🌱 What Rain Means For Water Supply + 'Exceptional' 2021 Harvest

Hello, neighbors. If you don't know me yet, I'm Simone, your host of the Healdsburg Daily — here to tell you everything you need to know about what's happening in town. Let's get started!

First, today's weather:

Cool like yesterday, with periods of rain. High: 65 Low: 55.

Here are the top 5 stories today in Healdsburg:

1. All our rain dancing worked, guys — the skies above Healdsburg have opened! Roses are covered in dewdrops! Storm drains are churning! Foss Creek is flowing! The Healdsburg area has gotten between 1 and 2 inches of rain so far this week, according to Sonoma Water, and more than 3 inches in some of our hilly rural parts. Looking forward, rain is in the forecast nearly every day through the middle of next week. A couple warnings, though: Watch out for wet roads and wayward power lines. And in areas that burned in the last couple years, officials say residents should be wary of flooding and mudslides. (Sonoma Water & NWS & Facebook)
2. Even with this welcome wave of wetness, the rain isn't expected to make much of a dent in Healdsburg's water reservoirs — aka, Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino, which feed the Russian River. A Sonoma Water engineer tells the PD that "the ground is so parched after two years of critically low rainfall, most of the rain will just be absorbed, leaving little, if any, to accumulate as runoff and feed into streams, rivers and reservoirs." Meanwhile, California's governor is begging everyone to "redouble our efforts to save water in every way possible" in anticipation of a "potential third year of drought." He even declared a new "statewide drought emergency" this week — ironic, given all the rain. But it appears to be a drop in the bucket, as they say. (Press Democrat & North Bay Business Journal; paywalls)
3. The Healdsburg dad accused of drowning his 4-year-old daughter in the St. John the Baptist Catholic Church baptism pool back in 2016 has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. Gerardo Mendoza Ordaz plead "no contest" to the voluntary manslaughter of his daughter, in order to avoid — as the Press Democrat put it — "what surely would have been an extremely public, emotional trial for Ordaz and his family reliving the night he killed Maria in that Healdsburg Catholic church pool five years ago." The judge who sentenced him this week was quick to give him the maximum sentence given his plea, and is still skeptical about statements he's been making to court officials, according to the PD. Mendoza reportedly told investigators he'd been smoking crystal meth and believed his kids were being "attacked by evil" and that "the holy water would get the devil out of their bodies." (Press Democrat; paywall)
4. The Healdsburg Tribune has more info on the city's new initiative to turn the L&M Hotel at the south end of town into housing for the homeless. City councilmembers "took an early step forward in pursuing the potential project" at their meeting this week, agreeing to "submit a joint application for Project Homekey, a $750 million state program... with the goal of helping local communities rapidly acquire hotels, motels, commercial buildings and other housing types to rapidly house people experiencing homelessness during the COVID pandemic." If Project Homekey accepts the application, 21 rooms at the L&M Motel could be converted into housing operated by the Reach for Home organization. Healdsburg's city manager says he's "cautiously optimistic that this could be a really exciting development." (SoCoNews Healdsburg)
5. This year's Healdsburg wine grape harvest is a wrap. And despite all the forces that could have worked against it — drought, wildfires, general mayhem — the 2021 "grape growing season was near perfect," the Sonoma County Winegrowers org reports, "and we celebrate a 'no news is good news' season after a few years of especially hard-earned harvests." Local wineries say quantities are a little smaller than usual, since there wasn't always enough water for all the vines, but what the grapes lack in volume they reportedly make up for in flavor. From Sonoma County Winegrowers: "The 2021 vintage exemplifies exceptional flavors described as intense, fruit forward and ripe. We eagerly await tasting this year’s vintage in the bottle and know it will become another noteworthy year of Sonoma County wine." (Facebook & North Bay Business Journal)

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Today in Healdsburg:

• Liquor License Webinar for Restaurant Owners at Parish Cafe (1:30PM)
• Let's Talk: Virtual English Conversation Class for Adults at Sonoma County Library (2-3:30PM)
• Asahi Ramen & Izakaya Grand Opening & Ribbon/Noodle Cutting, With 20% Off All Food (4:30PM)
• Sonoma Marin Saving Water Partnership Webinar: Laundry-to-Landscape Greywater (6PM)
• Healdsburg Running Company Thursday Night Fun Run: Full Moon at Lake Sonoma (6PM)
• Karaoke Night at Coyote Sonoma (6:30-9PM)

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You're all caught up for today. See you tomorrow for another update! If you're loving these newsletters, consider bringing some more friends and neighbors into the fold. 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? I'm all ears. You can email me at simone.wilson@patch.com.