Sister City proposal moves forward
On May 9, Ambassador Abderahman Salaheldin, consul General of the Arab Republic of Egypt, who had earlier visited Sonoma as a guest of Mayor Sanders, wrote that the Governor of Aswan has enthusiastically welcomed the idea of a sister city relationship between Aswan and Sonoma.
Bill Boerum, President of the Sonoma Sister Cities Association (SSCA) has informed the Sonoma City Council that the Board of Directors of SSCA has recommended that the sister city relationship with Aswan be approved. The agreement with the Aswan Governate, Arab Republic of Egypt, would be similar to the other sister city relationships the city has with Chambolle-Musigny, France; Greve in Chainai, Italy; Kaniv, Ukraine; and Patzcuaro, Michaocan, Mexico.
The benefits to Sonoma, outlined in a formal letter from the SSCA to Mayor Sanders, include: educational enhancement for students, especially in the areas of ancient history curricula, international studies, video conferencing and social networking and student exchanges; tourism, arts and culture, history, telemedicine–identifying areas of clinical and diagnostic collaboration with SVH, and economic development. Additional benefits include the satisfaction of promoting peace by overcoming cultural divides.
The council moved to approve the motion, and Mayor Joanne Sanders expressed her desire to do anything she can to help increase peace and understanding between ourselves and middle eastern countries.
Driver treated after Fifth Street East crash
An 18-year-old Sonoma woman was shaken but apparently unhurt after she drove her Ford pickup truck into the corner of a Sonoma home shortly after noon Friday.
“She just lost control, goes up on the curb, through the fence, doesn’t even hit the tree – just boom, man,” said neighbor Dan Coccia. “The wheels were still spinning the entire time it was going on.”
The woman was heading northbound in Fifth Street East’s 700 block when she struck three vehicles parked in front of a garage sale at the house next door. Eyewitnesses said the truck then accelerated and struck another Ford pickup, then flattened part of a white picket fence and brushed a massive oak tree before smashing into the corner of a garage and deploying the driver’s side airbag.
Two fire engines and an ambulance initially responded, with the ambulance being cancelled before arriving on scene. Concerned neighbors and garage-sale browsers lined both sides of Fifth Street East as firefighters and police interviewed witnesses and homeowners. The driver could be seen sitting on a chair on a sidewalk as a neighbor comforted her.
Burglars, vandals browse westside
Two auto burglaries were successful and an attempted third was not, following a recent rash of vehicular tampering in northwest Sonoma.
Sonoma Police Sgt. Dave Thompson said Friday that the first report came early Wednesday, June 4, after a man walking his dog along Junipero Serra Drive at about 5:35 a.m. spotted two young men in dark hooded sweatshirts slink over to the driver’s-side door of a pickup truck parked on the street. The man heard scratching sounds, and as he continued walking toward the scene the two figures climbed into a light-colored, extended-cab pickup truck and drove away, turning west on Fano Lane. After investigating, the man woke the truck’s owners to tell them their truck had been damaged. Thompson said another car nearby had been rifled but nothing was reported missing.
Later that afternoon, a resident of Merritt Court’s 700 block told police that the BMW and Dodge Neon parked in front of his house had each been relieved of their stereo systems sometime between midnight and 6 a.m. The man discovered the loss shortly after discovering the cars’ unlocked doors.
Anyone with any information about these cases is asked to call the Sonoma Police Department at 996-3602.
City okays demolition on Broadway
At their meeting last week, the Sonoma City Council voted to approve the demolition of the old barns and chicken houses on the property at 20269 Broadway, as a health and safety liability.
The property was purchased by the city for low/moderate income housing, and the funds for demolition, estimated to be $118,500, will come from the low/moderate income fund.
Rosemary Pedranzini spoke before the council saying that her husband and two sisters had owned the property, and her father-in-law had built the house when he came to San Francisco from Italy. “I think the city is well deserved to spend the money to get it demolished,” she said, “If those barns or the chicken houses fall down on somebody, the city is going to have one–“she spelled the irreverent word out delicately–”of a lawsuit.”
The city voted to seek bids to demolish the unsafe buildings.
City opts to sell, not lease former firehouse
Sonoma’s old Patten Street firehouse is still up for grabs, but on a more permanent basis, following a recent closed session of the Sonoma Community Development Agency.
The change means the city is now looking to sell rather than lease, City Manager Linda Kelly said after the June 4 session. She said the property was assessed at $3.1 million but that the sale price has yet to be set, adding that should the applicants submit purchase proposals, another closed session would be called for negotiations.
The firehouse was decommissioned in October 2002, and recently housed on a temporary basis the police station and City Council chambers. Four applicants would like to turn the 1960s-era building into either retail shops topped by offices, a boutique winery or hotel, or a demonstration center for sustainable architecture.
The CDA – with the Sonoma City Council as boardmembers and the City Manager as CEO – oversees property and business development and blight removal in the city’s downtown commercial corridor. The agency first approved a “request for qualifications” for firehouse-interested parties on March 19; the next step along the legal pathway involves closed sessions to meet with those parties and discuss possibilities.
Kelly said last week that the open-ended process could take months, and will eventually result in a public hearing prior to any potential agreement between city and developer.
