You may also support the event by mailing a check to the event organizers:

American Legion Veterans
P.O. Box 208
Healdsburg, CA 95448

This year, the Tour will visit five charming homes within walking distance of the historic Healdsburg Plaza. Each home on the Tour has a knowledgeable docent that can explain the historical significance of the home and discuss its special features. The last stop on the Tour will be a visit to the Healdsburg Museum’s “Cabins to Craftsman: 100 Years of Healdsburg Architecture” exhibit. The exhibit provides a glimpse into local historical architecture leading up to 1910. It includes pioneer furnishings and objects brought to Healdsburg after the California Gold Rush. You’ll also be able to view handmade quilts and furniture of the time; an 1869 stereopticon with 3-D stereoscopic images of 1870s Healdsburg; and much more. A special part of the exhibit focuses on “Then and Now” photographs of local 100-year-old buildings.

Tickets are $35 in advance or $40 on the day of the tour. Information on purchasing tickets can be found at the Healdsburg AAUW website.

My experience with the now-defunct Access Healdsburg shows me the worth of HUSD’s promises. Back in the 90’s, they went to the community for a bond issue intended to fund a facility expansion plan that included building a Media Center on the High School campus. The community came through for HUSD, and the non-profit I helped found moved into the Media Center building that was built with the community’s money. We built a great set of studios, ran a community TV station, and served HUSD staff and students and the community for seven years.

But then HUSD decided they needed a new place to put the district office, because they had made a stupid decision to move into portable buildings when they vacated their previous offices. So they cravenly evicted Access Healdsburg and destroyed a fully functional television station that the community had paid for, just so a bunch of bureaucrats could have a more comfortable place to sit their sorry asses while they mismanaged the district. HUSD seems to have plenty of money to renovate the Media Center building into a palace for administrators, but can’t scrape up the cash to, you know, actually deliver an education to Healdsburg’s students. And now they’re once again crying poor.

They get no sympathy from me.

I am writing to correct inaccuracies in your article of July 29, “TV station may have to move out.”

Some statements attributed to HUSD Superintendent Jeff Harding were misleading, at best. The article stated “[When Harding] looked into the matter, he found that the facility lease for the Media Center between the city and the schools had expired in 2007 and the agreement that the local station would provide HUSD students with 18 hours of instructional time per week had long stopped.”

There are two misleading things here. First, the City, in the person of now-City Manager Marjie Pettus, repeatedly attempted to renew the Media Center lease with the District in 2007 and was rebuffed by the then-Superintendent, who according to Marjie, promised they would negotiate that deal separately. So in reality, the lease expired because the District refused to negotiate, while claiming that it would later do so. Second, Access Healdsburg has never stopped providing the District access to our facilities, even after it became clear that the District was planning to evict the station so they could remodel the Media Center (purpose-built by the community with $1.5 million of our bond money to be a TV station) into administrator’s offices.

Mr. Harding continues: “It’s been seven years of free rent.” This is false. Access Healdsburg has never received free rent from HUSD. AHTV and HUSD signed an agreement to staff and make available our facilities for the District’s use for 18 hours per week. In return for our investment of staff salaries and time, money, and equipment, the school district agreed to waive cash rent and supply us with other services, such as janitorial. It was not done out of the goodness of District’s hearts. It was a business deal, from which they derived significant benefit; many students have used AHTV facilities. The end result was that the District received more than $350,000 in value from that agreement.

Over the past seven years, our people made countless overtures to the schools to use the facilities that were subject to the deal. It is not our fault that they were short-sighted, underutilized the facility, and squandered an amazing opportunity for students and District staff.

I realize that Mr. Harding believes that it is in his best interests to now minimize and denigrate the services that Access Healdsburg provided the District, for the many years before he came upon the scene. But his word does not change the reality, much as he might wish that.

Finally, Mr. Harding states, implying that there could be safety concerns for students: “They are making videos in private rooms with no windows.” This is false. All rooms used by students at Access Healdsburg have windows, and our staff monitors those rooms while they are being used.

Tom Negrino
Access Healdsburg

I’d like you to post a note about the Healdsburg Fourth of July celebration. We’re the 501(c)19 Non-Profit group of all volunteers who for no salary have taken on the task of running a fireworks program for the 4th of July, since the City banned fireworks 20 years ago. This is our 19th year and we could use folks to mail in a couple of bucks.  (Just think – if everyone in Healdsburg sent in $2.00, we’d have 3/4 of it paid). I’m short about $6,500 just to finish paying off the bill, which is COD on the 4th. If you can lend a hand, I’d appreciate passing the word on through even your own personal emails to friends throughout the City.

Address for donations:

American Legion Veterans
P.O. Box 208
Healdsburg, CA 95448

You’ll also find collection jars at many businesses throughout town, and of course you may donate at the event itself. But the most bang for the buck is to donate before the event. It’s always a great event, and a great cause. Please dig deep for this excellent community event.

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.

The approval process is highly technical, with certain comments being allowed to be considered only at certain stages; it is difficult for the average citizen to know when the right time is to be heard. The commissioners gave a great deal of leeway in allowing comments that would have better been delivered at an earlier stage of the project.

Next Tuesday, 12/4, a Special Meeting will be held to continue discussions about the Tentative Map. Following that, a Public Hearing will be held on 12/11 regarding the Development Agreement. This is where we will get a complete picture of what Healdsburg will receive for allowing this valuable, pristine property to be annexed for the Saggio Hills development. Then, the City Council will decide, once advised by the Planning Commission, on the various entitlements that will allow the project to go forward.

Fasten your seat belts.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, from the folks here at Healdsburgers.

The Productivity Portfolio blog recently did a roundup of online travel search engines, which act like Google for the online travel agencies like Orbitz and Travelocity. The travel search engines submit your itinerary to several agencies at once, and show you who has the best fares. The roundup gives you some winning low-fare buying strategies and reviews of the search engines. Check it out, and help your friends and family save some money.