Local laundry list

In just two weeks we will turn our calendars to a new year as we
also continue to turn the news pages on several year-long stories.
The 12-month calendar for year 2009 will be closed but the news is
never so orderly or convenient.
As we enter the new year of 2010 we will be accompanied by a
familiar list of local news topics which continue to be defined by
a lingering recession and our resilient sense of community and
local pride.
There is also a threat of more dry weather and a drought and
lots of unfinished business in our local healthcare industry and
public infrastructure needs.
Among the items on this Local Laundry List are the
following:
State deficit/local school cuts — This past year produced no
fixes to California’s state budget. A $20.7 billion deficit is
being predicted in 2010 caused by falling tax revenues and runaway
costs for prisons, pensions, debt service and mandated programs.
Raids and theft of local tax receipts, school funding and local
redevelopment accounts will continue. News stories next year will
include larger class sizes, teacher pay freezes, possible layoffs
and shortened school years.
Honest fiscal appraisals are forecasting multiple years of
government deficits. Closed parks, libraries and some government
offices may not return to full operation for quite some time.
This ongoing news story will be made more interesting through
the coming year when voters go to the polls in November to elect a
new governor.
Salmon habitat and possible drought — With or without government
deficits there will be added pressures and costs to restore and
protect the salmon habitat in our Russian River watershed. Rulings
covering the federal Endangered Species Act will limit access to
river flows for agriculture, urban needs and recreation. The Sonoma
County Water Agency has committed $150 million in measures to
restore and protect the salmon habitat. Winegrape growers are
scrambling now to find new practices to irrigate vineyards and
provide frost protection while limiting or eliminating creek and
river pumping and diversions.
A 20-year master plan to increase urban water supplies for
600,000 customers of the water agency was abandoned this past year
by the county board of supervisors. The plan which included a new
major pipeline from Lake Sonoma down Dry Creek Valley to collection
pumps at Wohler Bridge was deemed too expensive. A new plan to
serve the county’s growing thirst for drinking water has not been
started.
Staying healthy locally — As the U.S. Congress and the Obama
Administration compromise their way toward a new set of mutilated
health care reforms, our local hospitals, doctors and regional
health care system must continue to fend for themselves. Sonoma
County may or may not break ground for a new major hospital by
Sutter Medical in northern Santa Rosa next year. This story will
include major impacts and patient bed shifts at our community
hospitals in Healdsburg, Sebastopol and south county. Our vital
community health care clinics will struggle to serve a growing
patient load with limited government funding and likely program
cuts.
Charity begins at home — The impacts of the continuing recession
that has included loss of jobs, mortgage defaults and personal
income losses has ignited some glimmering sparks of local commerce
and cooperation. Where our chambers of commerce and a few others
(including this newspaper) have long preached the “shop locally”
sermon, recent troubled times has kindled a wider network of voices
and efforts to support all things local. More of us are opposing
non-local entities that export local wealth instead of building it.
Perhaps this recession will strengthen our Main Street businesses
and our overall ability and willingness to be more charitable among
ourselves.
Afterall, the outcome to all of these continuing news stories in
2010 will be bettered by this expanding mutual aid, respect and
charity.
— Rollie Atkinson