Sonoma City Council unanimously elects Joanne Sanders Mayor
“There is no ‘I’ in my agenda,” said Joanne Sanders upon her unanimous election last week by the Sonoma City Council to serve as Mayor. “It’s about what the Council wants to do as representatives of our constituency. I want to be able to get things done and the best way to do that is to work together.”
While she’s interested “in everything,” she expressed to the Sun a particular interest in the current issues surrounding the new Montini open space preserve and what it means to Sonoma. “We’ve just got to figure out a way to access the land and the trails that the public has just spent its money on, and do it in a way that gives everybody access without trampling on the nine acres of pasture that some see as being threatened.”
She said it will be important to have the cooperation of the State in order to craft a compromise suitable for everyone, and for that, she is grateful for the interest of Assemblyman Jared Huffman, who is on the State Parks Committee. She showed him around the property this week, and explained that, “it’s not about cows. For our people who have lived here all their lives, and for those who have come here recently, a cow in a pasture symbolizes things like agriculture, farming, ranching, country living – it’s the opposite of being in a city or suburbia.”
The good news, she said, is that the Council is united on the issue.
Community reeling over weekend shooting
In the early hours of Saturday morning, gunshots ended a party on the 400 block of Verano Avenue, sending one victim to the hospital, where he was later released, and two men to Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility. The two men, father and son, Julian Arrospide, 49, and Jonathan Arrospide, 21, both of El Verano, were arrested and charged with accessory to attempted murder, and attempted murder, respectively.
Sgt. Tim Duke, in charge of violent crimes investigation unit, told the Sun
that law enforcement is doing their job to arrest those that are involved.
In this case their may be more arrests. From our perspectives, we’re
looking at all aspects including gang affiliations, if there are any.
In a brief statement, Mayor Joanne Sanders said, “We need as a community to make people realize we have a problem and do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” She said one of her wishes for the coming year is, “Peace in the ‘hood!”
Pole at Arnold and Craig struck again
Late Saturday Afternoon, a head on collision between a Toyota 4×4 and the power pole at the corner of Arnold Drive and Craig Avenue caused a 12 hour blackout over much of the Valley. According to Officer Jaret Paulson, of Napa CHP, the cause of the solo-vehicle crash is still under investigation. The driver, who had been wearing his seatbelt, was taken to Kaiser Hospital in Santa Rosa, complaining of pain. As to why he’d hit the pole, the driver, and sole occupant of the car, told Highway Patrol he was tired and must have dozed off.
The Toyota and the pole were totaled and fire crews worked to clean up the non-toxic mineral oil spill from the damaged power transformer. By Sunday morning, PG&E crews had erected a new pole and restored power to all areas affected. According to CHP, this was the second rush-hour accident this year, at that spot.
City council opposes open space district plan
At last week’s City Council Meeting, the Council heard an hour-long staff presentation regarding the revised Montini Preserve trail design by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, followed by almost two hours of public comment. At the end, no council member’s thumbs went up.
The $13.9 million acquisition of the Montini Preserve in December 2005 was funded by $11.5 million from the Open Space District, $1.15 million from the City of Sonoma, and $1.25 million from the California State Coastal Conservancy. The Open Space District proposed to build hiking trails with access from Fifth Street West in order to fulfill the Conservancy’s requirement for public access.
State Parks Trail Supervisor Don Beers, regarded as one of the foremost trail experts in the nation, had designed the trails. His expertise is trail design that requires the least amount of maintenance and that does not disrupt the natural hydrology and drainage of the landscape. Four trail segments were proposed:
1. Lower Trail: First Street West access through the Police Station parking lot/Field of Dreams
2. Upper Trail: Traverses the preserve from east to west
3. Rattlesnake Cutoff: Leads eastward from the connection of the Lower and Upper Trails to connect with the Overlook Trail on the adjoining Mountain Cemetery property
4. Western Spur: Provides access for neighborhoods on the west side of town.
The proposal brought out a crowd of some 80 people, 22 of whom addressed the council. Among the speakers were Larry Barnett and Al Mazza, who recalled the original discussions of the Montini acquisition while they were serving as council members themselves.
There were two principal issues of concern for them, as for most of the speakers: do the cows stay, and is there access across the meadows bordering Fifth Street West. To alleviate public concern over these issues, the district had, since its proposal was first aired several weeks ago, moved the Fifth Street access point north to the intersection with Verano Avenue and had reduced the proposed parking for handicapped access there from ten cars to two.
However, the possibility of accepting the staff’s recommendations foundered when, toward the end of the public comments, Bill Montini came forward and said he would pull his cows if the proposal were adopted. Noting that the examples of successful mingling of cows and public put forth by staff had involved beef cattle, not dairy cows, and citing his insurance carrier’s concerns, Montini said that he would not keep cows on the property any longer if the public had unfettered access across the Fifth Street meadows.
“This community loves its cows,” council member August Sebastiani said as he recalled fond memories from his youth. “For me Montini is a space of agricultural preservation.”
“I don’t think we can go ahead with this tonight,” council member Steve Barbose said. “We’ve tried to mesh what the people want – to see the cows – and we have to provide handicapped access; not only is that legally required, it’s the right thing to do.”
The council hopes that state representatives, including Assemblyman Jared Huffman, can help pressure the state parks system to accept access to the Montini property from the bike path through the existing Vallejo home park, thus avoiding the need for public access through the cow pasture on Fifth Street West. No date was set for the council’s next consideration of a revised proposal.
“Nightmare” continues for
local family
Two years ago, the two-year-old daughter of John Wayne accidentally ate a quantity of the medicine her grandmother, Connie Wayne, was taking for her medical conditions. The girl was under the elder Wayne’s care at the time, and was hospitalized as a result of the overdose, though she has recovered fully.
Sonoma County filed child endangerment charges in 2006 against both Waynes, as well as John’s father, also named John Wayne, who is the pastor at the Sonoma Alliance Church, located on East Watmaugh Road. Earlier this year, charges against the pastor were dismissed as part of a plea bargain in which the grandmother accepted a felony charge of child endangerment and the girl’s father accepted a misdemeanor endangerment charge.
Rev. Wayne said, “This whole time has been an entire nightmare. We are truly thankful the child is okay and has no ill affects from the incident. It was an accident and we accept responsibility for what happened.”
On Monday, Sonoma County Judge Raima Ballinger sentenced the girl’s father to one month in jail and the grandmother, who uses a wheelchair, to six months in jail. It is yet to be determined if she will be allowed electronic home confinement in lieu of jail.
“We are very careful,” said Rev. Wayne, “how we keep Connie’s pills locked up in a safe so that other children can’t get at them.”
