🌱 RIP HHS Legend + Local Crime Stats + A Healdsburg Halloween

Hey, everybody — sorry to miss you yesterday. Making up for it today with a jam-packed newsletter, full of everything you need to know about what's happening locally.

First, today's weather:

Mostly cloudy and cool. High: 69 Low: 47.

Air over Healdsburg:

Here are the top 5 stories in Healdsburg today:

1. City leaders are making moves on a universal basic income program for Healdsburg families. They're currently in "early talks" with local nonprofit Corazón Healdsburg, re: the development of a program that would "provide $500 a month to 50 local families for 24 months," according to the Tribune. The program would exclusively serve Healdsburg residents "who are pregnant in their first or second trimester and earn no more than 50% of the area median household income," the Trib reports — the goal being to "cover basic costs of living and establish a level of financial security for recipients." (SoCoNews Healdsburg)
2. The Healdsburg Museum's much-anticipated new exhibit, "From Diggers Bend to River Rock: Dry Creek Rancheria People and History," quietly opened to the public last week. (Why quietly? Because "we were not completely finished installing it," curators said.) The exhibit features gorgeous woven baskets and other treasures from the native peoples of Healdsburg's Dry Creek area, including one basket "decorated with quail topknots, glass beads and clamshell disc beads." You can check it out Wednesdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. And now that the exhibit is in full swing, more community volunteers are needed to help staff the gallery. (Facebook & Facebook)
3. Pat McDowell, a former football coach and biology teacher at Healdsburg High School, has passed away, according to his friends and family. There's a long thread unfolding about the significant legacy he left at HHS in the "Celebrate Friday Night Lights Hounds Football at Recreation Park" Facebook group. "He was such a gentle soul that made you feel like you REALLY mattered in this world and made a difference just by being you," one of his old students writes. A relative of McDowell's says the family is trying to arrange a memorial "at some point in the next month or so" — and they're "trying for Rec Park." (Facebook)
4. Some of Healdsburg's favorite Halloween traditions stunted by the pandemic last year are back on the docket for 2021. First will be the 37th annual Pumpkin Festival at the Farmers Market on Saturday, Oct. 30, featuring three different competitions: a pumpkin car race, a pumpkin carving contest and a costume contest. Prizes will come in the form of "market bucks," which can be spent at any vendor's booth. And next on the schedule for Halloween will be the return of the beloved "Trick-or-Treat on the Plaza" event early on the evening of Sunday, Oct. 31, during which kids can hit up all the businesses on the square. According to the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce, the trick-or-treating "will be in collaboration with Corazón Healdsburg's Día de Muertos event." We'll share more info as we get it! (Sonoma County Gazette & Facebook)
5. There are a couple other big fall events coming up downtown as well. The weekend after next, on Saturday, Oct. 16, there will be a first-ever "zombie walk" charity event called the Sonoma County Zombie Movement. It "starts at West Plaza Park... through the walkway by the hotel down Healdsburg Avenue to the roundabout and back up Healdsburg Avenue," the Tribune reports. "There will also be a raffle, zombie dance lessons and a 'Thriller' flash mob" at the plaza afterward. Then the next day, on the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 17, a “Pouring on the Plaza” harvest party will feature food, music, a silent auction and "premium wine tastings" from sixty different local wineries. Tickets are steep at $90 each, but the whole thing is a benefit for the Boys & Girls Club, so it's a good cause. (SoCoNews Healdsburg & Press Democrat; paywall)

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Today in Healdsburg:

• "Good Morning, Healdsburg!" Chamber of Commerce Update With Supervisor James Gore (8AM)
• Free Zumba Workout / Clase de Zumba Gratis at TCElite on Mill Street (10AM)
• Healdsburg American Association of University Women (AAUW) Forum on Alfred Hitchcock: Symbol and Psychology in Shot and Scene (10-11:45AM, Tuesdays, Oct. 7-Nov. 11)
• Pumpkin U-Pick at SRJC's Shone Farm (Oct. 7-9, 10AM-3PM)
• Healdsburg Senior Center Presents: "Friends Fun Lunch" at Charlie's Restaurant in Windsor (11:20AM)
• Hot Dog Thursday at Sonoma County Airport (11:30AM)
• Let's Talk: Virtual English Conversation Class at Sonoma County Library (2-3:30PM)
• Sonoma County Virtual Town Hall: How to Spend American Rescue Plan Act Funds? (5:30-7:30PM)
• First Principal Chat at West Side Elementary School (6PM)
• Healdsburg Running Company Presents: Walk to End Alzhelmer’s Fundraiser With Edward Jones and HOKA Demos (6PM)
• Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership Webinar: Graywater in the Home Landscape (6-7:30PM)
• Karaoke Night at Coyote Sonoma (6:30-9PM)
• Live at Elephant in the Room: The Legendary David Dondero (8-10PM)

Healdsburg Patch Notebook

• Thanks to a law just signed by Gov. Newsom, there's a new pool of state funds available for Healdsburg-area grape growers and winemakers whose grapes suffered "smoke taint" in last summer's wildfires. According to the Business Journal: "The 2020 grape harvest in Sonoma County was plagued with smoke taint from the Glass and Walbridge fires and resulted in a value of $357 million for the season, which was nearly half of the 2019 value." (North Bay Business Journal)
• A new FBI report on crime statistics across the nation for 2020, based on information from local law enforcement agencies, shows Healdsburg saw a big jump in violent crime reports — from 17 in 2019 to 25 in 2020. The property crime rate, on the other hand, stayed about the same. (Healdsburg Patch)
• In case you missed it: Wohler Road, which forks off Westside Road at the southwest end of Healdsburg, will be closed through at least Oct. 15, as crews demolish the old bridge and construct a new roadway. You can use Trenton Road and Eastside Road as a detour. (Facebook)
• An injured horseback rider was rescued by a sheriff's helicopter out near Lake Sonoma yesterday. "The rider was packaged in a traverse rescue device and flown, via long line, to an awaiting Bell’s Ambulance," the sheriff says. Watch dramatic video footage of the rescue. (Facebook)
• If you haven't had time to stop by the "Architecture of Nature" exhibit at Healdsburg's Paul Mahder Gallery yet, here's a virtual video tour. Pretty cool stuff. (Facebook)
• The Healdsburg Tribune has been following our town's intense youth soccer season. The teams have awesome names like the Healdsburg Habaneros and the Healdsburg Red Ravens. (SoCoNews Healdsburg)
• The Trib's also got an update on the Healdsburg High School cross country team. At a meet last week versus Ukiah at Hoot Owl Creek Vineyards, the varsity girls won, but the boys didn't. (SoCoNews Healdsburg)
• Quick PSA from the Northern Sonoma County Fire District: That wildfire smoke you think you're seeing in the hills to the north could very well be a geyser, made visible by this cooler weather we're getting. (Facebook)
• The Healdsburg Center for the Arts will host the official grand opening party for its new location at 334 Center Street later this month, on Oct. 23. Attractions include a four-sided easel. (Facebook)
• Neighbors are reporting a possible trash and recycling can thief out Dry Creek. (Facebook)
• A couple whose house burned down in the Dixie Fire just "found a great old house to rent in Healdsburg that will allow us a few years to heal and plan the potential rebuild of our homestead." Now they're looking for "furnishings close to what we lost in the fire so it feels a little like home." Here's their wishlist. (Facebook)

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That's all, folks. See you tomorrow morning for your next update. If you're enjoying these newsletters, consider bringing some more friends and neighbors on board. You can send them this link to subscribe.

— 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? Reach out anytime to simone.wilson@patch.com.