COVID-19 testing ■ State vows to double coronavirus testing, as CDC tries to slow it. SEE A3 Business: William’s retiring Door closes on longtime auto shop. A3 Valley Life: She’s no dummy Woman launches mannequin mania. B1
Friday, August 28, 2020
Our 140th year serving sonoma valley Sonoma Valley, California SonomaNews.com An edition of The Press Democrat
■■ MUSIC n Brother, Heavy metal under a shroud of silence can you spare a dime? Coin shortage reaches Sonoma — production, circulation and consumer caution to blame By KATE WILLIAMS INDEX-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
At laundromats, car washes and coffee shops everywhere, operators are sharing an iden- tical lament: Coins of all types are in short supply, and doing business without them is tough. Various explanations have been proffered for the sudden shortage, especially on the
See Coins, A4 For people with disabilities COVID presents different
OWEN SWEENEY/INVISION challenges From left, James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, Robert Trujillo and Kirk Hammett of Metallica performing in 2017. Photos were not allowed at the Aug. 10 concert filming in Sonoma. Social distancing doesn’t compute for guide dogs Metallica plays secret concert at Sonoma’s Gundlach Bundschu; film to screen Aug. 29 and sight-impaired people By LORNA SHERIDAN but no music. The 320-acre metal band Metallica quaran- including at the winery where INDEX-TRIBUNE MANAGING EDITOR property’s gates were firmly tined in the North Bay while the concert was filmed, on By ANNE WARD ERNST locked -- so why were there their crew hid out in a small, Saturday, Aug. 29. INDEX-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER alkers along Sono- burly security guards at every modest Sonoma hotel. After ma’s Denmark Road entrance? repeated COVID testing, the Enter Gun-Bun Hoby Wedler has no idea Wat sunset on Aug. 10 Less than a half dozen locals band played a secret concert Over the past decade, when he’s encroaching the as- wouldn’t have believed what knew that one of the biggest in Sonoma without anyone Bundschu Company CEO Jeff cribed six-foot social distancing they were seeing had they bands in America was set up in town getting wind of the Bundschu has been produc- rule because he’s totally blind. even known to look. overlooking the vineyard of unlikely event. ing small music shows at his He uses a cane for the blind A smattering of cars were the Sonoma winery secretly The resulting feature-length family winery on the east side when he walks; it should be a parked on the crest of the performing “Enter Sandman,” film of the band’s first show of of Sonoma. Especially in the visual cue to sighted people that Gundlach Bundschu winery “Fade to Black” and “One,” 2020, and their first concert in early days of hosting these he can’t see what he is nearing. driveway, but no more than without an audience. nearly a year, will be screened indie concerts, he grabbed any It baffles him when sighted usual. There was a kaleido- For two weeks in early at more than 300 outdoor scope of lights throbbing, August, the iconic heavy venues across the country, See Metallica, A5 See Disabled, A5 Steve Page on his final lap at Sonoma Raceway Morton’s Warm Springs and After 29 years, retiring the summer that never was track president takes white flag, looks ahead Warm Springs owners can’t afford shortened to the next challenge season; pools and grounds to reopen in 2021 By CHRISTIAN KALLEN By LORNA SHERIDAN pandemic. INDEX-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER INDEX-TRIBUNE MANAGING EDITOR But financial and safety concerns made reopening the Steve Page looks out the Morton’s Warm Springs pools an unworkable proposi- window of his offices overlook- owners and operators Laurie tion. ing Sonoma Raceway. Usually, Hobbs and Sean Wadsworth Hobbs and Wadsworth are he says, he sees “Turn 11, the last week announced that part of a group of family and paddock, the grandstand, the they have decided to keep the friends who bought Morton's hillside terraces and the mouth 19-acre Kenwood pool com- Warm Springs in late 2016 of the Sonoma Valley.” plex closed for the year. They from the previous owner, Ste- But today he’s taking stock of described it in a letter to the phen Compagni Portis. his coming retirement, an- community as a decision they Normally Morton’s Warm nounced Aug. 27, and obscuring did not take lightly – largely Springs opens in early May, smoke from nearby wildfires because of how valuable they first on weekends and then full has dimmed the view. Page ROBBI PENGELLY/INDEX-TRIBUNE believed “a dose of sunshine, time. The couple has permis- himself realizes that one day Steve Page has always put people ahead of cars, say colleagues. The connection in nature and a dip sion from the county be open longtime president and general manager of Sonoma Raceway, above in the medicine of hot springs” See Page, A5 Aug. 26 in his office, will retire at the end of 2020. could be during the COVID-19 See Morton’s, A6 INSIDE WEATHER sonomanews.com Classified B8 Puzzles A2 REPORTED CONDITIONS FORECAST RAINFALL HISTORY Entertainment B2 Puzzles solutions A2 Date High Low Rainfall Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Year-to-date: 14.46 in. Last-year-to-date: 44.41 in. Film review B3 Taste of Sonoma Valley B4 Tues., 8/25 87 58 0.0 in. Rainfall year calculated from Opinion & Editorial A8 Valley Life B1 Wed., 8/26 84 52 0.0 in. Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. Thur., 8/27 80 52 0.0 in. Public Notices A9 91˚/53˚ 87˚/53˚ 87˚/54˚ 92˚/54˚
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