Page 16 - Sonoma County Gazette 11-19

Sebastopol’s new “PedLine Park Once & Walk
By Tasha Beauchamp
Support of Fire Measures C, E, & F Why we to Pass these Measures
& What Could Happen if we Don’t...
Coordination Across Borders
The second anniversary for one of the deadliest wildfires
Has the sidewalk sprouted measles in Sebastopol? Suddenly these little colored ovals are appearing on corners with arrows pointing to the Laguna, Florence Ave. Art Walk, Ives Park, or the Plaza.
No, it’s not measles, but rather the final signage for four color-coded, self-guided walking tours designed to get people out of their cars and out and about on foot.
in CA history has come and gone, with deep reflections and emotions still raw in our community. We learned during the October 2017 Sonoma County firestorms that readiness
and coordination are not to be taken
lightly.
The Green Line: to the Laguna
The Pink Line: to the Florence Ave. Art Walks
The Blue Line: to Ives Park and the Center for the Arts
The Purple Line: connecting the Joe Rodota Trail to Ives Park
To print out an overview of the routes, go to PedLine.org.
Our community has sought new ways to prevent fire by power lines, and we’ve added the word resilience into our daily dictionary. Hundreds of people have attended emergency preparedness training on Saturday afternoons countywide. We continue to see our firefighters as the Heroes of October.
Those who wish to follow along with their smart phones can tap the map and activate their geolocators.
There are maps at the four main parking lots, and two large blue and green wayfinding signs that also include PedLine maps (one at the Plaza and one at Ives Park).
In Western Sonoma County, a host
of fire departments are seeking voter
approval of parcel taxes to add paid
staffing to their ranks, and find new
ways to prepare our communities for the threat of not only wildfire, but also medical needs of an aging population that increasingly demands urban-like services for medical and emergency needs in rural areas.
Or simply follow the little sidewalk ovals and go left, right or straight aheaas they direct at each intersection.
Why Now?
Voting has been open for the West Sonoma County Fire
For instance, the mostly circular routes were tried and tested by a group of 10 volunteers who helped select the final set of loops based on safety (availability of crosswalks), disabled access, scenic values and maximum exposure to the greatest number of merchants. (In addition to promoting walking, the hope was to also support local businesses who typically do better when customers get out of the car.)
The existing volunteer programs for each of these districts remain critical to their success, and all have stated intentions to put resources into training and retention of existing volunteer ranks. The affordable housing crisis and high cost of living show little signs of easing up for Sonoma County and the Bay Area in general, which has made it doubly hard to keep young and able- bodied volunteer firefighters on the rosters at the firehouses.
Additionally, the need for community education and action around wildfire prevention has come as a strong drumbeat from fire service leadership as well as the public, creating a near-universal acceptance of program creation. How it is funded comes down to urgency and timing.
Photo by Jerome Bei from https://freeimages.com
The PedLine project began when local citizens concerned
Departments of Gold Ridge, Graton, and Occidental since October 7th, with all three departments seeking voter approval of parcel taxes to bolster services. While the three measures are unique funding strategies, there are commonalities shared across districts.
about an increase in car
traffic from visiting tourists
decided to encourage people
to “Park Once and Walk.”
The City of Sebastopol’s
non-profit community
development partner,
Cittaslow Sebastopol,
brought together several
pedestrian-friendly groups (iWalk Sebastopol, the Complete Streets Advisory Committee, members of the Core Project, and Sue Labouvie of local wayfinding company, Studio L’Image) to take the idea from concept to reality. City Manager Larry McLaughlin was an early fan of the PedLine, and the City Council also got on board with funding for the signs and website development. City staff was also supportive in working with CalTrans to approve the project. The rest was done entirely by volunteers with training from Public Works during installation of the ovals.
All three fire departments cite increasing call volumes placing pressure on the emergency service delivery provided mostly by all-volunteer departments. Gold Ridge is one of the only departments in West County with paid staff, currently placing two firefighters at Twin Hills and Hessel stations. All three departments will hire career firefighters for their stations, with slightly different positions of priority. For Gold Ridge, paramedic firefighters to address ambulance response delays; for Occidental, daytime staffing has reached a critical danger point that must be addressed; and for Graton, call volume exceeded reasonable expectations for volunteers many years ago, and can no longer be ignored.
Once the routes were determined, a call for artists went out in Sonoma County for submissions for sidewalk marker designs. The winning design was created by Deborah Garber. Ben Klocek of Bracia designed the PedLine. org website, and Studio L’Image designed the wayfinding maps. This was truly a community effort!
County of Sonoma Possibilities
There is talk coming from the County of Sonoma of a 1⁄2 cent sales tax countywide to augment existing fire and emergency services in Sonoma County. The details of this plan are not currently final, nor is the measure even confirmed on the ballot yet. However, it is known that fire departments will have to 1) Have an existing parcel tax, and 2) Individual fire departments will have to be actively consolidating in order to be eligible for the supplemental funding. That is, each community has to be contributing to its fire department before any potential sales tax funding would be made available to local fire departments, like Gold Ridge, Graton,
So next time you are in Sebastopol, ditch the car, go to
PedLine.org and take a stroll to one of the destinations. It’s a great way to see the town with visiting friends and family, or just for a new vista on favorite haunts.
16 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 11/19
or Occidental. FIRE cont’d on page 17