photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCB

What's happening in Sebastopol?

For the latest in our partnership with the Sebastopol Times,

KRCB's Noah Abrams talks Department of Education cuts, new hotels, and garden boxes, with the Laura Hagar Rush and Dale Dougherty.

Dale Dougherty: "We just published a story written by Matt Wood, and Matt is a Sebastopol resident. He's been living here for about 6 months with his family, but he worked remotely for the Department of Education, and he was laid off."

"He was a civil rights attorney in the San Francisco office and worked down there and then moved up here partly to do with his child's going to school."

"So he talks about what that office did, and it's largely representing and responding to families that have issues with schools, such as disabilities, families [that] have a learning plan developed with a school, and the school doesn't follow through with that, or other kinds of issues."

"So, he wrote it partially because he was interacting with some people in Sebastopol, he said...he lost a job at the Department of Education, and they said, 'Well, that's okay. It's good to eliminate fraud and abuse.' And he said, 'Well, what kind of fraud and abuse do you think is happening at the Department of Education?' And that led him to write the story."

Noah Abrams: "The planning commission recently gave the go-ahead to the Barlow Hotel. What's happening there? I know that it has to come back before the city council for final approval."

Laura Hagar Rush: "The planning commission, as you said, gave its nod to the Barlow Hotel. It is an 83-room hotel. It's very luxurious, has like a rooftop pool and a spa and all that sort of thing. Very wine country, a little unusual for Sebastopol, and it's a little controversial about whether it will be a nice addition or not."

"What's interesting is that the city, as you know, is in deep financial trouble, and it's really depending on the building of actually two hotels...The city is really trying to fast track this approval process for the Barlow Hotel. So they did a very rare thing, which is they combined the design review board and the planning commission all in one meeting. So it didn't drag out over months. It was basically just done. Boom. That night it got the approval, and as you said, it will be going to the city council."

"Just this week, the Sebastopol City Council held its goal-setting meeting for the next year. And the Sebastopol city manager said a pretty amazing thing. He noted that the deficit for the upcoming year was around $300,000. But he actually said...two things need to happen to save Sebastopol. Sort of two out of three things need to happen to save Sebastopol's finances."

"And that is the Hotel Sebastopol needs to be built. That's in the empty lot right across from the Downtown Plaza and the Barlow Hotel needs to be built, or the state needs to grant Sebastopol the full half cent tax from Measure U. And he basically said, 'two out of those three things have to happen. One of those three things is not enough. Two of those three things and we'll be in good shape,' he said. 'And three out of those three and we'll be in very good shape.'"

"Here's the problem. Neither of those hotels have their financing together yet. It's been a real stumbling block getting the financing together for the owners of the Sebastopol Hotel or as it's called Hotel Sebastopol. And let's just hope that Barney Aldridge, the owner of the Barlow, does not have that same problem."

Noah Abrams: "The [Sebastopol] Grange is hosting an Equinox Garden Bed Building Event. What's happening there?"

Laura Hagar Rush: "Yeah, this is such...a great Sebastopol event. The Kiwanis Club of Sebastopol and the Sebastopol Grange are collaborating on this project called the Equinox Garden Box, which I love it because it rhymes. They're going to on April 13th at the Grange Hall on Highway 12 just outside of Sebastopol; they're going to build and give away garden boxes to people who would like to start growing their own food."

"They're hoping to do it sort of need-based. They're hoping people who are feeling a little food insecure and would like to grow their own food will take advantage of this, but they also said, you know, they're just open to people who are very interested in organic gardening and growing their own food and stuff like that."

"So all they're giving away really is the box. But there are a lot of resources already in Sebastopol that can help you turn that box into into an actual garden. One of the things is the city has regular compost giveaways, and the other thing is there are a lot of places to get free seeds, free vegetable and flower seeds here in Sebastopol. There's the seed bank at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, and then there's also this cool thing called the seed library at the Sebastopol library."