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TheHealdsburg HealdsburgTribune Tribune The Enterprise & Scimitar Enterprise & Scimitar
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HEALDSBURG TO PARTNER WITH SONOMA COUNTY IN ‘ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION’ OPEN HOUSE
Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, California
May 30, 2024 Date, Date, 20202020
IDEAS SOUGHT FOR BIKE PATHS, IMPROVED SIDEWALKS, ACCESSIBILITY IMPROVEMENTS TO MAKE TRAVEL SAFER By Christian Kallen
Photo by Rick Tang
Sonoma County Transportation Authority (SCTA) continues to seek feedback from the public for an updated “Active Transportation Plan,” one suitable for residents of its nine cities as well as its unincorporated communities. The goal is to update the 10-year-old 2014 Countywide Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan in light of shifting community priorities and a growing emphasis on “active transportation.” That is, getting from one place to another using human power for mobility instead of high-emission combustion engines. “Sonoma County currently has more than 317 miles of built bicycle infrastructure, over 75 of which were built in the last five years,” states the SCTA at www.scta.gov.ca. “The vast majority of the bicycle infrastructure is in the form of bike lanes on street networks. Almost 1,000 miles of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure are planned to be built throughout Sonoma County in the years to come.” The SCTA is now reaching out directly to local residents in various cities through community Open Houses to share information about Sonoma County’s extensive bicycle path system and walking trails. While Petaluma and Santa Rosa are already updating their Active Travel Plans (ATP), ATP Open Houses have recently taken place in Sonoma, Rohnert Park
SWEEPSTAKES It’s hard to beat a marching band in a Memorial Day Parade, and the Elsie Allen High School and Cesar Chavez Language Academy unit
proved a repeat winner in the Sweepstakes category. (See additional image on page 6.)
Big Rigs, Centaurs, Spirits and Even a Marching Band HEALDSBURG’S TWILIGHT PARADE OUTDOES ITSELF WITH HOUR-LONG EXTRAVAGANZA Staff Report
The 75th annual Twilight Parade went off without a hitch—a blaze of color and familiar faces flowing through town like a river of lights. Despite a pre-parade episode where an argumentative driver scared the horses while attempting to join the parade at Tucker and Fitch streets, “This is the biggest event of the year, and it went off without incident,” the Healdsburg Police Department said on Facebook. Don’t forget the music— including a Dixieland band,
pop from various decades and nations, and a oneman band on a bicycle. But there was only one marching band. Once the standard in any parade, the marching band was altogether absent until toward the end, when the Elsie Allen High School and Cesar Chavez Language Academy bands showed up, marching smartly down Center Street and up Piper behind a green-capped drum major. As it happens they not only won the Bands category, where there was little competition, but they were the overall Sweepstakes award winner as well. It was a repeat win for the big bands; they took Sweepstakes last year, too.
Another strongly musical and even more visual marching unit was Comité Pochtlán, also known as Carnaval Putleco, a wildly inventive troupe of dancers from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Wearing shaggy masks of animal fur or fabric dreads, more than 40 members danced and marched to their own beat like a procession of spirits from between dimensions. As KQED noted in a post-parade report, “Each dancer is wearing a tiliche—an incredibly colorful and elaborate full-body suit made out of hundreds of ribbons that move in all directions as the dancer deftly skips and jumps to the rhythm of the music.” Other award-winners
included best Commercial Float from Healdsburg Lumber Co., with Eric Ziedrich and his extended clan chillaxin’ on a flatbed; Heartizens, for Kids NonProfit; Sonoma County Farm Bureau, for Adult Non-Profit; cars and trucks entries from Live Oak Preschool, Sonoma Strong Hauling and Junk Removal; and the junior marching unit of Ballet Folkorico.
HFFCF
The competition at the Healdsburg Future Farmers Country Fair, at Rec Park, proved to be no less challenging. The Cake Auction raised more than $11,600, much of it from a $3,250 bid for Ellen Johnson’s chocolate-and-vanilla
cake with strawberry filling, purchased by the Rigney Family. Summer’s Market’s peanut butter-chocolate cake drew a $725 bid from All Access Pest Control, while Ivy Munsell’s yellow-cakewith-chocolate-frosting cake went for a bargain at $700, to TJ and Diana M u r p h y. A p p a r e n t l y one can’t go wrong with chocolate. The Barrel Auction drew $3,160, with top buyer Eddie Arreguin bidding $900 for the Alexander Valley 4H entry. Final figures for the livestock auctions and Sir Rusty Raffle, and the scholarship total for all of the fair’s earnings, will be announced soon.
➝ Open House, 4
RIVERKEEPER CHIEF RECALLS LOCAL ICON, ACTIVIST DR. MARTIN GRIFFIN, FOUNDER OF AUDUBON CANYON RANCH AND HOP KILN WINERY, DIES AT 103 By Don McEnhill
Photo by Mary Kelley
PASSING THE PADDLE Dr. Martin Griffin accepts the
Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013, awarded by Russian Riverkeeper Executive Director Don McEnhill, right.
Note: Environmental pioneer and Westside Road winemaker Dr. Martin Griffin died this week at his home in Belvedere, Marin County. He was 103 years old. One of his proteges, Don McEnhill of Russian Riverkeeper, tells of the impact Griffin had on his life.
Marty was drawn to Sonoma by both an interest in owning a vineyard and by an interest to protect the Russian River. In 1975, Marty purchased Hop Kiln Ranch on Westside Road near Healdsburg, and became a resident of Sonoma County. He found a river that was being assaulted by gravel mining, which at that time ran Sonoma County and the Board of Supervisors. Soon after moving to Healdsburg, he started forming alliances to advocate against mining “the water supply of the North Bay.” He founded the Westside Road Wineries Task Force and Russian River Task Force to build support for stopping gravel mining. Numerous lawsuits were filed against the mining companies and Sonoma County to stop mining. Sometimes the lawsuits succeeded,
although it was always temporary as the County and mining firms found ways around the legal victories. Despite setbacks Marty kept up the pressure and was persistent in his campaigns to stop mining. In 1993, when he was 73, he helped found Friends of the Russian River, a coalition of businesses, farmers and residents to focus on ending gravel mining. That organization became Russian Riverkeeper and in 2012 succeeded in ending gravel mining in the Russian River, fulfilling Marty’s goal. As the leader of Russian Riverkeeper, I would not be here if it were not for Marty Griffin. In 1998, after living in Texas for nine years, I moved back to Healdsburg where I spent my summers and our family had a cabin. Once back, I was shocked that gravel mining still continued on ➝ Marty Griffin, 2