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Highway 37 closure set for Friday
Long-awaited work designed to reduce flooding and traffic delays on California State Route 37 will begin Friday after it was rescheduled last week, Caltrans announced. The agency said its Solano Pavement Repair Project is rescheduled to start the weekend of April 19 between Sears Point south of Sonoma and Mare Island in Vallejo.
Supervisors ask for closer look at possible impacts of restrictive animal ag ballot measure
photo credit: Michelle Del CuetoCoaltion to End Factory Farming volunteers Sarah Van Mantgem of Windsor and Kristina Garfinkel of Santa Rosa turn in signatures on March 4, 2024. This week, Sonoma County Supervisors took a first look at a ballot initiative that would ban so-called factory farms in unincorporated areas of Sonoma County. The ballot text alleges that large CAFO’s - concentrated animal feeding operations - are a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions, along with a host of other detriments to people, animals and the environment. With the initiative collecting the needed signatures to qualify for the ballot, county...
Santa Rosa volunteer-run medical equipment recycling group secures new space
Sonoma County’s much-used, much-loved Medical Equipment Recycling Program has a new home. The volunteer-run nonprofit that for decades has quietly provided low- to no-cost medical equipment for those in need were told late last year that the parking lot space on Dutton Avenue they have used for their base of operations since 2021 would no longer be available come January.
A lack of parking counters goal of more middle-income housing in Healdsburg
photo credit: Courtesy of City of HealdsburgA Rite-Aid and its parking lot could become 189 apartments, though parking concerns could blunt bold plans. The prospect of drivers circling blocks, searching for a spot, appeared to sap support for bringing more apartments to Healdsburg. After hours of testimony and hundreds of pages of reports on how to encourage so-called 'missing middle' housing---support appeared to weaken. Jeff Kay, Healdsburg's city manager reiterated the conclusions of a number of earlier studies, finding that while a good amount of affordable and luxury housing units are going up, there remains a big hole. "We've done a pretty...
Reorganization of Sonoma County bureacracy approved by supervisors
photo credit: County of SonomaM.Christina Rivera, current County Administrator, will continue in the new County Executive leadership role. The board’s request for a report on a controversial factory farming ban ballot measure wasn’t the only noteworthy decision from a full agenda on Tuesday, April 16th. County supervisors fully approved the reorganization of executive leadership within the county government. It's shifting from a county administrator model to an executive model. Now a re-christened "county executive" will have daily oversight of the Agricultural Commissioner and the head of the county's Economic Development Board. Same goes for the directors of Health services, Public Infrastructure, Office of...
Sonoma County legal weed businesses face hard financial times despite recently reduced tax
Sonoma County supervisors on Tuesday took the unusual step of voting to reduce taxes on cannabis production, recognizing that the industry has hit hard times. While the tax cut will help, legal weed growers argue if county legislators really wants pot cultivation businesses to survive, they shouldn't be taxed at all. Erich Pearson ducks into his Glen Ellen cannabis nursery to examine the rows of potted plants used as growing stock for next season's crop. When his company SPARC began operating, he figured officials were overestimating what the value of cannabis would be to Sonoma County."The industry is not...
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