The closely guarded internal financial workings of the Sonoma State Academic Foundation may be about to see the light of public review.

Robert Karlsrud, dean emeritus of the SSU School of Social Sciences, is concerned that the administration of the Sonoma State University Academic Foundation is concentrated in just a few top officials at the school, and particularly that the finances of the campus and its foundation are directed by the same individual:  Laurence Furukawa-Schleret, SSU's Vice President for Administration & Finance and Chief Financial Officer.

The high priority given to fund-raising for the construction of the Green Music Center by the Arminana administration has rankled many on campus, especially as the cost of the structure sopared to $120 million. The partially completed building, seen here earlier in the construction process, still needs around $20 million to be finished, and even then, says Karlsrud, it may be a fiscal drai for many years to follow.

SB 218, by San Francisco State Senator Leeland Yee, was prompted in part by the public disclosure of the SSU Foundation’s loans to a former board member. The bill has passed the state legislature and is now awaiting the governor’s signature to become law.  Dean Karlsrud says the campus community is also waiting to see if the measure has any real teeth.

Karlsrud's detailed critique of the Foundation's fiscal operations was published online by the  Empire Report.

Even as amended by county supervisors this week, Sonoma County’s plan to sell its dump to a private operator will have to clear some huge hurdles before the deal is done.

If the privatization deal breaks down, says Mike Anderson, Chairman of the Sonoma County Solid Waste Management Task Force, it could open the way for the county to turn instead toward intensive efforts to set and reach a goal of generating zero net waste.

As part of the marathon public hearing on the issue Tuesday, county supervisors did make several amendments to strengthen the proposed contract, noted Brant Arthur, of the Climate Protection campaign.

Republic Services, based in Phoenix, Arizona, operates more than 230 other landfill sites across the United States, including several others in the greater Bay Area. They hope to have the agreement to assume control of the county's 300 acre Meecham Road dumpsite and resume operations there by 2012.

Driving Highway 101 through Rohnert Park will be more complicated for the next two years, as the road is widened and reconfigured.

Located in Rohnert Park, this project will modify the Wilfred Avenue/Golf Course Drive Interchange by constructing a new bridge undercrossing structure linking Wilfred Avenue to Golf Course Drive, and modifying the existing ramps. This project will also  realign and widen Highway 101 from 4 to 6 lanes for High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) or carpool lanes between  the Rohnert Park Expressway overcrossing to the Santa Rosa Avenue 0vercrossing, a length of approximately 1.6 miles.

The first big change affecting traffic in this section of Highway 101 will be implemented early on the morning of September 29^th, explains CalTrans spokesman Bob Haus, and will affect southbound traffic as it approaches Rohernt Park from Santa Rosa.

The scope of the work area, and the anticipated final result can be seen in the images below. The upper photograph shows the work area as it was before the project began, while the second image has been modified to show the configuration of the new lanes, ramps and bridges.

In addition to growing grapes, Sonoma County’s microclimates are also well suited for cultivating some micro-crops:  medicinal herbs.

Cotati area herb grower Terri Toso says she and others are constantly trying to expand their repertoire of varieties that can be successfully cultivated locally.

Toso has also experimented with attempts to replicate the intermingled growing conditions in which the desired herbs are found in the wild, up to a point, that is.

One of the complexities involved in growing medicinal herbs, explains Leslie Gardner, is that some plants have more than one valuable part, so harvests may occur at differing times in the growing cycle.

Gardner is also the author of Life in the Medicine, a handbook for anyone interested in growing medicinal herbs.

The Sonoma County Herb Exchange will host their annual Harvest and Herb Festival on Saturday, Oct. 3rd, at Laguna Farm on the south side of Sebastopol. This link will take you to the Herb exchange website where their complete catalog is also posted.