LocalLocal newsnews at your at your ngertips everyevery weekweek fingertips $1.00 JustJust $1!.00!
Greyounds sports Greyounds sports section teaser section teaser Sports,Sports, Page XPage X
at the newsstand at the newsstand
$1 at$1the at newsstand the newsstand
TheHealdsburg HealdsburgTribune Tribune The Enterprise & Scimitar Enterprise & Scimitar
Visit for daily updates on local news views www.healdsburgtribune.com for daily updates on local news andand views Our 159th year,Visit Number 30 www.healdsburgtribune.com Healdsburg, California
Our 155th year, Number 00© ur 155th year, Number 00©
HEALDSBURG, WINDSOR CITY, SCHOOL BOARD SEEK TO FILL KEY OFFICES
July 25, 2024
Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, California
Date, Date, 20202020
Shiloh Resort & Casino rendering courtesy of Koi Nation Sonoma
3 SCHOOL BOARD, 3 CITY COUNCIL SEATS UP FOR VOTE Staff Report
The official application period for three seats on the Healdsburg City Council, and three on the Healdsburg Unified School District Board of Trustees, is now open and runs until Friday, Aug. 9. Three seats are also available in Windsor, one for the mayor’s office and two town council seats. Two seats for the city council are open in Cloverdale, as well.
City Councils
The three Healdsburg City Council seats are those currently held by Ariel Kelley, Ron Edwards and David Hagele. Edwards was elected to a two-year term to fill an open seat in 2022; he has made no secret of his intention to run for a full four-year term this fall and has already pulled papers to do so, as has Mayor Hagele. In Windsor, the available seats include the mayor’s office (elected separately in the municipality) currently held by Rosa Reynoza, and the town council seats held by Sam Salmon and Deborah Fudge, both longtime councilmembers. Windsor elects its council by district—Salmon is in District 2 and Fudge in District 3. Councilmembers are elected for four-year terms. The mayor’s office is elected throughout the township, and the term is for two years. Reynoza has pulled papers to run for another term, as has Salmon in District 2. Another candidate in that district, John S. Leyba, has also pulled papers to run. In District 3, JB Leep and
LOCAL ATTRACTION A sundown perspective on the proposed Shiloh Resort & Casino, to be located on Shiloh Road close to the intersection with Old Redwood Highway outside of Windsor.
Final Review for Shiloh Casino CLEARLAKE TRIBE PARTNERS WITH CHICKASAW FOR WINDSOR-AREA CASINO AND RESORT By Christian Kallen
Between Geyserville’s River Rock and Rohnert Park’s Graton Resort and Casino, another Indian gaming development is in its final stages of public input. T he Koi Nation of Northern California—a tribe not usually associated with Sonoma County, and with fewer than 100 members—is moving ahead with its proposal for a large resort and casino on the southeastern edge of Windsor, on Shiloh Road at Old Redwood Highway. A three-story casino and a five-story hotel with spa and pool area, ballroom/ meeting space, event center, and associated parking and infrastructure, has been put forward for public review by a Pomo tribe from Lake County, the Koi Nation of Northern California. A public hearing on the draft Environmental Impact Statement will take place via Zoom at 6pm on Tuesday, July 30. Register
square feet and include 2,750 gaming devices with 105 table games. The 400-room hotel would be 268,930 square feet. More than 5,100 parking spaces would be provided on the ground floor of the casino and in a parking garage. Other supporting infrastructure including proposed water treatment and wastewater treatment facilities would be located on the southeastern portion of the site. The Environmental Impact Study also presents several alternative development plans for the site, including a “nongaming alternative” which would allow a 200-room hotel and a 25,000-square-foot winery and event center. A “reduced intensity” casino and a no-action option are also studied. Geographically, the proposed Shiloh Resort and Casino would be located between the River Rock Casino in Geyserville and the Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park. This puts the Koi in conflict with two other Pomo groups, the Dry Creek Rancheria tribe that runs River Rock and the Federated Indians of Graton
at tinyurl.com/3dytkds3 to attend. The Environmental Impact Statement and other links can be found online at shilohresortenvironmental.com. The Shiloh Resort & Casino would be located on almost 69 acres of unincorporated land between Old Redwood Highway and the Shiloh Ranch Regional Park, just outside the Windsor town limits. The tribe bought the land for $12.3 million in 2021, and six months later applied with the U.S. Department of the Interior to have the land placed in trust to become sovereign tribal land, the first step in planning for a casino.
Bureau of Indian Affairs
An Environmental Assessment from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was delivered earlier this year, and the resulting draft Environmental Impact Statement was published on July 12. The draft EIS, from the BIA and prepared by Acorn Environmental of El Dorado Hills, specifies that the gaming component of the facility would be approximately 538,137
Rancheria. Both groups have expressed their opposition to the Koi Nation’s plans because of the competition a third casino would bring to Sonoma County. "The Koi Nation is out of its territory,” said Greg Sarris, chair of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. “What they're trying to do, if they are successful, would set a precedent that would undo Indian sovereignty as we know it in this country. And you will have a casino on every street corner in California.” Sam Singer, spokesman for the Koi Nation tribe’s Shiloh Resort and Casino, made the case for the project’s location, telling the Tribune, “The Koi Nation’s historic ties to the land have been demonstrated in multiple ways, including an historic Koi trade route that passed directly through the property…”
Homeland
The Koi have historically been associated with Lake County. “Their ancient home was on an island in Clear Lake, on which they lived peacefully for thousands of years,” according
➝ Election, 5
to their website. The island is now partially located in Anderson Marsh State Historic Park. When white settlers appropriated the land while the Koi were away at a regional Ghost Dance, in 1871, some of the tribe moved to the Russian River region. In 1916 the federal government assigned them a tract of land in the Lower Lake area, but it was “determined to be uninhabitable by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the trust was terminated in 1956,” according to KoiNationSonoma.com. The tribe’s official site makes the case that gaming is the key to its economic development, claiming: “While we always have remained a sovereign nation, we are a landless one. Without land, our tribal sovereignty has been threatened, along with our ability to create the kind of economic stability for our people that is the goal of every native tribe.” Upon purchase of the 222 Shiloh Rd. property, tribal leaders asked the BIA that it be “placed into trust to become sovereign tribal land.” The Koi application is still under review; ➝ Shiloh Casino, 6
TEMPORARY MURAL FOR HARMON GUEST HOUSE MARIA DE LOS ANGELES CREATES PROJECT FOR HEALDSBURG AVENUE HOTEL By Christian Kallen
Photo by Christian Kallen
HIGH RISE Artist Maria de Los Angeles, left, and Circe Sher
stand in front of Harmon Guest House’s four-story glass wall, site of a mural for later this summer.
A nationally recognized artist will soon install a one-ofa-kind glass mural on the high wall of the Harmon Guest House in downtown Healdsburg, its imagery based in part on a series of painting workshops that gave amateur artists free rein to create what they wanted.
“I didn’t want to be prescriptive and give them my vision. I wanted to hear what they were thinking about,” said Maria de Los Angeles, a painter and muralist now on the faculty at Yale School of Art. And, more importantly, see what they were thinking about: Some painted kayaks on the river, some focused on Fitch Mountain landscapes, some drew cactus that reminded them of Mexico or giant daisies that reflected springtime optimism. They all gave de Los Angeles insight into what the residents valued about their community, Healdsburg. About 40 participants in the five two-hour “art-making sessions” at the Healdsburg Museum, Community Center and Library offered to share their artwork with de Los Angeles and the public. The images serve to inspire her four-story mural,
approximately 43 feet by 10 feet, which will be painted during the third week of August. It will be publicly revealed at a community party on Friday, Aug. 23, at Harmon Guest House. “It was not only research for me, but it was a way to connect,” said the 36-yearold artist of the community workshops. “And then all of the participants will be exhibiting with me at the same time.” The community drawings, most of them acrylics on 9-inch-by12-inch canvas panel board, will be displayed on a wall at the Harmon Guest House while the mural itself dominates the front window, at 227 Healdsburg Ave. The Harmon House Temporary Mural on Glass is partially underwritten by a $19,000 Public Art Grant from the City of Healdsburg, the largest grant in its 2014 series of six grants totaling $50,000. Other ➝ Glass Mural, 6