State of the Valley: Elected officials focus on pandemic recovery

Recovery from disaster – myriad disasters, in fact – was the theme of the Dec. 2 State of the Valley presentation, the annual community update by Sonoma Valley elected officials presented since 2019 by the Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Held remotely for the second year in a row – the presentation was streamed live Thursday on SonomaTV — the hour-long event featured Rep. Mike Thompson, state Sen. Bill Dodd, Supervisor Susan Gorin and Sonoma City Councilmember Madolyn Agrimonti, checking in with their most recent accomplishments and looking ahead to projects they’re working on in 2022.

Still, most topics were linked to a common thread: the pandemic.

As 1st District Supervisor Gorin put it in her opening remarks: “COVID, COVID, COVID. We certainly expected to be beyond the pandemic by now. And yet we’re still seeing variants emerging.”

Gorin echoed the sentiments of all the presenters in conveying their appreciation for the work the local healthcare organizations – from hospitals and health centers to COVID testing teams and vaccination clinics – have done to prevent further spread of the disease.

About 74.1% of the eligible population on Sonoma County has been fully vaccinated, according to Gorin. And about 82.1% of the population has received at least one shot. About 23.4% of the eligible 5- to 11-year-olds have been fully vaccinated, she said.

Gorin predicted that additional vaccinations would be key to stamping down the pandemic. “That’s going to be our future,” she said. “To look for the yearly booster shots for COVID, as well as our flu shots.”

State Senator Dodd also spoke to the efficacy of COVID vaccinations in ensuring the health and economy of the Valley, framing it as “good policy on health produces better economic results.”

Dodd lamented the idea that vaccines have become divisive – conceding that even he and his brother have locked horns over vaccines.

“So many people I know that are reasonably smart people are getting bad information,” said Dodd, who represents the 3d District in the state legislature. “And I, for one, am getting a little bit tired of it.”

Dodd said the divide over vaccines was particularly frustrating as the risk of new variants is “coming at us.”

“But the way we get through this and not have that risk is to get vaccinated,” Dodd said.

Dodd estimated that about 20 pieces of legislation are in the works in Sacramento to “produce more pressure for people to get vaccinated, particularly our kids” and he expects to support them all.

Rep. Mike Thompson, who represents Sonoma Valley in Congress as part of the 5th District, rounded up the two major pieces of legislation Congress and the Biden Administration have been working on this fall – the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act, which passed in November; and the Build Back Better Act, which focuses on so-called social safety net priorities, which Thompson expects to pass early in 2022.

Thompson said that, given the climate and health crises of recent years, Congress has “our work cut out for us.”

“It’s been a tough couple of years for everyone, with the power shutoffs and the fires and COVID and drought,” Thompson said. “We’ve got a third of the country on fire, a third in a drought — just a terrible mess right now — and just when you think it’s getting better, up crops another variant of COVID.”

Striking a hopeful tone, Thompson noted that the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, passed by Congress last March, brought $350 billion to state and local governments in California to help keep them at full strength in times of emergency.

“Our local governments were on the tip of the spear during this pandemic and still are, and had we not been able to help them out they would have had to lay people off… the people we need during a natural disaster: first responders, teachers, health care providers,” Thompson said.

The American Rescue Plan brought $96 million to Sonoma County and $2.7 million to the City of Sonoma, said Thompson.

The infrastructure bill will bring more than $25 billion to California, said Thompson, highlighting the reconstruction of the Watmaugh Bridge as a priority for Sonoma.

Sonoma City Councilmember Madolyn Agrimonti offered a litany of accomplishments for the City of Sonoma in 2021, from seating three new council members – Kelso Barnett, Robert Felder and Sandra Lowe – and hiring a new city manager to supporting an ongoing restaurant parklets (or sidewalk-seating) program and revising its cannabis ordinance to allow for a second walk-in commercial dispensary.

Agrimonti had served as mayor for much of the year, following former Mayor Logan Harvey’s stepping down due to a job relocation in June. Jack Ding was selected by his council colleagues on Dec. 1 to serve as the new mayor.

Additionally, Agrimonti applauded the Sonoma County Transportation Authority for approving bicycle and pedestrian improvements for the city and, in keeping with the bike-ped safety theme, she also highlighted the current restriping of Broadway, which will be reconfigured by Caltrans to narrow crosswalks and add buffered bike lanes for improved non-motorized transportation safety.

Agrimonti also credited new City Manager Garrett Toy with the idea of outsourcing the maintenance of city cemeteries to a private company, which could be more cost-effective and provide better upkeep, if city officials decide to go in that direction.

Finally, Agrimonti noted the purchase of the long-vacant Sonoma Truck & Auto Center at 870 Broadway by Latt33 Capital, the real-estate investment group that owns MacArthur Place across the street. “Thankfully, they’ve cleared that awful lot,” she said about the formerly derelict property. “It (looks) amazing.”

As to other Sonoma Valley priorities for the presenters, all agreed that finalizing a plan for the future of the former Sonoma Developmental Center property – about 945 acres of land owned by the state south of Glen Ellen – is high priority.

“We know how important it is to provide affordable housing in that area, that has also been touched by fire, and so it needs to be built resiliently in a really important resource-rich area,” said Gorin. “That is going to be my focus for the next year.”

Other priorities of Gorin include funding for the potential reconstruction of Highway 37 to allow for likely sea-level rise and the reconfiguring of the Highway 116/121 intersection into a planned roundabout to ease traffic flow.

The State of the Valley presentation concluded with the awarding of a pair of annual honors by the Chamber of Commerce: The Nonprofit of the Year and the Business of the Year.

In announcing the Nonprofit of the Year award for the Sonoma Valley Community Health Center, chamber CEO Mark Bodenhamer said the health center’s leadership during the pandemic showed “creativity, flexibility, determination and hands-on practicality” to ensure Valley residents with access to testing, health information and vaccines.

“They bravely leaned in and kept asking, ‘How can we reach out and help more people in the Valley?’” said Bodenhamer. “You guys just saved hundreds of lives.”

The Business of the Year honors went to local catering company and restaurant Delicious Dish, with Bodenhamer commending its emphasis on paying living wages and efforts to provide environmentally friendly packaging when its business model turned primarily to takeout.

Email Jason Walsh at Jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.