Page 43 - Sonoma County Gazette April 2017

Spring has sprung in our groovy Town Plaza! Nothing like a walk through the Plaza and across the bridge on a sunny, Spring day... or a walk through town on the 7th during the First Friday ArtWalk. I can’t wait to see all of the creativity our local artists have been putting into
April, and the days are blissfully long again. It’s time to rotate the old wardrobe – put the sweaters and the fleeces and wool socks back on the shelf and move the shorts to the forefront. Well, almost. I’m sure there will be a few more nippy, overcast days before we get our summer on. And this year at least, there will be water in our summer. There was so much water, in fact, that our drinking water wells were briefly submerged, causing mandatory testing to kick in to verify that our water has not been contaminated by storm water. Fortunately, we have enough storage capacity to ride out that brief interruption.
their work over the winter! How about a tour of West Sonoma Inn & Spa? They are hosting the Russian River Chamber of Commerce Mixer on Wed the 5th at 6pm. Come get to know your local business owners and enjoy the surroundings of the beautiful grounds at the Inn & Spa! Saturday the 8th is Mr. Clean
Bingo for Clean River Alliance at the Guerneville Vets Hall. Join the Russian River Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for anything but your gramma’s bingo!! Proceeds will support the Clean River Alliance, aka the groovy Garbage Patch Kids. Chris Brokate founded the Alliance in 2014 to address the problem of
the accumulation of trash along the banks of the Russian River and throughout town. The Alliance is currently sponsored by Russian Riverkeeper. Clean River Alliance’s mission is to remove trash from the Russian River watershed and educate citizens. Can you believe that they have removed over 125,000 pounds of garbage over the past year? Which reminds me, it’s time to sign up for the Russian Riverkeeper’s 7th Annual Great Russian River Race! Go to their website www.russianriverkeeper.org to register. The race will be held on June 3rd, but you can register NOW. This is a groovy event that begins at Steelhead Beach or Odd Fellows Beach (whichever you choose) and ends at Johnson’s Beach with a Festival Race Party complete with live music, food, drinks and vendors. Participants dress up in silly costumes to show o their creativity.
It’s all about water. Sure sure, you can say “follow the money”, but as
much as we try to pretend otherwise, all of our wealth, all of our currency is
at root backed not by fiat, not even by gold. It is backed by natural resources. That, along with the stolen resource of slave labor, is what made our country the richest in the world. And that dynamic continues today. If you want to understand how wealth is made and lost in the west county...follow the water. Fresh water in, wastewater out. There’s only so much of it. It’s a scarce resource. Well okay, wastewater is not scarce – we’re all full of it, so to speak. But the capacity to safely get rid of it – that is a finite resource.
Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods has volunteer opportunities at this year’s 44th Annual Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival being held on April 8th & 9th and also need volunteers for the 19th Earthday Restoration and Cleanup on Sat April 22nd. Go to their website stewards@stewardscr.org for more information. Do your part to restore and care for the places where we live, work & play for this and future generations! (CA State Parks Assoc).
If you are thinking of the movie “Chinatown”, you are two steps ahead of the game. And at some slight risk of getting my nose sliced open like Jake Gittes, I will point out that water is a big boy’s game in the west county. Our own Camp Meeker Park and Rec District was first formed in 1931, but we became big time, relatively speaking, in the 1990’s. That’s because we were made a “County Water District” in 1994 when we were given permission to build a water system for Camp Meeker, based on wells sunk near Monte Rio to draw water from
A fun and groovy event for all ages is the OceanWorks Production of Astronaut Lullabies at the SRJC Planetarium on Sun April 9th at 3pm. Check out the exploration of inner and outer space in a live concert journey / planetarium show! Tickets: oceanworks.eventbrite.com.
Here’s how it plays out: There is a finite amount of water available to the west county. The exact amount of water is subject to big money politics (just
as Los Angeles “steals” Colorado river water, so too do we “borrow” Eel River water from the fish and from our Mendocino and Humboldt neighbors. We do it because we can. We have more money and people than they do.
Not Too Sweet Sixteen Anniversary Celebration of the Russian River Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will be held on Fri April 14th at Main Street Bistro
& Piano Bar. This is their annual Grants Giveaway, Saintings and Blessings ceremony. Thank you for all you give to our Community!
Then, of course, there is the matter of divvying up the water between residents, agriculture, and businesses. I’m not going to open that can of worms other than to mention it- the upshot is the number of houses that can be built is limited by the amount of water available. It is also limited by the amount of wastewater that can be safely got rid of. Our “failure” to come up with a wastewater system is the direct cause of the now decades-old building moratorium in Camp Meeker.
Have you seen the Guerneville School Garden? On Sat April 29th they
will be having their School Garden Spring Celebration, with host Clark
Wolf, along with a surprise Chef! This is a really groovy place for our children. Not only do they learn how to grow their edible garden, they also have an outdoor kitchen where they learn how to cook the food they grow and learn the importance of nutrition. Don’t forget to sponsor a fence picket!
This outcome has produced winners and losers. Camp Meeker gets a little of both. Because there is no sewer system, Camp Meeker has failed to gentrify sufficiently for the ever-hungry real estate business. This lack of gentrification goes by the name of “blight” among the development industry, so you know they’re losing on the deal. But that building moratorium is the price we pay for staving off the big G. It allows those of limited means to continued living here, but to some degree it assists in keeping those means limited. This is about the time where ol’ Jake Gittes got his nose ventilated, so I better taper off here and bring this column to a nondescript close. I can only say keep your eyes open and pay attention. Occidental is coming up on their moment of truth with their wastewater issues, and it is likely that some of that wastewater will be making its way to treatment plants in Guerneville along Bohemian Highway, either by truck or (eventually) by pipeline.
FACEBOOK Discussion Groups on Local issues: There are two new new Facebook pages, Protect our Guerneville Gator Nation and Guerneville Solutions, created by local residents who wanted to give the discussion
of solutions for downtown problems and homelessness along the river its
own page. Discussions got long and involved on the Guerneville Up with Downtown FB page until the administrators of that page reminded people that the purpose of the page is for promoting and connecting Guerneville.
Gator Nation is generated by people at Guerneville School District who
are concerned that children should have the safest possible route to and from school. This relates to how the County and a small group of local citizens are considering placing a homeless shelter within a quarter mile of the school, across the street from the Senior Center. The concern is that the proximity of the property at 15015 Armstrong Woods Road will have a negative impact on the school, children, and the residential neighborhood nearby.
Follow the water.
been studied by our community. This column is being written before these scheduled meetings, as we have a press deadline to meet. I sure hope that I have much more pleasant news to report next month! Keep involved groovy people! Keep your ideas for solutions coming and share them!
Beth Rudometkin’s involvement in the River Community began during her childhood in the early 1960’s and continues to this day. She has served on numerous community & non-profit Boards, has donated countless hours of volunteer work throughout all aspects of the River Community and has worked at Community First Credit Union as their Senior Mortgage Loan O cer, for over 10 years. Email Beth Rudometkin at brudo@comfirstcu.org
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the Russian River aquifer. The other shoe fell in 1999, when we were given permission to develop a wastewater system. Of course, we all know how that turned out, and therein lies the tale.
The second Facebook page: Guerneville Solutions, has been set up to specifically discuss potential solutions to the problems with o ensive behavior downtown, as well as how to deal with homeless camps along the river before they come back in full force over the summer. High water and the Clean River Alliance did a great job of cleaning up these camps. Before people settle back into riverside camps again, our town is looking for solutions.
The search for a site for a rehabilitation and services center is part of the discussion on both Facebook pages. And is a central part of the Town Hall on March 29th. It’s been suggested that we read the 2012 River Area Shelter and Downtown (RASAD) Task Group Summary so we can see what has already