Healdsburgers

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Jon Bonné reviews our gem just south of the Plaza, El Sombrero, and comes to the same conclusion most Healdsburgers have: good food at great prices. The Hat is a welcome, authentic, friendly respite from the fancy shops and tasting rooms that ring the Plaza.

Via the Healdsburg Town Meeting blog:

The Healdsburg City Council will hold a public hearing at 7:00 PM on Wednesday April 16 to receive public comments on the Saggio Hills Final EIR. The Council is not expected to take action on the EIR at this time.

City staff have published two documents. The first includes responses to comments received on the Saggio Hills Final EIR following its preparation. The second includes corrections and revisions to the Saggio Hills Draft EIR and Final EIR.

The City of Healdsburg will soon be putting a little extra zap in our electric bills. According to a recent letter from the City, electric rates will be rising from 15% to 30%, depending on the kind of customer. This will be the first increase since July 2001.

Healdsburg is unusual in Sonoma County in that we have our own municipal electric utility, rather than being in thrall to the whims and tender mercies of PG&E. This is usually a good thing, because we have been insulated (no pun intended) from the vagaries of the overall electric market forces. For example, a few years ago when Enron engineered the fake electricity crisis and much of California suffered rolling blackouts, we rode it out with little effect. We occasionally have some electrical events that are unique to us, such as the scheduled blackouts last year when the City needed to upgrade our power substation.

The City Council will be holding a hearing in the Council Chambers at City Hall at 7PM on Monday, April 14 to discuss the intended rate increase, and discuss plans to phase in the increases over time. If you’re interested in how your bill will be going up (and who isn’t?), we’ll see you there.

Hi all. Things have ben pretty dead around here of late, mainly because for two months I’ve had the Never-Get-Over cold that’s been going around. I’m slowly getting better, and I’m talking to a few people about contributing to the site. If you’re interested in writing for Healdsburgers, please email me.

From friend of the blog, Hank Skewis: Tomorrow night (Feb. 12th) is a public hearing on the revised development agreement between Saggio Hills and the city. If you have something to say, this is as good a place to say it as any. City Hall, 7 PM.

What with the holidays and a flurry of work, things have been kind of slow around here. We expect the pace to pick up, as we all get back in the swing of things. More from us soon!

In the meantime, we want to hear from you. Healdsburgers is about all of us, not just the few of us who have contributed so far. If you’re interested in posting on Healdsburgers, just drop me a line with your post, and I’ll put it up. Please be aware that I’m out of town this week on business, so I may not be able to give as timely a reply as I usually would.

As I said in a previous post, I’m not comfortable in making Healdsburgers an anti-Saggio Hills site; there are other sites for that (look at the right sidebar for one). I’d like this place to be one where both sides of an issue are aired.