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The Healdsburg Tribune Enterprise & Scimitar
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Our 157th year, Number 16©
Recurrent natural disasters exacerbate first responder stressors, but there is hope
April 21, 2022
Saturday market opens
By Katherine Minkiewicz-Martine Staff Writer katherine@soconews.org The 24th annual Healdsburg Jazz Festival returns to Healdsburg June 13-19 and tickets for the popular event went on sale to the general public Friday, April 15 at Healdsburgjazz.org. Healdsburg Jazz Artistic Director Marcus Shelby will present seven days of awardwinning international and local artists including NEA Jazz Masters Dave Holland and Kenny Barron, blues legend Charlie Musselwhite, vocalists Bobi Céspdes and Paula West, and others. The festival will kick off with an opening night dinner and dessert show at Hotel Healdsburg with Tiffany Austin’s “soul sessions,” and will conclude with a Father’s Day concert with Paula West at Truett Hurst Winery. Other festival events include
For those facing tragedy, disaster and emergencies every day, stigma poses a challenge, but the importance of personal mental health care is being normalized By Brandon McCapes Special to SoCoNews
This article is part of a special series on mental health in Sonoma County. Speaking during high winds on Feb. 1, Cyndi Foreman, fire marshal and division chief at Sonoma County Fire District, said windy days didn’t used to be a trigger for people. Now, when the winds pick up like they did on that fateful October morning in 2017 — and in the years since — Sonoma County residents, including first responders, find themselves worrying about wildfires. “We just can’t seem to catch a break, and our community and first responders are feeling the chronic disaster fatigue because our fire seasons are almost year round now. We’re sitting here today during a significant wind event — February is typically a month we feel we can catch our breath,” Foreman said. “Wind, prior to 2017, didn’t trigger people’s fears about wildfires. Now, it doesn’t matter when, wind hits that nerve.” In Sonoma County, it’s hard to remember what life was like before wildfires and other natural disasters became commonplace. And while we were spared the catastrophic fires we’re used to this past fall, it’s certain that the natural disasters that have plagued the region will continue to throw our lives into upheaval and present mental health challenges in addition to physical dangers. But one group relates to recurrent trauma exacerbated by the pandemic differently than others — the group we rely on to run towards danger: first responders. Foreman said since the Tubbs and Nuns fires in 2017 — and the Kincade, Walbridge and Glass fires in the years since — the stress on first responders facing wildfires in addition to floods and other disasters has resulted in high chronic stress levels. Wildfire season has always been busy in California, with local firefighters regularly rushing around the state to battle blazes when our own communities are spared, but the more frequent and recurrent fires in Sonoma County, according to Foreman, can lead to low morale, discouragement and a sense of powerlessness “It’s our job to protect our community, and these types of events we keep encountering make us feel so powerless. We’re supposed to be there to help people, but when you know you’re up
See Mental Health Page 7
Jazz Festival returns to Healdsburg this June
See Jazz Festival Page 5
Looking back: When we celebrated prunes By Katherine Minkiewicz-Martine Staff Writer katherine@soconews.org
Photos Ray Holley
HAPPY TO BE HERE — Paul Gergel and Ursule Amiot of Zweibel’s Bakery made their first appearance at the Healdsburg Farmers’ Market Saturday, with sweet and savory baked goods. At left, the early season carrots from Ridgeview Farm didn’t win any beauty contests, but they were sweet and crispy.The market continues every Saturday morning, from 8:30 a.m. to noon. The Tuesday morning market begins May 17, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
A note about the newspaper and the future Print and online news operation to pause and reflect on sustainability of local news effort Dear readers, As we told you last week, the Healdsburg Tribune, which traces its lineage back to 1865, will print its last newsprint edition next week, on April 28, 2022. At the same time, all news operations – print and digital – will cease, including our weekly email newsletters and online news coverage for Cloverdale, Healdsburg, Windsor and West Sonoma County. Is there a future for local news
in rural Sonoma County? We certainly believe there is, but the path forward is unclear. The nonprofit Sonoma County Local News Initiative will take a break, focus on ending this phase with integrity, and labor over the spring and summer to plan a financially sustainable and locally trusted model that fills this important need. Will we be successful? We believe so, but it remains to be seen. While we pause to reflect on our future, we invite you to stay in touch. We know there is a need for quality local reporting, from youth sports, to investigative journalism, to in-depth features on your friends, family and neighbors, to deep dives into local government.
If you are a donor to this effort, please continue your support, which will allow us to meet our obligations to our employees and our vendors, most of which are locally owned businesses and to consider the future from a position of strength. Do you have a cherished memory or thought about the role the newspaper has played in your life? Take a moment and email us, at future@soconews.org. We will print as many of your messages as we can in our last edition. We’re sad about what we’re losing, but we also want to celebrate all we’ve accomplished, with your help and support. After all, the newspaper has always been about you.
The Sonoma County Local News Initiative Board of Directors
As Healdsburg delves into spring, yellow mustard pops up from a carpet of greenery, buds break on grape vines and poppies and other flowers start to bloom, but spring in Healdsburg looked quite different in the mid-1900s. In Alexander Valley and throughout Healdsburg, the white blossoms of prune trees would burst out and busloads of visitors from the Bay Area would visit Healdsburg for the Prune Blossom Tour, an event that happened each year from 1961 to 1995. The event was organized by the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce and the Russian River Farm Bureau and featured a welcome reception at the Villa Chanticleer, a 30-mile selfguided tour of the area’s blossoms and a hearty luncheon at the Alexander Valley Community Hall. “Here in Alexander Valley, before there were grapes there were prunes. The Prune Blossom Tour was held by the farm bureau, that was one of their big fundraisers,” said Susan Sheehy, whose family came to Healdsburg in the 1850s and grew prunes, and later on, grapes. The Healdsburg prune dates back to 1846 when Cyrus Alexander first planted prune trees in the valley that now bears his name. From then on, several more trees were planted and Healdsburg eventually became known as the “buckle of the prune belt for Sonoma County,” according to an article in the March 20, 1975 edition of The Healdsburg Tribune. According to the same article, the idea for the tour was brought up by Larry Carson, who at the time
See Prune Blossom Page 2