4) Remember I told you about a growing movement in Guerneville, the iconic Sonoma County rivertown that’s not actually a town at all, to essentially secede from the county and set up its own government? As it stands, Guerneville — along with neighboring communities like Forestville, Cazadero, Monte Rio, Rio Nido, etc. — are all are non-towns that make up what’s called the “Lower Russian River” area, currently governed by Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins. In response to local calls to incorporate, Hopkins is now overseeing a project called the “Lower Russian River Governance Study” to explore the community’s options for independence. She held a meeting last month at Guerneville’s local schoolhouse to go over the latest 31-page draft of the study with her constituents. According to her office, “the January 27 workshop drew a large crowd of community members, sparking a lively discussion on future directions. Community input ranged from city incorporation to seeking additional local control of funding while remaining unincorporated.” Next up will be a meeting at 5:30 p.m. this Thursday — again, at the local schoolhouse — on “how the community can mobilize to support these options” presented in the study, “including enhancing Municipal Advisory Councils, forming a council of governments, or establishing a new government entity like a Community Services District or incorporated city.” You’ll also be able to watch the meeting live on Zoom. (Source: Sonoma County Government & Sonoma County Gazette)

3) At the risk of turning this into a beer newsletter, I should probably fill you in about a local initiative called “FeBREWary” that a few different public agencies have been trying to make into a big annual thing in Sonoma and Marin counties. It’s being pitched as our own drawn-out, north-country version of SF Beer Week down in the city. (Which starts this Friday, BTW.) Basically, the tourism departments in Santa Rosa and San Rafael are working with a long list of local breweries to host a series of “beer tastings, tours, tap takeovers, and special limited-edition releases of craft beers” in and around both cities this month. In Santa Rosa, brewery hoppers are encouraged to download a “beer passport” and try to visit as many of the 16 breweries on the list as they can. “Check-in at all participating locations during FeBREWary to earn a commemorative Santa Rosa Beer Passport 2024 medal!” the flier says — “while supplies last.” Organizers have even arranged for designated drivers to take you between stops on the SMART train for a discounted price all weekend, and there’s also an official “Santa Rosa Craft Beer Shuttle” running on Saturdays. “Dozens of craft breweries are within walking distance of a SMART station,” the train agency says, “and others can be reached with the SMART CONNECT shuttle, the free Craft Beer Shuttle, or with a short Uber or Lyft ride.” So get on it, people — you only have a few weeks left to drain the beer kegs of the wine country and get your special medal. And yes, Russian River Brewing is on the list. (Source: Pacific Sun & SMART & Visit Santa Rosa & Marin Independent Journal)

2) Fans of one of Sonoma County’s cultiest beers, a triple IPA called Pliny the Younger, also came out on the lucky end of the storm. After the power went out in Windsor on Sunday night, Russian River Brewing Company — the brewery that makes it — “narrowly missed significant draft distribution delays” for their big, 20th anniversary Pliny the Younger release, the North Bay Business Journal reports. Brewers say they had just finished kegging up their Younger right before the storm hit — so the beer won’t miss its big debut at local bars this week. “We managed to load Younger kegs on the trucks this morning for local distribution in Sonoma, Napa and Marin,” the brewery posted on Facebook yesterday. And they were able to hook up a giant generator later that day, to save some other popular brews still in production. “We’re most concerned with a quadruple batch of Velvet Clow Helles, a lager we brewed on Friday that’s fermenting in the open-top tanks,” the brewery’s president told the Business Journal. “We control the fermentation temperature with glycol and without that, the beer will warm up and either kill the yeast or develop off flavors. We came about a degree or two of having issues with that beer.” Russian River Brewing used to release Pliny the Younger each February at its own brewpubs in Windsor and Santa Rosa — a major event in which hundreds of beer people reportedly waited in line for hours, rain or shine. For the past few years, though, the company has been playing with a more staggered rollout. You’ll be able to get your Younger on tap at around 15 local spots starting this week — and then later, from March 22 through April 4, Russian River Brewing will hold the in-person release party at its own brewpubs. Here’s where you can get it til then, according to the Press Democrat: Korbel Winery in Guerneville; the Elephant in the Room pub in Healdsburg; the Cadet bar and Oxbow in Napa; both Gotts Roadside locations, in Napa and St. Helena; the Twin Oaks Roadhouse in Penngrove; McNear’s Saloon and Ernie’s Tin Bar in Petaluma; the John Ash & Co. and Stark’s restaurants in Santa Rosa, plus the Trail House bike shop; both Hopmonk Tavern locations, in Sebastopol and Sonoma; and Oliver’s Market in Windsor. (Source: Russian River Brewing Company via Facebook & Russian River Brewing Company & North Bay Business Journal & Press Democrat; paywall)

1) Holy mother of storms. The “bomb cyclone” that rocked the North Bay — and the rest of California — over the weekend reportedly brought around 3 to 6 inches of rain to Sonoma and Napa counties, flooding dozens of low-lying roads and pushing local waterways to the brink. But the real headline was the raging, “hurricane-force” winds that reportedly got up to 80-plus mph in some places. One Sonoma County official tells the Press Democrat that this storm has been “probably the worst we have seen when it comes to trees and power lines down countywide.” While some parts of the state were most affected by the actual rainwater and flooding, the big issue here in Sonoma and Napa counties was all the trees toppling due to soggy soil and intense gusts — damaging cars and houses; blocking roadways, including the 101 at times; and falling onto power lines. This led to widespread power outages at tens of thousands of homes and businesses. As of Tuesday afternoon, the PG&E power-outage map showed many thousands STILL without power across both counties, some with estimated repair times of hours or even days ahead. The blackout situation today looked the worst in the Windsor, Guerneville, Bohemian Highway and Valley Ford areas. A bunch of local schools were also closed yesterday and today due to power outages and “other storm-related impacts.” (For what it’s worth, one alert issued by Napa County officials during the storm indicated that PG&E had passed its “major event threshold,” meaning crews started prioritizing “responding to new roadway/safety incidents for downed lines” over “restoration efforts for many customers who are still without power.”) Despite all that, I haven’t seen any news of injuries, deaths or other major disasters in our area; some other parts of California haven’t been so lucky. (Source: PG&E & Sonoma County Office of Education via Facebook & SF Gate & Press Democrat & Press Democrat; paywall)

Avelo Airlines, known as the Sonoma County Airport’s tight-budget option — can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em! — is planning to expand their wine-country empire this spring. The airline, which is based down in Burbank on the outskirts of L.A., just announced they’ll be opening a large “base” at our local airport on May 1. At the outset, it will house two planes — Boeing Next-Generation 737s — and serve as headquarters for up to 50 crewmembers they’ll be hiring, including “pilots, flight attendants and aviation maintenance technicians.” Which means a bunch of new airline-industry jobs for our area. The new facility will also allow Avelo to introduce four to six new nonstop, round-trip routes, a rep for the airport tell the Press Democrat. “They’re evaluating new destinations and they plan on announcing those in the next couple of weeks,” the rep says. “They just have not been finalized.” The budget airline currently runs four routes out of STS, for as cheap as $72 per flight: one to Redmond, OR, near Bend; one to Burbank, CA; one to Palm Springs, CA; and one to Vegas. (On that note, FYI, they just added some additional Vegas flights right before and after the Super Bowl.) For the new routes, these are the cities they’re choosing from, according to the PD: Eureka, CA; Redding, CA; Ogden, UT; Eugene, OR; Portland, OR; Salem, OR; Phoenix, AZ; Tucson, AZ; Colorado Springs, CO; Boise, ID; Bozeman, MT; Kalispell, MT; and Pasco, WA. (Source: PR Newswire & Press Democrat; paywall)