Windsor on Wednesday became the first city to join the Sonoma Clean Power Authority, created as an alternative to PG&E to provide a greener product at competitive, if not cheaper rates.

A weed-strewn lot near the Windsor Town Green, one of the last of two undeveloped downtown parcels, could soon be home to a four-story apartment building with retail space on the ground floor.

An innovative water conservation program in Windsor is off to a promising start, drawing attention for saving millions of gallons while creating an immediate drop in residents’ utility bills. More than 300 residential customers have enrolled in the fledgling program, which is being touted as a model that could take off in other communities.

The latest solution to Sonoma County’s garbage situation is a 20-year contract worth more than half a billion dollars that would outsource operations of the solid waste system.

It would give control of the county’s troubled 42-year-old central landfill west of Cotati to an Arizona company with $8 billion in annual revenue. But it would keep the site, and the county’s five waste transfer stations, in public ownership.

The proposal is being called the largest public-private business deal in county history and is headed to the Board of Supervisors for the first time Tuesday.

Windsor Councilwoman Debora Fudge remembers the ‘foggy, wintry’ day in 1997, in a field north of town, when an auto salesman first pitched his plan to build a new dealership there.

Sonoma County’s ‘electric trail,’ a fledgling network of charging stations for electric vehicles, continues to expand. It’s part of a plan to draw more people in electric cars to the county and also make it easier for locals to recharge theirs when they drive from town to town.

Windsor’s budget is benefiting from an improving economy, with sales and property tax revenues rising steadily. A mid-year review conducted by the Town Council Wednesday shows property tax revenues up 13 percent compared with the same time last year. Sales taxes for the first quarter of this fiscal year were up 10 percent over the same period a year ago.

Jose Ignacio Gaona, a Fort Bragg teenager and son of Mexican immigrants, expects to get a close look Monday at Barack Obama’s second presidential inauguration.
Gaona, 15, will be among the North Coast residents with tickets giving them access to the viewing area within two blocks of the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, close enough, he figures, ‘to see what’s going on.’

‘The upgraded track increases our operations for north Santa Rosa and gets the trains back and forth to the operations and maintenance facility in a timely manner,’ said SMART Director Debora Fudge, a Windsor councilwoman. ‘It also gets us closer to the workers at the airport and halfway to Windsor.’

Windsor on Wednesday witnessed a changing of the guard with the selection of a new mayor, seating of a new Town Council member and farewell speeches from the retiring city manager and city attorney.