Letters to the Editor 9-5-13

Good neighbors
Editor: Dear Friends and Neighbors,
I would like to thank all the folks in Sebastopol who came out to hear our Peacetown Summer Concert Series at Ives Park this year. The response has been phenomenal. Every week between 500 to 800 folks showed up to hear great music, dance and hang out with friends. It is just the kind of event that brings together and strengthens our community. Music has that kind of power to unite us all.
Huge thanks to all of our sponsors who stepped up and made these shows possible. The City of Sebastopol stepped up big time, with support and encouragement. The events were brought to you by the Mr. Music Foundation and the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, and we thank you for your enthusiastic attendance. Our generous sponsors include: Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club of Sebastopol, Whole Foods, Pacific Markets, People’s Music, Exchange Bank, Rocky and Kim Camp, realtor Izeta Feeny, Mark Hedley of Green Valley Mortgage, Sprint Copy Center, Sonoma West Times & News, and Sebastopol Realtors Assn.
An extra big thanks goes to Sandy Mays, who helped fundraise for this event; Lagunitas Brewery, who generously supplied the beer each week; and to my dear Love Choir, who hosted the event each week and poured the beer, greeted the people, and cleaned up at the end of the night. To everyone who contributed when we passed the hat each week, thank you, thank you, thank you. Together we created something beautiful for our town. See ya next summer in Peacetown.
Jim Corbett
Sebastopol
Laguna cleanup, too
Editor: I loved the article about the various Creek Week activities coming up around here (“Creek Week activities,” Aug. 29) and would like to add one: for the first time, the Laguna Foundation is sponsoring a land-based Laguna cleanup. I have been a beach captain for the Coastal Cleanup every year since 1990 (well, I may have been travelling for one or two) and have also participated in the Russian River cleanup by canoe. I could never figure out the logistics to do a Laguna cleanup but this year it hit me — let’s clean up the land around the Laguna so that when winter rains come and flood that land the garbage won’t wind up in the waterway. We’ll be doing this at two sites, the City of Santa Rosa’s Brown Farm (which is just east of the Laguna from Sebastopol’s Railroad Forest) and the area south of the Occidental Road bridge. Coastwalk is handling signups for us on their website at coastwalk.org/volunteer/coastalcleanupday. There is a description there of the sites and you can choose either location. You must sign up, as there is a maximum number of people we can handle at both sites.
David Bannister
Executive Director
Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation
Which colleagues?
Editor: In his article of Aug. 29 (“Massive show of support for terminated Chief Max Ming”), Mr. Robertson states “O’Shea has now been asked to resign by colleagues including Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman, who serves as operations chief for the Russian River Fire District, and Dan Northern, the former Forestville Fire Protection District chief.”
I’d be very curious to know who the “colleagues” are that have asked for his resignation.
Linda E. Payne
Board Vice President
Russian River Fire Protection District
Missed important fact
Editor: Your story regarding the ongoing CVS matter (“Sebastopol council to discuss CVS lawsuit,” Aug. 29) did not mention a most important fact. On July 5, 2011, the then City Council approved a Mitigated Negative Declaration, which allowed the CVS application to proceed without the benefit of a full Environmental Impact Report. The lawsuit filed by the Committee for Small Town Sebastopol in August 2011 charges that the MND was based on a flawed Traffic Impact Study. The TIS did not consider the traffic that would be generated by The Barlow, nor did the traffic consultant include Bodega Avenue past High Street, or Petaluma Avenue beyond Fannen Street. The hearing for that lawsuit has been extended, by CVS’s 13th request, to March, 2014.
CVS still needs permits from CalTrans to build a left turn into the project site from Highway 12 west, and access to the project from Highway 116 down little Abbott Avenue to the site’s driveway. Abbott is the street that serves the loading docks for Frizelle Enos and provides parking for its customers. According to CalTrans officials, they have received dozens of e-mails from people opposed to approval.
CVS, with its proposed drive thru and left turn off Highway 12 into the project would exacerbate the existing congestion at the junction of highways 12 and 116 and would discourage visitors at The Barlow from coming into town to shop and dine. Do downtown merchants and restaurants think that a downtown CVS would be a boon to their businesses?
Helen Shane
For the Committee for
Small Town Sebastopol