News

For too many years, Healdsburg’s public library and all of the Sonoma County Library branches have suffered with reduced hours, less staff and a loss of programs due to budget cuts made during the Recession that have not been restored.

With this year’s elections fast approaching both candidates for the 4th Supervisorial District, James Gore and Deb Fudge have represented that they possess the knowledge and skills necessary to manage Sonoma County’s public sector and its problems, one of which is the gorilla in the room—unfunded pension liabilities.

As usual, voters of Healdsburg will be casting votes about taxes, statewide bond measures and making choices for new city, county, state and Congressional leaders in the Nov. 4 General Election.

Unless you’ve been closely following Sonoma County happenings, you may not be aware that another local, iconic bridge, the 1915, Parker-through-truss, Lambert Bridge, is in jeopardy of being removed from service. Like our Healdsburg Memorial Bridge, until recently, this bridge had a Caltrans reported structural Inventory Rating (a rating used for federal funding purposes) of zero tons. Its Sufficiency Rating is 4.8 compared to our Memorial Bridge’s Rating of 2 on a scale of 0 to 100. In June of 2013, I became aware of this threat and corresponded with our County Supervisor, Mike McGuire.

The term “rain garden” is being used more and more by landscape architects and gardeners alike. It is a fanciful term that conjures images of a garden that magically creates rain. What a rain garden is, however, is one of many landscape features that fits into the category of “low impact development for storm water” or LID. Like many other LID features, rain gardens gather, hold, filter, and slow storm water runoff.

Local law enforcement leaders oppose Proposition 47. Although well intended, its consequences will not be as advertised.  The proposition promises to channel funds from prisons to schools and rehabilitative programs by reducing many crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. However, what we’re not hearing in pro Prop 47 arguments is that many successful programs currently exist for offenders that Prop 47 would negatively impact. In Sonoma County we have an extensive diversion program for drug offenders, and specialized courts to address drug and alcohol addiction.  By reducing these crimes to misdemeanors, the incentive to combat these addictions is replaced by a revolving door at the jail.  Worse yet, date rape drugs will be reduced to misdemeanor crimes.  

It is Wednesday, September, 17, 2014, I’m writing from Room 111B at Healdsburg District Hospital (HDH). My room overlooks a lovely courtyard, for which I am most grateful as I recover from my right knee replacement by Drs. Tomasin and Rose.

As the Board of Directors of North Sonoma County Healthcare District and Chief Executive Officer we thank Healdsburg Tribune publisher, Rollie Atkinson, for his recent timely editorial (“Our hospital’s crystal ball,” Sept. 11, 2014). The editorial does a very good job of describing many of the obstacles facing small community hospitals in Sonoma County, such as our own Healdsburg District Hospital, as they struggle to adapt to these conditions and overcome their detrimental effect. Some hospitals will not make it: witness the recent closure of Palm Drive Hospital in Sebastapol. But we believe it can be done and we are committed to that outcome in our community.

During the next year or so, the City of Healdsburg will make important decisions about our future as a community. We see this period as an exciting opportunity, as well as a challenge to get those decisions “right.” And we must start by asking the right questions.

In March 2011, Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion of Guerneville put out a challenge – they asked poets, musicians and artists around the globe to join them on one day in a celebration and demonstration to promote peace and sustainability, and call for serious social, environmental and political change.