Page 38 - Sonoma County Gazette February 2020

If you love living in a small community, you’re in the right place. If you choose, you can easily connect to those who share your neighborhood. As a MAC representative (Municipal Advisory Council member for our 5th District Supervisor) I’m learning how many community groups exist in our town. Groups who care about one another, band together and find solutions to challenges. A lot of these groups have fun too!
Small Steps Towards Big Rewards
One community that comes to mind stretches from Hacienda Bridge along Scenic Road and on to Martinelli. They host lots of parties, meetings, table tennis tournaments, BBQs and on the last Sunday of the month make delicious brunches. You guessed it, the neighborhood around the Hollydale Club. Folks in that area have been celebrating at their Club for over 70 years. For
The baseball player Ted Williams was a notoriously grumpy man; he was prone to ignore ovations and accolades. He rarely tipped his hat or took a bow and was, most likely, an introvert ill-equipped to handle the limelight. What was it like, Mr. Williams was asked in an interview, to be the only .400 hitter in baseball year after year.
By Incoming 2020 Mayor Patrick Slayter
a real treat mark your calendar for Saturday, February 8, at 6 pm to attend a good old- fashioned authentic Russian Dinner. They will be serving Russian Zkuski, BBQ Shaslik Kabobs, Russian Salads and fancy desserts made by the Clubs Russian families and friends. All for only $20. The good news is, you don’t have to live in that neighborhood to come! All are welcome. Look for their famous Corned Beef and Cabbage feed March 14.
The answer is one I always remember, “Being a .400 hitter means that I fail more often than I succeed” Mr. Williams replied. How you deal with failure, he said, is much more important than how you deal with success. Anyone can deal with success, he added, but very few have an easy time with failure.
One important group of community folks are our seniors. Did you know any senior can eat lunch for free on the 3rd Wednesday of the month? That free lunch takes place at the Methodist Church. The Council on Aging provides senior lunches every Tuesday, also at the Church. If you are a senior, 55 and older, they invite you to join them. Check it out! We are lucky the Methodist Church is willing to host so many community events at their place.
That, he said, is what life is all about. You fail as much,
or more than you succeed. Strikeouts come much more frequently than home runs and it is important to remember this in order to deal with life as it really is, rather than as people might think it to be or want it to be.
Sebastopol’s New Mayor Patrick Slayter
For our community of adolescents, don’t lose hope. The Forestville Skate Park is busy behind the scenes applying for their own nonprofit status. Their mission is to build a safe, inclusive space where skateboarders, rollerbladers, scooter, and BMX bike riders can practice their sport and encourage one another while their community cheers them on. We appreciate their dedication and they appreciate all the guidance, direction and hands-on help they have received from our own Youth Park Board. Check out their progress at: fvsk8spot@gmail.com
It’s easy to get caught in a spiral of negative thinking; we have a regional homeless crisis with few good options; retirement obligations are significant; the climate crisis is overwhelming; not enough money to maintain our roads, parks, and schools.
A big shout out to our local Chamber of Commerce for producing a fabulous Crab Feed last month to support our business community. It was fun for all, including the El Molino students who served up tons of crab to hungry Forestvillians. A big thanks to Wendi Flowers, Chamber President for pulling it all together. Her team went all out to create a delicious meal, have great raffle items to win and exciting live auction items to bid on. Sheriff Mark Essick read the lucky numbers and served as auctioneer. Denise Wood and Gwen Trappe cooked up yummy pesto pasta and tossed some Cesear Salad
to compliment the meal. Wendi says thanks to all the local wineries who contributed to its success.
A much more useful tact is to find one small thing that can be accomplished towards finding a solution and do that thing. Then, find another small
thing and do that thing. Houses aren’t built in a day, but they are eventually completed, one small step at a time.
And one last connection to the community is the literal one
we are getting to the West County Trail. If you have taken a walk through the Downtown Oaks Park lately you’ve seen the progress the Parks and Recreation Department is making on building an elevated walkway through the marsh that shows up each and every winter.
The City of Sebastopol has some challenges, but, like building a house, we are working on them with measured, steady progress. Funds are being accumulated from a variety of sources to continue maintaining and improving our roads. A number of housing projects are being discussed, some with delight and others with dread, but that’s why the public process is the way it is; everyone gets a chance to speak. The aging underground water utilities serving all residences and businesses in the City require maintenance and upgrades, and the City has developed a long-range plan to provide for adequate funding of these vital systems.
Just think, this could be the last year of mud along our trail.
Understanding how the City government operates allows for positive, issue- oriented activism. Knowing the steps needed for approval of, for example,
a new mixed-use development allows residents to be effective, helping to
curate our community towards a desired outcome. Steps for the development example include preliminary hearings, public comments, professional analysis of impacts and eventual formal hearings and decisions by official bodies using all the accumulated knowledge, opinion, and legal and regulatory guidance. Infrastructure projects, the annual budget, the inner workings of the Sebastopol Police and Fire Departments, and all City operations have logical, reasoned processes that may seem opaque at first blush. It is important to continue working to maximize the resident’s understanding of City operations; knowing the City is working on many projects, long term, and short term, one small task at a time, with the final outcome much greater than all the small parts.
Thank you the Forestville Planning Association for hanging in there year after year, paying for study after study and jumping through the hoops that come with applying for a use permit. The latest drawings are beautiful. Soon we will be reaching out to the community to fund the next steps.
If you ask me, we are lucky we were able to get such a lovely space for the town for decades to come.
Now it’s up to us to take care of it and hold it for those who come after. That’s what community does.
A favorite quote of mine scrawled on a scrap of paper
at least three decades ago and stuck with a dog-shaped
magnet to a toolbox in my shop reads, “blaming others is no way to get better”.
How to feel about these things? Can we accept these unbudgeted and intractable things as an inevitable part of life’s successes and failures? Anger and pity focused on people, activities and situations accomplish nothing. Lament, panic, and loathing are not only ungainly, but they are also a waste of time. Blaming others is no way to get better.
Photo: City of Sebastopol website: ci.sebastopol.ca.us
38 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 2/20