Roundup: Crazy About Croissants
Sarmentine's open, the Canopy under review, Council members asking "Can you hear me?" and free DIY sandbags
West County croissant aficionados were disappointed to learn that Pascaline (on 116 between Forestville and Graton) was closing its doors and moving to Santa Rosa. Where can French pastry fans get their local fix? In the Barlow, of course!
Sarmentine bakery has had a “soft opening” in the Barlow in the former Red Bird Bakery location. (Sarmentine’s first location was in Santa Rosa.) There are already lines outside on weekends for croissants and baguettes.
Sarmentine is fantastic. Last week, preparing for this story, I (Laura) bought a bag of different types of croissants — plain, almond, chocolate—and hauled them back to the office to do a taste test with my officemate Jason at SebastopolBlue. We agreed they were the real deal. The almond croissants, in particular, are spectacular.
The Canopy Goes Before Planning Commission
The Sebastopol Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on Tuesday to review the draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for a proposed housing project proposed for 1009-1011 Gravenstein Hwy North. This location is behind the O’Reilly Media buildings. The developer is City Ventures from San Francisco.
(Disclosure: I (Dale) worked at O’Reilly Media through 2013 and was a minority owner in the building until it was sold. I remain on the board of O’Reilly Media, which has no involvement in the Canopy project.)

The Canopy proposes to build 80 three-story condominiums on 6.1 acres that go from the Joe Rodota Trail to Hurlbut Ave. These town-homes will be solar, all electric. According to the proposal, “the homes are contemplated to have a modern agrarian aesthetic with steep pitched roofs, and materials like lapped and board-and-batten siding.” Approximately, 16 of the units will on the ground floor will ADA accessibility guidelines.


The Plannning Commission meeting on January 23rd will be held at the Youth Annex at 6pm. The meeting can be attended via Zoom and the details can be found here.
There is more information on the City’s Special Projects page for The Canopy.
Education Leader & Coach Tom Glover (1939-2024)
Tom Glover, a longtime baseball coach, teacher and principal, passed away on January 2. He spent over 33 years in the West County Union High School District before retiring in 1998. He was also known for developing Glover’s Scorebooks.
A teacher and coach at El Molino High School from 1964 to 1973, Glover then coached baseball at Sonoma State University from 1973 to 1974 before returning to Analy High School from 1974-78 to teach, coach, and be an administrator.
He was principal of Laguna High School From 1978-82, then El Molino High School from 1982-90, and returned to Laguna from 1990-98. In 1982 and again in 1995 and 1996, Sonoma County named Tom the Administrator Of The Year. Under his Leadership El Molino received The California Distinguished School Award.
He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Sandy, son Brian, bonus daughter Jenny, and his grandchildren.
— Adapted from Tom Glover’s obituary on Legacy.com.
What else happened at Tuesday’s city council meeting?
Tuesday’s council meeting started 45 minutes late this week thanks to technical sound difficulties that continued to a greater or lesser extent throughout the meeting. Council members had to turn off their city mics and use the mics on their laptops so they could be heard on Zoom.
Besides the long discussion of an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District, councilmembers divvied up a plethora of committee and liaison appointments, approved the Sebastopol Walks schedule for 2024, with the slight revision that some of the councilmembers will be pairing up to lead walks. (The council also requested that all council members be invited to lead walks in the future—as pairs if necessary—so no one feels left out.)
The last item on the agenda that night, pulled from the consent calendar, was the approval of new sculptures for the sculpture garden in Ives Park near Sebastopol Center for the Arts. This led to a discussion of who is responsible for fixing broken sculptures in a timely fashion. Councilmember McLewis reported that one broken sculpture with rebar was left in a dangerous state of disrepair (“Anyone falling on it could have been impaled,” she said.) This led to a long discussion of who was liable in such a case, and whether the artists, who are donating their work, also need to get liability insurance. That was deemed impractical and it was decided that the city’s liability insurance was sufficient to cover such issues. In the end, the council decided to approve the new sculptures, with the caveat that the artists are responsible for repairing their sculptures within 48 hours, or they (the sculpture not the artist) will be hauled away by public works.
Need Sandbags?
With significant rain in the forecast and the possibility of flooding, the City of Sebastopol Public Works Department offers free sand and sandbags to Sebastopol residents. Individuals may pick up sand and sandbags sunrise to sunset in the city parking area to the rear of the Sebastopol Youth Annex at 425 Morris Street (see map below). Please note that residents must fill the sandbags themselves. Shovels will be available onsite. The maximum number of bags per resident is 25.
Guide to Local Clubs
For next week, I’d like feature a guide to local clubs that are connected to hobbies and other social activities. If you are involved in a club, please send me an email (dale.dougherty@gmail.com) and tell me about the club and its meetings.
The Week of January 14-20
Laura talked to Jonathan Pinkston, one of Soft Medicine’s owners, about The Hub project. She wrote, “The Hub is made up mostly of people in their twenties and thirties. They are looking at creative solutions for ways to stay in Sebastopol, a town where sky-high housing prices puts single-family homes out of reach of most people. The new downtown parklet is their first cut at making downtown Sebastopol a more inclusive urban space.” The parklet will be next door to the Basso building, where Soft Medicine is located, and will take over part of the Miller Oil property.
Catch up on the Sebastopol Police Logs for the first half of January.
Pattie Murphy was named 2023 Firefighter of the Year. Sue Kelly commented: “Congratulations, Patty! As I well know from our years working together, you are, indeed, the epitome of what a public servant should be...a person who helps the customers, ie public, ‘get where they need to be’. It is very touching that you were honored in this way.”
Hoping to solve its budget woes, the Sebastopol City Council voted to explore an EIFD, a new kind of funding mechanism, which Laura explains in “What the heck is an EIFD and why does Sebastopol need one?"
Local historian Mary Dodgion has a new book, Driving through History. It covers the automotive businesses in and around Sebastopol and the people who owned them and worked in them. Check out: “So I remember driving, driving in your car.”
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