🌱 Memorial Day Stories + FFA Pics + New Healdsburg Hotel Too Big?

Hello, my people! How rad was the FFA parade on Thursday? I'm admittedly still slightly hungover from all the hoopla BUT still here in your inbox today with your Memorial Day weekend edition of the Healdsburg Patch newsletter, filled with everything you need to know about what's happening in town. Let's get right into it.

First, your weekend weather:

• Saturday: Fog and clouds turning to sun. High: 74 Low: 51.
• Sunday: Fog and clouds turning to sun again. High: 72 Low: 50.
• Monday: Same thing. High: 71 Low: 52.
• Tuesday: Annnd same! High: 73 Low: 49.

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Here are the top 3 stories today in Healdsburg:

1. You know those designs that Piazza Hospitality submitted to the city for a fourth luxury hotel in downtown Healdsburg, this one next to John & Zeke's? Well, city planners have sent the developer somewhat back to the drawing board, according to the Healdsburg Tribune. At the city's planning commission meeting on Tuesday night, which doubled as a public hearing for the project, commissioners reportedly told Piazza reps that they need to present updated plans at a future meeting that "address concerns about massing, materials and the impact of a 50-foot tall pair of structures on one of the city’s busiest corners" at North Street and Healdsburg Avenue. At 50 feet, the two towers "would scrape the limit of the city’s maximum height for structures in the Downtown Commercial (DC) zoning district," the Tribune reports. More notes from the meeting, courtesy of Trib reporter Christian Kallen: "The commission had a chance to review the proposed four-story, 16 guest room hotel at 400 Healdsburg Ave., with commercial space and a restaurant on the ground floor. An earlier plan to include an open-air walk-through plaza on the ground level was jettisoned; the entire ground floor will now be commercial space. At present, the project, called the HH Residence Hotel, will join the three earlier hotels under Piazza management, located farther south on Healdsburg Avenue toward the roundabout." Aka, Hotel Healdsburg, h2hotel and Harmon Guest House. (Healdsburg Tribune & City of Healdsburg & David Hagele via Facebook)

2. Just in time for Memorial Day, the Press Democrat has the heartbreaking story of more than 80 army pilots who died during wartime training at the Santa Rosa Army Airfield back in the 1940s. The airfield was located on "ranch land just south of what is now the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport," the PD reports, and "it was used to train pilots who, upon graduation, were sent overseas to fight in World War II." Steve Lehmann, a retired county record keeper and current chair of the Windsor Historical Society, reportedly found during his extensive research that "planes and men fell from the sky, landing in places like Petaluma Hill Road, Occidental, Fitch Mountain in Healdsburg, or 'near Petaluma on a farm'" and that "many took off from here and crashed over water: Drakes Bay, San Pablo Bay, Point Reyes, Bodega, 'midair into ocean off Jenner.'" He tells the PD that he was "simply overwhelmed by the number of pilots” who died during these trainings. Also: The Press Democrat ran another fascinating story recently about a guy living on the Sonoma County coast who received one of his deceased father’s World War II dog tags in the mail, sent by a woman in Windsor. "I just filled with goosebumps” at the sight of the tag, he says. The woman had found it tangled in the roots of an orchid she was repotting — an orchid that had belonged to the late Jeff and Denise Sanders, who used to live on Fitch Mountain in Healdsburg. How the tag "ended up in that little pot, we’ll never know," the woman says. (Press Democrat & Press Democrat & Press Democrat; paywall)
3. Dozens of local wineries and others across the nation are rallying around Noah and Kelly Dorrance, owners of Reeve Wines and BloodRoot Wines in Healdsburg, as they raise funds for a gun violence prevention org called "Everytown for Gun Safety." Noah and Kelly lost their 9-year-old niece Evelyn Dieckhaus in the Christian school shooting in Nashville two months ago. So they're planning a "Wine Country Unites" fundraising event on June 3 to "try to do something powerful and positive" in the aftermath. "More than 80 acclaimed wineries, restaurants, shops, and distributors have signed on to donate $10 for every bottle of wine sold that day," Food & Wine magazine reports — "not a small figure to many of these wineries." Since they announced the event, "support has spread beyond their own circle, including some wineries they weren’t previously familiar with. Cartograph Wines in Healdsburg will match the first $10,000 in donations; Tribute to Grace in Santa Barbara, $1000; their New York distributor, Skurnik Wines & Spirits, will donate a portion of sales from the prior day. Minnesota distributor Libation Project and California’s Monterey Bay Wine Company will participate as well." Other participating Healdsburg wineries include Smith Story Wine Cellars, Ruth Lewandowski, Leo Steen Wines and more. You can see the full list on the Wine Country Unites website — or sign up your own winery for the cause. (Wine Country Unites & Food & Wine)

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Healdsburg pics of the day, FFA edition:

Do you have any pics of the parade or fair that you want to share with the community? Or any other great pics you've taken in town recently? You can submit them here and I may feature them in the newsletter. Please just confirm in your email that you took any photos you're sending, and that Patch has permission to republish them, K? Thanks! 📸

This weekend in Healdsburg:

Saturday, May 27

• Garage Sale at 241 Prune Tree Drive (7AM-1:30PM)
• Healdsburg Running Company Hosts Lake Sonoma Run, Featuring Chicken & Waffles (8AM)
• Healdsburg Farmers Market in the West Plaza Parking Lot (8:30AM-12PM)
• Healdsburg Future Farmers Country Fair at Rec Park (9AM-10:30PM)
• “Sip Of Wellness” Wine & Yoga at Rodney Strong Vineyard (11AM-1PM)
• Meet the Artist at the Upstairs Art Gallery Inside Levin & Company: “Water Songs” Oil & Watercolor Paintings by Marsha Connell (11AM-6PM)
• Livestock Auction at the Healdsburg Future Farmers Country Fair (4PM)
• Chip Boaz Jazz Trio Live at Furthermore Wines (5-8PM)
• SOLD OUT: Charles Lloyd & Gerald Clayton Duo Performs at THE 222 (7PM)
• Play at the Raven Theater: "Noel Coward's Hay Fever" (7:30PM)
• Indie-Pop Band Lucius Live at Little Saint (8-10PM)
• Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys Live at Coyote Sonoma (8-10PM)
• Sirsy Live at the Elephant in the Room (8-11PM)

Sunday, May 28

• Memorial Day Weekend Celebration at Bacchus Landing Wine Tasting Collective, Featuring Live Music by Jacob Philip Benning (12-4PM)
• Final Performance of "Noel Coward's Hay Fever" Play at the Raven Theater (2PM)
• Russian River Ramblers Jazz Band Live at Dry Creek Vineyards (2-4PM)
• SOLD OUT: Flowers Vineyards & Winery Hosts "Outstanding in the Field" Coastal Vineyard Dinner in Cazadero (4PM)
• "Cosmico" Music Festival at Coyote Sonoma, Featuring Tim Bluhm, Duane Betts, the Cordovas & More (4-9PM)
• Healdsburg Running Company Hosts Memorial Day Paddle at Lake Sonoma (5PM)
• King Lung, Mystie Moon & The Lee Vandeveer Band Live at the Elephant in the Room (7-10PM)
• Summer Movies on the Lawn at The Madrona: "Serial Mom" (8PM)

Monday, May 29

• New Art Exhibit Opening at the Upstairs Art Gallery Inside Levin & Company: "Places from the Heart" Oil Landscape Paintings by Linda Barretta (May 29-July 2, 11AM-6PM)

Tuesday, May 30

• Healdsburg Farmers Market on the Plaza (9AM-12:30PM)
• Hiring Event at Hotel Les Mars for Goodnight’s Bourbon + Chop House, the New Steakhouse on the Plaza (May 30-31, 9AM-4PM)
• Food Distribution at the Healdsburg Community Center (Weekly, 9:30-10:30AM)
• First "Tuesdays in the Plaza" of the Season, Featuring Live Music by '90s Party Band Club 90 (6PM)
• Alexander Valley Film Society (AVFilm) Hosts Filmmaker Social & Panel at the Plaza Cinema Center (6PM)
• Bossa Funka Nova, Matt Silva & Nick Otis Live at the Elephant in the Room (7:30-11PM)

From my notebook:

• The latest issue of the Healdsburg Tribune has a great, in-depth piece on the farmworker protest in the plaza during the fancy Healdsburg Wine & Food Experience event last weekend. (Healdsburg Tribune)
• The various different fire departments that protect the Healdsburg area showed up in full force at the parade on Thursday night. In particular, the Northern Sonoma County Fire District, who hauled around their impressive new "masticator" — a big tractor-looking thing that thoroughly crunches up old, flammable branches and brush as a wildfire prevention measure. "This equipment has already logged over 150 hours of fuel reduction work on various projects," district officials say. (Northern Sonoma County Fire District via Facebook & CAL FIRE Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit via Facebook)

• Related: Chief Marshall Turbeville, head of the Northern Sonoma County Fire District, was just interviewed by a fire-focused magazine about his award-winning work at the local level. "My role as fire chief has never felt like a job," he says. Read the full interview here. (FireRescue1.com & COPE Northern Sonoma County via Facebook)
• Quail & Condor Bakery will be doing a cookie-baking demonstration at today's farmers market — the first in a series of cooking demos they're planning at the market this season. (Facebook Groups)
• Speaking of! Sonoma Magazine thinks Quail & Condor and other local restaurants got seriously snubbed by the James Beard Awards this year. (Sonoma Magazine)

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Alright everybody, we're all caught up for the weekend. Now go have some fun at the fair why don't you :)

— 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 Patch newsletter? Contact me at simone.wilson@patch.com