Happy Easter Bendiciones De Pascuas
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Quote of the week: Sportsman’s Report: Biweekly Poll Question “Whoever is careless Best places to fish in the San Do you agree with SB 54 that protects il- Francisco Bay legals who have committed rimes? with the truth Happy Easter Page 8 c in small matters Yes ___ No ___ I don’t care___ cannot be trusted Health: Please vote on line at www.TheCommunityVoice.com with important matters.” Bendiciones What Stephen Hawking taught -- Previous question and it’s results -- us about failure Do you miss the sound of the SMART train horn? ― Albert Einstein de pascuas Page 3 Yes - 28% No - 59% I don’t care - 12% Newspaper of Rohnert Park-Cotati-Penngrove March 30, 2018 - 12 pages J C Penney + Walmart Financial challenges may Greenhouse gas cause station closures By Katherine Minkiewicz according to the Climate Action reductionThe Cotati City Council reaf- 2020 efforts document. And according firmed their efforts to reduce to 2010 figures, only two percent greenhouse gases when they took the bus. voted Tuesday to adopt a resolu- “With the average trip to work tion reaffirming their work to re- for residents of Cotati taking duce GHG in coordination with 26.9 minutes and limited bus the Sonoma County Regional service, riding a bus is not a vi- Climate Protection Authority. able option for many Cotati res- The agenda item action also ce- idents,” the document states, ments several local measures citing figures from the U.S. Cen- that would work to reduce GHG, sus Bureau. such as increasing building en- Hence, most of the city’s ergy efficiency, increasing re- GHG emissions come from fos- newable energy use, increasing sil fuels from cars and light-duty recycled water use and increas- vehicles, with 63 percent of ing vehicle and equipment fuel GHG’s coming from on-road efficiency, just to name a few. transportation, according to Cli- After the enactment of Cali- mate Action 2020 statistics. The The Rancho Adobe Fire Station in Cotati. fornia Senate Bill 32, the 2016 other large GHG emission con- legislation that aims to combat tributor was building energy, Robert Grant climate change, the state is now specifically the energy used to By Katherine Minkiewicz and were also forced to lay off firefighters, according to Karraker, required to meet a lofty green- heat local homes and businesses. Immense financial challenges brew on the horizon for the Rancho who also said the board is concerned that the budget could lead to house gas reduction target by So to track these GHG emis- Adobe Fire Protection District, which may cause the closure of sta- this type situation once again. 2030 and this target is to get sions and come up with work- tions and lengthen response times if the district does not try to reach “We saw this coming, this is not avoidable… we need to have our emissions down to a whopping able solutions to reducing several of their solutions to the growing dilemma made more wor- eyes open (for solutions),” Karraker said. 40 percent below 1990 levels. emissions, the Sonoma County risome with the approach of fire season. That’s why in September of 2017 the board of directors sat down While Cotati may not be able Regional Climate Protection Au- The district, which serves around 28,000 residents from Pen- to whittle out a comprehensive five-year plan for how to best man- to reach such rigorous goals as thority was formed in 2009 to ngrove, Cotati and Liberty Valley, is predicted to have a budget age and soften the blow to the district’s funds. Gov. Jerry Brown has called for focus on county-wide climate deficit for the 2017/2018 fiscal year as well as the following four There are several solutions laid out in the plan, such as proposing throughout the state, they cer- protection efforts. years. Total expenditures for the 2018/2019 year are projected to a ballot initiative for updating the district’s antiquated parcel tax, tainly want to do their share in According to the agenda item come to $4,521,967, putting the districts funds way in the red. capitalizing on grants and asking Sonoma State University to pay making Cotati a more green and report, “The goal of RCPA is to Yet what’s more troublesome about the projected monetary short- for a portion of the district’s services they use. environmentally friendly city. collaborate with local agencies falls, is that it could result in the need to reduce the positions of part- According to Karraker, SSU alone makes up 10 percent of the Even though the City of Cotati on setting goals, pooling re- time staff and close stations, which could double call response times. district’s total calls. Around 9,500 students attend classes on campus, has some of the lowest levels of sources and formalizing partner- If stations have to be closed, then how will the same level of serv- 3,200 of whom live on campus. Before the Rancho Adobe District energy and water use in the ships to create local solutions to ice be provided? Greg Karraker, one of the Rancho Adobe Fire Dis- took over, the small Penngrove Fire Department offered its free county, with the usage of only complement state, Federal and trict directors said the major problem is they won’t be able to emergency response services to the school. 395 therms of natural gas, 6,051 private sector actions to reduce perform the same level of service if the worst case scenario comes “There is a longstanding issue there,” Karraker said of the free kWh of electricity and 60,624 emissions of GHG.” true. services provided to the school. gallons of water, most residents Cotati Senior Planner, Jon- “We won’t be able to, that’s the problem. Response time now is However, perhaps the district’s biggest solution that they are use a car to get to work and only Paul Harries, also explained the around three minutes, that would go to six… We’re worried that it adamant on, is the parcel tax initiative that they hope to put on the 10 percent made use of carpool- function and importance of the can be a possibility,” Karraker said. The last time the district had ballot for the November 2018 midterm elections. When the tax was ing in 2010, resulting in more city’s participation with the budget issues, the district only had one to two stations open at a time ‘Station’ see page 8 cars and emissions on the roads, ‘Gas’ see page 8 StandingBy Stephanie Derammelaere together on gun reform RP votes to change When Savannah Tilton, a Junior and political science major at Sonoma State University, attended the March for Our Lives rally in commissionerBy Katherine Minkiewicz After the implementation terms of the Santa Rosa on March 24, she didn’t realize then that this would be- The Rohnert Park City Coun- longer terms, many of their posi- come a platform to make her voice heard and take the necessary first cil voted Tuesday to lengthen the tions will not expire until 2020. step in taking democracy into her own hands. She attended the rally terms of office for city commis- Commissioners Susan Hay- in Courthouse Square, at which about 2,000 people gathered, to par- sioners from two to four years don, Gerard Giudice and John E. ticipate in protesting gun violence. The event was part of a national and extended the terms of office Borba will be appointed with the series of demonstrations including Washington D.C. for several existing planning extra years in office. The other “It [speaking at the rally] wasn’t something I was planning on commissioners. two commissioners will not re- doing at all, it was very spontaneous,” says Tilton. “I wasn’t expect- A 3-0 vote led to the change of ceive an extension as their terms ing it to be opened up to the crowd. All the scheduled speakers spoke office updates, which will now are already set to expire in De- and then the primary organizer of the event said she wanted to open be more streamlined and coin- cember of 2018, the same expi- it up to students if they had something to say. Inside my head I said cide with the terms of office of ration time of their appointing ‘I have to do this – it’s an amazing opportunity’. It’s something I the appointing council member’s council members, Mayor Pam will always remember.” terms of office. Typically, com- Stafford and Council member Because, as Tilton says, “gun reform has always been a hot button missioners from city commis- Amy Ahanotu. issue for me,” she is planning on starting a coalition group for gun sions, committees and boards Due to the change in terms, reform at Sonoma State University. have received only just two years the ordinance will be changed to “I’ve seen across the country, since the Parkland shooting, stu- in office, however, this lack of reflect the extended terms of of- dents forming organizations to get legislature passed in their coun- staggered terms led to a continu- fice, however, the other aspects ties and make people in their communities aware just how the ity issue. of the ordinance will remain the problem is affecting them,” says Tilton. “Often young adults are In December of 2016 the city same. Other aspects in the ordi- overlooked in the situation. There have been quite a few people on council established an ad hoc nance include several other man- the more conservative side of things that have tried to invalidate the committee to address the issue dates that govern what to do if experience of these high school and university students because and come up with a solution that there is a commissioner vacancy they’re “too young to be worrying about these sort of things,” when would better manage and syn- or if members incur expenses in we’re the ones experiencing it and watching our peers having these chronize terms of office.