http://online.flipbuilder.com/opcf/tsqs/

“If you can dream it - you can do it,” Walt Disney's quote has been an inspiration of me for many years. So many people in our county set their sites on accomplishing something. Activists work to save land from development - county government tries to solve problems and serve our residents - volunteers put their hearts into what they believe will help in any way at all. Entrepreneurs who take their ideas and inspiration to a storefront or product. Every one of these people Hope & Dream that what they do with their lives will make a difference to the life we all share. Personally - I will never give up on my dream that we can have Peace on Earth - I doubt in my lifetime - but I can Hope and Dream with the best dreamers...“I'm not the only one,” John Lennon  http://online.flipbuilder.com/opcf/tsqs/

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Storm-Watershed Café Public Input Meeting

Public Input Sought at “Storm-Watershed Café

The Russian River Watershed Association (RRWA) is hosting a 

“Storm-Watershed Café” on Thursday, January 26, from 10 a.m. 

to noon at the Foss Creek Community Center in Healdsburg (details below).

The purpose of the event, which is modeled on the popular World Café meetings, is to seek input on how to better educate Sonoma and Mendocino county residents on storm drain pollution prevention.

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Gazette Sonoma County-Wide Distribution sites

Below is a list of WHERE to pick up a copy of the print edition of the GAZETTE - at more than 800 locations COUNTY-WIDE. This list is expanding every month as we discover more cafes, restaurants, coffee shops and stores, and as we add more street-box newsstands and our custom-made indoor newsstands (thanks Mark) (marked with an *) across Sonoma County.

Please support these businesses - and our ADVERTISERS who bring the Gazette to your for FREE reading. When you go to find a copy of the paper. Purchase a cup of coffee, sit down for a meal, buy a little something. These businesses are kind enough to support our paper and deserve support in return. And please...respect every publication on display, make sure you leave the stacks tidy - THANK YOU!

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Sonoma County's Rare Cedars get Recognition from SFGATE

Photo: Brant Ward / The Chronicle

Visitors, top, walk past the headwaters of Austin Creek in the Cedars in Sonoma County. Landscape architect Roger Raiche, left, explains geologic features, such as the calcium carbonate formations, far left, in the area.

'Tis a wonderful thing when Bay Area media sees the splendor of Sonoma County and let's others know what we have to offer. Here's an article and link to SFGATE.com from the San Francisco Chronicle - the Bay Area's BEST large newspaper! Take heed that this land needs to be protected!

Sonoma County's Cedars

Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, January 16, 2012

  At an old mining camp in the mountains above Cazadero in Sonoma County is a Mars-like panorama of steep crumbling red slopes, bizarre mineralized formations and green serpentine rock.

The 11-square-mile area, called the Cedars, is a mysterious land of one-of-a-kind geological phenomena next to the Austin Creek State Recreation Area and Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve that almost nobody in the Bay Area knows anything about.

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Sonoma County Water News

Sonoma County Water Agency 

NEWS Update

January 2012

Bring on the rain!
The weather forecast for next week includes rain! Water Agency officials are cautiously optimistic that next week's rainfall will help keep tributaries to the Russian River flowing. Water supply levels at Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino, our two primary water supply reservoirs, are approximately 80 percent of water supply capacity. Both Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino rely primarily on rainfall to fill. Lake Sonoma is large enough to store a few years worth of rainfall, but Lake Mendocino is about one third the size of Lake Sonoma and highly dependent on year-by-year rainfall to fill. 

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Math Education at Sonoma County Schools

Math Education Gets Extreme 

Makeover in Regional Schools

By Jean Wasp

Does math education need an extreme makeover?

Just ask Education Professor Kathy Morris from Sonoma State University. 

Morris is looking at a "fabulous opportunity" to provide better and far more coherent mathematics education, thanks to a recent $250,000 grant from the California Postsecondary Education Commission (now part of the California Department of Education).

She is guiding a team of K-12 teacher leaders from five northern California counties as they learn to support teachers in their region with the implementation of the new Common Core Standards. The next weekend teacher leader training is Jan. 13-14.

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Public Speaking Workshop at ShareExchange

Joy of Public Speaking Workshop

Wednesday January 25, 2012

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

at The Share Exchange

531 Fifth St., Santa Rosa

If your New Year's Resolution was to get over your fear of public speaking or need help on becoming a clear and concise speaker, then this is the workshop for you!  Public Speaking is an important skill that can be learned.

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SMART Train Opponents vs. Supporters

SMART Train UPDATE

Just so you know -  I haven't heard from the ANTI-SMART Train people, so what you see here is the PRO SMART Train people who have submitted material. - Vesta

Dear Editor:

Critics insist on spreading half truths and outright falsehoods about the SMART Train and Pathway project in a misguided effort to stop it. With the deck stacked against new taxes by having to jump through a two-thirds threshold, the critics seem to be upset because they may not be allowed to have a tiny minority make all of us go through an expensive election all over again.  That’s not democracy, that’s minority rule.

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Sonoma County Septic Regulations AB 885 Update

UPDATE: AB 885

Septics, AB 885, and Total Daily Maximum Loads (TMDLs)

Now that a new year has begun, some of you may be wondering where things stand with new proposed septic regulations that are likely to have a major impact on our Russian River community.

AB 885 was authorized by the State Legislature in 2000 and called for the establishment of more stringent regulations on septics, especially on those located near impaired water bodies (i.e.: containing excessive pathogens and nutrients).

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LETTERS to The Sonoma County Gazette January 2012

“I’ve heard some concerns about traffic – in our view heavy traffic is a sign of success and vitality…a busy and sometimes congested downtown is a sign of success. Cities are a concentration of human activity. Having traffic means people want to be there…success.”

~ Planning Director

Come Say NO to

CVS/CHASE

Attend the City Council Meeting

Monday, Jan. 23rd, 6:00 pm

Sebastopol Community Center

390 Morris St.

Sebastopol’s Design Review Board and Planning Commission have both voted down the CVS/Chase application to move their facilities from Gravenstein North where they are now, to the second busiest, trafficked crossroads in the heart of our downtown. – the corner of Petaluma Ave (Hwy 116) and Sebastopol Road (Hwy 12). 

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