Mark West Area Rising! by Brad Sherwood
Our speaker for Thursday, October 5, 2023, was Brad Sherwood, President of the Mark West Area Chamber of Commerce and Mark West Area Community Fund. Brad is a 5th generation Californian who moved to Sonoma County in 2006. He is an assistant general manager at Sonoma Water and manages business services and external affairs. He served on the Mark West Union School District Board of Trustees. He is currently President of the Mark West Area Chamber of Commerce and the Mark West Area Community Fund and Vice Chair of the Mark West Citizens Advisory Council.
With 9,000 residents, Mark West is the largest unincorporated town in Sonoma County. It is immediately north of incorporated Santa Rosa and south of the Town of Windsor. Mark West has no local political governance other than the County of Sonoma. Its County Supervisor is James Gore. The MW Citizens Advisory Council was created in 2016 by the Board of Supervisors to provide the Board of Supervisors and County agencies with a local perspective. Brad has been on the Advisory Council since 2018. Along with 1,900 other Mark West area residents, Brad lost his home in the Tubbs Fire. Brad has been working since that time to help the area rebuild, including as a Block Captain and a co-founder of the Larkfield Resilience Fund. The rebuilding efforts include improvements in infrastructure, early warning systems, landscaping, expansion of sewer capabilities, sidewalks, and undergrounding cables.
The Mark West Area Community Fund is a 501(c)(3) and was created as a means to improve the delivery of local funds from the Neighborhood Grant Program to the community. Its goal is to help support neighborhood improvement projects and community engagement activities. It is currently in the process of developing a new community park on Old Redwood Highway next to the old Cricklewood Restaurant. A consortium of business and community groups raised the $2,000,000 purchase price within 4 months of the property becoming available! The community is in the process now of designing the new park, with the first community-wide park design planning meeting scheduled for October 11, 2023! Brad gave a special shout-out to the Sonoma Land Trust, which provided fiscal and administrative services for the negotiation of the purchase of the land. Key funders for the purchase include the Saba Foundation, Sonoma County Ag + Open Space, the Advisory Council, and many others.
Thank you, Brad, for the great presentation about the Mark West area and its efforts to rebuild and improve after the debacle of the Tubbs Fire. We appreciate the highlight of such an important part, and often overlooked, part of Sonoma County!
Click HERE to view a limited time recording of Brad Sherwood's presentation.
