Editorial

File this editorial under, “careful what you wish for.” As a nation, we just celebrated our Independence Day. Just before that, a few thousand Sonoma County high school seniors took their first steps toward adulthood and independence. All of us are emerging from a year-plus of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. A few of us are swearing by our independence to not be forced to vaccinate. And, all those 3- and 4-year-olds under our feet keep letting us know that one definition of independence is the ability to say “no.”

The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Water reserves

The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Summer greetings from your community library staff. We have truly cherished seeing so many of you the last few weeks as we have reopened slowly but surely. You have our apologies about the various changes in hours — I know it has been important for the libraries to be careful with rolling out the hours to keep everything consistent across the county and take incremental steps so that we don’t have to roll anything back.

Suspending flow for fish

Sonoma County may be a land of bounty and beauty, wine and luxury, but it is also a place of wild extremes. Most of the time we shield ourselves from these extremes with our modern appliances, Golden State infrastructure and accumulated wealth. But lately, our extremes have become so extreme that we not only can’t ignore them, but we are now struggling to endure them.

A message to the Healdsburg community from Mayor Evelyn Mitchell

On average, each Californian uses about 85 gallons of water every day, but it depends on the season. In winter months, it’s as low as 60 gallons per day and in summer months, it’s as high as 110 gallons per day. That’s between 12 and 22 of those 5‑gallon water cooler jugs, every day for every person. About a quarter of that water literally gets flushed down the toilet. More than half comes from faucets, showers and appliances.

Last week’s biggest local news was about the local news. That would be us. Maybe you caught the big change, or maybe you didn’t. Let us explain further. Last week we transformed ourselves into SoCoNews and launched a great new website, unfurled a new news flag and launched a new identity. We are SoCoNews, which is short for Sonoma County Local New Initiative, our new community-based nonprofit owner. It’s more than a name change, even though our local news mission stays the same and all the people here are still on board and continuing to work harder than ever.