LocalLocal newsnews at your at your ngertips everyevery weekweek fingertips $1.00 JustJust $1!.00!
Greyounds sports Greyounds sports section teaser section teaser Sports,Sports, Page XPage X
at the newsstand at the newsstand
$1 at$1the at newsstand the newsstand
TheHealdsburg HealdsburgTribune Tribune The Enterprise & Scimitar Enterprise & Scimitar
Visit www.healdsburgtribune.com for daily updates on local news views www.healdsburgtribune.com for daily updates on local news andand views Our 159th year,Visit Number 3 Healdsburg, California
Our 155th year, Number 00© ur 155th year, Number 00©
MILL DISTRICT HOTEL GETS BUZZSAW TREATMENT FROM CITY COMMISSION
Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, California
January 18, 2024 Date, Date, 20202020
HOTEL WORKSHOP BACKFIRES ON REPLAY BUT DEVELOPMENT MOVES AHEAD By Christian Kallen
Hotel Workshop
But it hasn’t been all smooth spackling for the Mill District. Last week, on Jan. 9, Replay presented a vision of a major component of the development, a 53-key hotel, to the city’s Planning Commission for review. Since the meeting was officially a “workshop,” no votes were taken or decisions were made. But the commissioners’ response to the design proposal was lukewarm at best. ➝ Buzzsaw Treatment, 6
Photo by Cheriss May
The promises of “smalltown living” and “worldclass amenities … just steps from the Plaza” are being promoted at Healdsburg’s newest neighborhood, the Mill District. That’s what the signage says, at least, on the woodand-tin shack at Mill Street and Healdsburg Avenue, the northwest corner of the 9.6-acre development at the former Nu Forest Products, the site of the proposed hotel. “Luxury Residences Now Selling” include the 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom “Canopy” condos and penthouses, with prices listed from $1 million to $8.5 million. The company website at milldistricthealdsburg.com lists the three-bedroom flats as sold out, and the website says all units are “more than 60% sold.” The 43 condominiums at Canopy are designed by architects Olson Kundig, based in Seattle. The units are still under construction although the developer, Replay Destinations, optimistically projects that “closings” are possible this spring.
FLOTUS Dr. Jill Biden is the wife of President Joe Biden, and as such holds the title First Lady of the United States. She is scheduled to be in Healdsburg on Jan. 18 for a private fundraiser.
First Lady Jill Biden to Visit Healdsburg THURSDAY FUNDRAISING VISIT TO CHIQUITA ROAD VINEYARD By Christian Kallen
A long-rumored visit by the First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden a.k.a. FLOTUS, will take place this week as she visits Healdsburg on a fundraising spin through several West Coast cities. The visit was announced earlier this week. Dr. Biden is expected to arrive at Sonoma County Airport on Thursday, Jan. 18, at about 2:15pm. From there, after a brief meeting with local press, expected primarily to be a photo opportunity, she and
her entourage will head for Healdsburg. The destination is a private home on Chiquita Road, known as Puma Springs Vineyard, to meet with a select group of about 100 prospective donors to her husband’s campaign for re-election to the presidency. “We met when her husband was vice president because we were big supporters of the Obama administration,” said Barbara Grasseschi, who with her husband Tony Crabb owns Puma Springs. On Tuesday Grasseschi dealt with the previsit attention, both from the press and the Secret Service, which has contacted her at least three times to assure security. She expects the First Lady to arrive around 3pm.
We’re all pretty much focused. We like democracy. We kind of want to keep it.” BARBARA GRASSESCHI Attending the private meeting, at which Biden is expected to say a few words but mainly interact with the potential donors, are people who Grasseschi and Crabb specifically invited. “The event is a fundraiser for her husband to be reelected,” she said. “Just that. We’re all pretty much focused. We like democracy. We kind of want to keep it.” The private meeting will probably take about an hour, perhaps a bit longer. Biden is expected to make a few comments, have a private meeting with some of the larger donors, and
stick around for pictures. “Usually, after she’s done with her comments, she likes to hang around and shake people’s hands. She doesn’t do a Q&A,” Grasseschi said. “She’d rather do the one-on-one type of thing.” Biden, 72, has a particular interest in education, as she has a doctorate in the field herself and was a teacher for over 30 years, according to her official White House biography. Among her other active interests are military and veterans’ family issues, and cancer research and prevention.
Other stops on Biden’s current fundraising swing include Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Burbank and then back to Ohio following the Healdsburg visit. Grasseschi and Crabb have been active in local causes, such as the Health Care Foundation Northern Sonoma and the Career Technical Education Foundation, during the two decades they have lived in Healdsburg. Grasseschi is on the steering committee of the Electing Women Bay Area Group, and started a Wine Country chapter in 2017.
CANDIDATE’S COFFEE KLATCH INTRODUCES CHRIS ROGERS
Rogers, 36, has served on the Santa Rosa City Council, including two terms as mayor. But when Wood, who has represented District 2 for almost 10 years, announced he would not seek re-election in the 2024 general election, Rogers was one of the first to declare his candidacy for the seat. Another candidate: Healdsburg’s own city council member and mayor, Ariel Kelley. As a well-known local presence since she joined the council in 2018—especially in the past year, when she has been the mayor—Kelley is probably the most familiar candidate of the nine running in the March primary. She claimed the endorsement of all four of her fellow council members and several other regional notables (Supervisors James Gore and Lynda Hopkins among them),
many of whom are also listed as endorsing Rogers. One name Kelley can’t claim, at least in the primary, is Mike McGuire. The influential state senator, a Healdsburg native, is lending his name to Rogers’ campaign, as are U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson and a number of other familiar regional politicians and officials—including six mayors, as Rogers slyly points out. The reason could have something to do with Rogers’ three years in McGuire’s Senate office as a staffer, working with state departments and other legislators on behalf of McGuire’s Senate district, also District 2. That geographically overlaps to a great degree with the Assembly seat Rogers now seeks, though McGuire’s extends south from Santa Rosa to Petaluma to Marin County to the Bay.
FORMER SANTA ROSA MAYOR RUNNING FOR SAME ASSEMBLY SEAT AS ARIEL KELLEY By Christian Kallen
Photos by Christian Kallen
RUNNING MAN On Jan. 7 Chris Rogers met with
Healdsburg locals at Black Oak Coffee to promote his candidacy for State Assembly District 2.
Chris Rogers showed up at Black Oak Coffee on Sunday morning, and for over an hour engaged in fastpaced, comprehensive and focused discussion with a handful of local residents about his candidacy for State Assembly District 2, the seat being vacated by Jim Wood. For the past six years
➝ Candidate’s Coffee Klatch, 8