On Saturday, Jan. 27, the Windsor Town Council held its annual goal-setting workshop. My personal takeaways were that, at a minimum, three priorities were identified and discussed.
First, after a presentation by the Windsor Fire District, the town affirmed their commitment to work closely with the district to ensure appropriate and adequate funding for fire and emergency medical services in the future. Medical and non-fire calls may represent approximately 70 percent of their responses.
Second, the possible annexation and development of the area north of Arata Lane and adjacent to Highway 101. This is the area where the town has purchased the land for a new extension of Los Amigos Road north towards Healdsburg in order to construct the Highway 101 north on-ramp, which is required of the town.
What is integral to this process and project is seeing that the Windsor Unified School District has the opportunity to acquire a needed site for a school. It is known that very few parcels of land within the town meet the state requirements for a new school and north of Arata may be the one.
Third, the town will commit to seeing the approved housing developments be completed to further our interests in providing needed housing. I believe we are referring to four approved projects, 100 single family homes on Hembree Lane near the Walmart, where we see that construction has begun; the 320 rental units on Old Redwood Highway at the Oliver’s shopping center; and two small single family projects on Arata Lane totaling maybe 12 to 15 units.
The town has a great number of other goals and commitments currently existing and in process, which were discussed. I believe there is a commitment to look at many of our efforts through a lens of sustainability, climate protection, flood and fire considerations, plus new and improved bike and walking opportunities that promote healthy exercise and safety. The future town center development was also acknowledged.
In order to assist with our charge, Assistant Town Manager Camille Kazarian provided the council with in-depth analysis of our financial position with future predictions and projections, as sound as we can expect in our current times. I took the report to advise us that we will have our work cut out for us if we are to continue our policy of maintaining a 25 percent general fund reserve as our rainy day fund.
It was also pointed out that there are indicators present that point to possibly an impending recession as our economy has experienced a growth cycle of historic highs that many times leads to corrections by means of financial retreat or recession. I would like to thank those of you who committed your time to attending our session.
Sam Salmon is a Windsor Town Councilmember.
