Page 43 - Sonoma County Gazette - January 2018

Local Worker Emergency Rent/Utility Assistance
Happy New Year Groovy Guerneville!
Are you a local worker making less than $18,550 per year (one person/other household limits apply) that needs emergency help with rent or utilities this winter to prevent you from becoming homeless? Do you know somebody that is? Help is on the way within the in the next few weeks.
Let’s hope 2018 shines above 2017 in many, many ways. No res, no ood, no homelessness, no riverbanks full of garbage, no addicted or mentally ill wandering our streets, no hate, no violence, no more life lost. 2017 was tough.
On Tuesday 12/10/17, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors approved the Lower River Community Workforce Fund that was recommended by the Homeless Task Force. The Russian River Alliance has been approved to receive a one-time $50,000 start-up grant from the County beginning in January 2018.
Here’s to a year full of solutions and success!
100% of these funds will be used to directly assist local workers that need emergency assistance with rent, rental deposits, or utilities, in an e ort to prevent them from becoming homeless.
Chamber MIXER: What better way to start the year o than with a cel- ebration with your local merchants? On Wednesday, January 3rd, the Russian River Chamber of Commerce is having its monthly mixer at The Farmhand. Have you been there yet? Check it out! Great food, great atmosphere... right
Applications will soon be available on our website at russianriveralliance.org, and will be distributed to many of the local businesses. We will be beginning private fund raising e orts to make the fund self-su cient moving forward.
on the river! Located on the “Rio Nido Strip” next to Stumptown Brewery. The fun starts at 6pm.
How can you help support the Workforce Fund?
Friday the 5th is the ARTWALK, all throughout our groovy down town area. Check out your local artists and street vendors!
COMMMUNITY MEETINGS: There will be TWO very important meetings for ALL RESIDENTS in The Russian River Fire Protection District and surrounding neighborhoods! January 13th and January 20th at 1pm, at the Guerneville Elementary School gymnasium these meetings will address evacuation needs during an emergency such as wild re, earthquake and ood.
The information will cover numerous topics: Warning Siren Systems, Emergency Communication Systems, formation of Neighborhood Groups to inform and aid residents in our canyons, forests, town and will also include the CERT program volunteers.
The programs will entail about 45 minutes of information, followed by discussion and questions. Thank you to the Russian River Fire Protection District, Monte Rio Fire, Cazadero Community Service District, CalFire and the Evacuation Planning Committee! While we all hope for no emergencies, we must be prepared!
WELCOME to Guerneville! And while we are on the subject, groovy Guerneville would like to give a big community hug to all of you that have found temporary housing in our area; we know you are here, we are here for you and we can’t begin to imagine what you are going through.
Thank you to Friends of Stumptown for putting on such an incredible Parade of Lights last month, which helped those survivors think about something else, even if only for one night. Please know that you put a smile on all everyone’s faces and helped bring happiness to our community!
Speaking of keeping our community happy, if there are any Investors out there looking for a place to support, the Guerneville Community Church needs you! They are not closing the church or the radio station, but they are trying to sell the property. Ideally they would like to see an investor buy the property to develop the undeveloped portion of the property, while allowing the current tenants to remain. We need KGGV, our community radio station!
Big shout out to Keri and Paul, Postal Outlet Plus! They were hopping during the Christmas shipping madness and remained calm, friendly and always were smiling. We are so happy to have you as part of our groovy town!
Warm Clothes Drive: Remember, Community First Credit Union is still collecting warm clothes, coats, jackets, gloves and sweaters for the those in need. If you are a re survivor in need of any warm items, feel free to come by our branch on the corner of Armstrong Woods Rd and Main Street. You, along with any low income families or individuals, are welcome to help yourself to our donations!
Happy New Year Groovy Guerneville!
We are currently working on the printing/technology for distributing donation information and applications, as well as coordinating the fundraising e orts at this time. Feel free to contact us using the contact information listed below if you have any questions or would like to help. We will soon have
a donation button available on our website, and we will make hard copy donations forms available for those that prefer them.
We are working with Timberline to begin hosting a “Workforce Wednesday” event on the rst Wednesday of each month, beginning in February. Timberline has committed to giving back 10% of any proceeds to the Workforce Fund. We hope the local workers themselves can participate in the Workforce Wednesday events by coming out to have a good meal and/or cocktail, and a good time, while also supporting their own fund.
We hope there will also be many community members that would like
to support our local workers who will join us. We’re planning some fun entertainment, and we will be inviting special guests from time to time. Timberline is a great community space, and we hope this will become a great community event each month.
We are also pleased to announce we have partnered with Andorno’s Pizza to promote “Pizza Mondays”. Andorno’s has committed to donating 10% of their proceeds from Monday night pizza sales every Monday to the Workforce Fund. Helping the local workers struggling with the high cost of rent can be as simple as ordering a pizza from Andorno’s on Monday!
A big thank you to the owners of Timberline and Andorno’s, Larry Boeger and Suzy Kuhr, for your willingness to step-up and support our local workers!
Please help us spread the word and stay tuned. Happy New Year from the Guerneville Community Alliance #guernevilleworkers
But what I love about our groovy community is we all pull together and rise above tragedy and help one another!
If you would like to learn more about the Lower River Area Community Alliances, become involved as a volunteer, or if you have some community concerns or solutions you would like to share, you can “like” our Guerneville Community Alliance and/or Russian River Alliance FB pages. You can also contact Mark Emmett at 707-529-0534 or Jeniffer Wertz at 707-483-7038 (Guerneville) or Chuck Ramsey at 707-239-1639 (Monte Rio).
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