Firefighters rescue hiker
A 41-year-old East Bay man practicing for an eventual Sierra Nevada hike was rescued Monday afternoon from inside Jack London State Park in Glen Ellen.
Glen Ellen fire Chief Bill Murray said the man, carrying a 65-pound backpack, had reached the top of the Hayfields Trail and was starting back down when his feet slipped on a patch of shale. He said sheriff’s helicopter Henry One assisted in the rescue by ferrying the man to the parking lot and a waiting ambulance. The man was taken to Kaiser Hospital in Santa Rosa with a dislocated shoulder.
Five arrested in gang-related robbery
Three men and two youths, all from Sonoma, were arrested Friday night in connection with an assault near Maxwell Farms Regional Park.
“The three adults involved in the case bailed out the following day,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Greg Stashyn said Monday afternoon. Bail was set at $30,000 dollars apiece. “The two juveniles are currently in custody.”
Jorge Eduardo Gonzalez, 20; Marco Antonio Zuniga, 22; and Erik Zuniga, 19 – were booked into Sonoma County Jail for robbery, conspiracy, possessing stolen property and participating in a criminal street gang. The other suspects, aged 15 and 17, were taken to juvenile hall; their names were not released due to their age.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Pedersen said the victim, a 17-year-old Sonoma youth was walking through the crosswalk at he intersection of Verano Avenue and Hwy. 12 around 7 p.m. when at least one of the suspects “shouted a gang-related slur” from a white pickup truck. Three of them allegedly jumped from the truck and assaulted the victim, taking his baseball cap, sunglasses and a personal stereo before fleeing.
Based on the victim’s description, deputies stopped the pickup truck about an hour and a half later on Shainsky Road at Broadway, just south of Sonoma. Inside the truck, deputies found the five suspects and the victim’s property.
Stashyn said the victim required no medical treatment. Pedersen asks anyone with any information about the case to call the sheriff’s Valley substation at 996.9495.
Council approves water plan
Two back-to-back and unanimous approvals by the Sonoma City Council on April 16 took different looks at the same ongoing concern.
The first, Sonoma’s 2005 Urban Water Management Plan, is a state-mandated strategy for assessing municipal water supply and demand – a “living document” that may change with local conditions. “It’s just basically a plan for the next 30 years, to be revised every five years,” Milenka Bates, Sonoma’s public works director, said Tuesday.
A public hearing last August raised councilmember concerns regarding the accuracy of demand projections. Also at issue was whether or not a) the city would be left dry should a proposed Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) transmission project fall through, in which case demand could exceed supply by 2010, and b) the city could pump enough groundwater to compensate. According to Bates’ report to the council, the revisions adopted last week “highlight the fact that without a long-range plan – and its effective implementation – the city will be forced to rely on groundwater on a long-term basis to meet projected water needs.”
The council’s second approval also involved the SCWA, this time as regards funding the city’s 2007/08 Water Conservation Plan. This is the last year of the 10-year funding period, which this year budgets more than $156,000 for educational efforts including the Depot Park Demonstration Garden and such water-saving measures as a residential water audit program and low-flow showerheads and toilets. For more information on the latter, call City Hall at 938.3681.
Suggestion Box now open for city
Sonoma City Manager Linda Kelly, who came on board in December, has made the city’s website a source of daily, up-to-date information on city activities, issues and meetings and events. Her blog, “The Manager’s Journal” (http://www.sonomamanager.com), offers current updates, easily accessible archives, and detailed information for upcoming City Council meetings and reviews of actions taken.
Now, as of last Friday, she is opening up a channel for citizen feedback in the form of her new online Suggestion Box. Here, online visitors can offer any suggestions or comments pertaining to services they’d like to see improved or issues they’d like to see addressed. Anonymous suggestions are accepted, but visitors who want a reply or follow-up must include an e-mail address or phone number.
Kelly said she will read all suggestions and, if return e-mail address is provided, she and her staff will respond.
You can find the Suggestion Box at the City’s home page at: http://www.sonomacityorg.
Sonoma gets ‘wireless 911’ service
Sonoma cellphone users dialing for help will no longer have to go through the California Highway Patrol, following a recent change to the way local emergency calls are handled.
“The concept is that calls locally routed will go to local resources,” sheriff’s dispatch manager Steve Bell said last Thursday. “Wireless 911 does not know jurisdiction.”
The change, based on agreements between the CHP, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department and various cellphone providers announced Thursday, has been a year in the crafting and also affects cellular sites within the city of Windsor. Both towns contract their police and dispatch services though the sheriff’s department.
Each cellular site is composed of three “sectors,” one of which is dedicated to handling cellular 911 calls. Bell said that, by default, emergency calls are routed through the nearest CHP dispatch center; in Sonoma’s case, that’s Vallejo.
But the new agreement means most in-city cellular 911 calls will go straight to the central dispatch center in Santa Rosa. Cellular calls originating from the Valley’s unincorporated areas will still be routed through Vallejo.
Sonoma police Sgt. Dave Johnston said the change will effectively “cut out the middleman and improve response time” – as well as making it easier for responders to locate callers when the connection is lost. Unlike a “landline,” or standard telephone, a cellular 911 call doesn’t automatically provide the caller’s location, but Johnston said the new system makes it easier to triangulate on both stationary and moving callers.
Jazz + to showcase school music progress
Sonoma’s youngest music stars are tuning up their instruments for the May 2 Sonoma Jazz+ Schools Gym Jam, which will feature more than 300 student performers at Pfeiffer Gymnasium at Sonoma Valley High School, 20000 Broadway. The annual concert is a showcase for music programs which Sonoma Jazz+ supports each year, and represents a unique opportunity to see the entire spectrum of school music from elementary, middle and high school band and choral musicians.
In an effort to revive vocal music at the middle school level, Sonoma Jazz + funded the creation of a new program featuring song and dance at both local middle schools. The performance will feature a selection of songs from the musical, “Hairspray.” Kate Kennedy created the program and directed the students at each school. “These students love to sing and dance and they are already asking for more,” said Kennedy.
This year, thanks to an infusion of financial support form the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation, the program expanded to include a full 12-week program for all third-graders and a four-week introductory program for all second-graders in the district. Kim Atkinson leads the drumming program.
The high school will display a broad range of talent including Choir and Madrigals, as well as Concert Band and the Jazz Band. The students just completed their Spring Break Competition in Orlando, Florida, in which they received three silver and one bronze award – plus the Choral Sweepstakes Award.
Tickets for Sonoma Jazz + Schools Gym Jam 2008 will be sold at the door: $10 for adults, $2 for students. Parents are encouraged to bring along young students to see all of the musical options that are offered in Sonoma’s public schools.
