Chris Smith: John Ash and Gaye LeBaron and wine, food and music, oh my

A lesser-known aspiration of Santa Rosa Junior College is to host the premier winetasting gala in a region that's home to many.

If you attended the first SRJC Wine Classic last year, you know the school is off to an extraordinary start.

And look what's coming at the second one.

The Feb. 21 reception at the college will honor, as co-hosts, renowned Sonoma County chef/author John Ash and history writer/columnist Gaye LeBaron.

More than 30 local wineries will offer 50-plus wines, and vintners the likes of Jackson Family Wines' Rick Tigner and Dan Kosta of Kosta Browne will pour and talk wine. Students from the JC's acclaimed culinary program will serve delectables.

Tickets are at www.srjcwineclassic.com. Proceeds go to scholarships and JC wine, culinary and hospitality programs.

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SHE LOST 2 CHILDREN to drugs. Kim Stimack mourns Joe and Katy and she regrets all the subtle signs she missed.

“I need to be their voice,” the Santa Rosa mother said. “I don't want any parent to have to live through this nightmare.”

At Stimack's initiative, there will be a drug/alcohol information night for parents Wednesday in the library at Montgomery High School at 6:30 p.m.

Stimack and other speakers will address the insidious perils of prescription pain pills, opium and other drugs.

Think they'd never ensnare your children? Stimack, a nurse, thought the same.

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SORRY KID, NOT HERE: At least for the month of February, Balkar Singh will not sell cigarettes or other tobacco products to anyone younger than 21 at the gas station mini-mart he runs in Healdsburg.

Singh is a friend of Dr. Dave Anderson,who was dismayed when Healdsburg yielded to the threat of a lawsuit and suspended its first-in-California law raising the minimum age for tobacco purchases from 18 to 21.

Undaunted, Anderson went to every gas station in town and asked the operators to voluntarily comply with the short-lived law. Only Singh, proprietor of Wine Country Chevron on Healdsburg Avenue, agreed to do it on a trial basis.

This month, he'll see if refusing tobacco to 18- to 20-year-olds affects his business.

Dr. Anderson pleads for folks to patronize Singh's station and store, and thank him.

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THE DRAGONS' HEADS: Let's hope an happy ending is nigh to the tale of the often-vandalized, currently headless images of dragons that adorn the Prince Memorial Greenway path in downtown Santa Rosa.

The city's Art in Public Places committee agreed Monday to spend nearly $9,000 to have ArtStart create new heads for the dragons. They'll be cut from half-inch steel plates that will be painted, layered with protective coating and secured about nine feet off the ground.

Vandals hit the original, paint-on-concrete mural with graffiti. That first piece was replaced with a tile mural, and someone chipped away the dragons' eyes and faces.

The ArtStart educational art program then altered the piece to make it appear the dragons' heads were tucked beneath the walkway or around the corner. Some local Chinese-Americans complained that to portray dragons without their heads was culturally offensive.

May the new dragon heads survive 1,000 years.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.