What’s the antidote to gangs, unemployment and juvenile crime? In part, it’s the newly rechristened Conservation Corps North Bay.

Marilee Eckert, the organization's Executive Director, explains that their expansion into Sonoma County was begun in early 2009, with the support and encouragement of many local leaders.


Looking ahead, Eckert sees a busy future for the Conservation Corps North Bay, doing more of what they are already working on.

The Conervation Corps was  featured previously on the North Bay Report when they launched their Sonoma County operations in January, 2009.

The basic building block for influencing local elected officials is the neighborhood, says organizer Jim Diers, because people tend to be most involved and active closest to their homes.

 What defines a neighborhood? Jim Diers, author of Neighbor Power, Building Community the Seattle Way, says there are some basic characteristics that tend to be self-selecting, and common almost everywhere.

Neighborhood Watch programs are among the best known and most widespread applications of the idea that neighbors can benefit from looking out for one another.  Diers sees that as a small step in the right direction, but advocates taking thing much further.

Jim Diers will be the keynote speaker at the Santa Rosa Neighbors Summit Friday evening in the Santa Rosa City Council chambers. Events begin with a free meeting and presentation by neighborhood organizer Jim Diers on Friday evening, Aug. 20, 7-8:30 pm, followed by the working Neighborhood Summit on Saturday  Aug. 21, 9:30 am to 2:30 in the Finley Community Center on West College at Stony Point.

A power struggle in Windsor is pitting homeowners against PG&E, whose engineers have concluded that the best place for a new electrical substation lies in the town’s south center area. The people already living nearby think that’s a very bad idea.

Homeowner Rosemary Olson describes the reaction she got when she shared the PG&E substation plans with an electrical analyst who has no connection to the project.

Another issue with potential health impact, says Dr. Wayne Freenman, is exposure to the constant electro-magnetic fields that would be present at the substation.

Fort Ross, the only Russian outpost ever established on what is now the continental United States, celebrates the 198^th anniversary of its founding with an annual Cultural Heritage Day on Saturday, July 31.

In addition to the imported Russian culture that was central to life at Fort Ross, park interpretive specialist Hank Birnbaum says that the native Kashaya people and their heritage will be well represented at the event Saturday.

Schedule Of Events In The Fort

10:00 Gates open to the fort.

10:00 St. Nicholas Cathedral performs a liturgy

10:30 Slavyanka Choir performs Russian secular music

11:00 Russian Folk Music & Dance

12:00 Musket and cannon demonstration

1:00  Russian Folk Music & Dance

2:00 Slavyanka Choir performs Russian liturgical music

3:30 Musket and cannon demonstration

5:00 Gates close

This expanded schedule of events for this year’s Cultural Heritage Day is, in part, preparatory to the more extensive celebrations already being planned for the Fort’s bicentennial in 2012.