Dale Dougherty

5 days ago | sebastopoltimes.com | Dale Dougherty

The protest period ended and LAFCO sealed the deal on the annexation of Sebastopol Fire into the Gold Ridge Fire Protection District on Wednesday, May 7. The Sonoma County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) conducted a public hearing on Wednesday, May 7, to receive testimony from interested parties and to conclude the formal protest period for the proposed reorganization of Sebastopol’s Fire Department by the Gold Ridge Fire Protection District.

1 week ago | sebastopoltimes.com | Dale Dougherty

As of today, May 7, you need a passport to travel by air within the United States. That’s right. You can no longer board a domestic flight in the US by showing your driver’s license, which is no longer good enough. You are required to provide a legal proof of citizenship to go from Santa Rosa to San Diego, just like when you travel from one country to another.

1 week ago | sebastopoltimes.com | Dale Dougherty

This is the second of a five-part series that looks at the shift to remote work in Sebastopol and West County, what might be considered a hidden-away-at-home workforce. WFH is changing where and how people work today, offering a good living in a good place to live and work. Catch up on Part 1: Work from where you want to live. The pandemic forced almost everyone adapt to working from home. It also accelerated the adoption of new technologies that expanded opportunities to work with others from home.

1 week ago | sebastopoltimes.com | Dale Dougherty

Matt Fritzinger and family (Photo from bayareabiketowork.com)The Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition has named Matt Fritzinger the 2025 Bike Champion of the Year for founding and organizing the Blue-Tailed Skinks, a mountain biking club for kids up through 5th grade. Fritzinger, who lives with his family in Graton, has long been a champion of getting more kids on bikes. He is well-known in the mountain biking community as the founder of the NorCal High School Cycling League, which he formed in 2001.

2 weeks ago | sebastopoltimes.com | Dale Dougherty

Seeing the O’Reilly building emptied out over the last few weeks brought back memories for me. Hundreds of people once worked there in two main buildings with three floors of office space, plus a warehouse. It represented a dream of having an O’Reilly campus that was used daily by those who worked there but also welcomed others for tech events and community events. When Covid hit, those who worked at O’Reilly began working from home, like many others.