This Week's Rohnert Park Headlines

Traffic shifts tonight on Highway 101 in Rohnert Park, which means commuters will have a new overpass and part of Commerce Boulevard will be closed. Got photos or want to share your thoughts on the seemingly relentless construction? Leave them in the comments below or email Angela Hart at angela.hart@patch.com. 

School starts this year Aug. 23, and all district offices open Monday, Aug. 1. School Immunizations are due the first day of school, and last year the state passed a law requiring all kids grades seven and above to get a whooping cough booster shot before the first day of school. .

Well, it's official. State Farm is gone. Rohnert Park Patch got in the last day, so check out our photos and read previous stories about the impact of the closure here.

Also starting the week of Aug. 1, City Hall will reopen five days a week — no more Friday furloughs. .

in June jumped to 10.1 percent, up from 9.4 the previous month, the Employment Development Department said last week. How has job losses in both the private and public sector impacted you? Email your thoughts or tell us your story by emailing Angela Hart at angela.hart@patch.com or simply post a comment in the space below.

Also this week, union members from the Service Employees International Union and the Rohnert Park Employees' Association came out to tell the public and the City Council about some of the angst surrounding public employee labor negotiations, which wrapped up Friday. 

The new agreements were ratified by the City Council in a 5‐0 vote Thursday evening at a City Council special meeting. Stay tuned to Rohnert Park Patch for in-depth analysis of the new contracts, and why it matters to you.

“The agreements conclude several months of diligent bargaining by all parties, and now we can continue moving forward and together face the fiscal challenges ahead of us,” said City Manager Gabe Gonzalez in a news release.

Did you miss the ? You're lucky if you did, but it didn't last long. Crews from PG&E were reportedly replacing an old underground power line last Sunday night, when power went out for 6,000 Rohnert Park residents. The initial outage was around 6 p.m., and power was restored around 10:30 p.m.

Also don't miss on a new report declaring a whopping 40 percent incline in homelessness in Rohnert Park since 2009, and stay tuned for more coverage on this critically important issue.

At Rohnert Park Patch, we're also developing more effective ways to tell stories. Part of that includes you, our readers. What we've learned so far is that you're crazy about issues that impact your kids, city politics, volunteers, the culture of our community, business and real estate. So, we're putting more emphasis on that coverage. Stay tuned, we have some really exciting stuff planned, and coming soon.

Have an idea or feel we missed something this week? Tell us in the comments section below or call me, Angela Hart, any time at 707-239-9418.