Editorial

Saralee McClelland Kunde died this week. She was 66 and had battled cancer for several years. Those who knew her understand what a loss this is for the county. They already know her almost unbelievably important role in creating the myth and magic of Sonoma County.

Ridge Rage

Richard Burg wrote in a recent commentary that he was disappointed in the actions of the Healdsburg City Council when they insisted on equity in the new governing document for the Sonoma County Library of which the Healdsburg Regional Library is a founding member.  I welcome Richard’s admittedly belated attention to a process that has been going on for years.  Let’s try to answer his question, “What is Equity?”

In December I went to a Regional Climate Protection Authority presentation at the Healdsburg city council chambers. The RCPA was created in 2009 to improve coordination on climate change issues and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as was mandated by the ten county government’s partnership with the Climate Protection Campaign in 2005. The goal is to reduce county GHG emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2015. It was the CPC that first championed Sonoma Clean Power in 2004.

The specifics of the effort to re-draft the JPA governing the County Library System came to my attention very late in the process. I was pleased to read the paragraph in the draft revision which proposed allowing communities to provide supplemental funds for local branches. When the county library system budget does not meet locally perceived needs a community could support their local branch. The Monday closure of the branches, in place for the last three years, could be reversed by allowing communities to fund Monday library services. It would be a valuable mechanism for communities to have library services responsive to local needs.

There are 78 million dogs in the U.S. today. They eat and then each eliminates almost a pound of poop every day. The resulting 3.6 billion pounds of dog poop produced in a year can fill 800 footballs fields, one foot deep! This is no small nuisance. Sonoma County’s 43,000 dogs produce over 32,000 pounds daily. Cleaning up your pet’s waste helps keep our pets, the environment, and each other healthy.

From cartoon balloons in classic comics, to today’s internet slang, “PSST!” means “I’ve got a secret to tell you.” Here’s a secret that needs telling: Starting in 2009, Public School Success Team, a local volunteer organization, has worked with the Healdsburg Unified School District to make constructive connections with public school kids. Connecting with people who care about the their success — and can help them to succeed — is a powerful motivator for students. Our tutoring, mentoring and coaching programs supplement their connections at home, church and school.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a tiny item in some newspaper or other about a preacher browsing through the book department of a big chain discount store. He noticed that they had placed the Bibles in the “Fiction” section, and he took offense. The store apologized profusely and fell all over itself to right this supposed wrong.

It was a hard fought soccer game. The boys were aggressively moving around the field, challenging one another. Several collided and one, from the other team, fell and took his time getting up. One of my 8 year-old’s teammates began pressing towards the goal. “Get up! Get off the floor!” yelled a spectator for the other team. Wait…floor? The game was outdoors, on natural grass, at Badger Park. Was it just a slip? Clearly he meant ground. But he was relentless in his error, continuing to choose THAT word. “Get up off the floor!” “Stop rolling around on the floor!”

After reading Rollie Atkinson’s editorial it got me thinking just how valuable the Tribune is to Healdsburg and I’m sure how the other Sonoma West Publishers’ weekly papers are to their communities.