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: Written by: Noah Abrams; Published: 26 December 2022

The proposed 2023 federal spending package is 1.7 trillion dollars, with over half of that spending, $858 billion dedicated towards defense spending. Some federal dollars are destined to make their way to Northern California though once the omnibus spending package is signed by President Biden.

West Sonoma County’s community healthcare network is in line to receive almost a million dollars of specific funding from the federal omnibus spending package. Jason Cunningham, CEO at West County Health Centers said the network is excited for what the funds will do.

"Our earmarks really met that crossroads for helping our organization improve our footprint for environmental sustainability with solar panels and battery backup for our new health center in Guerneville, which serves about 4,000 of our most vulnerable residents," Cunningham said. "And we do primary care, dental services, behavioral health, psychiatric services, addiction services, and care for our unhoused."

Cunningham said infrastructure hardening is critically important for the West County.

"Also, we have a wellness facility in Forestville called the Forestville Wellness Center, and the solar panels will go on there as well," Cunningham said. "And that also includes the battery backup. And as you know that we've been hit by many fires and floods, and that particular area is really vulnerable because we're the only health center and only service for many of those patients who have transportation insecurity or have lots of other social determinants."

He sees it as a true “win-win” in every sense.

"So being able to have solar power and battery backup allows us to be more resilient from the fire in a disaster preparedness, but also will reduce our utilities by about 50,000 a year," Cunningham said. "And so that allows us to help with our bottom line."

Interacting with, and in nature also plays an important role in human health, and Cunningham said part of the $900,000 community project money from the federal government will be spent on developing the Guerneville clinic’s outdoor riverfront property into a healing space for patients.

: Written by: Noah Abrams; Published: 23 December 2022

Having a handgun inside your home puts occupants at increased risk - more than double - for a deadly homicide than those without handguns in the home.

Hoping to mitigate the risk for those who do own firearms, Petaluma recently introduced new gun rules.

Petaluma Deputy Police Chief Brian Miller explained them.

"What we do know is that applying trigger locks or using lock boxes when storing firearms in homes reduces that risk of firearm injury and death," Miller said. "So the proposed ordinance would add regulations requiring all firearms and precursors to firearms to either be stored safely in a locked container or locked with a triggering device."

The new rules also cover missing firearms, according to Miller.

"Additionally, the proposed ordinance would require people with whose firearms is stolen or lost to report the missing firearm to the Petaluma Police Department," Miller said. "Within 48 hours of discovering that firearm that's missing."

While the council was united in their support of the new regulations, there was push back from Stefan Perez, president of the local chapter of the California Rifle and Pistol Association.

"The government does not have the authority to infringe on the right to self-defense by dictating what a person does in the home," Perez said. "California state laws already create liability for the criminal storage of a firearm for any gun owner that allows a minor or prohibited person to access and misuse a firearm; the proposal is unenforceable under the fourth amendment."

But Petaluma city attorney Eric Danly said these types of laws have already been upheld in federal court and details an example of enforcement.

"Where I see this, besides its deterring effect and its informational effect, is going be in those incidents to which our police respond to calls regarding domestic violence or welfare checks, where they don't only have the right, but also the duty to make a determination in those instances if firearms are present and they're a danger," Danly said.

The firearm storage and reporting ordinance passed with unanimous support.

: Written by: Noah Abrams; Published: 22 December 2022

Earmarks are always a part of any major federal spending bill, many confuse them with pork barrel spending, but earmarks are important ways to pay for expensive local projects.

North Coast Representative Jared Huffman says the federal dollars that may soon make their way back to Northern California are crucial.

"They're awards that wouldn't have happened in any other program and allowing, you know what, I guess disparagingly is called earmarks, but we call them community projects, to be in a government funding bill gives me the chance to meet those needs," Huffman said.

Huffman said not every award - or community project - jumps off the page with eye-catching dollar amounts, but each one still represents a crucial boost for communities and organizations that may not otherwise be able to come up with needed dollars.

"Allowing legislators to kind of survey their district and bring forward proposals that may not fit into the state or federal funding category, but where it can fill a gap and actually be the difference," Huffman said. "That's what this allows us to do. That's how I try to approach it."

One of the small ticket items is in Santa Rosa.

"$200,000 to the Jewish Community Free Health Clinic in Santa Rosa," Huffman said. "It's money that they need if they're gonna have electronic medical records and become efficient and do their mission, and it's going to make a huge difference to them."

A bigger ticket: two million for forest protection in the Trinity Headwaters.

"This is going to make possible the acquisition of some land that is sort of a missing piece of protected federal lands in the Trinity Alps area," Huffman said. "It's something that the community supports, everybody supports."

There are other local projects set to receive federal funding if and when the federal omnibus spending package passes the Senate and is signed by the President.

They include the West County Health Centers - in line for close to one million dollars. As well as the SMART Rail - 1.8 million dollars to help with the long-awaited expansion to Healdsburg and Cloverdale.

: Written by: Noah Abrams; Published: 20 December 2022

Petaluma continues to move its infrastructure away from fossil fuels.

Like Healdsburg, Petaluma is putting a floating solar array at the city’s water treatment plant - called the Ellis Creek Water Recycling facility. The solar array will be operated by the same company behind Healdsburg’s - White Pine Renewables.

At the final meeting with the current iteration of the city council, a unanimous vote approved the project. It will provide 98 percent of the treatment plant’s power needs according to the city's Patrick Carter.

"The panels are on pond three," Carter said. Pond three is about 17 acres, and the panels would cover about 68% of that pond's surface. And with that, we'd get 5.8 megawatts of direct current power, providing...approximately 98% of both the meters that are covered."

Carter detailed the project financials.

"Our baseline costs are about 1.9 million dollars of electricity costs at Ellis Creek on an annual basis," Carter said. "This project would represent about $508,000 of savings in the first year alone. It's staff time that's required to make this project happen. White Pine builds the solar relay and maintains and operates it over a 20 year contract, which would result in about 13.1 million of estimated savings."

One byproduct of the project’s impact is the potential for creating mosquito larvae habitat. A mosquito mitigation plan is included in the project, but as commenter Susan Kirks noted, the project touches on interconnected environmental concerns.

"I'm guessing there's an understanding that there cannot be any construction activity from February 15th to August 31st, the migratory bird nesting season," Kirks said. "And so even though mosquitoes are considered pests, mosquitoes are an incredible nutrition source and needed by many of our avian species who are in the Ellis Creek Ponds area."

The solar array will cover just one of the water treatment facility’s 11 ponds and is expected to be completed by the end of 2024 - with the potential for more arrays on the facility's other ponds in the future.