🌱 License Plate Readers + Latest Water Savings + Foley Pavilion

Hello again, everybody! It's Saturday in Healdsburg and I'm back in your inbox to get you caught up on all the most important things happening locally. Today's bountiful weekend edition includes...

• Details on Healdsburg's soon-to-launch license plate reader program
• Wild statistics on the growing cost of wine tasting in Healdsburg
• An update on the planned Foley pavilion next to Little Saint
• Oodles of weekend events
• And much more!

But first, a heads up: I'll be off the grid at Burning Man for the next week or so. Someone will be filling in for me during that time — please go easy on them! And I'll be back before you know it. :)

Now, your weekend weather:

• Saturday: Fog and clouds in the morning, turning to sun. High: 86 Low: 51.
• Sunday: Same deal. High: 85 Low: 53.
• Monday: Same! High: 87 Low: 52.

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Here are the top 5 stories in Healdsburg today:

1. The Healdsburg Tribune has the latest on the "automated license plate reader" program that police are planning to set up in town, after getting the green light from city leaders at last week's council meeting. "By the end of the year, or early next," the Trib reports, "every car, truck or motorcycle entering Healdsburg will have its license plate and other vehicle-specific information photographed and stored for up to a year. The plate is read by a sophisticated optical-digital Automated License Plate Reader, which then checks that information against an active 'hot list' of vehicles suspected of crimes, from vehicle thefts to terrorism. If there’s a hit, the Healdsburg Police will know." Also: "Ten cameras fixed at five ingress/egress locations will be only part of the city’s ALPR system... . Parking enforcement vehicles too will continue to use ALPR cameras to track how long a tourist or a local has been docked in a time-limited spot." You can read all the details in the Trib, or watch the discussion play out in this video recording of the City Council meeting — it begins around the 25-minute mark. (Healdsburg Tribune & City of Healdsburg via Facebook)
2. The cost of wine tasting in Healdsburg has risen 74 percent since the start of the pandemic, with a "new average fee of $33," according to a new report in the San Francisco Chronicle. The story cites data from the "Sonoma Wine Tasting Report, created by the Sonoma Wine Tasting Blog and blog editor Eric Schwartzman, who collected and compared tasting-fee data from 90 wineries pre-pandemic and 263 wineries this summer." According to this data, overall in Sonoma County, the cost of wine tasting has risen 44 percent since COVID hit — but Healdsburg has seen a bigger surge than any other community in the county. "The 74% rise in Healdsburg tasting fees tracks with the city’s recent glitzy renaissance," the Chronicle writes, "including the opening of several pricey hotels like the Montage Resort, where rooms go for over $1,000 a night." More from the story: "These increases come at a time when wineries are facing rising costs related to labor, supply-chain delays and inflation. But customers aren’t necessarily paying more for less: In many cases, higher tasting fees are translating to better experiences. The pandemic pushed wineries to appointment-only models that allow for more privacy, one-on-one attention, food pairings and even wellness activities instead of serving the maximum number of guests." (SF Chronicle; paywall)
3. Quick summer water conservation update from the City of Healdsburg. "As a community, our water consumption was 35% less for the month of July compared to the 2017-2019 average!" officials say, even though our conservation mandate is only at 20 percent right now. "This is thanks in large part to residents cutting back on outdoor irrigation," they add. "We are currently in Stage 2 water restrictions, which allows for three days a week of irrigation (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) during the early morning before 7 am and in the late evening after 8 pm." Healdsburg residents also achieved around 35 percent water savings the month before, in June, according to Petaluma's local paper — making us the water saving-est community in all the county, although there are still four other water districts beating us in other parts of California. For her part, Brigette Mansell — former mayor, current city council candidate and Healdsburg's No. 1 water justice advocate — shared her water bill on Facebook recently, showing how much she's able to save by "really conserving and using on my trees/plants… laundry to landscape and short showers and low flow toilets and a kitchen sink that resembles a duck pond." (City of Healdsburg & Facebook Groups & Petaluma Argus-Courier)
4. The Healdsburg police logs for the first few weeks of August are available to view on the police department's website. Some notable reports from that time period include: A shirtless guy arrested in the plaza for allegedly "chasing" and arguing with a guitar player who was performing; a few different downtown bar patrons who got aggressive with their bartenders; a handful of registration stickers, catalytic converters and other stuff stolen from parked cars in town; some "carved wooden birds" allegedly stolen from the Dovetail Collection Gallery; someone who called police claiming they saw two people shooting up drugs in the Big Johns parking lot, leading to a drug-related arrest; an ex-employee of Wine Country Bikes on Front Street reportedly "harassing their staff" and calling clients to "slander" the business; a woman outside McDonald's "yelling and screaming at people coming through the drive through," "hiding behind the dumpsters" and "throwing a cheeseburger and spitting on someone in the drive through"; a truck that got egged at Finchers Auto Service; and the usual slew of transient-related reports. (Healdsburg Police Department)
5. I've been getting a lot of questions from readers about what's going on with the Foley Community Pavilion project in the big North Street parking lot next to Little Saint, which we've all been hearing about for years now as the potential future home of the Healdsburg Farmers Market. You may also remember it being called the "Purity Building" at one point. Anyway, here's an update on that long-anticipated project from city staffers, delivered at the Parks & Rec meeting last week: The construction drawings are now halfway done, they said, and an official environmental review is underway with "no red flags" so far. "At this point we expect construction to begin in late spring of 2023," a staffer said, "with an opening of that... facility in summer or early fall of 2024." He said he and others working on the project are feeling optimistic about the timeline, for what it's worth. You can see the building's design, approved last year, below. (City of Healdsburg via Facebook & Nextdoor)

This weekend in Healdsburg:

Saturday, August 27

• Healdsburg Running Company Lake Sonoma Loop Run With Street Taco Finish (8AM)
• Caldwell Trouette Contractor Moving Sale at 313 Mason Street (8AM-1PM)
• Farm to Pantry Saturday Morning Harvest at the Farm to Fight Hunger (9AM-12PM)
• Healdsburg Arts Festival in the Plaza (10AM-5PM)
• Healdsburg Saturday Farmers Market (8:30AM-12PM)
• Cookbook Signing at the Farmers Market: "Gather: Casual Cooking from Wine Country Gardens" by Janet Fletcher (9AM)
• Corazón Healdsburg Presents Día de Trabajo en el Jardín / Garden Work Day at the Healdsburg Community Center (Weekly, 10-11AM)
• Read to a Dog at the Healdsburg Library (11AM)
• Música y Movimiento Para Niños Menores de 6 Años / Spanish Music & Movement for Kids Ages 0-6 at the Healdsburg Library (11AM)
• Healdsburg Museum Presents Historic Downtown Healdsburg Self-Guided Walking Tour (11AM-4PM)
• Taste Destination 128 Wine & BBQ Cookoff in Alexander Valley (11AM-4PM)
• DJ Set by Rox C Brown at BloodRoot Wines (3-7PM)
• Live Jazz in the Lounge at Furthermore Wines: Chris Amberger & Jeremy Lieber (4-7PM)
• Colbie Caillat Live at Rodney Strong Vineyards (5PM)
• Unique Concert Experience at the Raven Theater: "Cash & King: A Celebration of the Legends" (7PM)
• Joey Paradise & Treasures Live at the Elephant in the Room (8-11PM)
• The Poyntlyss Sistars Rockin' Show Band Live at Coyote Sonoma (8-11PM)

Sunday, August 28

• Healdsburg Arts Festival in the Plaza (10AM-3PM)
• Little Monsters Culinary Kids Cooking Class in the Barn at Healdsburg Barn Studio (2:30-4PM)
• Sunset Music Series at the Ranch at Lake Sonoma, Feat. Live Music by Blues Band "The Blue Lights" (5:30PM-Sunset)
• Jason Dea West, John Courage & Bone Cootes Live at the Elephant in the Room (6-10PM)

Monday, August 29

• City of Healdsburg Hosts "Community Encuentro" Dialogue About Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the Healdsburg Library (6-8PM)

Healdsburg pics of the day, pastoral edition:

From my notebook:

• Healdsburg High School's varsity girls soccer coach, 55-year-old Mark Hays, had a dramatic health scare while playing in an indoor soccer game down in Santa Rosa a couple weeks ago. He reportedly hit the floor, went into cardiac arrest and "lost pulse and stopped breathing." The PD has the story of how he was revived, and how his recovery is going. (Press Democrat; paywall)
• FYI, you should see a flyer tucked into your next city utility bill asking for your most up-to-date contact information — so the city can send you alerts about "wildfires, public-safety power shutdowns (PSPS), and other emergencies." More info here. (City of Healdsburg)
• Also with your bill, you should see a "voucher for a free kitchen countertop stainless steel compost bin," the city says. It's "part of an effort to encourage organic waste recycling which is now the law as of January 1, 2022." (City of Healdsburg)
• If you've been noticing from cool ceramic plaques popping up on storm drains around town, you have the students from the Healdsburg High ceramics program to thank. They've "been making the plaques from glazed, ceramic slabs and have fixed them to the concrete, or steel drain faces, with strong adhesive in prominent locations," city officials say. "The students and HS ceramics teacher and students are working with the City Engineers to ensure that no sidewalk encroachment would raise safety issues. Six plaques were placed just last week with more to come. You can view the plaques near the street corners of Black Oak Coffee." (City of Healdsburg)
• One of the highlights of the Healdsburg Arts Festival this weekend just might be the "pie parade" planned along Plaza Street on Sunday. An event organizer tells me "it's a gathering of people bringing their homemade pies, marching them around the plaza then setting them down on a table. Each pie is labeled. Each person brings their own utensils, plates, napkins and creates a zero waste event." So bring your pies with you tomorrow! (Inbox & Healdsburg Center for the Arts)
• Healdsburg's very own "Community Wildfire Protection Plan" is currently being drafted by local fire officials. And they're asking for "your input and feedback to help us set goals and priorities" as they develop the plan. You can fill out the survey here. (City of Healdsburg & Google Form in English / Español)
• The Press Democrat has a great piece on Healdsburg-area fire celebrity Marshall Turbeville, a "local hero" just given an international award. "It was only reluctantly that he went to Texas to receive the award this week," the story goes, "given the heat and the drought and Sonoma County’s history." (Press Democrat; paywall)
• Healdsburg business Caldwell-Trouette General Contractors is moving out of their warehouse on Mason Street after 25 years. Owners say they're relocating to "another local site," with more details coming soon. Check out their moving sale today across from the Longboard tasting room. (Facebook Groups)

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Events:

• Healdsburg Arts Festival 2022 (August 26-28)
• Add your event

That's all for now. See you when I'm back from the Burn — I'll miss you guys!

— Simone Wilson

About me: I was born and raised in Healdsburg, CA, where I was the editor of the Healdsburg High School Hound's Bark. I have since worked as a local journalist for publications in San Diego, Los Angeles, New York City and the Middle East. I'm currently a senior product manager for Patch.

Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Healdsburg Daily? Contact me at simone.wilson@patch.com