Beauty: this is G'Ville

Visit the Geyserville Lodging Association for details and rates on rooms! 

After the Quake

After the Napa earthquake of about 6.1 we heard bad news from our friends in Napa with wine barrels falling down, glass breaking throughout the kitchens, sprinklers going off and flooding some businesses. It was tragic. Thankfully, we in Geyserville were not affected by the quake. We are all still here, standing tall in Geyserville with the art sculpture trail continuing to grow along the highway 128. There are some stunning new pieces to come and enjoy!

As for the quakes: we have over thirty mini earthquakes every single day up in the geysers. Sometimes we feel them, and sometimes we do not, but it's almost always just a mere rumble. Nothing to fret about.

Oriental Community Hall Needs a New Roof

Geyserville Community Foundation's First Fundraising Project

We are Geyserville Community Foundation, a newly formed 501(c)3 non-profit group, that has taken on their first project--the task of raising funds to help Oriental Hall finance a new roof.  The Oriental Community Hall, Inc., owners sought foundation help shortly before the February dinner of the Geyserville Chamber of Commerce.

“One third of the floor was covered with water when I brought in the food on Sunday before the Tuesday dinner,” said Kathy Zunino of the Oriental Hall group, who was helping prepare the Chamber dinner. “Had the rain not stopped, we would have been forced to postpone or cancel the dinner,” she added.  “So far, damage has been minimal,” she concluded.  

Many residents of Geyserville and the surrounding community are familiar with Oriental Community Hall (sometimes called the Grange Hall), located just across the river from downtown Geyserville on Highway 128.  This building, that for many is the heart of Geyserville, began as a one room schoolhouse. It has become the meeting place of the local Geyserville Grange, Geyserville Kiwanis, and the Geyserville Chamber of Commerce, and the place for special private and community events for a very long time. The 100+ year old building is owned and held by Oriental Community Hall, Inc. This non-profit corporation was formed specifically to carry out the wishes of the family who donated both the property and building and wished them to be used for the community as a community hall.  They exist with the express purpose of maintaining the hall and grounds for our community.

The monthly Chamber of Commerce dinners have been a fixture in Geyserville for nearly 40 years. If you have been in Oriental Community Hall lately you may have noticed stains on the ceiling tiles or puddles on the floor due to the recent rains.  While the current drought has allowed OCH, Inc., additional time to raise funds to replace the failing roof, there is more rain coming and now the need is urgent.

The cost of a new roof will be $45,000, and plans are to replace the current roof with one that will last for years.  OCH has already raised $15,000 toward this goal.  In the first week of this project, more than $7,500 in additional funds have been raised for this project, coming from Geyserville, Cloverdale, Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, San Rafael, and San Francisco.  While the early response is encouraging, there is still a long way to go to meet the goal of $45,000.  The Geyserville Community Foundation is asking for your help. Please consider making a donation to this cause.  

This is Our Hall--Geyserville's Hall. Help us keep it available for our school and children's events, weddings, memorial services, special family birthday and anniversary celebrations, and our community group meetings.

Please send your tax deductible donation, marked "HALL ROOF" (in the memo section of your check) to:

Geyserville Community Foundation

P. O. Box 593

Geyserville, CA  95441

Geyserville Community Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.  

Federal Tax ID #45-5571717

Thank You!

Going to the Steelhead Festival? Need a room??

Going to the Steelhead Festival?

We have a Steel of a Deal!!

 February 6^th  thru 10^th

Book a two night stay in an available room &

Snag a 50% saving on your stay

Must stay two nights.

 In Geyserville, conveniently located near Lake Sonoma. 

The delightful Downtown Geyserville boasts award winning wines at 5 smart  tasting rooms,  great food establishments offering  brick oven pizzas, a ten layer lasagna, a deliciously warm  hot chocolate to go with your  yummy pastry

Explore shops with antiques, western ware and, even “Fishing Gear”.

Book now while rooms are still available!

Participating lodgings are:

Alexander Valley Lodge              alexandervalleylodge.com

Climbing Rose                             cameliainn.com

Hope-Merrill House                    hope-inns.com        

  

Geyserville High

GEYSERVILLE HIGH’S CLASS OF ‘63 It has been 50 years since the class of ’63 graduated from Geyserville High School. And what a class it was! I am proud to say I was part of that class and I share in its glory. It is a little known fact that the GHS Class of ’63 has done more for the beautification of Geyserville than any class before or since. The absence of trash in our streets and the sparkle of our village can be attributed to that special class of a half century ago. Now there will be nitpickers who will say that all of the beautification was done by one sole member of that class, namely Pete Stone. Nasty nitpickers will say that much of what Pete has cleaned up was created by his very classmates. However, might I ask you to put that pettiness aside and celebrate our beautiful village and the awesome Class of ’63! By Joe P.

This is why we love Geyserville...

The parade of lights last year: a tractor parade. The video is courtesy of Richard Stilwell. Check it out by clicking here!!

Annual Tree Lighting in Geyserville

Join the people of Geyserville for another wonderful Tree lighting and tractor parade event! This year we will have bleachers on the sidelines to make viewing the tractors and Santa easier. Come out and have a great time, have some cocoa and enjoy the lights!

SHARE THE ROAD

You may have noticed those “Share the Road” signs on Geyserville Avenue on both ends of town.  Back in the 50s, what is now Geyserville Avenue was the two lane Highway 101.  It was also a time that local lumber mills were booming.  The 101 through town was a nightmare, lots of traffic and a parade of aggressive 18 wheelers hauling logs and lumber.  There wasn’t much complaining by locals; lumbering was an important part of the local economy. We shared the road and if there had been any signs on each end of town, the truck drivers would have put up “Get Outta the Way” signs, certainly not “Share the Road.”

                More recently, with nary a complaint, we’ve learned to live with slow moving tractors, grape trucks and mechanical harvesters.  Like logs and lumber, grapes and wine are good for the economy.  I also suspect that sharing the road with 18 wheelers and tractors is not really a choice.  No signs needed. So the “Share the Road” signs must be about those healthy folks from somewhere else that ride their expensive bicycles through town in large numbers.  Like lumber trucks and tractors, they’re often a nuisance.  Unlike lumber trucks and tractors, they generate a considerable amount of grumbling from sedentary locals. 

Yep, those bikers can be a bother and a few of them can be downright rude.  However, might I suggest that local businesses have probably noticed most of them have a checkbook tucked into their Spandex shorts. These pedaling tight bodies in gaudy shirts just might be good for the local economy. 

-          Mickey Bitsko

COCKROACHES & COYOTES

A few years ago, we were having coyote problems on our property. We suspected they had a den in a ravine at the back of our property and they were chewing on irrigation lines and coming too close to the house, and our feral cats, for comfort. So we contacted the county trapper--no not Clem. (Be sure to Read Jessie Poshepny Vallery's post "What Would Clem Say?")

Some folks from Geyserville may recognize the name Fred Radtkey. He lived in Geyserville for awhile and has family in the area. And he still collects his mail at our post office, though he is now retired and lives on the family sheep ranch out near Annapolis, I believe. Fred held the the job of county hunter for many years, after Clem, I guess. And he was the one who came to our rescue when we were having problems with the coyotes.

Fred and his dogs made several trips to the ranch and he would stop by the house each time and fill us in on the latest. He was eventually able to alleviate the problem and the coyotes moved on to friendlier territory. But we learned a lot about the critters from Fred. Did you know that they were originally native to the southwest United States, but are now found in every state of the union, all the way up through Canada to Alaska, and throughout Mexico and Central America and into South America. They are quite opportunistic creatures and survival specialists. On one of his visits, Fred summed it up as only he could. In his easy-going, slow and deliberate way he told us, "When the world comes to an end... the only things left... will be... cockroaches and coyotes."

It's hard not to admire the survival instincts and love of the wild that Bryan Tedrick's sculpture of the Coyote symbolizes. Perhaps the residents of Geyserville, like Clem and Fred, identify a bit with that ol' Coyote. And maybe that's why everyone seems to love him.