Santa Rosa business owners try to regain homes and livelihoods after wildfires

Shortly before the fires, the couple purchased the Mark West property that includes the body shop and two small houses. All three buildings burned.

In November, Thill’s problems were compounded when he broke a leg while working in a muddy field near the shop.

He since has outfitted the bed of his red GMC pickup with a portable generator and air compressor to help with work.

Even so, he remains unsure how much auto body work he can accomplish in a tent that he’s set up on the Mark West property. The fire destroyed $200,000 in tools at the shop, he said, but his insurance provided only $60,000 to replace them.

The Thills plan to rebuild not only their Coffey Park home but also their business, John’s Auto Body. And John Thill expressed gratitude for the $5,000 he received through the Rotary club program. The money mattered, he said, and so did the sense that the community cared about his wife and him.

“It’s huge to each one of us that gets help from it,” he said of the program.

The Sonoma program is part of a four-county effort by the region’s Rotary clubs to help both individuals and businesses that suffered from the fire. In this county, about 60 members from 10 clubs volunteered to process applications, interview business owners and make recommendations about who should get grants of up to $5,000 each.

“It was a like a small company starting up,” said Chris Ranney, who led the county effort. Rotarians, he said, spent their own funds on administration and travel so that every dollar raised could go directly to fire survivors.

By last week the Rotarians had approved grants to 161 small businesses and 71 individuals. Another 30 requests by businesses remained under consideration.

Most of the program funds came from the North Bay Relief Fund, a partnership of Redwood Credit Union, The Press Democrat and state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg. The fund has raised and distributed $32 million to more than 6,500 fire survivors and aid efforts.

Among the business people helped were John LaBonte and Barbara Winestock. The husband and wife lost their Kona Place home in Coffey Park, but LaBonte was able with his daughter’s boyfriend to save a rental house the couple own nearby on Coffey Lane.

In the fire, LaBonte said, “I lost every tool that I own” for the painting business he has operated for over 25 years. In addition to the painting business, he has worked full time for Caltrans since 2011.

The $7,500 in Rotary grants they received for their painting and property rental business helped buy a used van to equip a LaBonte Painting crew of four workers. LaBonte said he hopes to eventually get back to employing eight painters as he did before the fires.

The couple said they still find it overwhelming to deal with fire related paperwork, including the forms connected to claims with five different insurance companies for homes, business and vehicles. But they expressed gratitude for the help they’ve received from at least a dozen businesses and organizations. The list includes Caltrans, the Jewish Chabad Center of Santa Rosa, Winestock’s son’s Marine Corps unit in Hawaii and several construction suppliers, contractors and retailers.

Without such help, LaBonte said, “there is no way that we could have gotten back on our feet. We’re far from 100 percent, but we are able to do work.”

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