Community Corner

The Week in Review

Up in arms over cheese and ice cream, impound policy gets a change and Gauchos advance to the semi-finals

What can I say? I'm super bummed about not getting any snow in Petaluma. I was already imagining myself snow shoeing around town or at least building a snowman. Darn! Anyway, here's a roundup of some of the stories we looked at this week.

Sonoma County held its first ever Food Forum, focusing on how to promote local farms, many of which are struggling to compete with large commercial operations. Some of the problems identified include a lack of cooperation among farmers and distributors, lack of a major local processor for meats and dairy products, insufficient promotion of locally grown food, unused land and water shortages.

Several speakers cited the need for an intermediary to aggregate local harvests, which would help drive down prices through bulk sales and boost competitiveness with national distributors.

Find out what's happening in Petalumawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Casa Grande Boys Basketball advanced to the semifinals this week with a 69-51 win against Dougherty Valley in the North Coast Section Division II playoffs. Next, the Gauchos take on Las Lomas Wednesday at a home game. Should be an exciting one to watch.

This week, the Petaluma Police Department, along with other law enforcement agencies throughout Sonoma County, began training officers to not impound cars of drivers apprehended for driving without license, if it is their first offense. Officers will have the option to tow the car, but allow the driver to retrieve it the same day, ask that the car be parked until someone with a license can pick it up or just let the driver go.

Find out what's happening in Petalumawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

If someone is apprehended the second time for driving without a license, the car would still be impounded for up to 30 days. Police say the practice has been in place for a while, but will now be added to the procedures manual and included in officer training.

On Tuesday, a large crowd turned out for the Planning Commission meeting, where a permit was pending for Cowgirl Creamery to expand its operations by adding tours of it cheese-making facility and the addition of a whey (cheese byproduct) tank. But the meeting quickly became about noise coming from a neighboring business, Three Twins, which residents say is too loud.

The permit was granted—with some conditions—but the kerfuffle highlighted the where light industrial businesses and residents exist side by side, something we wrote about on Thursday. And since has said it would like to have more mixed-use neighborhoods in the future, this is not an issue that is going away anytime soon.

Also on Tuesday, Petaluma police spent hours looking for a  and considered “at risk” due to a medical condition. After searching Ellis Creek and surrounding neighborhoods, 39-year-old Karen Aldrich was found unharmed, although police would not provide details on the case.

And that's a wrap. Make sure you play our . The person with the most correct guesses nabs a $25 gift certificate to Wild Goat Bistro. Yum! And don't forget, Patch is always seeking letters to the editor from the community. If you have an issue you'd like to see addressed, get the conversation going by writing something. We'd love your imput.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here