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PERMANENT COMPOSTING FACILITY COMING TO WINDSOR
Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, California
February 1, 2024 Date, Date, 20202020
SUPERVISORS AUTHORIZE DEVELOPMENT AT FORMER REFUSE SITE NEAR AIRPORT Staff Report
➝ Recycling, 6
Photo courtesy of Sonoma County Regional Parks
Sonoma County’s first centralized composting facility, which is designed to divert and process approximately 65,000 tons of organic material each year, is being planned for a Windsor site on Slusser Road, just west of the runways at Sonoma County Airport. In addition, Zero Waste Sonoma this week announced plans to build a permanent household hazardous waste (HHW) collection facility in an industrial area, also in the town of Windsor. The compost facility brings home the composting of organic materials, which since 2016 have been collected by the county every week in residential curbside green bins and commercial food scraps. But the refuse has been transported to installations outside the county, negating much of the environmental recapture that such collection promises. “A centralized compost facility will be a win for taxpayers and the environment,” said Supervisor David Rabbitt, chair of the Board of Supervisors. “It will provide direct benefit to the county by reducing transportation costs and greenhouse gas emissions, build on our momentum toward resilient and sustainable infrastructure … and provide high-quality compost to support agricultural, landscaping and public works projects.” The installation, in alignment with the county’s Five-year Strategic Plan for Climate Action and Resiliency, moves the county toward
NEARBY HIKE Two hikers cross a bridge in Mark West Creek Regional Park and Preserve on a preview hike in 2019. The park should become fully open to the public in late 2024.
Mark West Creek Readies for Visitors SURVEY UNDERWAY TO GUIDE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF COUNTY’S LATEST REGIONAL PARK By Christian Kallen
Residents of Sonoma County are about to get another prized destination for hiking, possibly riding and certainly for communing with nature—and it’s only an 18-mile drive away from Healdsburg, 10 as the raven flies. The proposed Mark West Creek Regional Park and Open Space Preserve, a 1,192-acre hiking and riding destination, will be the latest to join the county’s Regional
the woods a songbird’s home; wildlife from vole to cougar can be found. The two-square-mile area went through a period of ownership by the county’s Ag + Open Space (the Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District), which with funding from a 1/4-cent sales tax was able to purchase the property in 2007. Other recent Regional Parks, including Calabazas Creek in Sonoma Valley, have also come into the regional parks system by means of a similar path. The park can be reached via Mark West Springs Road, which becomes Porter Creek Road at a point near Safari West. A parking lot with restrooms and
Parks system, 58 properties strong and counting. The parcel, which came to the county’s attention as long ago as 1967 and became county property in 2018, is located off Porter Creek Road. It is primarily in the Mark West Creek watershed, a distant tributary of the Russian River. Portions of Mill Creek and Porter Creek run through it as well, on the western slope of the Mayacamas Mountains. Gentle canyons of oak woodlands and evergreen forests bisect the preserve, with open meadows providing views of the Mayacamas and Mount St. Helena to the north. The creeks are salmon habitat,
‘IN MY KUSINA’: IT’S WHAT’S FOR DINNA LOVE CONNECTIONS THROUGH THE COMFORTING FLAVORS OF HOME By Chris Andrews
Photo by Chris Andrews
ARTIST-CHEF Dinna Villacorta Eisenhart in her Healdsburg home with one of her paintings. Her new cookbook, ‘In My Kusina,’ will be previewed at the Healdsburg Museum on Feb. 16.
Few can resist the aroma and layers of flavor that define Filipino cuisine. From a handful of ingredients emerges a wide range of dishes that incorporate colorful vegetables and the flavors of stewed pork and beef, chicken and fish. Essential to every Filipino table is the trifecta of flavors: sweet, salty and
picnic areas is planned close to the park entry, and a trail system over several footbridges is in the works that would allow visitors to explore the open space property and its environments by tire, hoof or foot. Two trail camps are proposed for overnight visits. But at present the park is only accessible to the public on semi-monthly guided day-long hikes of up to 8 miles with a limited number of participants. February’s program is sold out, March’s has yet to be announced. For the past five years, the park has been involved in the often lengthy, yet comprehensive, Master Planning process. The process has reached the
point where a second public survey is underway, asking for input on some “amenities” people would like to see at the largely open-space park. These include backcountry camping, bird observation areas, accessible paths, educational exhibits, a fencedoff dog area (with Ag + Open Space approval), and campsites or even cabins. Respondents are asked to rank those choices and make other preferences known as well, from size of picnic areas to type of trails preferred. The SurveyMonkey assessment takes a thoughtful 15 minutes to complete.
sour. Spicy is a constant to all three. Filipino cuisine is, in essence, the ultimate comfort food, which perfectly suits its purpose of bringing loved ones together, revisiting memories, experiencing pleasure and, of course, providing nourishment. Its staying power lies in its meeting so many basic human needs. In her new cookbook, In My Kusina (2013), Dinna Villacorta Eisenhart—currently a Healdsburg resident—captures the magic of Filipino cooking and culture through her exacting documentation of the well-loved dishes from her childhood. Initially, her goal was to pass down the authentic traditions of the Filipino table to her daughters, but neighbors and friends also wanted in on the action after enjoying many delicious Filipino meals at Eisenhart’s kitchen table.
When demand reached critical mass, Eisenhart decided the best and easiest thing to do was to put together a cookbook, something she could ultimately share with the general public. “The final straw for me was finding out my daughter was Googling recipes for her favorite Filipino dishes, those from my kitchen! I knew she would be hard-pressed to get the exact flavors she was looking for because every region in the Philippines has subtle variations on common dishes. I wanted my children to be able to recreate the flavors they grew up with,” Eisenhart said. Though Eisenhardt graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in art history and her East Street home is filled with her colorful artwork, it’s in the kitchen where her family
Take the survey at tinyurl.com/yxmdbyak.
➝ It’s What’s for Dinna, 4