On the last day of 2025, the owners of the Guerneville 5 & 10 spent their final shift filling more than 300 balloons. They were for Main Street businesses hosting New Year's Eve parties that night. According to The Press Democrat, Robin Johnson and Karen Cox delivered the balloons up and down the street and then handed the keys to David Scott. He lives in Guerneville and is the eighth owner of a shop that opened in 1949.
Those balloons went out along sidewalks Caltrans had spent more than a year tearing out and pouring again. This December brings the 5 & 10's first holiday season under Scott, on a street the state has mostly finished. What Main Street still lacks is the part a state agency doesn't supply: the trees, the flags, the art on the walls, and enough local business to get through the slow months.
What the $6.6 million bought
Caltrans started the Guerneville 116 Pedestrian Upgrades on August 19, 2024, with a $6.6 million budget. The project covers State Route 116 from River Road to 4th Street. Caltrans calls it an upgrade to sidewalks, signals and crossings, not a repaving job.
By late September 2025, the Caltrans project page listed the following as done:
- Every sidewalk in town replaced, many of them widened to meet ADA requirements
- 23 ADA-compliant curb ramps
- Bulb-outs at Church Street and Mill Street, which shorten the walk across Main Street
- A new traffic signal at Armstrong Woods Road, switched on in September 2025 and given a new power supply in January 2026
- Pedestrian beacons at Church and Mill, installed and scheduled for activation later
The work also added 14 bike racks around downtown: three old ones replaced and 11 new. By November 2025, Caltrans said it had cleared away the cones, barrels and tape everywhere but a few spots.
Caltrans posted its latest update on February 4, 2026. It said the contractor was still working on the signal at River Road and Old River Road, with a goal of finishing by the end of February. It also said the streetlights in the eastern part of town were waiting on another Sonoma County inspection after problems with the original installation. Crews had been working on those streetlights since October 2025, and they would be switched on once they passed.
The pieces that belong to the town
Some features on the new street were designed so the community could finish them. Caltrans built the hardware, and local groups provide what goes in it.
| Feature | What Caltrans built | Who finishes it | Status on the Caltrans page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Street trees | 12 tree wells, 9 of them new, sized so trees grow better and the sidewalk stays ADA-wide | Sonoma County and the Russian River Chamber of Commerce | County planting new trees. An earlier note said the tree species was still being chosen |
| Flags | 60 galvanized flagpole sleeves along Main Street, with lids for when they're empty | Sonoma County supplies the poles for local celebrations | Sleeves installed |
| East-end retaining wall | A wall built after storm damage, designed to hold murals along more than 300 feet, with open ground in front for landscaping or art | River Arts, the Chamber, Rotary and River Electric | Open call for artists |
The tree wells show the split most clearly. In one update, Caltrans said the woodchip-filled squares in the sidewalk "look like someone tried to fill a gap in the concrete with a sheet of corkboard," and called them temporary until the county and the Chamber plant them. The flagpole sleeves follow the same idea. Caltrans installed them so the street can be dressed up for town events, and the poles come from the county.
A wall waiting for a muralist
The biggest unfinished surface sits at the east end of town. The retaining wall south of the bridges, on the east side, is where River Arts wants a mural or other public artwork. The nonprofit calls it the Russian River Gateway Project and describes the goal as a more colorful, welcoming entrance to the whole lower Russian River.
River Arts is working with the Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club and River Electric, a new camping resort across from the wall. The group is asking muralists and artists for statements of interest with samples. The original poster gave a May 31 deadline, which has since been extended. Local artists can send a statement to the address on the River Arts project page.
What people see first when they cross the bridges into Guerneville is up to these four local groups.
Why winter decides which storefronts last
The construction hurt downtown before it helped. In March 2025, merchants told The Press Democrat that torn-up sidewalks were slowing foot traffic. Main Street Bistro owner Suzi Feehery said many drivers assumed the construction meant businesses were closed or that they couldn't find parking, so they kept going. By August 2026, the same paper reported that Main Street Bistro chef Osamu Ishii thought business had been "down about 10%" over the past year. Other owners said the sidewalk upgrades made the street easier to walk but took so long that businesses struggled to keep up.
Summer 2026 went better. In that August article, Russian River Tubes & Kayaks co-owner Sasha Tiffer said June and July sales were at least 42% above the same months in 2025. Chamber president Nick Schwanz said early data showed June occupancy up about 8% from the year before. Schwanz also said Guerneville has had "a rough economic go the last few years, particularly because winters are so tough."
The owners who talked to the paper described their winter customers plainly. Leslie "Jo" Crane runs Rivertime Restaurant & Bar, a café and dive bar with karaoke and DJ nights. She keeps breakfast egg combos and a lunch club sandwich deal under $18.
"I wanted it to be somewhere you could come with your kids and be able to afford it not just once a month, but a couple times a month. Most clientele work in the industry and aren't making a lot. Young families, that's what keeps me alive all winter long."
At Smart Pizza, owner Suzy Kuhr said she has raised prices only three times since buying the business 11 years ago, and a family of five can eat there for $50 to $60. In the same article, a longtime visiting family named La Bodeguita and Main Street Bistro as their regular stops. Mags van der Veen, owner of Piknik Town Market and a former Chamber president, said the town relies on events to bring people in during winter. She pointed to Russian River Pride in September and a book festival planned for January.
The wider sidewalks are permanent. Whether there are still open storefronts behind them next year depends on who keeps eating and shopping downtown between now and spring.
The holiday calendar on the new street
The Russian River Chamber of Commerce has set its holiday weekend for the first weekend of December, and the calendar starts filling up before that. Here are the dates in order:
- Saturday, November 21, 1 to 6 p.m. Alchemy Guild holds its second annual Holiday Preset, a five-hour mini-retreat at Surrey Resort, 16590 CA-116.
- Thursday, December 3. Last day to enter a float in the Parade of Lights. Each entry costs $35, and the guidelines and application are on the Chamber's site.
- Friday, December 4. Downtown tree lighting, the night before the parade.
- Saturday, December 5, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Korbel Holiday Market at Korbel Champagne Cellars, 13250 River Road, with local vendors and holiday gifts.
- Saturday, December 5, 7 p.m. The Guerneville Parade of Lights moves down Main Street under this year's theme, "A Holly Dolly Parade of Lights." The procession lasts about an hour, with viewing along River Road between Armstrong Woods Road and Mill Street. Highway 116 traffic will be detoured during the parade.
Last year's parade had 50 floats, including the engine and basket of a hot air balloon. The Chamber chooses the first Saturday of December partly to leave room for weather. Rain postpones the parade, but mist does not. In 2023, rain pushed it to December 17.
The bulb-outs at Church and Mill give spectators more room at the curb than older parades had. The flagpole sleeves along the route will hold whatever poles the county provides. If you're shopping that weekend, the 5 & 10 is one of the places on Main Street that relies on December business.
If you own a home along the lower Russian River and want to know how a finished downtown fits into what your property is worth, Mark Spaulding and The Spaulding Group follow these changes street by street. Start with an instant home valuation, and we'll add local context the numbers alone don't show.
