Roundup: Wishing for spring
Apple Blossom Festival Fundraiser, school repairs at Analy and El Mo, and what's with the giant chicken? Plus, an invitation to submit your Very Short Love Story for our Valentine's Day edition
Apple Blossom Festival Fundraiser today at 12 pm at HopMonk
The Apple Blossom Festival 2025 Fundraiser is happening at HopMonk today, Sunday, starting at 12 pm and running the rest of the afternoon. This musical extravaganza features 10 bands: Soul Section, The Pulsators, Burrows and Dilbeck, Thugz, Jason Beard’s Bring Joy, Freestone Peaches, Late for the Train, Gas Money, Ellie Jamies and the Bluebirds. We incorrectly listed the time for this event in our Monday column, “What’s Happening This Week,” so take note of the actual time: Doors open at noon, and music starts at 1 pm.
The Apple Blossom Festival, which costs the Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce $100,000 to put on, is also its main fundraiser for the year.
So what’s with the fundraiser for the fundraiser? In part, it’s to make up for funds that the city—as a part of its belt-tightening—won’t be giving to the Apple Blossom Festival this year.
“I actually got the idea from Peacetown,” Chamber director Myriah Volk said. “A few months before Peacetown started, they did a fundraiser at Hopmonk similar to this. It will help us pay our bands and other expenses for sure!”
What’s with the giant chicken?
Reader Mike Price sent us this photo of a giant chicken, two chicks (and what we think is an egg) that he saw in front of Sebastopol Center for the Arts this week. SebArts director Serafina Palandech told the Sebastopol Times that “Frank Mayhew donated the chicken, and the artist is Patrick Amiot.”
Changes on the WSCUHSD campuses
Six new portables were dropped over winter break on the basketball court of the old campus of Laguna High School, which is across the street from the Analy gym. New construction funded by the Measure A Bond is expected to start this spring and summer, so some classes need to be moved to the new portables.
At the El Molino Community Campus, several old portables were taken down. Some neighbors expressed a worry on Nextdoor that the school was being demolished but only a few old buildings were torn down. One was a condemned portable and the other was a maintenance building out back.
Also, lockers have been removed from the outside of classroom buildings, and the painting of the exterior of the school is underway.
Last Day at the Joe Matos Cheese Factory
Like a pilgrimage to a shrine, lines of people and their cars queued up on a muddy farm driveway on Friday to get the last of St. Jorge cheese they will be able to get from the Joe Matos Cheese Factory, off Stony Point Road just past Todd Road in Santa Rosa. They came not just for the cheese, however. They came to see the last glimpse of a way of life, a rural Sonoma County dairy farm where the Cheese Factory has been in business since 1979.
Joe and Mary Matos immigrated from the small, lush, volcanic island of Sao Jorge, Azores, during the 1960s, according to their website, bringing with them the recipes for the kind of cheese the Portuguese made. It’s a small family business that has involved several generations of their family. Now, they say, it is too hard to make it work, according to a story in Sonoma Magazine by Heather Irwin. “We were just going underwater,” owner Sylvia Tucker, daughter of founders Joe and Mary Matos told Irwin.
Friday, Jan. 31, was the last day. As the cars lined up, it was apparent there was little space for parking. People just got out of their cars and then waited in line in the rain to enter a small room out back of the cheese shop, where a friendly but very busy clerk sold the cheese. Outside, a small dog checked out each of the visitors, and two dairy cows wandered out of their enclosure only to have a man from the line step out and move them back behind the gate.
Two women ahead of me ordered a round of 9-month-old St. Jorge Cheese — the 3-month-old and 16-month-old rounds were sold out. They planned to split it.
I wished I had had more cash with me to buy a full round — about $175. They didn’t accept credit cards. But I happily bought two pounds of the cheese and headed back to my car, wondering how to leave. It wasn’t just getting a car out of the muddy driveway; it was knowing that this place now lives on only in memory.
False ICE sightings reported in Sebastopol and elsewhere in Sonoma County
On Wednesday this week, a false report of a sighting of ICE agents in Sebastopol appeared on the Facebook Group page, What’s Up Sebastopol, and immediately racked up dozens of panicked responses. The poster said he’d seen Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the old Long’s parking lot. I (Laura) drove over to check it out. No ICE agents were in sight, and the Starbucks workers, who have a good view of the parking lot, hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.
We called the Sebastopol Police to see if they had any info. They hadn’t heard anything about ICE being in town, but they had heard that false rumors about ICE agents were being reported all over Sonoma County. I posted this information to the What’s Up, Sebastopol group page, and they took down the initial post. When I looked for the Facebook page of the person who’d posted the rumor, it had disappeared completely. Local troublemakers out to own the libs or a well-organized attempt to spread fear among the local immigrant community? It’s hard to know.
❤️ How did you find somebody to love? ❤️
The Queen song asks “Can anybody find me somebody to love?” It seems a common lament today, sadly. Was it always so hard to fall in love?
Following on our wonderful personal essay contest over the holiday break, we are looking for the shortest stories of ‘true love found’ to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Tell us how you found somebody to love. Tell us how it happened way back when or just recently. Keep it short — 125 words or less — with just the sweet and spicy details.
Send your little love story to “sebastopoltimes@gmail.com” with the subject line “Love” by Feb. 11 at the latest. We’ll gather your love stories in a special heart-filled article for Valentine’s Day on Friday, Feb. 14.
Sebastopol Police Logs, January 20-26
The following are crimes excerpted from Sebastopol Police Department daily crime log entries and listed at the time the alleged violation was reported.
MONDAY
7:31 p.m. Possession of unlawful paraphernalia and a controlled substance (misdemeanors), at Abbot and Petaluma avenues. Suspect arrested.
TUESDAY
5:44 p.m. Shoplifting (misdemeanor), at Sebastopol and Petaluma avenues. Investigation suspended, leads exhausted.
5:55 p.m. Child abuse without great bodily injury or death (misdemeanor), at Robinson Road and Bodega Avenue. Charges unfounded.
WEDNESDAY
4:30 p.m. Hit and run resulting in death or injury (felony), at Burnett and North Main streets. Cleared by circumstances beyond police control.
THURSDAY
7:09 p.m. Theft of an identity to get credit, theft by using another’s card information (felonies), obtaining money by false pretenses, and theft of at least $950 from an elderly dependent adult (misdemeanors), at Corline Court and Gravenstein Highway South. Pending further investigation.
FRIDAY
2:46 a.m. Child abuse without great bodily injury or death, non-violent family offenses (misdemeanor), at Valley View Drive and May Court. For information only.
SATURDAY
12:26 p.m. Served a misdemeanor arrest warrant for an outside agency, at Valentine and Ragle roads. Suspect arrested.
SUNDAY
8:52 a.m. Failure of transient sex offender to make 30-day update of personal information with the state registry (misdemeanor), at Dutton and Bodega avenues. Suspect arrested.
5:44 p.m. Disorderly conduct involving alcohol (misdemeanor), at North High Street and Wilton Avenue. Suspect arrested.
11:01 p.m. Disorderly conduct involving alcohol, resisting a peace officer (misdemeanors), and intimidating an executive officer (felony), at North Main Street and Bodega Avenue. Suspect arrested.
OTHER POLICE ACTION
The Sebastopol Police Department also recorded 135 other events requiring police action during the period, such as lost animals, assisting citizens, parking violations, foot patrol, traffic hazards and reckless driving.
