Editorial

Recent revelations about past financial mistakes inside Healdsburg District Hospital should not be taken as any reason for patients, doctors and community partners to withhold support or question its medical excellence. A business turnaround looks to be in place and elected leaders of the North Sonoma County Healthcare District last week expressed their vote of confidence in a new management team, now completing its first full year on the job.

As an educator who has always lived in the town where I work, I’ve often struggled with being associated with any sort of alcohol consumption and the perception it might give to my students.

If you look at our waterways from above, you can see a rolling and flowing patchwork of managed lands and natural landscapes, including urbanized neighborhoods, agricultural fields, riparian forest, seasonal channels and open water. More and more we are seeing how our management of these lands influences the others.

For some reason, we have taxes on our minds this week. Tax Day (April 15) just happened and we’re busily wadding up all the extra forms with pencil mistakes and late night calculations. We just hit the “Send” button on our TurboTax or stubbornly filed our income taxes the old fashioned way with a licked stamp and envelope.

As a fellow employee and team member of Healdsburg District Hospital, I was saddened by the article that I read in The Healdsburg Tribune (Nurses protest lack of pay parity, April 2, 2015) in regards to the comments quoted by some of our employees.

Our California drought is a tangle of mathematics problems. And, so far, it doesn’t look like the numbers are adding up. Facing our worst drought in 120 years, we know the severe lack of rain will require a lot of subtraction and sacrifice. This math test is no longer optional. Last week, Gov. Brown made it mandatory and we all have to save a minimum of 25 percent over previous rates of water usage.

As we observe National Volunteer Week (April 6-12), the staff of the Healdsburg Senior Center would like to extend our heartfelt thank you and appreciation to our volunteers for all they do to serve our guests, as well as assist us in our daily operations.

There is a “tourism tsunami” effect happening to our small town community now. Healdsburg has been discovered, but it is still our small town, and if local residents complain, we can turn the tide. As we’ve learned about the deals behind closed doors that led to the “Meat Market” changes, many residents feel these to be a violation of public trust. “A project for locals” will now serve high-end tourists. I am fourth generation Sonoma County, descended from some of the earliest pioneers to Sonoma County. I know what nice small communities like Healdsburg were like until tourism and big money transformed them. Now they resemble Hollywood North. Healdsburg residents should be aware the local Chamber of Commerce and its promotional budget is fueling this transformation. Another problem we are facing is that our neighborhoods are changing radically. According to Brigette Mansell, our newest elected city council member, too many of our residences are becoming second homes, and investors are grabbing up anything that comes on the market. “Bottom line, I fear too many people are putting profit before community,” she says. The trend to second and third homes also causes a shortage of rentals for our own people, e.g., young people, city workforce residents and low income families. What we are now seeing in Healdsburg is a rampant spread of greed that does not serve the majority of local residents or their descendants. While I don’t know the “Meat Market” owner personally, I can sense that his intention was originally for the public good. Nonetheless, the plan changed from something that would serve the residents to luxury hospitality. This is compounding the sensitivity of the situation and creating the tourism effect which is also impacting the town of Sonoma and communities in Napa. We face more of the same with the approved 300-acre project north of the Plaza that will include a large luxury hotel and multi-million dollar homes. We are in the worst California drought in recorded history, but it doesn’t seem that City Hall and the business community is considering the state-mandated conservation of water. Nor are they considering the impact of hotels and tourists that are using vast amounts of water. Yet, local residents are using dishpan water to irrigate their front yard plants, and have cut back the size of their vegetable gardens to comply with the state mandate. When I questioned a city council member in 2014 about where the water would come from for this large new development, I was told, “Healdsburg sits on a huge aquifer near Dry Creek Valley, we don’t have to worry about water.” I guess water conservation is just for those of us who reside in town and have lived here for decades to generations. What residents are really upset about is the continuing growth of this cancer that is spreading through our community. It is not sustainable for healthy, viable neighborhoods. Residents do not feel that city government has their best interests in mind, and we are afraid that this fast paced change will tear the very fabric of our community apart and eventually increase dislocation of longtime residents and disrupt the very heartbeat of our town.

The news this week is good. Sonoma County was just rated the eighth healthiest county in California, based on findings in a national survey of 3,000 counties. Good health is always good news.

On this coming Easter Sunday we will rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a moment visited by angels from the afterlife delivered to us by the almighty power of God. The Easter stories of the rolled away stone and empty tomb will be retold and the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke will be recited where Jesus, the son of God, died for our sins and “was carried on high into heaven.”