Tuesday Jun 15, 2021

Mayor Sam Salmon

Mayor Town of Windsor

Meet Mayor Sam Salmon

Scribe: Tom Boylan Editor: Natalie Lim Introduced by: JB Leep

To quote Dr. Frankenstein, It’s alive… it’s alive!

After much socializing in a live meeting, President Bill Bolster decided to protect himself and wore a mask, but forgot his pants… sometimes it is hard to give up ZOOM.

 

We all burst out with a good old live rendition of Welcome Back… welcome back… welcome back… and we meant it.

 

Mike Merrill, told us Gretchen Rubin had the right idea when she said, “Laughter is more than just a pleasurable activity… When people laugh together, they tend to talk and touch more and to make eye contact more frequently.” “One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.”

 

Doing more with less and having fun. And we broke a 15-month drought with our live return to Charlie’s.

No visiting Rotarians

 

Mayor Sam Salmon was introduced by JB Leep as a guest and speaker for the day.

 

The team led by Michael Juric to raise funds for our Community Foundation was asked to share in the role of Rotarian of the Month. We also recognized both Susan Cole and Joan Mora for their efforts and they too were awarded Rotarian of the Month.

 

CLIPBOARD

 

Pres Bill asked for our new members to come forward, Jo Timmsen (rerun) and Patrick Dunn. We then went back to our old ways and greeted them with the Rotary handshake. We did that LIVE!

Meanwhile joining us from home were the rest of the crew. Kudos to Glenn Sugden and Michael Juric for their ability to make the meeting with or without pants.

 

Barbara McChesney was called up to receive her diploma for her graduating from Rotary’s Leadership Academy. She was one of 30 who started the program and one of 12 that actually finished the program.

 

We heard from Leslie Lewis the fine mistress via ZOOM and she asked Bill Bolster to leave the room, because we have a debunking coming up on June 29th to show Pres Bill we appreciate his leadership through all this. Although she is looking for men in drag, she is willing to take any gender willing to sing and dance.

 

141 Starr Rd is the location for Patrick Dunn’s birthday party… he is offering to bribe us to attend any time after 3 PM, by paying a $10 donation for every Rotarian in attendance. Let’s see if we can make him a happy donor.  

 

PROGRAM

 

Pres Bill gave us a Fractured Fairytale about his journey to Italy with the lovely Joanie. The B&B he went looking for, sent him on a drive up a long one-way road, which he went the wrong way all the way. Once he arrived at the location, he realized that there was a movie in the making… he actually met Dustin Hoffman and had some fun asking the movie star to please let him and Joanie relax because they were on their vacation. Fun story.

 

JB Leep introduced Windsor Mayor Sam Salmon, who was live in the room. JB then took a round of applause for the great programs he has been bringing to Zoom and now to the live meeting. He explained that he reached out to Mayor Sam Salmon and found him receptive to meeting with us LIVE and in person. 

 

Mayor Sam requested the Fractured Fairy Tales slide for his presentation and then went on to tell us that he first came to Windsor in 1988 and found he was immediately drawn to helping make the Town what it is today. He is a local guy who went to Piner High and lived for a while in Camp Meeker prior to finding Windsor. He also got his law degree from Empire College. 

 

Fractured is how he described the current situation for the Town of Windsor. We heard there is a problem with a board that is evenly split when you have an even number of council members. 

 

This week he expects that the Town Council is prepared to discuss the possible addition of another council member, and he is leaning toward an election versus an appointment. He feels that one of the most important topics for the community is the Town Center and possibly major changes, including a new hotel and the moving of the Town offices.

 

We also heard the Town Council plans to take up a discussion about adding a new roundabout on Windsor River Road and although he supports the addition of the roundabout, he is not enthusiastic about the cost associated with the construction. He is excited to know that the train could be back on track if a lawsuit to gain money from Golden Gate Transportation comes through. 

 

He discussed the Lytton Tribe development and the complexities of the arrangement with the Town. The meeting held at Mary Agatha Furth to discuss the project and the people in attendance were mixed. He feels that there was no concession made by the Lytton tribe to mitigate the impact of their 300 homes and the luxury resort they have planned for Windsor.

 

Wild Land Urban Interface is where we live and the problems we are facing from fires to drought. He made a suggestion that water use should be curtailed to possibly 55 gallons per person. We learned there is a difference between Healdsburg and Windsor. Healdsburg draws from the upper Russian River, where Windsor draws water from Warm Springs Dam. According to Sam, we have enough water for two years, and even with a good year for rain, the dam won’t be filling. 

 

A series of questions swirled around Lytton development, possibly removing the district voting system, and water rationing.  

 

Pres Bill left us with a song… 

 

COVID UPDATE

Total Cases:

  • 30,688  this is 195 new cases!  (last week 30,493)
  • Recovered:    29,747    (last week  29,747)
  • Active Cases:   522   (last week 431)
  • New Cases:
    • Fri    43
    • Sat    29
    • Sun     0
    • Mon    0
    • the problem with the reporting is that the lab is no longer open on weekends and so reporting is difficult
    • This is a total for 4 days of 72  (last week for 4 days was 71)
  • Deaths:  316     (last week 315)       Here in Sonoma County, we have seen over 58% of our deaths in whites, 30% in Hispanics, and 2% in African Americans and American Indians.   53% of deaths occurred in SNF’s and the remaining from community spread.
  • Hospitalized: 11 confirmed and 3 suspected    (last week 8 confirmed and 1 suspected)

The largest number of cases is in those unemployed or not working 21% (probably more non-social distancing and large groups exposed by those who are working), healthcare makes up 8.9%  and Service and sales have dropped to 16% with home care (my industry) at 1.8%.

Today, the CDC and California are lifting restrictions and tiers and are reopening.   On the one hand, it is exciting that people can get out and monies will be spent in our community.   However, on the other hand, we continue to see the last percentages of our community hesitant to get vaccinated.  It appears that most new cases are in the vulnerable populations where there are the most unvaccinated people and those under the age of 30.    All businesses will be allowed to resume business at full capacity, including indoor service.   However, health care is exempt, homeless shelters, cooling centers, and schools.  What does it mean for our home care industry?   It does mean that owners, like me, will need to communicate with Public Health to ensure that we continue to keep our clients and workers safe as the virus is still out there.   We also will see businesses unable to reopen at 100% because of a lack of workers.   Most business owners will have to continue with partial reopening because of the inability to staff up.  Personal choice on wearing a mask will continue and each business owner can determine their own rules on wearing of masks or requirements.

63% of our population are fully vaccinated, with another 9% who have gotten at least 1 shot but it is frustrating that we have 28% of our county who have not been vaccinated.   It means continuing to wear our masks and being careful not to expose these people.   How do we know who is vaccinated and who is not?  And as one expert recently stated, “those who have chosen not to get vaccinated will get COVID and will get really sick or die”.   How do we negotiate with these folks to see the importance of protecting them and others from this terrible virus???????

Vaccines were begun….  As of June 14th, 574,631  residents in Sonoma County have received the vaccine (last week 564,303).

Please continue to be cautious while you are enjoying our new freedoms of getting out, socializing, and feeling like we can live again.   Remember not all people are vaccinated and unless you know the people you are with have been vaccinated, wear your mask to protect others that may not be.     We want to see this over but still, need to be cautious and very careful.

Thanks

Di

 

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