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TheHealdsburg HealdsburgTribune Tribune The Enterprise & Scimitar Enterprise & Scimitar
Visit for daily updates on local news views1865 –January 26, 2023 www.healdsburgtribune.com for daily updates on local news andand views Our 158th year,Visit Number 4 www.healdsburgtribune.com Healdsburg, California
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DIVERSITY MEETING TONIGHT EXPLORES ‘LAK’ ECH’
Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, California
Date, Date, 20202020
INDIGENOUS INCLUDED IN DEI PLAN DEVELOPMENT By Christian Kallen
Photo by Tom Rennie/Tomsaerials
The next stage of a city program to nurture and improve inclusion throughout the Healdsburg community takes place tonight, Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Healdsburg Community Center. The “encuentro” (gathering) will be the first of five such meetings in the next four months to help build the city’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) plan, due in mid-2023. The topic tonight is “Indigenous Voices + in Lak'ech,” the last word being a term embraced by the city’s DEI plan management consultant, Acosta. Its meaning is roughly, “You are my other me,” or in Spanish, “U eres mi otro yo,” based on Mayan languages and philosophy. The introduction of this concept as a framework for equity development is key to Acosta’s methodology. All five meetings fall into the category of Equity Encuentros that Acosta Latino Learning Partnership (ALLP) outlined in their revised timeline on Dec. 5, 2022. They follow five similar meetings last year that worked at identifying the various communities in Healdsburg. The assessment of that earlier phase was delivered to the City Council on Dec. 5. The city embarked on the DEI path early in 2022 with equity consultant ALLP, in an effort to nurture and improve diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the Healdsburg community. The initiative was proposed by then-Mayor Ozzy Jimenez and then-Councilmember Skylaer Palacio, as the City Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Equity, and approved by the City Council in February 2022.
MUDDY NECKLACE Dramatic drone image of Fitch Mountain surrounded by high water in the Russian River, taken on Jan. 8.
‘Horseshoe Bend’ Photo Goes Viral DRONE SHOT OF RUSSIAN RIVER SURROUNDING LOCAL LANDMARK IS AN INSTANT CLASSIC By Christian Kallen
Amid the many news and social media photos of swollen creeks, fallen trees and general mayhem from the rainstorms earlier this month, one picture stood out: an aerial shot of Fitch Mountain surrounded by a ribbon of brown water, the Russian River. The photograph shows clearly the geographical quirk that is Fitch Mountain: a solitary wooded hill embraced by the course of the river, a wooded nub in a landscape of greenery. It looks like a green version of the celebrated Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River near Page, AZ.
The image appeared on Tom Rennie’s Facebook feed the morning of Jan. 8—when the deluge had already been soaking Sonoma County for a week—and as it was tagged and shared, even mentioned on Brent Farris’ morning KZST radio program, it became an iconic image of Healdsburg virtually overnight. Vice Mayor David Hagele took notice, and asked the photographer if the City of Healdsburg could use the image on its site, where it immediately appeared as the background for storm weather updates “There's a lot with that photo with the river wrapping around the mountain,” said Hagele admiringly. “You see Fitch Mountain, how pretty it is. It was perfect timing too cause the river was full, the weather cleared
As it was tagged and shared, even mentioned on Brent Farris’ morning KZST radio program, it became an iconic image of virtually overnight.
and he got it. I mean, it was just an incredible photo.” “This is a photo I've been thinking about getting for the last eight years from a friend’s property on the east side of Fitch Mountain,” said Rennie, a drone pilot and photographer, by email last week. “I’ve done drone work in this area before and noticed the entire Russian River is not visible from this vantage point because of lower (not flooded) river levels.”
But on a hunch, realizing the river was high from recent heavy rains, on the morning of Jan. 8 he launched his DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone to see if the image in his mind’s eye could be captured by the drone’s camera. It worked, but the image is more than a snapshot. Said Rennie, “This photo is actually six RAW drone images merged together using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop,” the sort of technical work that an experienced
photographer and drone pilot knows how to do. He posted the image on Facebook before noon, where it was shared 36 times. “It is important to note that Fitch Mountain is 991 feet in elevation and that my drone took off from an elevation of about 600 feet,” Rennie told the Tribune. “Drones are to stay below 400 feet in elevation from the point of takeoff per FAA regulations.” ➝ Viral Photo, 9
➝ Lak'ech Learning, 9
CIGAR AND POT SMOKE COMPLAINT SPARKS A NEW POLICY PLAZA, REC PARK AND VILLA EVENTS ARE NOW SMOKE-FREE Photo courtesy of City of Healdsburg
SMOKIN' SOUNDS Reggae group Sol Horizon played the gazebo stage
on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, entertaining an unusually smokey audience.
By Christian Kallen
It was a summer Tuesday not unlike most of the summer Tuesdays in the Healdsburg Plaza last year. Reggae band Sol Horizon worked the gazebo stage, friends and families gathered on the grounds,
and everyone seemed to enjoy the good weather and good vibes of the post-pandemic party. Make that almost everyone. Whatever the reason—the ganja-friendly music, the rambunctious crowd—the smoke seemed thicker than usual that evening, and Louis Jordan for one was not enjoying himself. In fact, the financial consultant and local winemaker was so irritated by the smoke that less than a week later he attended the Healdsburg City Council meeting and, during the open public comment period, asked the city to expand the non-smoking areas to include the sidewalks surrounding the Plaza. “At this week's Tuesday in the Park, there was extensive cigar and some pot smoking,” Jordan told ➝ Smoking Policy, 6