanthropist Bob Burke, who died suddenly in
June at age 63 from a heart attack.
The River said good bye to Marianne Ware, the West County poet
and teacher, who was 74.
Bernie Packer, remembered for his wit and skill creating special
effects for Russian River stage productions, died at age 91.
Famed surfer Noel Robinson, an El Molino High School alumnus,
was remembered with an ocean memorial held in Jenner after Robinson
died while surfing in Mexico. He was 39.
Cazadero native Bob Schneider passed away at age 90.
Guerneville’s Bob DeWitt, a familiar presence in town where he
and his family operated Buck’s Restaurant since the 1930s, died in
July. He was 92.
None of them are forgettable.
